Wines of South Africa > South africa COPY COPY > Flashcards
South africa COPY COPY Flashcards
Paarl
District, Warmer, less maritime influenced climate (varies), Varied soils, Range of varieties grown, KMW and large estate based in Paarl, Franschoek and Wellington are important wards.
Stellenbosch
District, Warm Mediterranean climate, Granite and sandstone soils, Heart of quality wine production, Bordeaux blends with Pinotage, Base of national viticultural institute.
Tulbagh District
Small warmer climate district surrounded by mountains.
Varied climates, topography and soils.
Showing promise with Shiraz.
Walker Bay District
Best Pinot Noir and Chardonnay in Sth Africa
Wine laws?
Wine of origin legislation since 1973. 75% from stated vintage. 85% of stated variety 100% from stated area. Certification seal after tasting guarantees accurately.
The vineyards of South Africa are buffeted by the winds of which two oceans?
Atlantic and Indian
Breede River Valley
Inland, hot climate.
Modern canopy management enables crisp Sauv Blanc and Sparkling despite heat.
What Elgin?
A district in South Africa’s Cape South Coast
In South Africa, the climate is cooler than the latitude might suggest. Why?
Benguela current is a cold current that flows up from the Antartica.
Name 2 districts inside the Olifants River Region.
Lutzville Valley
Citrusdal Valley
Citrusdall Mountains
Name the the districts of the Breede River Region
Robertson Breedekloof Swellendam Worcester Tulbagh
What is the Cape Doctor?
Summer wind that blows in from the South East during the summer, months, gale force winds that wrecks havoc.
What is the Northern most wine region in South Africa?
Olifants River
Wine region hierarchy
Estate wines.
Wards (50+) eg Franschoek
Districts (16) eg Paarl and Stellenbosch
Regions (5) untidy production boundaries as not all districts are part of a region etc
Western Cape
Catch all appellations covering all vineyards on the cape allowing blended single varietal wines from different regions to be sold in EU.
Coastal Region
Heartland of fine wine.
Including Stellenbosch, Constancia and Paarl
Constancia
Small, prestigious ward outside Cape Town.
Sea influence.
Ideal for Sauv Blanc with full spectrum of aromatic varietal characteristics.
Tygerberg District
Rolling hills 10K from Cape Town.
Sea influence.
Outstanding Sauv Blanc
Durbanville ward especially good.
Where are most of the vineyards of South Africa located?
South western part of the country.
What is the KMV? Detail its role in South Africa’s wine industry.
Kooperative Wijnbouwers Vereniging. A national co-operative or grapegrower’s trade union- became a price cartel and over ran production, focusing on quality over quantity.
Rainfall
Low, making irrigation necessary in most areas.
Climate
Mediterranean
Cold ocean current cools far inland.
South African white
Over 50% of production
White SA grapes
Chenin Blanc (steen), 1/5 total.
Chardonnay.
Sauvignon Blanc
Muscat of Alexandria (Hanepoot)
Chenin Blanc
Steen
1/5 of goal plantings
Versatile both dry and sweet
Body and toasty characters from barrel aging.
Chardonnay
Great quality. Potential in cool sites barrel fermentation and lees stirring add complexity.
Sauvignon Blanc
Styles range from fresh and herbaceous to nutty and vegetal
Muscat of Alexandria
Hanepoot Desert wines (not vin de Constance)
Vin de Constance
Muscat Blanc A Petit Grains
SA Red varieties
Cabernet Sauvignon Merlot Syrah Cinsault/ Cinsaut Pinotage
Pinotage
Pinot Noir x Cinsalt Cross Cape Blend with Cab Sauv etc Single Varietal from old bush vines best Flavour and structure still being explored Full bodied, rich spiced berry fruit Meat, rubber, banana, nail varnish
Cinsaut
Contributes, savoury flavour in blends (eg ‘Cale Blend’).
Occasionally single variety.
Merlot
Dark, rich plummy wines like Pomerol when grown on iron rich clay
Soil
Granite and shale hilltops.
Slopes of sand covering clay.
Valleys of alluvial and sandstone.
Best quality potential in Nth Africa
Morocco
Tunisia
Recent winery investment.
Full bodied reds.
Sweet and dry Muscats.
Best sites near coasts.
Algeria
Historically important for French.
Blending imports.
Vineyard area shrinking.
Investment and improvement lagging.
In what century was the first vineyard established in Sth Africa?
The 17th Century
What is Elgrin?
A district in South Africa’s Cape South Coast
What South Africa area is known for Jerepigo?
Klein Karoo
Key white grape of the Constantia, Coastal, Durbanville, Elgin, Robertson, regions of Sth Africa
Sauv Blanc
Key white grape of the Walker Bay, Coastal and Robertson regions of Sth Africa
Chardonnay
Key black grape of the Walker Bay region
Pinot Noir
Key Black grape of the Paarl and Stellenbosch regions
Shiraz
Key Black grape of Stellenbosch region
Cab Sauv
South Africa
3 Key Wines
Stellenbosch Bordeaux- Blends
South African Pinotage
South African Chenin Blanc
South Africa
5 Key Region
Stellenbosch Paarl Worcester Constantia Walker Bay
South Africa
Name 3 Key White Grapes
Chenin Blanc, Sauv Blanc, Chardonnay
South Africa
Name 3 Key Black Grapes
Pinotage
Cab Sauv
Merlot
South Africa
Climate, Weather and Soils
Warm- Hot Mediterranean, very arid in land, cooler hear coast
Little vintage variation drought can be a problem
Soils are varied. Stellenbosch known for limestone and sandstone.
What are the three main regions of South Africa?
Constantia, Stellenbosch and Paarl
Where is Constantia located?
South Africa
What is the main red and white grape of Africa?
Chenin Blanc (Steen) and Pinotage
What is Chenel and where is it grown?
Cross of Chenin and Trebbiano grown in South Africa
What are the wards of Breedekloof (Breede River Valley)
Goudini and Slaghoek
What are the wards of Worchester (Breede River Valley)
Aan-De- Doorns
Nuy
Scherpenheuvel
Hex River Valley
What are the wards of Robertson (Breede River Valley)
Agterhphootge Bonnievale Boesmans River Eilandia Hoopsriverie Klaasvoogds Le Chasseur McGregor Vinkrivier
What are the wards of Swellendam (Breede River Valley)?
Buffeljags
Stormsvlie
Districts of Breede River Valley
Swellendam
Robertson
Worcester
Breedekloof
Ward of Darling
Groenekloff
Wards of Stellenbosch
Junkerschoek Valley Papgaalberg Simonberg- Stellenbosch Bottlelary Devon Valley Banghoek Polkadraai Hills
Wards of Tygerberg
Durbanville
Philadelphia
Viti?
Irrigation becoming common place
Key Regions?
Stellenbosch Paarl Worchester Constantia Walker Bay
Wards of Swartland
Riebeeksberg
Malmesbury
What are the districts of Southern Districts of the Cape?
Overberg
Walker Bay
Cape Agulhas
What are the wards of Walker Bay
Hemel- En- Aarde Valley Upper Hemel- En- Aarde Valley Sunday's Glen Bot River Hemel- En- Aarde Ridge
What are the wards of Overberg
Elgin
Klein River
Theewater
Greyton
What are the districts of Oliphant’s River?
Lutzville Valley
Citrusdal Mountain
Citrusdal Valley
What are the wards of Klein Karoo?
Montagu Tradoww Tradoun Highlands Upper Langkloof Outeniqua
Production areas in the wine of origin legislation?
Estate= smallest area of production Ward= group of estates (Frankschoek and Constantia) Districts= group of wards (Paarl, Stellenbosch) Region= Largest area of production
Grapes of South Africa?
Pinotage Cabernet Sauvignon Merlot Chenin Blanc Sauvignon Blanc Chardonnay
Weather of South Africa?
Little vintage variation
Drought can be a problem
Districts of Coastal Region
Cape Point, Darling, Paarl, Stellenbosch, Swartland, Tullbaugh, Tygerberg, Boberg- used for fortified wines in Paarl and Tulbagh
Key Wines?
Stellenbosch= Bordeaux Blends
S/ African Pinotage
S/ African C/B
Soils of South Africa?
Varied
Stellenbosch- limestone and sandstone
What are the districts of Klein Karoo
Calitzdorp
Langeberg- Garcia
Vini of South Africa?
Wine of origin seal, guarantees auth. of label info.
KMV is former govern. Controlled co-op. Heavy irrigation, high yields, hot climate and low pH soils produce wines low in acidity, requiring tartaric acid most years.
Co- ops very important
Wine laws
If a vintage is stated, 75% must come from that year.
If variety is specified, 75% must be that grape.
Climate of S/ Africa?
Mediterranean- cooler near coast, hotter and more arid inland.
South Africa- History
Wine has been made here for over 350 years. First vines planted in 1654. 150 Huguenots fled France and arrived in South Africa at Franschhoek planted vineyards. Governor Simon van der Stel also planted vineyards at Constantia at the same time.
Most of the wine production originally went to brandy and fortified wines (these are still important for the local market).
South Africa- Wine Laws
Wine of Origin legislation started in 1973.
Certification seal awarded after tasting and guarantees label accuracy. 75% of vintage on label must come from that vintage. If a single variety is stated is must comprise 85% of the total. 100% of grapes must come from any stated production area. Hierarchy in size of production area: Units for the production are Estate wine (individual wineries, bottling at source), Wards (such as Franschhoek), Districts (e.g. Paarl and Stellenbosch) and Regions.
Not all districts are part of a region, not all wards are part of a district and even some estates are not part of a ward, leading to untidy production boundaries.
Historically one large co-operative, KMV founded in 1918. (Now privatised).
Trade- South Africa
3 types of producers:
Co-opertive: Produce and market own wine or sell wine in bulk to merchants.
Estate Wineries: Many with high reputations making wine from grapes grown on their own land only.
Wholesale Merchants: Buy in grapes and bulk wine to sell under their own label, some will also have their own vineyards. Also act as a distributor for many estates.
Regions- South Africa
Five regions, 16 districts and 50 wards. Catch all appellation “Western Cape” covers all the vineyards on the cape and allows blended wine of single varietal from different cape regions to be sold in the EU.
Coastal Region- South Africa
Heartland of the wine production. Covers the districts of Swartland, Stellenbosch, Tygerberg, Cape Point, Paarl and Darling. Constantia Ward lies on the outskirts of Cape Town with a small number of prestigious vineyards. Influenced by the sea, producing ideal Sauvignon Blanc growing conditions resulting in wines with the full spectrum of aromatic varietal characteristics.
Tygerberg District- South Africa
Rolling hills ten kilometres from Cape Town, growing reputation for quality wine. As with Constantia, Tygerberg is influenced by the sea producing ideal Sauvignon Blanc growing conditions resulting in wines with the full spectrum of aromatic varietal characteristics. Durbanville is an outstanding ward within Tygerberg.
Stellenbosch District- South Africa
At heart of quality wine production. Warm, Mediterranean climate with granite and sandstone soils. Famous for Bordeaux blends and Pinotage. Base of the National Viticultural Insitute.
Paarl District- South Africa
Warmer, less maritime- influenced climate, soils vary greatly from sand to decomposed granite, large range of varieties grown accordingly. KVW and a number of large estates based here. Two important Paarl wards are Franschoek and Wellington. Considerable variation of geography and climate.
Tulbagh District- South Africa
Small hot climate district surrounded by mountains. Varied climates due to the differing topography of vineyards. Low pH granite soils on slopes, deep sand and stone on clay on the riverbanks. Showing promise with Shiraz.
Overbear District- South Africa
District east of Cape Town
Walker Bay District- South Africa
(formerly ward) produces the best Pinot Noir and Chardonnay in South Africa
Bred River Valley Region- South Africa
Hot climate, inland, over the Bains Aloof Pass. Worcester and Robertson main wine districts. Modern canopy management has enabled production of pungent Sauvignon Blanc, crisp Chardonnay and sparkling wines despite the heat.
Climate- South Africa
Mediterranean climate. Vines planted from low altitudes, cool coastal regions through to warmer inland regions such as Stellenbosch. The cold Bengula ocean current cools temperatures far inland. Low rainfall makes irrigation necessary in most sites.
Soil- South Africa
Hilltops- Well drained deep granite and shale sol.
Slopes- Shallow to medium soils of sad covering a layer of heavy soil.
Valleys- Medium to deep soils of alluvial and sandstone
Grape Varieties- South Africa
White wine accounts for well over half of the wine production in South Africa.
Recent global demand for South African reds has led to an increase in production of red varities.
Chenin Blanc (Steen)- South Africa
Accounts for just under a fifth of all vineyard plantings, both great sweet and dry styles produced. Body and toasty characters added through barrel ageing. Also used for sweet wines, from late harvested or botryised grapes.
Chardonnay- South Africa
Great quality potential in cool sites. Barrel fermentation and lees stirring adds complexity.
Sauvignon Blanc- South Africa
Styles range from light, crisp and herbaceous through to barrel aged with a fuller body and nutty, vegetal flavours.
Muscat of Alexandra (Hanespoot)- South Africa
Widely used for dessert wines (note that Vin de Constance is made from Muscat Blanc a Petit Grains)
Cabernet Sauvignon- South Africa
Used in regional blends and for Bordeaux style wines.
Merlot- South Africa
Produces dark, rich plummy wines similar to Pomerol when grown on iron rich clay.
Syrah- South Africa
Two main styles, rich dark berry and full bodied or elegant and peppery
Cinsault- South Africa
Contributes savoury flavours in blends, occasionally occurs on its own.
Pinotage- South Africa
(Cinsault x Pinot Noir crossing)- Blended with international red to produce a ‘Cape Blend’. As a single varietal produced from old bush trained vines the wines can be full bodied with rich, spiced berry fruit. Shows hints of meat, rubber, banana or nail vanish. Flavour and structure still being explored.
Stellenbosch University
Is the only one in South Africa offering professional degrees in both viticulture and oenology. Informal teaching in these two subjects started in 1889 but the Department of Viticulture and Oenology was formally opened only in 1917, with Professor A. I. Perold as chair. The university has been an important influence on the Cape wine industry over the decades, and continues to produce most of the Cape’s leading viticulturists and winemakers. The town is also home to the Agricultural Research Council’s ARC Infruitec-Nietvoorbij Institute for Horticulture, Viticulture, and Oenology; and the College for Agriculture and Oenology at nearby Elsenburg. Stellenbosch University is also home to the Institute of Wine Biotechnology. As elsewhere (see the University of bordeaux, davis, geisenheim, for example), the phylloxera crisis was a powerful motivation for viticultural research, and from 1890 until about 1920 most of Stellenbosch’s work was concentrated on re-establishing the phylloxera-devastated vineyards of the Cape. During the 1920s, considerable effort was expended on improving the quality of fruit-bearing vine scions, a range that was naturally restricted by strict quarantine regulations. This involved vine breeding which led to new varieties, of which pinotage has been the most widely acclaimed. Under the guidance of Stellenbosch oenologists, South Africa was one of the first wine-producing countries to apply widespread temperature control to fermentations. Other globally admired advances have been in plant material quality, rootstocks, root systems, pruning, canopy management, vine spacing, vine row orientation, grape and wine flavour profiles, and optimal ripeness for different wine styles.
Stellenbosch
Important wine district in south africa, named after the charming university town at its heart 45 km/28 miles east of Cape Town with its Cape Dutch, Cape Georgian, and Victorian buildings shaded by long-established oaks. Stellenbosch is the Cape’s most famous wine district, traditionally associated with the country’s most celebrated reds. It has been producing wine since 1679. As well as Stellenbosch University, it is also home to the Wine & Spirit Board and the biggest wine wholesaler distell with its 10,000-barrel maturation cellars. Stellenbosch is surrounded by valleys of vines and the soaring blue-grey mountains of Stellenbosch, Simonsberg, and Helderberg. The district’s wards—Banghoek, Bottelary, Devon Valley, Jonkershoek Valley, Papegaaiberg, Polkadraai Hills, and Simonsberg-Stellenbosch in 2014—all yield wines capable of displaying distinctive differences. Vineyards on the Helderberg (which runs from Stellenbosch to False Bay at Somerset West) enjoy a considerable reputation. Soils and climate vary, from sandy alluvial loam along the valley floors and river courses to deep, moisture-retaining decomposed granite on the hillsides. The climate is tempered by the Atlantic sweeping into False Bay, a 15-minute drive from the town. Average daily summer temperatures range from 20 °C/68 °F. Stellenbosch returns low average yields; it makes less than 9% of the country’s wine despite having 17% of the country’s vines and the greatest concentration of leading estates, an extensive wine route network, and scores of restaurants.
Elgin
Predominantly white wine district in the Cape South Coast region of south africa. This relatively new district has cool, high vineyards in apple-orchard country east of Cape Town and is a source of fine Chardonnay and Sauvignon Blanc, as well as some successful Pinot Noirs.
Walker Bay
Southerly, relatively cool maritime wine district in south africa. Its most important wards are Hemel-en-Aarde Valley, Upper Hemel-en-Aarde Valley, and Hemel-en-Aarde Ridge. Walker Bay’s vineyards produce many of South Africa’s most promising wines made from Chardonnay and Pinot Noir.
Robertson
Important warm, dry, wine-producing district within the Breede River Valley region in south africa. Home of many estates and co-operatives, it produces some fine whites, including Chardonnays and Sauvignon Blancs, and an increasingly creditable array of reds, most notably Shiraz and Cabernet. Bonnievale is the best known of the district’s wards. Most vineyards fringe the Breede River, which provides the essential irrigation (rainfall is less than 400 mm/16 in annually) and alluvial soils although calcium-rich outcrops are also found. Most of the international varieties perform well here although Robertson has long enjoyed a reputation for lovely fortified muscadels and off-dry Colombards. Robertson produces more than 15% of the national harvest. Average daily growing season temperatures are high.
Worcester
Warm inland wine district within the Breede River Valley region in south africa. This extensive, fertile district beyond the Du Toitskloof Mountains and within the Breede River Valley region produces about 12% of the national wine crop. Generally warm and dependent on irrigation, the region used to be heavily dependent on Colombard and Chenin Blanc but Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc, Viognier, and Shiraz have all become relatively important too.
Coastal Region
A conveniently extensive wine region in south africa, home to several of the country’s most important wine districts and wards, including constantia, darling, franschhoek (or Franschhoek Valley), paarl, stellenbosch, swartland, tulbagh, and wellington. The name appears on labels of a substantial proportion of South African wines.
Constantia
Legendary, 18th- and 19th-century dessert wines from the Cape, south africa, then a Dutch colony. Their fame was never matched by any other New World wines and at their height they commanded more prestige, more fabulous prices, and enjoyed more crowned patronage than the most celebrated wines of Europe (with the possible exception of Hungarian tokaji). Constantia was even ordered by Napoleon from his exile on St Helena. The Cape wines were grown on a subdivision of the 750-ha/1,850-acre Constantia Estate just outside Cape Town, founded in 1685 by an early Dutch governor Simon van der Stel. However, it was Constantia’s subsequent owners who achieved acclaim and prosperity, principally Hendrik Cloete, who purchased and restored one of the subdivisions in 1778. Quality and fame gradually declined in the late 19th century, partly as a result of the Cape’s declining importance to the British wine market, and partly because Constantia’s higher labour costs, especially after the abolition of slavery in 1834, and the lower yields associated with its cool climate, made wine production economically marginal. By 1885 Cloete’s estate was bankrupt and under the name of Groot Constantia has been state-owned ever since. In 1975, management of its activities passed into the hands of a control board and in 1993 into a trust. In recent times Groot Constantia has made sound, increasingly impressive, conventional wines. A neighbouring privately owned estate, Klein (Little) Constantia, an 1823 deduction from Groot Constantia, was the first to take up the challenge of recreating the legend. It replanted vineyards with Muscat of Frontignan (muscat blanc à petits grains) in the early 1980s and now produces a white dessert wine known as Vin de Constance (without botrytis in the manner of the old Constantia) to local and international acclaim. The sweet wines of Constantia, both red and white, the latter the more expensive, were made principally from this small-berried Muscat and its dark-berried mutation, probably including the lesser muscat of alexandria together with the dark red pontac and chenin blanc. Records show that slightly under 50% of Constantia wine in the early 19th century was sold either as red or white Constantia without any varietal claim. Analyses of recently opened bottles (still perfumed with a tang of citrus and smoky richness) reveal they were unfortified although high in alcohol, apparently confirming records that the grapes were left on the vines long after ripeness to achieve shrivelled, but not botrytized, concentration (see dried-grape wines for more details of the technique). Other stories suggest the wines may have been fortified by shippers for protection on the long, rough, and hot journey across the equator to Europe. Today Constantia is a demarcated wine ward in Cape Town’s southern suburbs, on the slim peninsula pointing into the south Atlantic, cooled by the sea for relatively slow summer ripening with average daily temperatures of 18–19 °C/64–66 ºF, and very wet but moderate winters (average annual rainfall over 1,000 mm/39 in). Rich, loamy Table Mountain sandstone and decomposed granite soils nurture vigorous growth and even shy-bearing classic vines require ruthless trimming and crop thinning. Here a handful of vineyards have, since the mid 1980s, once again been producing classic wines from land that once formed part of the historic 750-ha estate developed by Governor van der Stel.
Paarl
Important inland wine district in south africa and home of an increasing number of well-known estates. It reaches north into tulbagh and wellington and east towards franschhoek, all separate areas of origin. The biggest cellars are kwv’s and the most important branded wine producer is Nederburg, with a comprehensive range of 40 labels. Much of Paarl’s fruit is blended with grapes from districts such as stellenbosch and Wellington to be sold under the more generic regional origin coastal region.
Durbanville
An important ward in the Coastal Region in south africa, part of the Tygerberg district.
Cape Blend
south african term generally used to describe a red wine in which pinotage is one of the blending components.
Estate Wine
Term in common parlance, but not in federal law, in the US that suggests loosely that the wine came entirely from grapes farmed on the winery’s own property. ‘Estate wine’ may be casually construed conversationally to be exactly synonymous with estate bottled, which has legal status, but technically it is not. In South Africa ‘estate wine’ is a specific term for a wine that was grown, made, and bottled on a single geographical unit registered with the Wine and Spirit Board. Many German producers refer to their most basic bottling of Riesling as their Estate Riesling, Gutsriesling in German.
Wine of Origin
Area of origin designation scheme described in detail in south africa. Established in 1973, it is the oldest and arguably the most extensive and rigorous in the new world.
WIETA
Is an organization dedicated to improving social and employment conditions in the wine industry of south africa. Members include grape-growers, wine producers, trades unions, retailers, agents, importers, and exporters of South African wine. Its code of conduct includes a prohibition on child and enforced labour and obliges members to provide a safe and healthy working environment with freedom of association, the right to collective bargaining, a living wage, reasonable working hours, regular employment, security of tenure, and protection against unfair discrimination. Members are subject to regular audits, and, when compliant, are accredited by WIETA. In 2014 certification arrangements were being extended with a view to ensuring that over time WIETA compliance will be incorporated in a single seal, issued by the Wine & Spirit Board and covering not merely compliance in terms of the wine of origin scheme but also environmental sustainability
South Africa- 2016
The smallest crop in half a decade has resulted in concentrated, ripe wines. The hot conditions demanded an early harvest, which means alcohol levels are generally lower than average. Sunburn was a problem in some regions, but there was at least minimal threat of rot thanks to very dry weather throughout the season.
South Africa- 2015
Record early harvest but viewed as good quality by most observers, thanks to clement weather throughout the year. Yields are slightly lower than in 2014.
South Africa- 2014
A challenging vintage beset by rain. Coastal regions fared better than most, but overall the expectations for quality are not high.
South Africa- 2013
A wet winter and warm summer. Humidity threatened rot during the harvest, but producers with the strongest nerve successfully waited for dryer conditions. Reds are particularly promising.
South Africa- 2012
Below average yields, but good quality fruit thanks to a dry, easy harvest period.
South Africa- 2011
Drought, resulting in reduced yields and particular concentration in reds. Not an auspicious vintage.
South Africa- 2010
Cool and dry in spring until a very wet November. December was dry again, and warm too, allowing for good late ripening. Mildew was a problem in many areas, so quality is variable.
South Africa- 2009
Universal acclaim across all varieties.
South Africa- 2008
Lighter than average wines, thanks to an especially cool growing season. Not an easy vintage, but the slow ripening process led to elegant examples from the best producers.
South Africa- 2007
Ripe and rich, favouring Rhône varieties in particular.
South Africa- 2006
Started coolly, meaning small berries with thick skins that led to great concentration. A strong vintage.
South Africa- 2005
Undistinguished, with reds slightly more favoured than whites.
South Africa- 2004
Cooler conditions than the norm, making for more restrained styles in both reds and whites.
South Africa- 2003
Temperatures several degrees below the average, with the best results coming from the earlier ripening varieties.
South Africa- 2002
Rain in abundance, leading to plentiful rot. Not a good vintage.
South Africa- 2001
Continued the run of hot vintages, and produced a very small harvest of concentrated reds. Tannins were generally softer than in 2000.
South Africa- 2000
The third hot year in a row. Whites were unimpressive, but reds were powerful and concentrated, with high tannic structure.
Pinotage
A hardy and moderately vigorous red grape variety, is south africa’s most notable contribution to the history of the vinifera vine. In 1924 stellenbosch University viticulturist A. I. Perold crossed Pinot Noir and Cinsaut, then commonly called Hermitage in South Africa, hence the contraction Pinotage. It took until 1961 for the name to appear on a label, that of a Lanzerac 1959. The grape has been controversial, particularly in earlier decades, when it frequently made reds with a flamboyantly sweetish paint-like pungency (from isoamyl acetate) and, often, some degree of bitterness. Greater viticultural and winemaking understanding have made such problems increasingly rare, but local and international detractors remain. Many examples are indeed too powerful and jammy, with the excessiveness of a certain type of ambition taking its toll. Nonetheless, some unquestionably good varietal and blended wines are produced, at all levels, from accessibly fruity rosés and lighter reds, to fine, deep-coloured, rich, seriously oaked examples, although examples made in the 1960s, long before the era of barrique vinification, reveal that Pinotage does not depend on the use of wood to acquire longevity and complexity. Most of the best of them come from mature bush vine vineyards with restricted yields, and some have a perfume recalling the grape’s parentage. Fairly simple co-operative winery examples from the 1960s and 1970s that have been drinking well (and rather elegantly) in the second decade of this century, as well as the complex maturation of older wines from the likes of Pinotage specialist Kanonkop in stellenbosch, testify to Pinotage’s longevity. So-called ‘coffee Pinotage’, with mocha notes deliberately derived from artful oaking, has become a notorious 21st-century success story in South Africa, and in some export markets. Pinotage works well in blends, and attempts continue to establish cape blend as a generic name for reds with a certain (but disputed) percentage of the grape. Since 1994, plantings of Pinotage, along with other major red varieties, have grown substantially and by 2012 the total area planted, 7,000 ha/17,500 acres, represented almost 7% of all South African vine plantings. Pinotage is also grown, to a much more limited extent, in Australia, New Zealand, Brazil, California, Oregon, Washington, Israel, Zimbabwe, and in most vine collections.
Frontignac
Name used occasionally for grapey, sweet wine, particularly in south africa, providing it has been produced from muscat de frontignan. Australian synonym for muscat blanc à petits grains.
Hanepoot
Traditional Afrikaans name for south africa’s most planted Muscat vine variety, muscat of alexandria.
Tinta Barocca
Common, relatively thick-skinned port grape variety which is the third most planted in Portugal’s douro Valley, mainy for port, and grown on a total of 5,444 ha/13,447 acres of Portuguese vineyard in 2012. It is favoured by growers for yielding large quantities of grapes with exceptionally high levels of sugar and is widely planted on higher or north-facing slopes. However, Barroca is prone to both mildews and is easily damaged by extreme heat and the berries have a tendency to shrivel on the vine. By no means as highly prized as the other leading port grapes, Touriga Franca and Tinta Roriz (Tempranillo), Barroca produces reasonably well-structured but slightly jammy, rustic wines which can be useful in a blend. In Portugal, Tinta Barroca is rarely used as a varietal but it has been one of the most popular varieties for fortified port-like wines in South Africa’s vineyards, and full-throttle, unfortified varietal Tinta Barroca dry(ish) red (sometimes misspelt and referred to as Tinta Barocca or Tinta das Baroccas) is a speciality in South Africa where there were 215 ha in 2012.
Pontac
South African name for the distinctive red-fleshed teinturier du cher grape variety probably imported from south west france in the late 17th century. Widely planted until phylloxera devastated the Cape’s vineyards between 1866 and the 1880s, Pontac was superseded by higher-yielding and more fashionable varieties, although a vintage port-style wine was made from it as recently as 2008. While there are no longer any Pontac vineyards in South Africa, attempts are being made to produce virus-free material which, if successful, may herald its re-emergence.
Cape Riesling
The old, misleading South African name for crouchen Blanc. From 2010 wine produced from Crouchen Blanc must either be sold as such or as Cape Riesling, but may no longer be labelled Riesling alone.
Cape Agulhas
District in south africa close to the southernmost tip of the continent.
Dutch East India Company
Powerful trading organization which played a seminal part in the wine history of south africa. Founded in March 1602 by the amalgamation of four Holland and two Zeeland companies which had been set up between 1596 and 1602 to conduct trade in East Asia, the General United Chartered East-India Company in the United Netherlands (Vereenigde Oost-Indische Compagnie: VOC) dominated European trade with the Orient for the rest of the 17th century, with counters and outposts strung out along the extended sea routes which linked the Netherlands with southern Africa, India, Ceylon, Sumatra, Java, Borneo, and Japan. Apart from its participation in the bulk transport of fortified wines such as madeira and spirits to the ends of its seaborne empire, it played a vital part in the Dutch penetration of southern Africa and in the establishment of viticulture on the Cape of Good Hope
Olifants River
Chiefly bulk grape-producing region in south africa among mountains and along the Atlantic western seaboard. Most growers have supplied large local co-operatives with wine for distillation but an increasing proportion is exported as wine. Vredendal, South Africa’s biggest single winery and part of Namaqua, vinifies more than 110,000 tonnes of grapes annually. But there are pockets of vines with serious potential, particularly in Lutzville Valley district and the tiny Bamboes Bay ward.
Malmesbury
Ward in the swartland district of south africa, and an increasingly important source of good-quality wines from often innovative wine producers, many small-scale.
Klein Karoo
Inland semi-desert ostrich- and sheep-farming region that is also an official wine region in south africa also known as Little Karoo. The town of Calitzdorp is widely regarded as the port-style wine capital of South Africa.
Jerepigo
Unfermented dessert ‘wines’ in South Africa, the Cape’s version of mistelle produced by adding alcohol before fermentation to grape juice, generally from inland regions. Many are made from muscadel, which name on the label may legally serve to indicate style as well as variety. Initially about 17% alcohol, many are now closer to a more recent lower limit of 15%, often with intense ripe fig and muscat flavours. These traditional, warming wines, both red and white, once popular in South African winters but now sold in ever-declining volumes, probably derive their name from jeropiga.
Groenekloof
Cool, predominantly white wine ward in the Darling district in south africa.
virus diseases
Group of vine diseases caused by very small and simple organisms, consisting of ribonucleic acid (RNA) wrapped in a protein sheath. Some virus diseases can seriously affect grapevine yield and wine quality, and since they are mainly spread by propagation in cuttings, there has been an emphasis on vine improvement and clonal selection to prevent their spread. Virus diseases began to affect European vines from about 1890, when rootstocks were used in France to control phylloxera. grafting doubles the risk of virus spread and, unlike many fruiting varieties, rootstocks do not always show virus symptoms.
Virus diseases are mostly spread by taking cuttings from infected plants, although some are spread by nematodes and insects. They are mostly detected by inoculating sensitive plants (see indexing), and more recently by serological techniques based on immunological reactions (see elisa) and RNA analysis. Often viruses do not kill the vine but each year they reduce both growth and yield. For example, rootstocks infected with leafroll virus show no symptoms but the virus can greatly reduce wine quality as it delays fruit ripening. It is probably the most important vine virus disease in many parts of the world. Considerable viticultural effort has been expended in vine improvement and in developing virus-free vines. However, the increased use of nursery-propagated cuttings taken from virus-free mother vines, especially rootstocks, has inadvertently led to the spread of trunk diseases, causing greater harm than the virus diseases they were meant to control.
Common virus diseases are corky bark, fanleaf degeneration, leafroll virus, rugose wood, nepoviruses. See also bacterial diseases, fungal diseases, phytoplasma diseases.
Nematodes
Microscopic roundworms generally found in soil which can seriously harm vines and other plants. Some feed on bacteria or fungi and are part of the normal vineyard ecosystem. Others, however, feed on grapevine roots and thus reduce both the size and efficiency of the root system. Although the vines do not necessarily die, they suffer water stress and deficiencies in vine nutrition and grow weakly. Some species of nematodes are important because they transmit virus diseases. The viruses spread by nematodes are called nepoviruses. They can be spread throughout the vineyard from just one infected plant by nematode feeding. Often they show up as a few yellow vines in the vineyard.
The fact that nematodes damage vines was first established in about 1930, in California. Because of characteristic and visually striking root damage, the root knot nematode, Meloidogyne species, was considered most important. However, in 1958 it was discovered that fanleaf degeneration was spread by nematodes of the species Xiphenema index, the so-called dagger nematode. This milestone discovery in plant pathology was made by Hewitt and colleagues of the University of California at davis. It had been established in France as long ago as 1883 that fanleaf degeneration spread through the soil, and some French authorities believed until the 1950s that the phylloxera louse was responsible for the spread.
Root knot nematodes occur mainly in sandy soil. Their presence is visible to the naked eye since the knots (swollen tissue or galls) on the roots formed in response to their feeding resemble a string of beads. One female can lay up to 1,000 eggs, and with up to ten generations a year in warm climates they can spread rapidly. The root lesion nematode Pratylenchus also damages vines by feeding on their roots. Virus particles can survive for many years in root fragments after an infected vineyard is removed. Replanting a new, ‘virus-free’ vineyard can lead to disappointment, as reinfection with nematode feeding can follow.
At one time vineyards in which nematodes were previously present were subjected to fumigation with injected chemicals before planting, but the nematicide DBCP, which was considered capable of controlling all nematodes, is now banned. Methyl bromide was highly effective but was banned in 2005 because of environmental considerations. In California, where methyl bromide was widely used for vineyard replanting, integrated pest management is suggested as an important alternative.
Nematode diseases are often spread on infected planting material or by the movement of infected soil on cultivation implements or by irrigation water. Infected nursery plants can be freed of nematodes by hot-water treatment. Biological control using rootstocks is possible and generally preferred. Some vitis species (V. solonis, V. champini, and V. doaniana) show resistance to nematodes. Among the most nematode-resistant rootstocks are Couderc 1613, Ramsey, Schwarzmann, Harmony, and Dog Ridge.
Leafroll Virus
Virus disease that is widespread in all countries where grapes are grown. The disease is now thought to be due to a complex of ten different filamentous viruses referred to as grapevine leafroll associated viruses (GLRaVs). Of all the virus diseases of vines, it can have the most serious effects on wine quality. These dramatic effects are not understood by the many appreciative tourists in wine regions who marvel at the attractive autumnal red colours of vineyards. Few realize that these colours often indicate the presence of a serious disease, although other factors may contribute to autumnal colours. Leafroll virus causes yield to be reduced by as much as 50%. Wine quality is also affected because of delayed ripening. Thus wines from infected vines are lower in alcohol, colour, flavour, and body. The disease does not kill vines, so they are infrequently removed. Yet removal is the only known treatment to overcome the effects of the virus.
Characteristic symptoms are downwards and backwards rolling of the leaf blade in autumn. The area between the leaf veins turns red for black-fruited varieties, and, less obviously, yellow for white-fruited varieties. Some varieties such as Cabernet Franc and Chardonnay show the classic symptoms; others such as Riesling and most rootstocks show no symptoms at all. Infected vines may be stunted but this is hardly sufficient for diagnosis.
Leafroll probably originated in the Near East along with vinifera and was carried along with grape cuttings. The disease is spread chiefly by humans, using cuttings or buds from infected vines. Cuttings for budwood are taken when the vines are dormant and no leaves are present to show symptoms, making it impossible to distinguish healthy from infected plants. Once infected planting material is used, then the new vineyard is immediately infected, and will perform at below its potential for its lifetime.
This virus disease, like many others, has become more widespread as grafting on to phylloxera-resistant rootstocks has become more commonplace because grafting increases the chances of using infected material. Thus, many Old World vineyards planted early in the 1900s show the virus. Some tasters believed that grafting to phylloxera-resistant rootstocks from the 1880s onwards led directly to a decline in wine quality. In fact this supposed drop in quality may have been an effect of increased spread of leafroll virus due to grafting.
Of recent concern are reports of the natural spread of GLRaV, especially strain 3, beginning in South Africa in 1985, and subsequently to Spain, Italy, Australia, California, and New Zealand. This strain can have significant effects on yield and grape composition. mealy bugs and soft scale have been shown to be vectors. Successful management programmes have been introduced in South Africa, New Zealand, and California, involving removing affected vines, control of vectors, and replanting with disease-free vines. Since disease symptoms are harder to detect on white wine grape varieties, chip budding a dark-skinned grape variety on the trunk of the white vine can reveal the virus.
Because there is no control for this disease, growers should ensure that they plant only material that is tested free of the virus. The University of California at davis led the world in developing a ‘clean stock’ programme, now known as foundation plant services, with the result that vineyards planted in California since the early 1960s are generally virus free. In addition, this virus-tested planting stock has been exported and, for example, many of the vineyards of Australia and New Zealand are planted with such material. The virus is detected by indexing, or by using immunoassays such as elisa, or by electron microscope searches for the virus particles. Healthy planting material is produced by eliminating viruses using thermotherapy or heat treatment or, more reliably, by tissue culture. Propagation is recommended from these ‘clean’ mother plants.
Fanleaf Degradation
Sometimes called fanleaf virus, one of the oldest known virus diseases affecting vines. Records of it date back some 200 years in Europe and there are indications that it may have existed in the Mediterranean and Near East since grape culture began. Rather than being a single disease, it is in fact a complex of related diseases which include forms known as yellow mosaic and veinbanding. Shoot growth is typically malformed, leaves are distorted and asymmetric, and teeth along the edge are elongated. Shoots show abnormal branching with double nodes (see fasciation), short internodes, and zigzag growth. Leaves on infected plants look fanlike—hence the name. Bunches are smaller than normal, with poor fruit set and many shot berries. Sensitive varieties such as Cabernet Sauvignon can lose up to 80% of potential yield and have a shortened productive life.
The disease can be detected by indexing using varieties of other species of vitis such as Rupestris St George, or with other plants such as Chenopodium, or by serological tests using elisa. The virus can be spread by infected planting material, and this reached widespread proportions in the late 1880s with the adoption of grafting vines on to rootstocks resistant to phylloxera. A second means of spread was discovered in California in 1958. The nematode Xiphinema index spreads the disease within a vineyard by feeding on the roots of infected plants and then healthy ones. Thus the symptoms of the disease spread slowly around an original infected plant.
There is no control for an infected vineyard and it must be removed. The virus particle can survive in root pieces for over six years. Nematode populations can be reduced by fumigation. Current research aims to develop resistant rootstocks for planting in infested vineyards but has so far been only partly successful. The most successful method is to plant virus-free vines in a nematode-free soil. Fanleaf-free planting material is readily obtained by thermotherapy or tissue culture. (See also nepoviruses.)
Corky Bark
Virus-like disease and one of the few which can kill vines. It is one of a complex of diseases known as rugose wood. Symptoms of the disease resemble another one of the virus diseases, leafroll virus, in that, during autumn, leaves turn red or yellow and roll downwards. Vines infected with corky bark retain their leaves after they would naturally have fallen. It can be transmitted to healthy grapevines by the longtailed mealybug Pseudococcus longispinus. There is no control for infected vineyards, and vine removal is the only solution if many vines are infected.
Muscadel
South African name for muscat blanc à petits grains, the term being generally used only for very sweet, but not very modish jerepigo. The total area planted in South Africa was 729 ha/1,800 acres in 2012, mainly in inland Robertson. This was the Muscat chiefly responsible for the famous 18th-century constantia dessert wine.
Tourism
Wine-related tourism continues to be increasingly important to both producers and consumers. For many centuries, not even wine merchants travelled, but today many members of the general public deliberately make forays to explore a wine region or regions. This is partly a reflection of the increased interest in both wine and foreign travel generally, but also because most wine regions and many producers’ premises are attractive places. vineyards tend to be aesthetically pleasing in any case, and the sort of climate in which wine is generally produced is agreeable at least during the growing season and very possibly for most of the year. Getting to grips with this specialist form of agriculture combines urban dwellers’ need to commune with nature with acquiring privileged, and generally admired, specialist knowledge. And then there is the possibility of tasting, and buying wines direct from the source, which may involve keen prices and/or acquiring rarities. (cellar door sales can be particularly attractive to wine drinkers living in countries with high duty levels on alcohol.)
Wine tourism is certainly not new to Germany. The rhine has long welcomed tourists, who are encouraged to travel by steamer and stop at wine villages en route, and the mosel Valley is surely one of the most photographed in the world. German tourists, on the other hand, have long plundered the Weinstuben of alsace and represent an important market for the region’s wines.
In France, wine tourism was often accidental. Northern Europeans heading for the sun for decades travelled straight through burgundy and the northern rhône and could hardly fail to notice vineyards and the odd invitation ‘Dégustation–Vente’ (tasting–sale). (And it is true that a tasting almost invariably leads to a sale.) Wine producers in the loire have long profited from their location in the midst of châteaux country, and within an easy Friday night’s drive of Paris.
bordeaux was one of the last important French wine regions to realize its potential for wine tourism, although the city itself is determinedly making up for lost time. The village of st-Émilion has had scores of wine shops and restaurants for decades but it was not until the late 1980s that the médoc, the most famous cluster of wine properties in the world, had a hotel and more than one restaurant suitable for international visitors. Alexis lichine was mocked for being virtually the only classed growth proprietor openly to welcome visitors but there are now others, albeit fewer than one would expect.
Much of southern Europe is simply too hot, and too far from suitable resorts, to make wine tourism comfortable and feasible, but agriturismo has played an extremely important part in the viticultural economy of Italy.
In various new world wine regions, tourism has also become an important aspect of business. Prominent examples here include napa Valley, now almost part and parcel of the San Francisco tourist experience; south african vineyards within easy reach of Cape Town; new zealand, the most southerly wine areas of which are just as breathtakingly beautiful as those of the Cape; hunter valley for visitors to and residents of Sydney; upper new york state; and even the vineyards of england, whose owners depend heavily on income from ‘farmgate’ sales.
Some tour operators and travel agents specialize in wine tourism, and the number of wine regions without their own special wine route or winery trail is decreasing rapidly. The first annual wine tourism conference was held in 2011.
Cape
a synecdoche used for south africa, particularly during the apartheid era.
South Africa
Prolific southern hemisphere wine producer with a lustrous past and now in the midst of a significant renaissance. The famous Muscat-based dessert wines of constantia seduced 18th and 19th-century Europe at a time when names such as lafite and Romanée-Conti (see domaine de la romanée-conti) were still in the making. The two centuries which followed were, by comparison, a disappointment, with the ordinary being too plentiful and the individual too rare. Only since the early 1990s has the Cape begun to shake off its political notoriety and vinous obscurity.
The Cape (most South African vineyards are in the hinterland of the Cape of Good Hope) functioned as a vast distillery for much of the 20th century, draining a partly subsidized annual wine lake and guaranteeing a certain quality of life to a politically powerful farming lobby. The growers’ body founded in 1918, the kwv (Co-operative Wine Growers’ Association), was until 1998 legally empowered to determine production quotas, fix minimum prices, and predetermine production areas and limits—a system which tended to handicap the private wine producer and favour the bulk grape-grower. Under pressure, the KWV began to relinquish most of these powers in 1992, and set the stage for a much freer, livelier production scene.
By the late 1990s, the requirements of the country’s considerable brandy industry were more or less separately met, with plantings of high-yielding varieties increasingly developed expressly for this purpose. This forced growers of poorer vine varieties in lower-yielding regions to reconsider their commercial strategies. At the same time, increased demand for superior wines and the enthusiasm of a new generation of winemakers led to new vine-growing ventures in completely new viticultural areas and to the rediscovery of certain regions whose potential had long been overlooked.
Until recently, the Cape’s wine industry could be divided between the quantity-producing majority and the quality-conscious minority. However, the export-led boom which followed democratic elections in 1994 transformed an industry in which as recently as 1990 less than 30% of the harvest reached the market as wine. By 2012, 75% of the grape crop was used to produce wine, with the remainder supplying the domestic brandy industry and the fruitjuice sector.
With 1.7% of the world’s vineyards, South Africa ranks about 11th in area under vines, but its annual output, at just 10 million hl/264 million gal, makes it definitively one of the world’s top ten wine producers. Total area of vineyard for wine grapes has stabilized at around 100,000 ha/247,000 acres. By 2014, there were almost 600 cellars which crush grapes, a small proportion of the 3,440 registered grape growers.
The risks and discipline of cooler environments suited to classic, low-yielding varieties have been braved by those who represent the innovative side of the South African wine industry. Together with a few wholesale merchant-producers (notably distell and Douglas Green Bellingham), such wine-growers began to revolutionize the Cape wine scene in the 1980s, preparing the way for the significant transformation—in both plantings and in quality—which characterized the first post-apartheid decade.
An ever-strengthening export market which is slowly recognizing the nuances possible in the higher-priced brackets has been helped by a buoyant domestic demand for good quality wine.
As in Europe and America, people are drinking less, but better, with average per capita consumption around 8 l per year. Meanwhile, to an increasing extent, wine is the beverage of choice of middle-class families in many of the urbanized areas. This shift away from a beer-and-spirit-only consumption pattern has seen the growth of a more sophisticated domestic market. Coupled with a virtual twenty-fold increase in exports between 1992 and 2012, there is now a significant incentive to vine-growers to pursue quality rather than quantity.
This scramble for excellence has confirmed the benefits both of cooler sites and matching locality to grape varieties. The historic Constantia area has been rediscovered and replanted. Climatic conditions here and in recently pioneered areas such as elgin, walker bay, and cape agulhas on the eastern seaboard and alongside the cold Benguela current along the west coast differ dramatically from those in the hot hinterland. This century many of the country’s more adventurous winemakers have been exploiting the fit between locality and variety, and the warmer swartland district and Olifants River region have come to yield some of the country’s most exciting new-generation wines.
Chenin Blanc remains the farmers’ favourite vine variety, making almost any and every style of white wine and comprising just over 17% of all plantings. In the late 1990s, less than 18% of Cape vineyards produced red grapes. By 2012 this proportion was more than 45%. As a result, the traditional red blends featuring Cabernet Sauvignon, Shiraz, Cinsaut, Tinta Barroca, and the Cape’s own cross pinotage have been joined by newer styles. Growth in plantings of the premium red varieties has seen Cabernet Sauvignon move from 4.9% of total plantings in 1996 to 11.8% in 2012. In the same period, Shiraz vineyards increased ninefold, Merlot trebled, and Cabernet Franc more than doubled. Small oak ageing was introduced in the late 1970s and became widely used for commercial wines in the second half of the 1980s. Now most of the country’s smaller cellars, and all of the producing wholesalers, use French oak for both reds and whites. Controlled malolactic conversion is widely practised while reduced dependence on flavour-stripping filtration and stabilization processes has also helped improve the quality of the better wines. New canopy management strategies and increasing vine densities also played a role.
However, poor grape quality—often due to virus-infected planting material—has hindered even greater progress. leafroll, fanleaf, and corky bark viruses affect tens of thousands of hectares of vineyards.
While counterparts elsewhere in the New World streaked ahead, South Africa’s progress was slowed in the 1980s by the application of unnecessarily arduous plant importation regulations and the steadfast refusal by members of the industry’s own vine improvement body to recognize the extent of the problem. Initially, poor handling techniques in disseminating this material as well as virus-infected rootstocks ensured that many of the newer vineyards would succumb to viruses, although more rigorous protocols now appear to be playing a role in raising the average age of virus-free plantings on the better-managed properties.
A few fundamental natural handicaps exist. Apart from isolated calcareous outcrops, Cape soils tend to be excessively acid, requiring heavy lime amendments, tartaric acid adjustments to musts and wines, and severe tartrate removal procedures before bottling
South Africa- History
The father of the South African wine industry was a 33-year-old Dutch surgeon sent to establish a market garden to reduce the risks of scurvy on the long sea passage between Europe and the Indies. Jan van Riebeeck, the Cape’s first European settler, was a reluctant pioneer, and no viticulturist. But his brief was to set up a supply station for dutch east india company sailors on the spice routes; and the Cape’s mediterranean climate suggested vines might well flourish.
Seven years after sailing into Table Bay on 6 April 1652, at the head of a ragtag mercenary band, he recorded: ‘Today, praise be to God, wine was pressed for the first time from Cape grapes.’ The cuttings came from ‘somewhere in western France’ according to viticulturist Professor C. Orffer. Conditions and quality improved when a new governor, Simon van der Stel, established the legendary 750-ha/1,850-acre constantia wine estate outside Cape Town in 1685.
Constantia again became the focal point of the wine industry in 1778, when a portion of the now-divided estate was bought by a talented and ambitious grower, Hendrik Cloete. His Constantia dessert wines soon became the toast of European aristocracy. Cape wine exports flourished under British rule, even if mainly of cheap wines. When in 1861 the Gladstone government removed empire-preferential tariffs, French wines had only the Channel to cross to capture the British market and far-flung Cape colony products became uncompetitive.
phylloxera struck in 1886, adding a 20-year recuperation period to the trade’s already unhealthy fortunes. Making up for lost time, growers rebuilt the industry, planting some 80 million high-yielding vines such as Cinsaut by the early 1900s. A manageable flow swelled into a deluge; unsaleable wine was poured, literally, into local rivers.
This fuelled the formation in 1918 of the Co-operative Wine Growers’ Association (kwv), which, over time, was granted statutory authority to enforce production quota limits to prevent unmanageable surpluses. It also fixed annual minimum wine prices. Its powers—weighted in favour of producers rather than consumers and often oblivious to market forces—were criticized by free-marketeers and some producers who, even if non-members, were subject by law to KWV regulations. The KWV argued it spared government the embarrassment of direct grower subsidies. Grower benefits, however, were indirect. Wine co-operatives and farmers enjoyed Land Bank credit terms well below commercial interest rates, opportunities that were not available to non-whites until the end of the apartheid era. Such was KWV’s political influence in pre-democratic South Africa that wine, alone among alcoholic drinks in South Africa, was exempt from excise duty for many years.
In the late 1990s, the newly structured KWV was relieved of all the statutory functions previously performed by the 4,600-strong growers’ co-operative. Its conversion from co-operative to company was not without controversy. The process was challenged by the Minister of Agriculture, who cited the statutory void which would result from the process and a concern about the real ownership of some of the organization’s assets as grounds for his intervention. Resolution was reached through an out-of-court settlement in which the KWV undertook to pay a sum of 369 million rand (equal at the time to $77 million) into the South African Wine Industry Trust to redress inequalities of the past and to assist in the management and promotion of the industry. Financial mismanagement, together with a controversial decision to allow the residue to be used to fund the purchase of 25% of KWV’s shares by a black consortium, led to its being wound up after less than 10 years.
The export boom which followed South Africa’s first democratic elections in 1994 saw an end to wine surpluses for the first time since the 1950s. By 1996, South Africa was importing grape concentrate, bulk table wine, and wine for distillation. While large-scale producers and co-operatives crush a significant percentage of the 1.4 million-ton (2012) crop, most top-quality South African table wine, however, comes from private cellars and a few wholesaler-producers. The biggest wholesaler, distell, still dominates the market in South Africa’s vine-related alcohol products, as it has since 1979.
The organizations which are now independent but which were formerly part of KWV still fulfil functions such as research, vine propagation, advisory services, and administration of the wine of origin system. These include Vinpro, the service organization for the country’s primary producers, SAWIS, which collects, processes, and disseminates industry information, and Winetech, which coordinates research, training, and technology transfer.
South Africa- Geography and Climate
It has been suggested that if South Africa jutted another 200 km/124 miles south into the Atlantic, the cooler climate would slow grape ripening in line with European expectations. That said, the Benguela current from Antarctica makes the Cape cooler than its latitude may suggest and many new vineyard areas south towards Agulhas as well as on the Cape west coast offer the prospect of a long, slow ripening season.
Warm summers from November to April are moderated by cold, wet, blustery winters, frequently with snowfalls on the higher mountains. Late frosts are rare; so are unseasonally heavy summer rains.
The winelands are widely dispersed throughout the Western and Northern Cape, some 700 km/420 miles from north to south and 500 km across, strung between the Atlantic and Indian oceans.
Climates and soils vary as dramatically as landscapes: mountains rear out of the sea, unfolding into lush valleys, sere drylands, and a series of inland mountain chains. In the Stellenbosch district alone, just outside Cape Town, there are more than 50 soil types. On the hillsides, decomposing granite prevails. Soils tend to be low in ph (4.5), with a predominance of clay (25% and more), but are well drained and moisture retentive. That portion of the harvest reserved mainly for brandy and fruit juice comes from hot, irrigated river valleys such as the Orange, Olifants, and Breede, where vineyards yield prodigiously. Around inland Robertson there are some calcareous lime-rich outcrops akin to the calcareous soil of Burgundy’s côte d’or. But in the cooler coastal areas, the ancient soils depend on substantial lime additions.
Annual rainfall rises from 250 mm/9.7 in in the near-desert Klein Karoo to 1,500 mm in the lee of the Worcester Mountains, about 100 km inland from Cape Town. Growers, particularly in the semi-desert areas who depend on irrigation, argue they merely make up the shortfall to reach the 900 mm annual rainfall of a vineyard in the Bordeaux region of France.
Average summer daily temperatures often exceed 23 °C/ 73 °F during the February and March harvest months, and maximum summer temperatures can rise to nearly 40 °C. However, an increasing proportion of new, cooler vineyard sites are making this caricature of the Cape as a hot-climate viticultural region as questionable a generalization as the old belief that Cape vintage variations are insignificant.
A unique but mixed blessing is the frequent gale-force summer south easter, the ‘Cape Doctor’ wind, that reduces humidity, mildew, and other fungal diseases, but also sometimes batters vines.
Most wine regions would, according to the winkler scale, be classified Region III sites (as in Oakville, Napa Valley), IV (like Sydney and Florence), and some in V (Perth). But a number of areas experience cooler European (or Winkler II) conditions, especially in high-elevation or sea-cooled vineyards. New appellations such as Walker Bay (on sandy shale), Constantia (granite and sandstone), Elgin (shale), and Cape Agulhas have stretched horizons and broadened the Cape’s climatological repertoire.
South Africa- Winegrowing Areas
South African wine country is divided into geographical units in which are regions, then districts, and then wards as in this table. For more explanation of their significance, see Wine of Origin below.
See separate articles on some of the most frequently encountered geographical names—coastal region, constantia, elgin, elim, franschhoek, groenekloof, klein karoo, olifants river, paarl, robertson, stellenbosch, swartland, tulbagh, walker bay, wellington, western cape, and worcester—although new areas are emerging all the time.
South Africa- Viticulture
The stark contrast between the traditional and the progressive in South African viticulture, often visible on adjoining farms, reflects the disparate objectives of growers. The bulk grape-farmer delivering to one of the less progressive co-operatives strives for quantity; the grower bottling his own crop knows quantity can be the enemy of quality. From the second half of the 20th century, trellising, low vine density, and chemical pest and weed control became common features of the South African viticultural landscape. However, in this century closer planting, more restrained organic and biological pest controls, careful clonal selection, painstaking soil preparation that can involve additions of over 20 tons of lime per hectare to achieve higher ph, and pruning for lower yields have become the norm on many properties.
Average planting densities are around 3,300 vines per ha (1,300 per acre). Yields in cooler, coastal climates are appreciably lower than the national average: about 49 or 56 hl/ha (2.8 or 3.2 tons/acre) for Cabernet Sauvignon and Chardonnay are considered consistent with quality in Cape conditions. Yields from a still significant number of virus-infected vineyards can drop to below 28 hl/ha (1.6 tons/acre).
Most vineyards are irrigated in summer, with drip irrigation having replaced overhead sprays or fixed sprinkler systems on the better estates.
The most common trellising system is a simple vertical ‘hedge row’ developed from a split vine cordon, supported by a wire raised about 750 mm/2.4 ft for ease of pruning. The summer foliage is trained upright in a canopy held by one or more wires above the cordon. Short-spur pruning is commonly practised (eight to ten spurs, four to five on each cordon, pruned back to two or three buds each).
Most vine diseases and pests found their way from the northern hemisphere long ago. Chemical pesticides are widely used, especially in the higher-yielding vineyards, although farmers are now encouraged by way of the integrated production of wine (IPW) programme to minimize the use of insecticides and to use a more organic approach. Baboons are also a pest in several areas.
powdery mildew, locally called ‘white rust’, is the most serious common disease. downy mildew poses a seasonal threat. Both are containable by systemic fungicides. botrytis is not a serious problem most years, and is welcomed by growers specializing in dessert wines.
Cape vineyards were decimated by phylloxera from 1886 and virtually all vines are grafted onto resistant American rootstocks, the most common being Richter 99, 110, and 101–14.
Virus-infected vines are widespread, shortening the productive lifespans of vineyards. Affected vines succumb to leafroll, corky bark, and fanleaf, inhibiting photosynthesis and ripening, diminishing yields but not improving grape quality.
From the mid 1980s, heat-treated, virus-tested plant material was more freely available, along with a greater selection of imported clones of classic varieties. Healthier, earlier-ripening vineyards are the result. However, developing a significant pattern of regional/varietal characteristics is Cape viticulture’s current challenge.
South Africa- Winemaking
Winemaking in South Africa remains in a state of flux and experimentation, with younger winemakers who travel extensively, many working vintages in the northern hemisphere, challenging the orthodoxies of earlier generations and transforming the face and taste of the Cape’s best wines. While many of the more commercial wines reflect an environment where irrigation, higher yields, a warm climate, and low pH soils are the dominant factors, an increasing number of the better producers are offering wines which reflect considered viticultural practices, thoughtful vinifications, and élevage which does not depend on new oak to achieve results.
South Africa- Vine Varieties
In South Africa, a vine variety is usually known as a cultivar, and South Africa is a cultivar-conscious wine country. Regional wine characteristics are still not sufficiently defined to challenge grape variety as the determining factor for quality, style, and even labelling and marketing of a wine, although increased vine age and a greater focus on site are beginning to change this. While white varieties used to dominate South African vineyards, the post-1994 transformation of the wine industry has seen premium red varieties reach virtual parity. Chenin Blanc was for long the most planted variety in South Africa, and still comprises 18% of the national vineyard. From the 1980s, Sauvignon Blanc and Chardonnay were energetically planted and by 2012 comprised 9.5% and 7.9% of all plantings respectively. Other major white wine grapes include, in decreasing quantity: Colombar(d), Muscat of Alexandria, Sémillon, and Viognier.
Cabernet Sauvignon is South Africa’s most planted red international variety, comprising just under 12% of the nation’s vineyard. Syrah (often called Shiraz in South Africa) has come to rival Cabernet Sauvignon, and in 2012 accounted for more than 10% of all plantings. Merlot, often blended but popular enough in its own right, occupies roughly half the area dedicated to Cabernet. Pinot Noir has improved dramatically as new clones have been planted and cooler regions established. pinotage, the Cape’s own cross of Pinot Noir and Cinsaut, remains relatively stable at just less than 7%. For most of the first half of the last century, high-yielding Cinsaut was the most widely planted red wine grape, but it has declined dramatically in importance and now represents less than 2% of all vineyards. There are yet smaller plantings of Grenache, Mourvèdre, Carignan, Zinfandel, Ruby Cabernet, Cabernet Franc, and some port varieties—most commonly tinta barroca, often made into a dry red. Italian varieties, notably Nebbiolo and Sangiovese, are beginning to attract attention.
South Africa- Wine Of Origin and Labelling
Wine of Origin (WO) legislation introduced in 1973, and variously updated since then, ended decades of a labelling free-for-all in which confused South African wine nomenclature and unverified vintage and grape variety claims baffled the consumer. The following types of wine production zones are now classified: geographical unit (e.g. Western Cape), region (e.g. Coastal), which may represent a merging of several districts, district (e.g. Stellenbosch), and ward (e.g. Bottelary). While the larger units are broadly geographical and/or political, a ward is based on shared soils, climate, etc. (i.e. aspects of terroir). ‘Estates’ are no longer official places of origin, but registered ‘estate wines’ must be grown, made, and bottled on a single property. Single vineyards may be indicated as such on labels provided they are not larger than 6 ha/15 acres, are planted to a single variety, and are registered in accordance with the legal provisions.
A wine may also be ‘certified’ for vintage provided at least 85% comes from one harvest. For a wine to be labelled as a single varietal, it must contain at least 85% of the variety stated. Varieties in a blend may be indicated on the label providing they are stated in descending percentages and only if they are vinified separately.
A certified wine is identified by a seal which contains a tracking number enabling the authorities to trace every component batch or variety (in the case of a blend) back to the vineyard and the date of harvest. Vineyards are subject to inspection and wines may be monitored in the cellars. Certification follows an official analysis, tasting, and final label approval. Participation is voluntary and around 60% of the country’s wine production is now certified. The process is under the supervision of the government-appointed Wine & Spirit Board. Non-certified wine is liable to spot-check analysis for health requirements.
South Africa meets requirements on prohibition of additives, and for labelling, which must state the alcoholic strength (from 1992) to within half a per cent. traditional method Cape sparkling wine is labelled Méthode Cap Classique even locally. flor-yeast fortified wines matured in a solera system are in decline, and may no longer be sold as sherry. But wines made in the image of port, generally using very similar varieties and the same techniques as in port country, have been very successful.
Although the WO regulations borrow from France and Germany, there are no rulings on crop yields, fertilizer quantities, or irrigation levels. chaptalization and all other forms of enrichment are banned, although grape juice concentrate may be added as a sweetener to most wines (see sweet reserve). acidification is permitted. Wines sold as ‘dry’ on the domestic market may not have a residual sugar content exceeding 5 g/l (see www.sawis.co.za).
