The credibility gap between government and the wine industry as measured by anorak outrage at recent plans by an organ of the state to prospect for minerals on several wine farms in the Stellenboschkloof, Bottelary Hills and Durbanville would now defeat even Evel Knievel on his fastest canyon jumping motorcycle. Like the Chile Tsunami, the debate has now reached the lunatic fringes with Angela Lloyd reporting it the start of a Zimbabwe-style land grab and quoting unnamed geologists in yesterday’s Sindy “there is very little likelihood of finding valuable mineral deposits in this area.” I couldn’t find the story in my Sindy online but Angela’s Geos are obviously mistaken as Herman Charles Bosman’s dad used to mine tin on Zevenwacht and Jacques Viljoen makes a Tin Mine wine in its honour. My men with small pointy hammers claim the real reason for the application is to mine lithium for members of the ANC Youth League with ADHD.

If I were Gary Jordan, Tielman Roos, Harold Johnson or Sir David Graaff I’d also be objecting like crazy, running my family flag up the nearest wine tourism flagpole and saluting, fastening sprigs of fynbos into my tweed lapels and preparing to see off miners with swords of Proteas while looking on the bright side. If Government Geos do find anything, compensation for the surface rights for an old vineyard of expensive terroir will be a far more reliable earner than selling wine in a depressed market.

Mines don’t last forever, can be rehabilitated (old Roman quarries make interesting Riesling vineyards in the Palatinate, just ask Bernd Philippi about Saumagen) and modern exploration methods – a geochemical survey, some airborne geophysics – are the gentlest of environmental rapes (especially when carried out in winter) while the days of widespread stuffing up the environment are matters for lucrative negotiation. I suspect a first pass peek-a-boo has already been done using satellite imagery, which has prompted the application.

But any minerals will not come cheap. Gary and Cathy Jordan make one of the Cape’s benchmark Chardonnays. Called the Whole Nine Yards, it refers to the ammunition belts in the Spitfires that taught Hermann Göring a lesson on the perils of underestimating an opponent. Sir David’s Sauvignon Blanc is a priceless family heirloom and although it offers one of the best Sauvignon value-for-money propositions in the Cape, the vineyard will not come cheap. Zevenwacht is already a mine of vinous gems and the Bottelary Hills is Ground Zero for quality Chenin as Mooiplaas demonstrates time and time again.

Of course that it’s a government explorer which seems to be exempt from the usual red tape, muddies the water and explains some of the hysteria and cries of cronyism and corruption. And that one arm of government should adjudicate an exploration application from another arm is clearly ridiculous, inappropriate and reeks of bananas. But mining per se has contributed a lot to SA wine. Coal allowed Graham Beck to open up Robertson to the vine and rejuvenate large areas of Franschhoek (where many farms were preserved by that old miner Cecil John Rhodes) and one of the largest mining companies in the world owns Vergelegen, a fixture in everyone’s top three wine estates in the Cape.

Wine lovers will be hoping this is one exploration project that falls flat but for economic and environmental rather than parochial nimby reasons. Reaction to the Business Report story supporting the application from a point of view of jobs creation must be taken seriously by an industry that is itself lagging in the transformation game.

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