View of Table Mountain from Cape Grace Hotel Room I didn’t really know what to expect. It’s one thing to read about history, culture, politics, food, wine, maps… It’s quite another to experience South Africa, and to be entirely enchanted by this beautiful place. It’s springtime. The days are warm, even with intense cloud cover…
Month: October 2013
(Re)forming Global Wine Markets: The “New” South Africa
What’s red and white, costs millions of dollars to produce, and takes 20 years to mature? The rebirth of a New World player in the global wine market. South Africa’s wine renaissance during the 1990s coincides with three other New World market leaders: Argentina, Chile and New Zealand. Their successes were built on Australia’s previous…
Lost and Found?: 20th Century Wine Games in South Africa
It was the longest imaginable game of ping pong with no declared winner. 80 years. Make wine freely, then control it, then free it up again. Make bad bulk wine, push briefly for quality, and then set policies that all but guaranteed more bad wine. Fortify the wine and jack up the alcohol level (brandy),…
Lost: The Wine Industry in 19th century South Africa
In my last post describing the early history of the South African wine industry (1655-1890), I lamented that very little has been written – or at least not easily found – explaining what happened between the late 1700s and the devastating phylloxera epidemic in 1886. Thanks to International Wine Review (iwinereview.com) and a recent comprehensive…