Chronicle of Cape culture
The very first vineyard planted coincided with the arrival in southern Africa of the
settlers from Europe. In 1655, three years after his arrival in Table Bay, commander
Jan van Riebeeck of the Dutch East-India Company planted the first vines. In 1659
he wrote his famous report: “Today, praise the Lord, wine was pressed from Cape
grapes for the first time.”
After Van Riebeeck, it was governor Simon van der Stel who firmly established the
wine industry in the Cape. He built the model farm Constantia and founded the town
of Stellenbosch. Both are still considered focal points of quality winemaking.
During the 18th century, Constantia’s famous dessert wines established the Cape as
a premium wine producer and its reputation was romantically global. Meanwhile
Stellenbosch grew as a hub of viticultural endeavours, including being home to
experiments that led, in 1925, to cinsaut and pinot noir grapes being grafted
together into pinotage, a “local” variety
well suited to indigenous conditions.
By the end of the 19th century local vineyards and production were in decline. As in
Europe, phylloxera had taken its toll. To control production and the market, a large
farmers’ co-operative, the KWV, was established in 1918.
In 1925 Stellenbosch Farmers’ Winery was founded. (The latter merged with another
large producer, Distillers Corporation, in 2001 and Distell is today, size-wise, a player
on the international stage with sales of R2.7 billion or $234.8million.)
During the apartheid years the industry was turned inward and international trade
diminished as sanctions took hold.
With the advent of democracy in 1994, the wine industry, which had been largely in
the hands of white owners and producers, was forced to adapt. The KWV was
dismantled into a commercially driven venture in 1997, and, together with other
players, formed the South African Wine Industry Trust in 1999 to promote
transformation of
the wine industry.
Most owners are still white, but recent years have seen black partnerships and
others coming into the industry. In 2001 a hands-on project, the Vineyard
Academy, was launched to provide vineyard workers with skills training in various
fields.
Although consumption of wine in South Africa has not increased for some years,
there are now positive signs that some of the bigger brand producers are looking at
the potential of the urban black market.
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