Protecting Our Coastal Wildlife: De Grendel Wines’ Earth Day 2025 Initiative

This Earth Day, De Grendel Wines is proud to reaffirm our commitment to conservation, not only of our land but of the extraordinary wildlife that shares our coastline. Following our 2024 focus on wildfire protection, this year we turn our attention to the oceans with a cause that’s as urgent as it is inspiring: saving the African Penguin.

In 2025, we are partnering with SANCCOB (The Southern African Foundation for the Conservation of Coastal Birds), the only organisation in South Africa specifically mandated to respond to oiled seabirds in distress. Based in Cape Town, SANCCOB has been working tirelessly since 1968 to rescue, rehabilitate, and release injured, oiled, and orphaned seabirds – with the Critically Endangered African Penguin at the heart of their mission.

The numbers are sobering: the African Penguin population has declined by 97% since the early 1900s. Without intervention, scientists estimate they could be extinct in the wild by 2035. This isn’t just a wildlife crisis, it’s a cultural and ecological one. These birds are icons of our natural heritage, indicators of ocean health, and central to a thriving tourism economy along our coast.

From April 22nd to May 22nd, we will donate R3 for every bottle of wine sold online to support SANCCOB’s life-saving work, from hand-rearing penguin chicks and incubating eggs, to emergency rescues and education programmes that reach thousands every year.

To bring the campaign to life, our very own Sir De Villiers Graaff visited the SANCCOB facility in Table View to meet the team behind the mission and get a first-hand look at the work being done to save South Africa’s beloved seabirds. Follow along on Instagram where we’ll be sharing their conversation and a behind-the-scenes look at what it takes to give these birds a second chance.

At De Grendel, we believe true sustainability means protecting not just our vines and soils, but the full ecosystem that makes this land, and sea, so special. This Earth Day, we invite you to raise a glass in honour of our coastal guardians and help protect a species that desperately needs our help.

Together, we can turn the tide.

Click here to donate directly to SANCCOB or learn more about their mission.