It's South Africa's time to shine

Economic benefits of democratisation might come quickly, but wine takes time. Vineyards need to be replanted, viticulture and winemaking techniques updated, wineries modernised. Because the product is made only once a year, modernisation translates slowly into improved quality. Spain, Portugal, Chile and Argentina each experienced a wine renaissance about two decades after democratic change.

Now it's South Africa's turn. After the end of apartheid in the 1990s, South Africa's wines reentered the world market, and its winemakers travelled to work harvests in Europe, the Americas and Australia. They brought modern winemaking techniques home with them. Their efforts are bearing fruit in exciting wines now reaching our market.

"There was undoubtedly a qualitative leap in [South African] wine in the late 1990s, but another, more profound change - precisely, the emergence of increasing numbers of authentic wines - seems to have happened in the first decade of the 21st century," writes Tim James in his comprehensive book Wines of the New South Africa. "A significant proportion of the best South African wines today were not being made in 2000, and many of what are now recognised as the finest wineries were not yet established."

Such a metamorphosis could easily move toward an international style that mimics wine from other countries, and a lot of South African wine is fine, yet indistinguishable from cabernet or chardonnay from anywhere else. But James describes a wine revolution that achieves modernity while respecting the Cape region's 350 years of viticultural tradition. Just as in California, some of the younger winemakers setting new standards are working with older vineyards that have been forgotten by larger wineries.

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