Overview
South Africa is well known as a producer of quality wines the world over. The country produces a wide range of wines, including Pinotage made from a South African grape variety of the same name. While the Cape Winelands is the best-known wine region there are many others, most of them in the Western Cape province.

Most Afrilux tours that include Cape Town also include a day-tour into the nearby Cape Winelands. This provides clients with a chance to sample various wines and observe wine-making processes at beautiful wine estates. Where such an excursion is not included in an itinerary we will gladly customise a tour to include it if requested. We can also arrange complete tour itineraries focused on South African wines if required (also see "South African wine routes").

South African wine industry
South Africa is a country of incredible variety, a fact also reflected in our range of wines. With a winemaking history dating back more than 300 years, the industry reflects the classicism of the Old World but is also influenced by the contemporary fruit-driven styles of the New World. This rare combination makes for wines which are complex yet accessible, refined yet powerful.

In the last few years, a dynamic new vision has given momentum to changes within an industry, which is innovation driven, market directed, globally competitive and highly profitable. This new ethos has seen the local wine industry emerge as a global enterprise with strong cultural roots and a sense of social responsibility (as opposed to the dark Apartheid and colonial years, which featured totally unacceptable labour practices on some wine estates).

With the advent of democracy in 1994, the opening of new markets and exposure to international trends, South Africa can now compete with confidence on the world wine stage. A passionate new generation of winemakers, many with experience of harvests around the globe, are keen to learn, experiment and consolidate. There’s also been a focus shift from grape farming to wine growing.

For more on the history of South African wines, click here.

Cultivars
In keeping with a spirit of renewal in the South African wine industry, in recent years over 40% of the vineyards have been replanted as the industry has realigned its product to compete globally, moving from volume production to noble cultivars and quality wines. South African vineyards have been dominated by white grape varieties but the trend now is towards a more market-driven balance between white and red.

Noble varieties, which have been cultivated increasingly in the past few years include Sauvignon Blanc and Chardonnay, which produce top-class white wines, and Cabernet Sauvignon, Shiraz and Pinot Noir. Most of our red wine vineyards are very young - 75% are under 10 years old.

Some of our oldest grape varieties (also called cultivars) date back to ancient times and were developed from wild vines. The original wild vine belongs to the genus Vitis and it is generally accepted that it was cultivated for the first time in Asia Minor, south of the Caspian and Black seas.

Part of South Africa's Darling-Swartland wine region.

All the wine grape varieties cultivated in South Africa, which were originally imported from Europe, belong to the species Vitis vinifera. Unfortunately the roots of European vines are susceptible to an insect disease called phylloxera and, in order to avoid it, they are often grafted onto American rootstock which is largely resistant to the insect.

A vine yields its first crop after three years and is fully productive after five. On average, the South African vineyard is replaced after 25 years but this depends on factors such as the area in which it is situated and how heavily it has yielded. Generally, its life span may be anything between 15 and 30 years although vines as old as 100 years still in production can be found.

The vine is a remarkable plant, which lends itself to selection, propagation and grafting factors, which make possible a continuous improvement in both plant and quality. Although most of the vine varieties cultivated here today were originally imported, up to now six local crossings have been released. The best known of these is a red variety, Pinotage, a hybrid of Pinot Noir and Hermitage (Cinsaut), which is cultivated locally on a fairly large scale.

For more on South Africa's white wines, click here.
For more on South Africa's red wines, click here.

Wine producers
Wine producers in South Africa officially fall into three categories:

• estate wineries, which can make wine only from grapes grown on their own land;
  
• co-operatives, which on a communal basis process the grapes of their farmer member shareholders into wine - these co-operatives alone have invested vast amounts in production equipment and they press about 80% of South Africa's total wine harvest;
  
• independent cellars and a number of wholesalers who buy in both grapes and wine, and make wine for bottling under their brand names, as well as making wine from grapes grown on their own wine farms.

Production by region
In South Africa the Worcester Region has the most vineyard plantings (19% of all vines), followed by Paarl and Stellenbosch (17%), Robertson (14%), Malmesbury (12%), Olifants River (9%), Orange River (9%) and Little Karoo (3%).

The Worcester Region also produces the most wine (26%), followed by Olifants River (16%), Robertson (15%), Paarl (13%), Stellenbosch (10%), Orange River (9%), Malmesbury (8%) and Little Karoo (3,9%).

For more on wine regions in South Africa, click here.

(Source: most of the above information was taken or adapted from "Wines of South Africa" - see link below)
(Coming soon: transformation initiatives, wine estates, Pinotage)