The recent article in the Cape Times headlined "Rand Blow to SA Wine Industry" highlighted again the precarious living made by farmers.  If it is not a drought or disease that gets you then it's a glut or a change in fashion that will.  Never mind regulation and legislation or the rand.

As a relatively recent farm and winery owner, I read the article with great interest.  Although all the comments in the article were valid my overall response was that of disagreement.

Despite the blow, it is not the rand but the worldwide wine glut that is the problem.We must look to the nature of our supply to resolve our problems, not the rand. Although there are negative consequences to the strong rand, we cannot afford to blame our woes on this and sit back and hope or pray that the rand will collapse. I have confidence that quality of product and service will triumph.

Fresh from a wine tour of Italy and a visit to London I feel confident that there are a number of more relevant issues that we face.

A wine glut is upon us and it will get worse before it gets better. This is due to the five-year lead-time in the vineyard and the recent slowdown in plantings will only bring relief in four to five year's time. Some consolidation in the wine industry and withdrawals will be inevitable.

On the international consumer market the extreme prices usually associated with stellar quality and very limited supply provide an anchor for good quality well branded wines to maintain a price differential that can reward successful operations. However, only a handful can aspire to be icons.

The proliferation of small wineries, fragmented suppliers to an increasingly concentrated distribution network, seriously undermines the negotiating power of producers. This relegates them to a smaller portion of the cake even as the cake is increasing at the consumer level with the high prices charged in the prime restaurant consumption arena. Here the search for quality and value can still bring rewards. But the problem remains being seen in a noisy crowd.

The most striking lesson I learned on this trip however, was the importance of identity, tradition and recognition. I had never been to the Piedmont wine region in Italy, the home of the Nebbiolo wines, Barolo, Barbaresco and Barbera and was surprised at the quality of the vineyards, comparable to that of the best Bordeaux estates.

Well kept vineyards - an obvious sign of success. Not only a reward for the past, but a guarantee for the future.

It was here that the importance of viticultural heritage and the definition of special origin, location or terrain as well as uniqueness of product were reinforced so as to be blindingly obvious.

They too can and do make excellent varietal wines in barrique in the modern style comparable to Bordeaux, Burgundy or the New World, but the foundation and infrastructure is soundly based on their unique traditional wines, which they must continually build, preserve and develop.

The tiny shelf space reserved for SA wines in the London stores was ample testimony to the lack of traditional products that were uniquely South African and hence deserving of display.

It is not the price of our wines that is the problem; so many of our wines are in the cheap bracket already.  It is not even the lack of excellent producers.  It is the lack of identifiable regions with identifiable wines that holds us back.

We need greater community efforts to increase identity and tradition.  We need more and better Constantia whites, more and better Hemel en Aarde Pinot Noirs, more and better Stellenbosch Pinotages to add weight to our icon such as Kanonkop, Meerlust and Hamilton Russell.

While the glut lasts and the rand remains firm let us make less wine, but of higher quality and build for the future.

Alberto Bottega
Proprietor
Whalehaven Winery
Hermanus
+27 (0)28 316 1633
wine@whalehavenwines.co.za