South African wines have become a common sight in shops
recently and are rising in popularity even among wine experts. However, the
history of South African wines dates back to the 17th century when
the very first bottle was produced by Jan van Riebeeck in Cape Town. Gaining
access to an international market brought fresh investment to South Africa’s
wine industry and today, production remains concentrated in the Cape Town area,
with major production centres and vineyards in Paarl, Constantia, Worcester and
Stellenbosch.South Africa owns only 1.5% of grape vineyards in the world
and has around 270,000 acres dedicated to grape cultivation for wine producing.
As such it ranks 17th in the world in terms of vineyards. The
country produces around 10 million hl every year which ranks it in the top ten
of all the world’s wine producing nations. Although the south western corner of South Africa is
traditionally the strong hold of the nation’s wine industry, today, wine is
also made in the Western cape and Northern Cape regions as well as the Eastern
Cape and KawZulu-Natal regions. The areas along the Orange, Olifants and Breede
Valley Rivers are some of the country’s warmest regions and therefore are a key
spot for wine distillation and production. Cooler areas to the east of Cape
Town and along the coast of the Indian Ocean like Elgin and Walker Bay have
also begun to see expansion and further development over the last few years
with producers experimenting with the cooler climate and different styles of
wines.
Most South African wines are popular because of their
excellent value for money, thanks to their distinctive tastes and styles that
are powerful, elegant and go perfectly with food...