In South Africa other people pump petrol. Not because drivers are especially lazy, but because the career of a petrol jockey is a noble one, providing employment for tens of thousands.

Another employment-rich tradition is selling wine in bottles, but this, like penny-farthing recycling, is being threatened by the relentless onwards march of "progress", cost-saving and globalisation.

A trend to exporting wine in bulk to first-world countries and bottling there led to Origin Wines retrenching 40 employees last year - job-stealing repeated throughout the Winelands and echoed in allied industries such as bottle-blowing and label-printing.

Labels matter. As Rafeek Evans, MD of CCL Label in Stellenbosch, notes: "Labels are the first point of contact with the consumer, so they are extremely important. Competition has increased and brand owners are focusing on the label to surprise and inspire the consumer, as well as being a reflection of what is in the bottle.

"Marketers know that first impressions count, and consumers are attracted to loud and innovative branding. If it is not an award-winning wine, the creativity, shape and colour of the label can still sell the product."

Yet another threat to hard-pressed labellers comes from an unlikely source: trendy designers.

I bumped into John Hooper at the Constantia Fresh festival in February and he told me about his new range of "green by design" wines.

Called "Unbelievable", they're made on the family wine farm, Mount Vernon in the Simonsberg. They're green in that they have no label, as all the information (varietal, alcohol strength etc.) is contained on a nifty neck tag.

The next green step is to take a leaf out of the Fleur du Cap marketing manual and impregnate said neck tag with seeds so it can be disposed of in a friendly way.

Fleur du Cap impregnate their neck tags with rocket and basil seeds, although flowers (as offered by www.botanicalpaperworks.com) would have been more appropriate, given the brand name.

But then kruid du Kap (herb of the Cape) has a certain botanical charm of its own. Perhaps brand owner Distell should investigate whether marijuana-impregnated neck-tags would work in the liberal Dutch market.

Another target of militant environmentalists is the heavy bottle used to package expensive wine. With a carbon footprint larger than a yeti, these brag-bottles are frequent targets of gurus, such as wine journalist Tim Atkin, who fly around the world business class, pontificating on wine ethics.

But, says UK pundit Robert Joseph, "I disagree with the idea peddled by journalists such as Jancis Robinson MW and Tim Atkin MW of going away from heavy bottles because they're environmentally unfriendly.

"There are proportionally so few of those bottles sold, I don't really think it's going to make a huge difference to the environment."

. Read Pendock Uncorked at http://blogs.thetimes.co.za/pendock