Tito Mboweni’s Budget Speech has been well-received in most circles. Not touching taxes, the Finance Minister dismissed the gloomy forecasts about taxation having to fund vaccines. And as tax is the one budget element that affects everyone, the overall sentiment post-budget is almost positive. Unfortunately, it is a sentiment that can’t be shared by the wine industry.

January 2020 was a challenging month. This seems to be the sentiment everywhere I go. There’s no escaping the economic, social and climatic challenges around us, but as talk has moved on from Australian wildfires to the Corona virus and wine in cans, there is one group of people who, at this time of year, is not as concerned with such newsworthy matters. Winemakers.