South Africa celebrates 350 years of winemaking today and yet it is classified as a New World wine producer. Famous in the early stages for its sweet wines which supposedly commanded higher prices than the French top chateaux Clarets, it  is now being acclaimed  more for its Cabernets, Shiraz and Chenin. With a chequered history of winemaking, it was Born Again in the nineties.

Constantia in the Western Cape- the hub of South African wine industry became famous for its sweet wines in the early seventeenth century but the industry nose-dived after its trading partner UK ended the love affair by going back to its true love, France when the duties were reduced in the 1860s. Unlike the competing New World  Chile with a century older history, it was unfortunate to suffer phylloxera in the 1890s. This was followed by an era of over-produced, unsalable wines when the co-operatives flourished.

KWV, the monolith co-operative might have helped stabilise prices through the government blessed controls in the 20th century but the creativity of winemakers was stifled. The international sanctions against the racist government eventually helped the ending of apartheid in 1990, but did a lot of damage to the wine industry in the interim period.

Opinions may differ about the modern re-birth of South African wines but I believe South Africa was Born Again 19 years ago, on February 2, 1990 when the then President FW de Clerk's speech marked the end of Apartheid and culminated in release of Nelson Mandela in 1993, followed by freedom and democracy in 1994. This brought out the pent up passion and expertise in winemaking to the fore and the quality leapfrogged. Today, there are many experts outside the country who believe it is racing past Chile and is within an arm's length of Australia in terms of quality.

Wines of South Africa

Contrary to what some might believe Pinotage is not the highest produced red wine. At 6% of the total acreage it is less than half of the much improved Cabernet Sauvignon (13%).Shiraz which has been gaining popularity over the past few years comes second at around 10%. It is noteworthy that over 70% of the cabernet vines are between 4-20 years (period after being Born Again) whereas Shiraz takes the cake at over 80%.

South Africa has been considered a country for white wines. Although Chenin still rules the roost with 18.8% and the commoner Colombard helps keeps the blenders busy with about 12% acreage, the total share of the white grapes has consistently gone down to 55% and it is a matter of time that red varietals will take over. The recognition, the country has received for wines with varietals like Cabs, Shiraz and even Pinot Noir from the cooler climes of the Walker Bay areas, has been encouraging producers to make the paradigm shift.

With about 102,000 hectares of plantation, South Africa today is ninth largest producer in the world, running neck-to-neck with Chile. Its record export of over 400 million liters in 2008 despite the global recession, is over 30 times as much as the total wine consumption in India

Terroir

What has also helped the Springboks to improve quality, I believe, is their trust in terroir. Perhaps, the Old World mentality has egged them on to continuously expand the base of their terroir driven Wards, generally but not always, within the wine Districts. But this has propelled them in their quest for better quality and if the producers maintain a healthy equilibrium between the improving quality and their prices, the wine industry has a rosé future.

This is not to say there is dearth of cheap and bulk wine. Worcester is the capital of low-end, bulk wines produced by many co-operatives which are still a majority and contribute significantly to the wine lakes of South Africa. It is the bargain basement  for wine importers.

High Alcohol

Unfortunately, the climate and their temptation to make bold and powerful wines have led many producers to go overboard in raising the bar on alcohol levels in their wines. I was shocked to see a wine labelled at around 16.5% alcohol at the Cape Wine Show last year (and they are allowed a margin of 1% in the labelling laws!). I didn't even think there were yeasts that would make it possible for the levels to go beyond 16%, which are anyway beyond the desirable levels.

A visit to Avondale about which our guest writer Cathy van Zyl has written a feature in the current issue of delWine made me wonder if organic farming might be the answer, beyond the canopy management, higher altitude location or the water irrigation organisation of the vineyards. Unfortunately, most producers did not seem to believe Avondale's theory that alcohol levels can be brought down by using organic or bio-dynamic farming. However, the owner insisted that they have been able to reduce the level by around 1% since 2000 when they adopted the current form of farming.

It is important for the producers to realise and respect that the world is getting fed up of higher alcohol levels. Australia, USA and Spain have already acknowledged it and are taking corrective action selectively to alleviate the problem which may be aggravated with the global warming. The SA winemakers must also keep in mind the importance of lower levels and remind themselves that the terroir-driven Bordeaux and Burgundy on which they base their winemaking have managed to contain the levels to 12.5-13.5% generally. I am not mentioning their fascination for Rhone Valley for obvious reasons.

The first two decades have done well for the contemporary South African wine industry. The next two might even be more exciting- for the growers, producers, consumers and the country's economy as a whole. As citizens of the wine world, we wish them a pleasant journey to produce more of their value-for-money high quality wines.

Subhash Arora

February 2, 2009