provided by Jamie Goode of
www.wineanorak.com
I bet you that when you think of Africa in general, the first thing that
comes to mind is probably not wine. You probably conjure up images of
wild safaris on the Serengeti plains and sleepless nights spent in flimsy
tents. Perhaps you think of Egyptian pharaohs buried deep beneath the
sandy earth in towering pyramids or for you more socially conscientious
people, maybe you think about the oppressed as they struggle to live
under a ruthless dictator. Wine however, probably does not enter the
equation. Well they definitely do make wine, at least in South Africa
they do. In fact, this is not something brand new for them, they have
actually been at it for over 300 years and if I were to count the entire
continent of Africa as a whole, I could say that Egypt was one of the first
countries to ever make wine.
The South African wine industry is actually the eighth leading wine
producing country in the world. It is unfortunately, only until the last
decade or so that we have started to discover the riches of their wine
production. This of all things, at least in the USA, was due to the
Apartheid, which ended in 1994. Since our government did not approve
of the policies and goings on, if you will, in South African politics, we did
not import their products to the US and that certainly included wine.
Remember Nelson Mandela? But that’s all behind them now, so surely
the floodgate of South African wines are bum-rushing the United States
borders since then, right? Well, not exactly.
Poor South Africa, they have had so many set backs along the way to
their wine industry. It seems throughout the course of their wine
producing history, every time something good would happen for them, in
time it would prove to be a negative development. I didn’t intend for this
article to become a history lesson, but I do think it’s interesting to hear
how the last 300 years in the South African wine industry has played out.
It was actually the Dutch that kicked off the start of the wine revolution
in South Africa. This might explain why despite the country speaking
English, many of the names of these wines and their regions are goofy
looking to us! The Dutch East India Company brought a trading station
to the country and with that, a flourishing wine industry developed. It
was also a Dutchman, Jan van Riebeeck that planted the first vineyard
in 1655. Now lets face it, the Dutch are not known for their incredible
wine-making skills and they certainly needed some help from more
knowledgeable people and that is precisely where the French come into
play. It was a group of religious refugees from France called the
Huguenots that helped these early Dutch settlers out with their
knowledge of fine wines from the motherland. Despite the fact that the
South African wine industry was now underway, it never really flourished
throughout the rest of the 1600’s and 1700’s. That all changed in the
early 1800’s.
Enter the British occupation of the Cape. Yep, it was our good friends
the Brits that came to the rescue of the South African wine industry,
during a time when they were at war with France. A trend that seemed
to be the norm throughout history if you go back and research it! They
helped develop a large market for the South African wines. But just as
this was a saving grace for their wine industry, it proved to be a crippling
thing later on. Because South Africa was so dependant on the British for
their wine trade, when Britain resolved its differences with France in
1961 and began buying French wines again, it brought about the collapse
of the South African wine industry.
Just when you thought things couldn’t get any worse for the South
Africans, up popped the tiny vine-killing pest phylloxera that was
devastating the vineyards in Europe and in 1886 it began reeking havoc
throughout the vineyards. Then there was this Anglo-Boer War going on
around the turn of the century that didn’t help things either. This war
threw the South African wine industry into complete chaos. The grape
farmers soon had no place to sell their crops.
Enter our next hero for the South African wine industry, Charles Kohler.
He established a Co-op in 1918 called Ko-operatieve Wijnbouwers
Vereniging van Zuid-Afrika Beperkt. Fortunately for the rest of us in
the world, this convoluted name was shortened to “KWV”. Basically in
a nutshell, KWV agreed to buy all these farmers grapes, but they
controlled the wine production, more or less anyway. This brought about
the stability that the South African wine industry desperately needed, but
once again, it was not without consequences. Because the wine industry
was dominated by this one giant and the vineyard cultivation techniques
were so far behind that of the Europeans, the quality of wine that South
Africa was putting out was weak at best.
South Africa needed something that set them apart from other wine
producing countries and for them it came in the answer of a homegrown
grape varietal called “Pinotage”. Developed in 1925 by Professor
Perold by cross-pollinating Pinot Noir with Hermitage (Cinsault),
Pinotage was a grape unique to South Africa. After over thirty years of
experimenting with this new find, South Africa finally bottled and
marketed its first Pinotage wine in 1961. Great news for South Africa,
right? I mean, if you want to buy the best Pinotage wines in the world
(and really the only ones in the world), you have to buy the ones from
South Africa! Wrong again!
The wine critics of today find the grape variety amusing, but they never
really take Pinotage wines seriously, citing that they have no potential
for long-term aging or greatness like a Cabernet Sauvignon would for
example. This has forced South Africa to jump into the Noble Grape
Variety game and unfortunately for them, it is a game that other
countries have been playing for a long time and they are all very good at
it. So many of these Cabernet Sauvignon, Shiraz & Pinot Noir vineyards
that are now common in South Africa are relatively young. Ten years
old or less to be specific. And because so many people jumped into the
arena when the South African wine industry took off again in the mid
1990’s, not much thought was given to where the best soils and places
would be to cultivate these grape varieties. This again, would bring
about more mediocrity in their wine industry.
It would seem that South Africa would be headed for certain disaster
again, but a law was put in place that may have saved the day for them.
All wines that are granted an export license must pass a rigorous
inspection from the Wine & Spirit Board. The wines undergo chemical
and tasting analysis in labs before they are given the seal of approval.
Thus, quality in the export market is almost guaranteed. In theory
anyway!
South Africa is one of the most beautiful wine producing regions in the
world with vineyards lying on valley sides and floors of the great Cape
mountain ranges only kilometers from the ocean. The soil types consist
of granite, mountain sandstone and shale, all of which are great for
cultivating great wine grapes. Most of the viticulture takes place around
34 degrees latitude south and this provides for a mild Mediterranean
climate. Because they are located in the Southern hemisphere, their
seasons are flip-flopped from what we are accustomed to here in the
States. For instance, their harvest would take place between March and
May when most of our vineyards would be just starting to bud.
Although their wine production is still dominated today by white grape
varieties, there are many red grapes being grown now, which include;
Cabernet Franc, Cabernet Sauvignon, Carignan, Cinsault, Grenache,
Merlot, Mourvedre, Muscadel, Petit Verdot, Pinot Noir, Pinotage,
Shiraz, Tinta Barocca and Zinfandel. Most of these are primarily used
as blending grapes, but a few of the usual suspects like Cab, Pinot &
Shiraz are stand-alone varietals. And of course don’t forget those
Pinotage wines. Cabernet Sauvignon wines are doing well there now, but
in terms of competing with other countries, they may never enjoy the
success that France & California, etc... enjoy. Pinot Noir, which likes
cool weather is coming along slowly in its development in South Africa,
but the rising star in terms of potentially great red wines is Shiraz/Syrah.
Especially those from the Robertson region.
Speaking of wine regions, South Africa has many of them. Most of them
are located very close to the Cape and coast, but there are a few that are
more inland and feature a hotter, drier climate. If you know anything
about South African wines, you are probably already familiar with the
better-known regions like Stellenbosch and Paarl. These two regions
probably turn out the most wines that are imported into the US. Other
regions would include; Darling, Durbanville, Elim, Little Karoo, Olifants
River, the Northern Cape, Overberg, Piketberg, Robertson, Swartland,
Tulbagh and Worcester.
Wine producers can be broken down into three categories, estate
wineries, co-operatives and independent cellars. The estate wineries are
the ones that grow their own grapes and only make wine from their own.
The co-ops are more or less a communal effort made up of farmer
shareholders. They account for 80% of South Africa’s wine production.
The independent cellars buy their grapes and wines and then bottle and
market them under their own labels.
South African wines still for the most part represent a good value for the
money. I hope it stays that way for years to come. There are a number
of very interesting wines that are under the $15.00 mark, especially the
Syrah and Rhone varietal wines. I think their Sauvignon Blanc wines
are amazing combining the vibrant fruit that the New Zealand wines offer
with the old school acidity and grassiness of the old world ones. After
our South African Red Wine Tasting Report, I found Pinotage wines to
be interesting as well. Certainly worth a try if you’ve never had one
before. In the past five years, it has been the odd year vintages that
have excelled and the 2005 vintage has the potential to be the best yet!
The South African wine market is quite literally exploding. Last year
alone there were over one million bottles exported into the United States
from South Africa. Their wine styles and tastes are unique and offer and
excellent alternative to the drab and mundane massed produced wines
from other nations. Names like Warwick, Meerlust, Mulderbosch and
Glen Carlou, all from South Africa are becoming synonymous with high
quality wines and the world is taking notice. South Africa is more than
just lions, elephants and Zebras, and their wine industry is succeeding
today in spite of themselves!
Again, I would like to thank Jamie Goode for these incredible
pictures. Jamie has a fantastic website and if you are
interested in reading and learning a whole lot more about the
South African Wine Industry, I highly recommend that you
pay his site a visit at www.wineanorak.com
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