South Africa | Wine Terms

WINE TERMS

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South Africa

This country’s wine industry began in the mid-1600s when Jan van Riebeck planted the first grapevines. In 1685, Simon van der Stel established Groot Constantia (which still exists), a winery that developed a worldwide reputation for its DESSERT WINES called Constantia. In 1688, South Africa’s wine industry was given a boost with the arrival of the French Huguenots, who brought with them many winemaking skills. Over the years South African wines had many ups and downs, including serious problems with overproduction in the early 1900s. This dilemma resulted in the formation of the Cooperative Wine Growers’ Association known as the KWV (Kooperatieve Wijnbouwers Vereniging van Zuid-Africa). The KWV, which controls the supply and demand of grapes and establishes consistent pricing, remains a powerful force today. In addition to KWV, which markets a wide range of wines and distilled (see DISTILLATION) spirits, the other two major producers are Oude Meester and the Stellenbosch Farmers’ Winery (known as SFW or Farmers). The primary South Africa growing areas are all in the southwestern part of the country near the Cape of Good Hope. In 1973, an APPELLATION system, Wine of Origin (WO), was established along the lines of the European Economic Community rules. On wine labels, the appellation name is appended with “WO.” In the Wine of Origin system, the smallest demarcated area is an estate, which consists of one or more contiguous vineyards (called farms) that are farmed as a single unit. The next largest is a ward, which consists of multiple vineyards within a geographical area. Wards are usually part of a district, but not necessarily. Next in size is a district (which are usually, but not necessarily, part of a region), the largest area is called a region. South Africa’s Wine of Origin system is slightly confusing because boundaries of smaller areas don’t always align with the larger areas of which they’re a part, and because smaller units don’t necessarily belong to the next largest designation. Some demarcated areas are identified for specific wine types. One of these is the Boberg Region, an area identified for the production of FORTIFIED WINES. The PAARL and Tulbagh districts may be included in the Boberg Region for fortified wines only. The Coastal Region contains many of the premium winegrowing areas and a mix of districts and wards. Paarl (which contains FRANSCHHOEK, a highly regarded ward) and STELLENBOSCH are two of this region’s most prominent and esteemed districts. The Coastal Region also contains the famous CONSTANTIA ward (birthplace of the South African wine industry), the DURBANVILLE ward, and the Swartland District. The Breede River Region Valley Region includes two heavily irrigated districts, ROBERTSON and WORCESTER. These districts have over 25 percent of the country’s vineyard acreage and provide an even larger portion of the country’s wine production, most of which ends up in BRANDY or fortified wine. The Orange River Region, Klein Karoo Region, and Olifants River Region are all hot and dry, require irrigation, and produce wine similar to the Robertson and Worcester districts. As the market for brandy and fortified wines has fallen, these regions have all begun moving toward TABLE WINE production with plantings of higher-quality VARIETIES (called cultivars here) in the cooler areas. Other WOs are Analusia, Benede-Orange, Cederburg, Douglas, DURBANVILLE, OVERBERG (with its wards Elgin and Walker Bay), Piketberg, Ruiterbosch, and Swellendam. White varieties occupy twice as much vineyard areas as red. The most widely planted white grape here is CHENIN BLANC (called Steen locally). However, its signifigance is diminishing, dropping from over 30 percent of the total vineyard acreage in 1990 to under 20 percent in 2001. Other white varieties include Colombar (COLOMBARD), CHARDONNAY, and SAUVIGNON BLANC. Of the red-grape varieties, CABERNET SAUVIGNON pushed CINSAUT (called Hermitage locally) into fifth place in the mid-1990s. Following the most widely planted Cabernet Sauvignon are Shiraz (SYRAH), PINOTAGE (a Cinsaut-PINOT NOIR CROSS that’s a South African specialty), and MERLOT. During much of this century, fortified wines (SHERRY and PORT styles) dominated South African wine production. In the 1970s, semisweet white table wines, influenced by Germany, became popular. Now South Africa is producing a wide range of red and white DRY table wines and SPARKLING WINES.

Related Links: Overberg WO, New World Wine, Sé, Viognier, Souzã

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