Fransois Malan is co-owner, MD and viticulturist at Simonsig in Stellenbosch, one of SA’s most iconic wine estates. He shares responsibility for the estate, its wines and its reputation with his two brothers. All live on the land that was purchased by their father, Frans Malan, in 1964.

As Malan, Dienie de Villiers (creditors clerk), Martin Farao (assistant farm manager) and I sit outside the estate’s Cuvée restaurant, there is much nodding, shared smiles and a sense of shared history. And a few giggles.

“You know,” says Malan. “When I first started telling people we were growing and selling grass, they did, you know, this …” He pinches his index finger and thumb together and puts them to his mouth.

Of course, they’re not propagating dagga; if they were, revenues for Reach for Gold, the nonprofit initiative created by Simonsig permanent staff, would probably be much higher. Instead, they create roll-on lawn and plough the money from its sales into community upliftment.

Simonsig has about 210ha under vine, although the farm extends a little beyond that. The 5ha on which the lawn is grown is owned by Simonsig and leased to Reach for Gold. Even at the bottom end of the agricultural scale, the land is valued at about R250 000 per hectare, so the capital value of the land is a conservative R2,25m.

While a committed corporate citizen, Malan did not grub up award-winning vines for the project; it used to be pear orchards. The estate has many hectares under fruit propagation, but less than it had before 1992 when the quota system in SA’s wine world was lifted and Malan planted more vines so he could “concentrate on our core competency”, which was and is wine.