History of South African wine - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

The early history of South African wine can be traced to the founding of a supply station at the Cape of Good Hope

Cape of Good Hope

The Cape of Good Hope is a rocky headland on the Atlantic coast of the Cape Peninsula, South Africa.There is a misconception that the Cape of Good Hope is the southern tip of Africa, because it was once believed to be the dividing point between the Atlantic and Indian Oceans. In fact, the...

by the Dutch East India Company

Dutch East India Company

The Dutch East India Company was a chartered company established in 1602, when the States-General of the Netherlands granted it a 21-year monopoly to carry out colonial activities in Asia...

. Jan van Riebeeck

Jan van Riebeeck

Johan Anthoniszoon "Jan" van Riebeeck was a Dutch colonial administrator and founder of Cape Town.-Biography:...

was given the task of managing the station and planting vineyard

Vineyard

A vineyard is a plantation of grape-bearing vines, grown mainly for winemaking, but also raisins, table grapes and non-alcoholic grape juice...

s to produce wine and grape

Grape

A grape is a non-climacteric fruit, specifically a berry, that grows on the perennial and deciduous woody vines of the genus Vitis. Grapes can be eaten raw or they can be used for making jam, juice, jelly, vinegar, wine, grape seed extracts, raisins, molasses and grape seed oil. Grapes are also...

s; that could be used to ward off scurvy

Scurvy

Scurvy is a disease resulting from a deficiency of vitamin C, which is required for the synthesis of collagen in humans. The chemical name for vitamin C, ascorbic acid, is derived from the Latin name of scurvy, scorbutus, which also provides the adjective scorbutic...

for sailors continuing on their voyages along the spice route. In 1685, another Cape Governor, Simon van der Stel

Simon van der Stel

Simon van der Stel was the last Commander and first Governor of the Cape Colony, the Dutch settlement at the Cape of Good Hope in South Africa.-Background:...

, purchased a large 1,850 acre (750 hectare) estate, founding what later became the world-renowned Constantia

Constantia (wine)

Constantia, or vin de Constance, is a South African dessert wine. It is made from Muscat Blanc à Petits Grains grapes grown in the district of Constantia, south of Cape Town. In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries it was widely exported to Europe...

wine estate. In the 19th century, South Africa fell under British rule

History of South Africa (1815–1910)

During the Napoleonic Wars, the Cape Colony was annexed by the British and officially became their colony in 1815. Britain encouraged settlers to the Cape, and in particular, sponsored the 1820 Settlers to farm in the disputed area between the colony and the Xhosa in what is now the Eastern Cape...

which proved lucrative for the wine industry as South African wine flowed into the British market. This prosperity lasted until the 1860s when the Cobden-Chevalier Treaty

Cobden-Chevalier Treaty

The Cobden–Chevalier Treaty was a Free Trade treaty signed between the United Kingdom and France on 23 January, 1860. It is named after the main British and French originators of the treaty, Richard Cobden MP and Michel Chevalier.-Origins and negotiations:...

signed by the Palmerston government

Henry Temple, 3rd Viscount Palmerston

Henry John Temple, 3rd Viscount Palmerston, KG, GCB, PC , known popularly as Lord Palmerston, was a British statesman who served twice as Prime Minister in the mid-19th century...

and France

France

The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

reduced the preferential tariff

Tariff

A tariff may be either tax on imports or exports , or a list or schedule of prices for such things as rail service, bus routes, and electrical usage ....

s that benefited South African wine

South African wine

South African wine has a history dating back to 1659, and at one time Constantia was considered one of the greatest wines in the world. Access to international markets has unleashed a burst of new energy and new investment. Production is concentrated around Cape Town, with major vineyard and...

in favor of French wine

French wine

French wine is produced in several regions throughout France, in quantities between 50 and 60 million hectolitres per year, or 7–8 billion bottles. France has the world's second-largest total vineyard area, behind Spain, and is in the position of being the world's largest wine producer...

exports.

Following the devastation from the phylloxera epidemic in the late 19th century, many vineyards were replanted with high yielding grape varieties such as Cinsaut

Cinsaut

Cinsaut or Cinsault is a red wine grape, whose heat tolerance and productivity make it important in Languedoc-Roussillon and the former French colonies of Algeria and Morocco...

. By the early 1900s there was a large glut of wine, creating a wine lake

Wine lake

The wine lake refers to the continuing supply surplus of wine produced in the European Union. A major contributor to that glut is the Languedoc-Roussillon, which produces over one-third of the grapes grown in France. In 2007 it was reported that for the previous several vintages, European...

effect which led some producers to pour their unsaleable wine into local rivers and streams. The depressed prices caused by this out-of-balance supply and demand

Supply and demand

Supply and demand is an economic model of price determination in a market. It concludes that in a competitive market, the unit price for a particular good will vary until it settles at a point where the quantity demanded by consumers will equal the quantity supplied by producers , resulting in an...

dynamic prompted the South African government to fund the formation of the Koöperatieve Wijnbouwers Vereniging van Zuid-Afrika Bpkt (KWV) in 1918. Initially started as a co-operative, the KWV soon grew in power and prominence, setting policies and prices for the entire South African wine industry. To deal with the wine glut the KWV restricted yields and set minimum prices, encouraging the production of brandy

Brandy

Brandy is a spirit produced by distilling wine. Brandy generally contains 35%–60% alcohol by volume and is typically taken as an after-dinner drink...

and fortified wine

Fortified wine

Fortified wine is wine to which a distilled beverage has been added. Fortified wine is distinguished from spirits made from wine in that spirits are produced by means of distillation, while fortified wine is simply wine that has had a spirit added to it...

s.

For much of the 20th century, the wine industry of South Africa received very little attention on the worldwide stage. Its isolation was further deepened by boycotts

Anti-Apartheid Movement

Anti-Apartheid Movement , originally known as the Boycott Movement, was a British organization that was at the center of the international movement opposing South Africa's system of apartheid and supporting South Africa's Blacks....

of South African products in protest at the country's system of Apartheid. It wasn't until the late 1980s and 1990s when Apartheid was ended and the world's export market opened up that South African wines began to experience a renaissance. With a steep learning curve, many producers in South Africa quickly adopted new viticultural and winemaking

Winemaking

Winemaking, or vinification, is the production of wine, starting with selection of the grapes or other produce and ending with bottling the finished wine. Although most wine is made from grapes, it may also be made from other fruit or non-toxic plant material...

technologies. The presence of flying winemakers from abroad brought international influences and focus on well known varieties such as Shiraz

Shiraz

Shiraz may refer to:* Shiraz, Iran, a city in Iran* Shiraz County, an administrative subdivision of Iran* Vosketap, Armenia, formerly called ShirazPeople:* Hovhannes Shiraz, Armenian poet* Ara Shiraz, Armenian sculptor...

, Cabernet Sauvignon

Cabernet Sauvignon

Cabernet Sauvignon is one of the world's most widely recognized red wine grape varieties. It is grown in nearly every major wine producing country among a diverse spectrum of climates from Canada's Okanagan Valley to Lebanon's Beqaa Valley...

and Chardonnay

Chardonnay

Chardonnay is a green-skinned grape variety used to make white wine. It is originated from the Burgundy wine region of eastern France but is now grown wherever wine is produced, from England to New Zealand...

. The reorganization of the powerful KWV co-operative into a private business further sparked innovation and improvement in quality. Vineyard owners had previously relied on KWV's price-fixing structure, that bought their excess grapes for distillation

Distillation

Distillation is a method of separating mixtures based on differences in volatilities of components in a boiling liquid mixture. Distillation is a unit operation, or a physical separation process, and not a chemical reaction....

. Now they had to shift their focus to quality wine production in order to compete. In 1990, less than 30% of all the grapes harvested were used for wine aimed at the consumer market, with the remaining 70% being discarded, distilled into brandy

Brandy

Brandy is a spirit produced by distilling wine. Brandy generally contains 35%–60% alcohol by volume and is typically taken as an after-dinner drink...

or sold as table grapes and juice

Grape juice

Grape juice is obtained from crushing and blending grapes into a liquid. The juice is often sold in stores or fermented and made into wine, brandy, or vinegar. In the wine industry, grape juice that contains 7-23 percent of pulp, skins, stems and seeds is often referred to as "must"...

. By 2003 these proportions had reversed, with more than 70% of the grapes harvested that year reaching the consumer market as wine.

Settlement of the Cape of Good Hope

When Bartolomeu Dias

Bartolomeu Dias

Bartolomeu Dias , a nobleman of the Portuguese royal household, was a Portuguese explorer who sailed around the southernmost tip of Africa in 1488, the first European known to have done so.-Purposes of the Dias expedition:...

and other Portuguese explorers first encountered the Cape of Good Hope in the 15th century, they found little motivation to colonize the sparse and empty land around the Cape. In the early 17th century, the Dutch trading port of Batavia, in what is now Indonesia

Indonesia

Indonesia , officially the Republic of Indonesia , is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania. Indonesia is an archipelago comprising approximately 13,000 islands. It has 33 provinces with over 238 million people, and is the world's fourth most populous country. Indonesia is a republic, with an...

, grew to such a size that trading vessels were regularly dispatched on the long voyage from the Netherlands

Netherlands

The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...

to Asia

Asia

Asia is the world's largest and most populous continent, located primarily in the eastern and northern hemispheres. It covers 8.7% of the Earth's total surface area and with approximately 3.879 billion people, it hosts 60% of the world's current human population...

. The managers of the Dutch East India Company

Dutch East India Company

The Dutch East India Company was a chartered company established in 1602, when the States-General of the Netherlands granted it a 21-year monopoly to carry out colonial activities in Asia...

began looking for a logical midway point on the voyage to build a supply station that would serve the sailors making the voyage to and from Asia. In 1652, a Dutch surgeon named Jan van Riebeeck

Jan van Riebeeck

Johan Anthoniszoon "Jan" van Riebeeck was a Dutch colonial administrator and founder of Cape Town.-Biography:...

was commissioned with the task of building both a fort and farming community in the Cape

Cape Colony

The Cape Colony, part of modern South Africa, was established by the Dutch East India Company in 1652, with the founding of Cape Town. It was subsequently occupied by the British in 1795 when the Netherlands were occupied by revolutionary France, so that the French revolutionaries could not take...

.

One of van Riebeeck's tasks include planting a vineyard, falsely believing the consumption of grape

Grape

s and the wine

Wine

Wine is an alcoholic beverage, made of fermented fruit juice, usually from grapes. The natural chemical balance of grapes lets them ferment without the addition of sugars, acids, enzymes, or other nutrients. Grape wine is produced by fermenting crushed grapes using various types of yeast. Yeast...

produced from them is effective in avoiding scurvy

Scurvy

among sailors on long sea voyages. In 1654, the Dutch East India Company sent van Riebeeck grapevine

Grapevine

Grapevine is the common name for plants of the genus Vitis. Other meanings include:*Grapevine , a term often used to describe a form of communication by means of gossip or rumor, as in "heard it through the grapevine"...

cuttings from the Rheingau

Rheingau (wine region)

Rheingau is one of 13 German wine regions for quality wines . Named for the traditional region of Rheingau , the wine region is situated in the state of Hesse, where it makes up part of the Rheingau-Taunus-Kreis administrative district...

. These vines were packaged in damp pieces of sailcloth

Sailcloth

Sails have been made from cloth for all of recorded history. Typically sails were made from flax , hemp or cotton in various forms including canvas. However, modern sails are rarely made from natural fibers. Most sails are made from synthetic fibers ranging from low-cost nylon or polyester to...

which negatively affected their ability to take root in the Cape's vineyards. During the following year a larger quantity of cuttings arrived from Bohemia

Bohemia

Bohemia is a historical region in central Europe, occupying the western two-thirds of the traditional Czech Lands. It is located in the contemporary Czech Republic with its capital in Prague...

, the Canary Islands

Canary Islands

The Canary Islands , also known as the Canaries , is a Spanish archipelago located just off the northwest coast of mainland Africa, 100 km west of the border between Morocco and the Western Sahara. The Canaries are a Spanish autonomous community and an outermost region of the European Union...

, France, Germany and Spain. Among these were the Muscat Blanc à Petits Grains

Muscat Blanc à Petits Grains

Muscat Blanc à Petits Grains is a white wine grape that is a member of the Muscat family of Vitis vinifera. Its name comes from its characteristic small berry size and tight clusters...

(known as "French Muscadel") and Muscat of Alexandria

Muscat of Alexandria

Muscat of Alexandria is a white wine grape that is a member of the Muscat family of Vitis vinifera. It is considered an "ancient vine", and wine experts believe it is one of the oldest genetically unmodified vines still in existence...

, known variously as "Hanepoot", "Hanepop" and "Hanepoot Spanish". In 1659 the first South African wine made from French Muscadel grapes was successfully produced.

As production was small, the wine produced in the Cape settlement was initially intended solely for export to the trading port of Batavia. Gradually the Dutch East India Company allowed freed Company employees or vrijburghers, released from service to the Company, to buy land and grow wine grapes for their own consumption. As the market for Cape wine grew, the Company brought in a winemaker from Alsace along with winemaking

Winemaking

equipment and a cooper

Cooper (profession)

Traditionally, a cooper is someone who makes wooden staved vessels of a conical form, of greater length than breadth, bound together with hoops and possessing flat ends or heads...

to make oak wine barrels. A makeshift winery was built on the Company-owned farm of Rustenberg as the South African wine industry took root.

Founding of Constantia

In 1679 Simon van der Stel

Simon van der Stel

Simon van der Stel was the last Commander and first Governor of the Cape Colony, the Dutch settlement at the Cape of Good Hope in South Africa.-Background:...

was appointed to succeed van Riebeeck as governor of the Cape Colony. Against Dutch East India Company regulations he orchestrated a deal for a land grant

Land grant

A land grant is a gift of real estate – land or its privileges – made by a government or other authority as a reward for services to an individual, especially in return for military service...

near Table Mountain

Table Mountain

Table Mountain is a flat-topped mountain forming a prominent landmark overlooking the city of Cape Town in South Africa, and is featured in the flag of Cape Town and other local government insignia. It is a significant tourist attraction, with many visitors using the cableway or hiking to the top...

for a 1,850 acre (750 hectare) estate – a grant 15 times larger than the Company's normal provision. He named this estate Constantia

Constantia, Cape Town

Constantia is an affluent suburb of Cape Town, South Africa, situated about 15 kilometres south of the centre of Cape Town. The Constantia Valley lies to the east of and at the foot of the Constantiaberg mountain. Constantia Nek is a low pass linking to Hout Bay in the west.-History:Constantia is...

. Legend has it he named the estate after his wife, although her name was actually Johanna. Other theories are that the name derives from one of the Dutch East India Company ships or possibly in honor of the virtues of constancy and faithfulness. Van der Stel took a keen interest in the wine production of the Cape and recruited more French winemakers to the colony. Around his estate and vineyards he planted rows of European oak trees that would shield the vines from the strong gale

Gale

A gale is a very strong wind. There are conflicting definitions of how strong a wind must be to be considered a gale. The U.S. government's National Weather Service defines a gale as 34–47 knots of sustained surface winds. Forecasters typically issue gale warnings when winds of this strength are...

-force

Force

In physics, a force is any influence that causes an object to undergo a change in speed, a change in direction, or a change in shape. In other words, a force is that which can cause an object with mass to change its velocity , i.e., to accelerate, or which can cause a flexible object to deform...

winds of the Cape Doctor

Cape Doctor

"Cape Doctor" is the local name for the strong, persistent and dry south-easterly wind that blows on the South African coast from spring to late summer...

. Records show that van der Stel imported many grape varieties to his estate, among them Spanish Sherry

Sherry

Sherry is a fortified wine made from white grapes that are grown near the town of Jerez , Spain. In Spanish, it is called vino de Jerez....

grape Palomino

Palomino (grape)

Palomino is a white grape widely grown in Spain and South Africa, and best known for its use in the manufacture of sherry.-Wine regions:In Spain, the grape is split into the sub-varieties Palomino Fino, Palomino Basto, and Palomino de Jerez, of which Palomino Fino is by far the most important,...

(known locally as "White French"), Chenin blanc

Chenin Blanc

Chenin blanc , is a white wine grape variety from the Loire valley of France. Its high acidity means it can be used to make everything from sparkling wines to well-balanced dessert wines, although it can produce very bland, neutral wines if the vine's natural vigor is not controlled...

(Known as "Steen") and Semillon

Sémillon

Sémillon is a golden-skinned grape used to make dry and sweet white wines, most notably in France and Australia.-History:The origin of the Sémillon grape is hard to determine. It is known that it first arrived in Australia in the early 19th century and by the 1820s the grape covered over 90 percent...

(known as "Green Grape"). He also had a variety of Muscat grapes planted, including the Muscat Blanc à Petits Grains (which ranged in color from white to brown), Muscat of Alexandria and a red Muscat variety that was most likely Muscat Hamburg.

Throughout the Cape, van der Stel set high standards for wine production. He issued official decrees that imposed a high penalty on growers harvesting grapes before they were ripe or fermenting wine in dirty barrels. Van der Stel's dedication to quality soon garnered the wines of Constantia – and by association the Cape – a reputation for quality across Europe. Wine expert Hugh Johnson has described Constantia as the first New World wine

New World wine

New World wines are those wines produced outside the traditional wine-growing areas of Europe, in particular from Argentina, Australia, Canada, Chile, New Zealand, South Africa and the United States.-Early wines in the Americas:...

to enjoy international acclaim. The early tasting notes from Batavia in 1692 remarked that the Cape wines of Constantia were the highest quality that had ever been exported there. In his 1705 work, Description of the Cape of Good Hope, the Dutch writer Françcois Valentijn noted that the red wines of Constantia were on the same scale of quality as the best Persian wine

Persian wine

Persian wine also called Mei and Badeh is a cultural symbol and tradition in Persia, and had a significant presence in Persian mythology, Persian poetry and Persian miniature.-History of wine in Persia:...

s or Lachryma Christi from Italy. He also went on to praise the quality of the Chenin blanc

Chenin Blanc

Steenwyn produced at the estate.

Decline and revival

Following the death of Simon van der Stel in 1712 the estate was divided into three parts – Groot (Great) Constantia, Klein (Little) Constantia and Bergvliet. Under the ownership of Johannes Colijn Klein Constantia continued to be a standard bearer for Cape wine. In the 1770s, Groot Constantia was sold to a businessman from Stellenbosch named Hendrik Cloete, who replanted the vineyards and rebuilt the cellars in an attempt to revive the reputation of the estate. He employed nearly 100 slaves and stationed them throughout the vineyard, charged with ensuring that not a single insect landed on the vines. It was Cloete's dedication (and later that of his son, also named Hendrik) that raised the prestige of the estate and led to its prompt discovery by the invading British

History of South Africa (1815–1910)

. In his 1816 work, Topographie de Tous les Vignobles Connus, the French oenologist André Jullien

André Jullien

André Jullien, born 1766 at Chalon-sur-Saône, Saône-et-Loire, died 1832 of cholera in Paris, was a French vintner and pioneering wine writer. Wine historian Hugh Johnson describes Jullien's work as "the foundation-stone of modern writing about wine"....

included the wines of Constantia in the highest category of his expansive quality classification of the world's wine. Ranking it just below the wines of Tokay, Jullien described the dessert wine

Dessert wine

Dessert wines are sweet wines typically served with dessert.There is no simple definition of a dessert wine. In the UK, a dessert wine is considered to be any sweet wine drunk with a meal, as opposed to the white fortified wines drunk before the meal, and the red fortified wines drunk after it...

of Constantia as "...among the finest liqueur wines of the world...".

French and Dutch influence on winemaking

Between 1688 and 1690s the Cape Colony experienced an influx of French Huguenots, driven to leave France following the Edict of Fontainebleau

Edict of Fontainebleau

The Edict of Fontainebleau was an edict issued by Louis XIV of France, also known as the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes. The Edict of Nantes of 1598, had granted the Huguenots the right to practice their religion without persecution from the state...

, which effectively revoked the Edict of Nantes

Edict of Nantes

The Edict of Nantes, issued on 13 April 1598, by Henry IV of France, granted the Calvinist Protestants of France substantial rights in a nation still considered essentially Catholic. In the Edict, Henry aimed primarily to promote civil unity...

. After initially forcing their integration among Dutch and German immigrant communities the Cape Governor, Simon van der Stel, eventually gave the settlers

Huguenots in South Africa

A large number of people in South Africa are descended from Huguenots. Most of these originally settled in the Cape Colony, but have since been quickly absorbed into the Afrikaner and Afrikaans population, thanks to sharing a similar religion to the Dutch colonists.-History:Even before the large...

land near Boschendal

Boschendal

Boschendal is one of the oldest wine estates in South Africa and is located between Franschhoek and Stellenbosch in South Africa's Western Cape.-Huguenot Origins:...

in what is now Franschoek, known as the "French corner". The Huguenots brought with them their viticulture

Viticulture

Viticulture is the science, production and study of grapes which deals with the series of events that occur in the vineyard. When the grapes are used for winemaking, it is also known as viniculture...

and winemaking

Winemaking

experience from their homeland. The descendants of these settlers still play a vital role in the South African wine industry, marrying an Old World wine

Old World wine

Old World wine refers primarily to wine made in Europe but can also include other regions of the Mediterranean basin with long histories of winemaking such as North Africa and the Near East. The phrase is often used in contrast to "New World wine" which refers primarily to wines from New World wine...

making philosophy to the technological advances of New World wine

New World wine

.

Detail notes from visitors to the Constantia estate in the 18th century give evidence of the Dutch influence on South African winemaking. As they did for the French centuries earlier, the Dutch introduced the technique of adding sulphur to halt fermentation

Fermentation (wine)

The process of fermentation in wine turns grape juice into an alcoholic beverage. During fermentation, yeast interact with sugars in the juice to create ethanol, commonly known as ethyl alcohol, and carbon dioxide...

before all the residual sugar has been completely converted into alcohol

Alcohol

In chemistry, an alcohol is an organic compound in which the hydroxy functional group is bound to a carbon atom. In particular, this carbon center should be saturated, having single bonds to three other atoms....

. This allowed the wine to maintain its sweetness

Sweetness

Sweetness is one of the five basic tastes and is almost universally regarded as a pleasurable experience. Foods rich in simple carbohydrates such as sugar are those most commonly associated with sweetness, although there are other natural and artificial compounds that are sweet at much lower...

without increasing the alcohol level, similar to adding brandy

Brandy

Brandy is a spirit produced by distilling wine. Brandy generally contains 35%–60% alcohol by volume and is typically taken as an after-dinner drink...

in the production of fortified sweet wines; another technique pioneered by the Dutch. To keep an eye on the ongoing process of fermentation, Cape winemakers would listen near the bunghole

Bunghole

A Bunghole or Bungehole is a hole bored in a liquid-tight barrel to remove contents. The hole is capped with a large cork-like object called a bung. Acceptable usage include other access points that may be capped with alternate materials providing an air or water-tight access to other vessels. For...

of the wine barrel for noise and irritation in the barrel, described as sounding like the barrel was full of crabs. When the barrel was completely quiet and no longer making crab-like noises the wine would finally be racked for clarification and stabilization.

Under British rule

Having consolidated their rule over South Africa in 1815, the British found a ready supply of wine now firmly within their control. Since losing control of the Aquitaine

Aquitaine

Aquitaine , archaic Guyenne/Guienne , is one of the 27 regions of France, in the south-western part of metropolitan France, along the Atlantic Ocean and the Pyrenees mountain range on the border with Spain. It comprises the 5 departments of Dordogne, :Lot et Garonne, :Pyrénées-Atlantiques, Landes...

and Bordeaux nearly 350 years earlier, securing a steady stream of wine for the British market had been a pressing concern for the British. By this point the wines of Constantia had become world-renowned; enthusiastic patrons across the globe included Napoleon (who requested several cases for his exile on St-Helena) and the restored French King Louis-Philippe I. American merchants gladly traded their slaves for the famous South African wine. The British public were greatly encouraged by a reduction in import duty

Duty (economics)

In economics, a duty is a kind of tax, often associated with customs, a payment due to the revenue of a state, levied by force of law. It is a tax on certain items purchased abroad...

on South African wine to a third of that imposed on Portuguese wine

Portuguese wine

Portuguese wine is the result of traditions introduced to the region by ancient civilizations, such as the Phoenicians, Carthaginians, Greeks, and mostly the Romans. Portugal started to export its wines to Rome during the Roman Empire. Modern exports developed with trade to England after the...

, which had enjoyed favorable duty rates due to the Methuen Treaty

Methuen Treaty

The Methuen Treaty was an offensive military and commercial treaty between Portugal and England signed in 1703 as part of the War of the Spanish Succession....

. With easy access to the lucrative British market, the South African wine industry experienced a period of prosperity that would last until the middle of the 19th century.

The mid 19th century brought a succession of calamities that crippled the South African wine industry. In 1859 oidium

Oidium

This article is about a type of fungal spore. For the ascomycete genus, see Oidium . For the fungus that causes powdery mildew on grapes, see Uncinula necator....

first appeared and quickly spread through the Cape. This was followed by a series of agreements made in 1860s (most notably the Cobden-Chevalier Treaty

Cobden-Chevalier Treaty

) between the Gladstone government

William Ewart Gladstone

William Ewart Gladstone FRS FSS was a British Liberal statesman. In a career lasting over sixty years, he served as Prime Minister four separate times , more than any other person. Gladstone was also Britain's oldest Prime Minister, 84 years old when he resigned for the last time...

and France

France

that reduced the preferential tariff

Tariff

A tariff may be either tax on imports or exports , or a list or schedule of prices for such things as rail service, bus routes, and electrical usage ....

s which had benefited South African wine in favor of French wine

French wine

exports. In 1866, the phylloxera

Phylloxera

Grape phylloxera ; originally described in France as Phylloxera vastatrix; equated to the previously described Daktulosphaira vitifoliae, Phylloxera vitifoliae; commonly just called phylloxera is a pest of commercial grapevines worldwide, originally native to eastern North America...

epidemic reached the Cape, causing widespread devastation that would take more than 20 years to recover from.

Wine lake effect and the rise of the KWV

Following the devastation of the phylloxera epidemic many growers gave up on winemaking, choosing instead to plant orchards and alfalfa

Alfalfa

Alfalfa is a flowering plant in the pea family Fabaceae cultivated as an important forage crop in the US, Canada, Argentina, France, Australia, the Middle East, South Africa, and many other countries. It is known as lucerne in the UK, France, Australia, South Africa and New Zealand, and known as...

fields to feed the growing ostrich

Ostrich

The Ostrich is one or two species of large flightless birds native to Africa, the only living member of the genus Struthio. Some analyses indicate that the Somali Ostrich may be better considered a full species apart from the Common Ostrich, but most taxonomists consider it to be a...

feather industry. The growers that did replant with grapevines chose high-yielding grape varieties such as Cinsaut

Cinsaut

Cinsaut or Cinsault is a red wine grape, whose heat tolerance and productivity make it important in Languedoc-Roussillon and the former French colonies of Algeria and Morocco...

. By the early 1900s more than 80 million vines had been replanted, creating a wine lake

Wine lake

effect. Some producers poured unsaleable wine into local rivers and streams. To compound matters the entire worldwide wine market was in the midst of a downturn, exacerbated by World War I

World War I

World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...

. Depressed prices caused by this imbalance in supply and demand

Supply and demand

prompted the South African government to fund the formation of the Koöperatieve Wijnbouwers Vereniging van Zuid-Afrika Bpkt (KWV) in 1918. Initially started as a co-operative, the KWV soon grew in power and prominence until it was able to set policies and prices for the entire South African wine industry. To deal with the wine glut, the KWV restricted yields and set minimum prices that encouraged the production of brandy

Brandy

Brandy is a spirit produced by distilling wine. Brandy generally contains 35%–60% alcohol by volume and is typically taken as an after-dinner drink...

and fortified wine

Fortified wine

s.

By 1924, nearly 95% of all vineyard owners belonged to the KWV, allowing it to exert enormous power on the pricing structure and direction of the South African wine industry. The KWV was able to regulate planting rights for new vineyard properties, specify permitted grape varieties, limit harvest yields, regulate production methods and impose quotas on how much wine needed to be distilled for fortified wine production. While the activities of the KWV was able to stabilize the South African industry, it also stagnated the industry by limiting innovation and improvements in quality. This stagnation was compounded by the isolation South Africa experienced during the Apartheid era.

Apartheid and emergence from isolation

Wine expert Jancis Robinson

Jancis Robinson

Jancis Mary Robinson OBE, MW is a British wine critic, journalist and editor of wine literature. She currently writes a weekly column for the Financial Times, and writes for her website jancisrobinson.com...

notes that the history of the South African wine industry in the 20th century shows how intimately wine mirrors social and political change. For much of the 20th century, the wine industry of South Africa received very little attention on the worldwide stage. Its isolation was further deepened by boycotts

Anti-Apartheid Movement

of South African produce in protest at the country's system of Apartheid. It wasn't till the late 1980s and 1990s when Apartheid was ended and the world's export market opened up that South African wines began to experience a renaissance. With a steep learning curve, many producers in South Africa quickly adopted new viticultural and winemaking

Winemaking

technologies. The presence of flying winemakers from abroad brought international influences and focus on well known varieties such as Shiraz

Shiraz

, Cabernet Sauvignon

Cabernet Sauvignon

and Chardonnay

Chardonnay

. The reorganization of the powerful KWV co-operative into a private business further sparked innovation and improvement in quality. Vineyard owners and wineries that previously relied on the price-fixing structure to buy their excess grapes for distillation

Distillation

had to shift their focus to quality wine production in order to compete. In 1990, less than 30% of all the grapes harvested was used for wine production meant for the consumer market with the remaining 70% being discarded, distilled into brandy

Brandy

Brandy is a spirit produced by distilling wine. Brandy generally contains 35%–60% alcohol by volume and is typically taken as an after-dinner drink...

or sold as table grapes and juice

Grape juice

. By 2003 the numbers had switched with more than 70% of the grapes harvested that year reaching the consumer market as wine.

During the 21st century the growing influence of blacks in the wine industry brought a significant change in the South African wine industry. Through various Black Economic Empowerment

Black Economic Empowerment

Black Economic Empowerment is a programme launched by the South African government to redress the inequalities of Apartheid by giving previously disadvantaged groups economic opportunities previously not available to them...

(BEE) programs, black ownership and involvement in vineyards and wineries has been steadily increasing. In 1997, the first winery with significant black involvement, New Beginnings was founded in Paarl

Paarl

Paarl is a town with 191,013 inhabitants in the Western Cape province of South Africa. Its the third oldest European settlement in the Republic of South Africa and the largest town in the Cape Winelands. Due to the growth of the Mbekweni township, it is now a de facto urban unit with Wellington...

and was followed by Thandi in Elgin. In 2001 Mont Rochelle Mountain Winery in the Franschhoek Valley became the first wholly black-owned winery in South Africa when it was purchased by Miko Rwayitare, a businessman from the Democratic Republic of the Congo

Democratic Republic of the Congo

The Democratic Republic of the Congo is a state located in Central Africa. It is the second largest country in Africa by area and the eleventh largest in the world...

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