On 2 February 2024, South African wine reached an important historical milestone: it was 365 years to the day that the man seen as the founding father of Cape wine, Jan Van Riebeeck, wrote in his diary, “Today, praise be to God, wine was made for the first time from Cape grapes.”
As well as being an excuse for a party, with festive events taking place throughout the winelands, for many connected with the South African wine business, the date, which has been widely adopted as marking the official birth of South African wine, was also a moment for reflection, a taking stock of where Cape wine stands after a bumpy beginning to the 2020s.
Two sets of figures encompass the struggles South African wine producers have endured in the past decade. The first is the number of “primary grape growers”, which has fallen from a total of 3,596 in 2010 to 2,487 in 2022, the latest year for which figures are available from Wines of South Africa. The second scary number is the size of the Cape vineyard, which, according to WOSA has shrunk by a remarkable 10% in decade: having reached 99,689ha in 2013, it now stands at 89,384ha.
For the authors of “Macro-Economic Impact of the Wine Industry on the South African Economy”, a major report compiled for South Africa Wine Information and Systems by FTI Consulting and published on the eve of the 365th birthday celebrations in January this year, the fall in the number of producers and the shrinking vineyard area are largely explained by the significant drops in profitability experienced by South African wine producers.
“The total industry (excluding dryland vines in the Swartland region) average production cost is increasing rapidly and reached R67,407/ha for the 2022 harvest year,” the report states. “This has contributed to pressure on profitability, with only 12% of farmers in 2022 earning more than the suggested net farm income required for economically sustainable production.”
While rising costs (of labour, dry goods, fertilisers and pesticides, electricity and fuel) has played the biggest part in eating into producers’ profits, a fall in sales hasn’t helped, either. According to WOSA, exports were down by 17% in volume in 2023, part of a topsy-turvy post-Covid cycle that saw exports almost grind to a halt thanks to the South African government’s draconian anti-Covid policies in 2020, only to bounce back (up 22% to 388 million litres) in 2021, and then slip (by 5%) in 2022. On the positive side, domestic sales have increased (albeit generally at lower, less sustainable prices) and the value of exports has stayed strong: up slightly to US$540 million (R10 billion) in 2023.
Minding a vine heritage – and planting to grow old
A striking feature of the SAWIS/FTI report is the worry it expresses about ageing vines. There’s no room for sentimentality about the joy of gnarly trunks, phylloxera-busting “survivors”, and precious viticultural heritage, here. Just a blunt assessment that an absence of new plantings is leading to “an increasingly skewed age profile of vines in the country with 56% of total hectares under vines being older than 15 years in 2022, compared to 50% in 2019 and 38% in 2013.
“Given that the optimal fruit bearing age for vines responsible for the bulk of the wine crop is between 4 and 12 years”, the report continues, “more than half of the current area under vines are therefore past their optimal fruit bearing age.”
Looked at from the vantage point of the UK’s independent sector, this concern can, at first glance, seem misplaced, and certainly counter-intuitive. After all, the South African wine industry has been highly praised for its remarkable old vines, and for its role in promoting and safeguarding old vines, with world-leading initiatives such as the Old Vine Project (which seeks to map, certify, log and protect the Cape’s stocks of 35+-year-old vines), building on the work of influential old-vine pioneers such as the winemaker Eben Sadie and the viticulturist and old-vine hunter Rosa Kruger.
As Sadie told me, however, protecting the existing heritage is only part of the story. “We’ve been raising a lot of awareness of old vineyards,” he says. “But if you start lapping up old vineyards, but not planting new ones, then you’re not part of a sustainable system.”
That explains why the OVP project talks just as much about how and where growers plant vineyards, and the plant materials they use, as it does about how they go about preserving existing old plots. “The OVP looks to develop a culture of caring for younger vines so that they can look forward to a healthy and productive old age, and wants to focus the minds of winegrowers, winemakers, and all wine drinkers on the benefits that come from wine made from old vines,” the organisation’s website says.
“Mindful of the impact that climate change is having on the South African national vineyard, the OVP’s motto of ‘Plant to grow old’ highlights the need to keep these symbols of our viticultural heritage in the ground so that they can continue to contribute to the well-being and heritage of our wine industry.”
“With old vineyards, people naturally look back—but if you’re really serious, you have to look forward,” adds Sadie. “Old vines—and the care of existing vineyards. We’re trying to get that thought pattern. I mean, every guy with a cute little t-shirt and ripped jeans is coming out with an old-vine Chenin with a groovy label. That’s important, it’s cool, but what are you doing for the next generation? How do we make this into a legacy?”
The continuing dominance of Chenin Blanc
Whatever the age of the vines, and however groovy the label and cute the t-shirt of the winemaker behind them, Chenin Blanc wines continue to set the pace for quality South African wine. The variety is still by far the most widely planted of any colour in the Cape, with plantings of 18,400ha still some distance ahead of Sauvignon Blanc despite the latter having grown from 9,400ha to 11,200ha since 2015 (Cabernet Sauvignon, with 10,600ha, down from 11,300ha in 2015, is the biggest red).
Its status seems to be growing amid the critical fraternity, too. Chenin wines, whether 100% varietal or as the main ingredient in a “Mediterranean” Cape white blend, pulled up alongside Red Blends as the leading style in the latest edition of the ever-influential Platter Wine Guide, with 28 five-star ratings. And they had a similar performance in Tim Atkin MW’s 2024 report, with 29 Chenins or Chenin-based blends picking up 95 points or more, ahead of Chardonnay (20 95 points or more) in second place.
The variety was a star, too, in this year’s Wine Merchant Top 100, with one place in the Top 100 itself secured by Elgin’s Spioenkop Johanna Brandt Chenin Blanc 2019 (Museum Wines), and six Highly Commended Chenin and Chenin-blend winners, including another for Spioenkop (Sarah Raal Chenin Blanc 2020), two for Avondale in Paarl (the Cyclus blend and the 100% Chenin Anima [Cachet Wines]), Holder Dorper Chenin Blanc, Stellenbosch 2022 (Graft Wine Company), Olifantsberg Soul of the Mountain, The Matriarch, Breedekloof 2019 (Hallgarten & Novum Wines), and Leeuwenkuil Family Vineyards Chenin Blanc, Swartland 2023 Hallgarten & Novum Wines).
But for all the continued quality of Cape Chenin, one of the more encouraging developments in South Africa in recent years has been the emergence of high-quality wines made from a far broader varietal palette than ever before. The country now has 110 varieties in commercial circulation, with a varietally comprehensive list of highlights from the past year’s tasting by the Wine Merchant team including: the succulent Bruce Jack Wines Pinotage Off The Charts, Breedekloof 2021 (Hallgarten & Novum Wines); the slinky, pretty red fruits of David & Nadia Grenache, Swartland 2022 (Justerini & Brooks); the sophisticated lush freshness of Uva Mira Mountain Vineyards The Mira Cabernet Franc, Stellenbosch 2021 (Museum Wines); the scintillating, tingling Kleine Zalze Project Z Riesling, Elgin 2021 (Hatch Mansfield); the vivid, elegant, blackcurrant-scented Cederberg Cabernet Sauvignon, Cederberg 2020 (Bancroft); the sub-£10, barbecue-ready bargain Kleine Oranjerie ‘Flora and Fauna’ Merlot, 2023 (Boutinot); the awesome Northern Rhône-conquering Mullineux Syrah 2021 (Liberty Wines), and the chiselled richness of Bouchard Finlayson Crocodile’s Lair Chardonnay, Kaaimansgat 2022 (Seckfod Wine Agencies / Frontier Wines).
