How much water is in your glass of Merlot? 125ml? Think again. Environmentalists measure 120 litres of water for one glass of wine.
Wineries are all too aware that consumers are gulping down a bit more than they might find in their glasses and several wineries have started looking at ways to lessen their water footprint, especially in the Western Cape, a region that is becoming drier.
One of the most effective ways to reduce water usage is by recycling water and here the innovative waste-waster plant at Spier wine estate is turning heads.
The plant is the first of its kind in South Africa. Its innovative design not only cleans the water but “e-energises” it. It is then used to irrigate the gardens and grounds.
Spier measures its water footprint without taking irrigation into account. Therefore, ‘we use 2.6 litres of water to make one litre of wine”, says Spier’s Jo Marshall-Smith.
According to Lourens van Schoor, a well-established auditor for IPW (Integrated Production of Wines), the average water use in South Africa is as follows: big co-ops use three litres of water to manufacture a litre of wine, whereas smaller wineries use about five to six litres of water for one litre of wine. This doesn’t include water used for irrigation.
Spier’s system was designed by engineer Andrew Hulsman from Hulsman Water Treatment (HWT), a company specialising in the treatment of wine-cellar effluent, and designer Natasha Rightford of Waterlove Projects.
The treatment system deals with large volumes of industrial liquid waste by breaking it down using mechanical and biological methods. But Spier takes the treatment a step further by combining it with Rightford’s soothing practices.
‘Hulsman’s and Rightford’s techniques combine science, art and healing to create a cyclic system of cleansing and replenishment on the Spier estate,” says Vernon Davis, the chief executive. ‘It fits in perfectly with our resolve to build innovative models on how business and development can succeed in harmony with our ecology and our society.”
The unusual philosophy has turned the plant into a tourist attraction with mazes and words of love and encouragement written throughout. And, unusually, there is no smell gagging one when walking alongside the plant.
The treatment plant is designed to accept a flow rate capacity of 250 000 litres a day. Spier’s average flow rate in and out of the system is about 100 000 to 150 000 litres a day.
Wastewater is collected from five points on the estate, then pumped into the bioreactor of the plant, where the breakdown process begins.
The first stage is an Archimedes screw that compacts the solid waste and removes it for collection.
The remaining liquid is moved into an open tank where aerobic bacteria continue the process. Aerobic bacteria live and grow in the presence of oxygen, which is supplied by air blowers.
The cleaner water is skimmed off the top and moved through pipes that irrigate an oval reed bed. This reed bed is ideal for the natural growth of bacteria, which continue the breakdown process as the water seeps into the soil. From here it drains into a ‘yingyang” pond filled with blue water lilies that soften and beautify the water.
It then flows into the irrigation dam through a series of figure eight flow forms, which ‘calm the water and return it to its natural harmonic state”. Water love Projects’ philosophies play an important role in the handling of the water throughout the purifying process.
Scientists believe that life began in the inter-tidal zone, the point between high and low tide, where organisms can get adequate shade, sun and water and there are plenty of life-giving elements swirling around.
Practitioners such as Dr Masaru Emoto believe that water reacts to words and it is this philosophy that the management of Spier has imprinted into their recycled water. Words such as ‘love”, ‘compassion” and ‘forgiveness” are imprinted below the waterline the inter-tidal zone between the tank and the reed bed.