Raising the bar for South African wine

South Africa’s top winemakers are working together to create an association from which they can build South Africa’s reputation as a producer of world-class wines and promote the Cape’s unique wine heritage, reported moneyweb.co.za.

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The Cape Vintner Classification (CVC) was launched on Monday, 10 December, at Ellerman House in Bantry Bay, Cape Town. It’s an independent body committed to the accreditation, governance and promotion of distinctive Cape wines whose stamp will assure customers of the quality of the wine and integrity of the wine-making process.

While SA produces many premium wines, the country’s winemakers still struggle to attract the full attention of the top wine critics and can’t sell their wines at a price that reflects the quality of the product within.

This is partly as a result of SA’s success in exporting cheap wine in bulk and partly because the industry has failed to mobilise behind one set of goals. “We think we are in one boat,” said Johann Rupert, owner of Anthonij Rupert Wyne, “but in reality one needs an air traffic controller to manage the egos and prevent collisions.

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“The Cape has three and a half centuries of wine-making culture and vintners who have passed their knowledge of soils and vineyards from one generation to the next. It’s time our top producers began telling their story a little more forcefully and the CVC is the ideal vehicle to do that.”

“We need a new way to represent the true value and potential of SA wine,” added Jean Engelbrecht, owner of Rust en Vrede wine estate and a founder member of CVC. “The international landscape has changed in the past decade and our structures no longer serve our needs.”

So it was that, about six years ago, Rupert and six of his fellows in the industry began talking about what it would take to “raise the bar” on SA wine. “The result isn’t perfect, but it’s a good start and it should get good buy-in,” said Rupert.

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CVC will begin the accreditation process for membership on 2 January. Any winemaker wanting to participate will have to meet certain minimum standards: they need to own a registered wine estate not smaller than 20ha and which produces no less than 6 000 cases of wine annually.

In addition, members will submit to an independent audit that assesses the estate on the basis of technical and environmental standards; cellar door facilities; ethical matters and, of course, wine quality.

So far around 30 wine farms have applied for membership, including Springfield, Waterford, DeMorgenzon, Groot Constantia, Vriesenhof Vineyards, Vergelegen, Delaire Graff Estate and Kanonkop