John Plater Wine guide 2018 9780987004673

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Titel: John Plater Wine guide 2018
ISBN: 9780987004673
Conditie: Beetje gebruikt

There's much evidence that nt the best of tmes à dynanic, exciting South African wine industry. But for some its the worst of times, so let's get the bad news out of the way first Industry wide, there's à crisis of profitabihity for many grape farmers. There are over 3,000 of them in the country (only two-thirds as many as there were at the turn of the century). This compares with fewer than 600 cellars which actually crush grapes ranging from tiny private wineries to the enormous facilities of the big merchants and the‘producer cellars’ (the commercialised co-operatives). Inadentally, but significantly, no other country ìn the world has such a large proportion - about 85% - of its wine produced by big merchants and co-ops. Many of the farmers, the backbone of the industry, are suffering for reasons going deeper than the drought which has for a few years laid a heavy load on them, and at the time of writing, looked set to continue, with even worse and more widespread effects. Simply put, for many farmers, their income from grapes has for some years been rising much more slowly than their costs. The frequent consequence is farmers confronted by the difficult choice of increasing yields to maintain their income (which generally produces poorer quality wine), or abandoning their vineyards, or neglecting the expensive task of maintaining and eventually replacing them. For a decade now, the country's total vineyard has shrunk each year. Nonetheless, South Africa's place in world wine production rose to 7® place in 2016, with 3.9% of the total — overtaken by China since 2015, but moving ahead of Chile and Argentina, which have had their own problems. Fortunately, the rest of the news is mostly good. The South African wine revolution proceeds to develop and show remarkable dynamism, and critics everywhere agree that quality at the top level continues to rise (giving remarkable value for money by world standards). Drinkers local and foreign Local per capita consumption of wine has been creeping up slowly and minimally in the past few years — to just 7.8 litres, still a bit less than the figure at the beginning of the century. Brandy an mportant part of the Cape grape farming industry has, however, continued to decline. Around a half of SA's wine gets exported with a bit over 60% sold in buik. The UK remains by far the biggest destinatton, followed by Germany and then quite a bit behind — a cluster including Russia, Canada, the US, Netherlands, Denmark and Sweden. Over the past year, the biggest percentage-growth export markets have been the US and China, but off a pretty low base. Old vines Most viticulturists and winemakers around the world believe that the best vineyards are old vineyards, and SA has seen in recent years an excited resurgence of interest in discovering which vineyards are old — generally the fiqure of 35 years has been chosen. More importantly, there's increased interest in taking special care‚ and making special use, of those old vines which are particularly promising. Of course, many such desirable old vineyards are on the farms which are struggling financíally, and, because their yields have dropped as they age, they tend to be particularly threatened with neglect or even removal. Unless, that is, winemakers can be found who will pay a handsome premium for the grapes. Happily, this is happening. A remarkable number of the new SA wines which have emerged in recent decades to excite the world come off vineyards (not all of them notably old) which previously sent grapes to fill the vast blending tanks of the merchants and co-ops. In some ways, these vineyards provide a vital link between what we could see as two wine industries — cheap bulk production and wine at the highest level of ambition. A formal Old Vines Project is in the early stages of its development, aiming to preserve the Cape's best old vineyards, and bringing together farmers and wine producers for their mutual benefit. Varietal experimentation and excitement The vitality of the local wine scene continues apace. Innovation and experimentation abound in vineyards as well as cellars — perhaps even more significantly there. The point of experimenting

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