When the new CEO for the country’s latest industry body, simply named SA Wine, slips into his or her chair, there will no doubt be a number of pressing issues to contend with. One of which is to act on the acceptance of the fact that the Cape vineyard is too weighted on Chenin Blanc and Colombard – over 40% of total wine output – and that if the quest to premiumisation is to be followed, greater emphasis needs placing on Sauvignon Blanc and Chardonnay.
The pure mountain air is bearing scents of summer wild-flowers, budding vines and oak barrels filled with ageing red wine. But nothing beats the smell of bacon. Bacon frying atop a gas-plate in the wine-tasting venue at Kleinhoekkloof tucked away between the Klein Karoo town of Ashton and the heady heights of the Langeberge mountains.
As one of the oldest agricultural industries in the country, which supports the livelihoods of 269 000 employees, generates R55 billion in revenue for the economy and builds a strong brand reputation as a unique asset for the country, the South African wine industry has become part of our cultural and economic fabric.
Once the world returns to normal – one day – the issue of sustainability and producers’ green credentials will be the number one issue on the agenda of any winery exporting to Europe (South Africa’s largest market) and the USA. Here South Africa can, if it jostles effectively, edge into a top-spot as a sustainable, environmentally aware wine country that takes care in leaving a lower carbon footprint. Not only through the facets and machinations of production. But, also by its off-setting of carbon emissions through the green lungs of fynbos wilderness breathing in the wild, natural spaces between the splendid Cape winelands.
OK, we’ve got it. Or should have. The South African wine industry will never be the same again. Well, whatever is left of it after Pres. Cyril Ramaphosa and his Covid Command Council have finished with us. The authorities will, possibly together with the local liquor bodies, thrash out new regulations. Trading hours, advertising, blood-alcohol levels for drivers and drinking age-restrictions will be revisited, and revamped. Whether the new regulations are implemented, however, remains a different kettle of moonshine all together.
During a recent spell of Covid-19, I was witness to the fact that the virus instantaneously paralyses one’s sense of taste and smell. For me, the temporary inability to detect an aroma of any sort was of more significant concern than the tightened vice-grip on the chest, the volcanic fever and the general feeling of lame lousiness. For trust me, without a sense of smell, the world is an empty, hollow and uninspiring place.
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