Dr Paul Clüver, the founder of Paul Clüver Family Wines, was a renowned medical professional specialising in neuro-surgery where he worked at Groote Schuur Hospital as well as in private practice from 1977 to 1989. Upon leaving the medical profession he focused on farming activities on the family farm, De Rust in Elgin, the home of Paul Clüver Family Wines. A pioneer in agriculture and conservation, Dr Clüver was in 1995 named the Farmer of the year and won the Fertilizer Association’s Floating Trophy for Leadership.
Under his guidance the first commercial vineyards in Elgin were planted on De Rust Estate in 1987 after Dr Clüver was approached by the erstwhile Stellenbosch Farmers Winery who had identified the region as having the potential of making premium terroir-specific wines. This was the beginning of Paul Clüver Family Wines.
He started a black empowerment farming trust, Lebanon Fruit Farm Trust, in 1996. At the same time, he initiated a Black Economic Empowerment wine company, Thandi Wines, which became the first Fairtrade wine brand in the world. Alongside his commitment to empowerment and social development, his lifelong dedication to conservation and innovation has been exceptional. In 1998 Dr Clüver was appointed a trustee of WWF South Africa, and he has been an engaged member for almost 30 years. In the early 2000s he was the first landowner in the Western Cape to sign a perpetuity contract to legally bind part of the De Rust farm to CapeNature’s Stewardship Programme. It was also around this time that alarm bells were raised by the conservation sector who saw rapid vineyard expansion that was threatening to eliminate the last fragments of many three critically endangered fynbos and renosterveld vegetation. This issue became a matter of discussion between the wine industry and conservationists. One of the early leaders of this cause was Dr Clüver.
At the beginning of the millennium he worked with the Botanical Society of South Africa to forge a way to protect the iconic biodiversity of the Cape wine-growing regions which led to the establishment of the Biodiversity and Wine Initiative, which has since become the WWF Conservation Champion programme with 55 participating farms in the Western Cape.
In 2022 Dr Clüver received the WWF’s Living Planet Award for his contribution to conservation.
Today he is still to be found daily in his office on Paul Clüver Family Wines where he provides guidance, advice and inspiration to the family now running the agriculture and wine business and remains a source of immense wisdom, not only here, but for the South African wine industry as a whole.