You cannot control the forecast. You can train the ground that answers it.
Decanter's Cape coverage around DWWA 2026 carries Johan Jordaan of Spier on soil health. Regenerative practices — cover crops, less bare earth, living biology in the topsoil — act like climate insurance. Healthier soils hold more water after rain and keep roots cooler when heat spikes. In a year of dry-wet-heat swings, that buffer shows up as steadier vines and calmer ripening.
Mini-lesson: soil organic matter is a sponge. More sponge means rain is stored instead of lost. It also means vines stress later and recover faster. Climate talk often stays in the sky. Jordaan's point pulls it underground, where insurance is built week by week, not bought after a disaster headline.
Drinkers rarely see cover crops on a label. They taste the result as balance — fruit that did not panic-ripen into jam. Against a factory can with no farm behind it, Spier's story is the opposite: wine as a living system you support when you choose the bottle.
Pattern: regenerative groundwork, water held, heat softened. Soil health is the climate plan you can still taste.