As a working farm, owner Charles Back’s philosophy is to strive to ensure that everything we do is driven by their three key pillars of being honest, honoring their heritage and ensuring that ingenuity perpetually flows from their soils and cellars.
Eager to explore a wider range of wines using grapes grown in optimal conditions, Charles Back abandoned the estate wine concept in the 1980s, choosing rather to “go where the terroir is”. Today, they are one of the few farms that proudly own all their own vineyards, with land in Paarl, Darling, Swartland and Stellenbosch. Charles has also always been an advocate of social development in the Cape. Under Apartheid, he was one of a number of producers who campaigned for and implemented better conditions for farm workers and in 1997, he established the Fair Valley Worker’s Association, which gave his employees a chance to farm their own land.
“Living in South Africa gives a bigger meaning to what we do – wine isn’t just about the bottom line, there’s a social dimension too”.
Charles Back
