By Art LiPuma, General Manager SeaSide Wine & Spirits, Old Saybrook
South Africa South African wines have recently become more popular in the last decade or two, but there was not much thought of exporting wine previous to that. South Africa has actually only been growing grapes since the mid 1600’s which is when the first vines where planted. The wines were replanted in the early 1900’s due to the spread of phylloxera (a disease of the vines cause by an insect that feeds on the roots of the vines) This problem has been seen all over the world. The great amount of replanting proved to cause an over production of wine. In the mid 1950’s the government took control of the pricing and the KWV quarantine system limited the quantity of vines being planted. In the late 1990’s KWV pulled their regulations and South Africa was able to become the eighth largest wine producer in the world. From
the early 1900’s to the early 21st century production of wine has gone from 23 million gallons per year to over 200 million. The export business has grown significantly to aid in these sales. Another factor for the increase is the improvement in the quality wine that is produced. South Africa grows their grapes in the Cape Vineyards which is in the southwestern part of the country that follows the coastline. The major wine regions are Olifants River, Klen Karoo, Breede, River Valley and (Swasrtland, Darling, Tulbagh, Parral, Tygerberg, Stellenbosch, and Cape Point) All of these are considered the Coastal region. The Olifants region was once thought of the major area for producing bulk wine due to the abundance of grapes grown in the heavily naturally arrogated land. Recently they have been putting much
Photo of the Stellenbosch wine region close to Cape Town, South Africa Photo courtesy Benjamin B
