In South Africa, Nederburg is rated a fairly substantial operation, considering that every vintage we are now able to process 10 500 tons of red grapes and 5 500 of whites in our extended, upgraded cellars. But by Australian terms, this makes us virtually a mom 'n pop outfit. We even encountered one winery in Riverland that harvests 235 000 tons a year. It produces in one week, what we take an entire year to make!

But we didn't focus exclusively on the mega-commercial. We went to review a full spectrum of players, from the smallest, oldest and most rustic to the ultra-commercial ventures. What I learned was that few producers have time to pontificate on philosophical matters of winemaking. They just get on with what they have to do, efficiently, safely and productively. And many will tell you that when it comes to winemaking, they follow a fixed formula and they are not ashamed of it. It's not that they have eliminated the mystique of wine but that they recognize that first and foremost they are in the business of making wine. And they spend very generously on research and development to be able to deliver products of increasing market appeal at reduced costs.

Although some may not realize it, many of Australia's top wine growing regions like Adelaide Hills or Coonawarra, for example, are located further south than many of our quality regions like Darling or Elgin, which means their climate is cooler. They are also less vulnerable to infection from virus and do not have to graft their vines onto phylloxera-resistant roots, as we do. Some of their vines are more than a century old. The legendary Grange, for example, is made from vines over 100 years old with magnificently concentrated flavours.

So where does that leave us? We are very different from each other, certainly. The Cape has the oldest geological formations on the planet, a very varied range of grape growing environments, each imparting a particular stamp on wine style. We have the luxury of labour to hand-prune, hand-pick and hand-sort our grapes and the flexibility to experiment with a broad choice of varietals. And we should capitalize on our uniqueness to ensure we offer what is discernibly South African, while still being open to global developments.