“For us it is important that the rest of the world sees the phenomenal quality and standard of our wine over the mass-produced offering that is seen in the sub-£5 category of wines purchased at most leading supermarkets in the UK and Europe.”
It’s not only the high quality of our wine being noticed, but also the experience we offer in our winelands. According to VinPro (a non-profit company who liaises with government and industry role players on profitability and sustainability issues on behalf of 3 500 SA wine producers, cellars and industry stakeholders), wine tourism is growing by a whopping 7% annually.
As an industry we have an exciting mix of established names together with newer ones, which show what good health the industry is in. There’s never been a better time to be a winelover in South Africa, here’s what we’re drinking in 2017.
Sémillon’s time to shine
2016 was undoubtedly the year of chenin and its popularity is set to continue unabated. “I think that people will continue go back to the history of South Africa and, after rediscovering chenin and cinsault, they will realise that sémillon has been a diamond in the dust,” says winemaker and sommelier of note Jean Vincent Ridon. He adds: “Soon we will also start seeing more and more sommeliers offer tasting platters with four wines in small doses, so patrons can enjoy uncovering their own food pairing, like it’s done for craft beers.” Try: Steenberg Sémillon 2015
The rise of fine SA Wine
“We’ve seen a boom in the SA vintage wine market over the last 5 years,” says Roland Peens, director of winecellar.co.za. “Blue-chip wines are realising 20%+ year-on-year returns and, while fine SA wine continues to be under-priced in the international market, the trend is set to continue. Currently, one needs to approach a merchant in order to sell your vintage wines, making the market very illiquid, thin and scattered. Wine Cellar is building a fine wine trading platform (launching 2017) that will solve these obstacles.” Try: Kanonkop Paul Sauer 2012
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