When Jean‑Claude and I arrived on the Hemel‑en‑Aarde Ridge in 2002, we didn’t just fall in love with a wild piece of land; we fell in love with the possibility of what could grow here – in the soil and in people. Two decades on, I realise that my real work has never been only about wine. It has also been about how we grow a culture around the farm that can regenerate a whole community.
At Creation, we like to say, ‘Nature leads and innovation follows.’ The Ridge – this place of Heaven and Earth – gives us ancient quartzite and Bokkeveld shale, cooling Atlantic breezes, and fynbos that hums with life. But our terroir is more than geology and climate. It’s also the people who know every row and every contour by heart, who arrive before sunrise and leave after the last glass is poured.
You’ve heard of regenerative farming: leaving the soil richer than you found it. Regenerative leadership is the same idea, simply applied to people. I’m not interested in extracting energy from a tired team; I’m interested in restoring it. That means fewer hierarchies and more real voices in the room. Whether you’re in the vineyards, the kitchen, the cellar or the tasting room, your ideas matter. Very often the person closest to the vine understands it best.
We started with four employees. Today we’re a team of 90, and each person supports a family, so our daily decisions at Creation touch more than 300 lives. Over the years we’ve helped to found the Pebbles education project for farm workers’ children, watched six of those children grow up and join our team, and sent colleagues on exchanges to France, Australia, New Zealand, Sweden and the Netherlands.
You invest in people, and a decade later you suddenly realise how far they – and their community – have come.
I often get asked about our wellness programme, because it’s a little unusual in agriculture. For me it’s simple: no one can give their best if they’re exhausted, hungry or living under constant stress. So we look at five things – purpose and connectedness, nutrition, sleep, relaxation and exercise – and we try to touch all five, every single day. A dedicated chef cooks three anti‑inflammatory, low‑sugar, mostly gluten‑free meals daily, with ingredients sourced as locally as possible. We back that up with supplements, vitamin shots where needed, flu jabs before winter, regular access to nurses, medical intervention where necessary, encouragement to move and rest, and access to proper psychological support. It’s not ‘soft stuff’; it’s how we run the farm.
Does it change outcomes? I believe it does. We’ve been honoured among the World’s Best Vineyards, and some of our team have been with us for well over a decade. When I walk through the cellar or the vineyards, the thing that moves me most isn’t the awards. It’s the sense of pride, ownership and belonging in the people who make Creation what it is.
As WWF Conservation Champions, we’re committed to protecting biodiversity, our land and our environment on the Hemel‑en‑Aarde Ridge for generations to come. But we’re living through intense change – in climate, technology and markets. In that context, I’ve come to believe that the most future‑fit thing any of us can do is invest deeply in the person right in front of us. Give them knowledge. Give them a genuine voice. Help them see how their work here in Hemel‑en‑Aarde connects to a table in Hermanus, London or Singapore.
That, for me, is regenerative leadership. Land and people were never separate. If Agri‑CULTURE was humanity’s first creative act, then how we treat one another on our farms and in our cellars will shape the kind of future we’re all able to taste.