Industry organisation South African Wine Industry Information and Systems says the 2021 wine grape crop totalled about 1.46-million tonnes, which was an 8.9% increase on the 2020 harvest.

Industry body Vinpro consultation service manager Conrad Schutte adds that this year saw a much later wine grape season in South Africa and that moderate weather resulted in grapes ripening more slowly, while developing exceptional colour and flavour.

The harvest kicked off about two weeks later than normal owing to unusually cool weather conditions throughout the season, which persisted throughout harvest time and resulted in some wine grape producers harvesting their last grapes in May.

Schutte mentions that these are general observations and that the wine industry’s diversity across ten wine grape growing regions should be taken into account.

He adds that the overall cooler weather enabled producers to harvest their grapes at exactly the right time, and viticulturists and winemakers are especially excited about good colour extraction, low pH levels and high natural acidity in cases where vineyards were managed effectively, which all point to exceptional quality wines.

The 2021 wine harvest – including juice and concentrate for non-alcoholic purposes, wine for brandy and distilling wine – is expected to amount to 1.1-billion litres at an average recovery of 778 litres per ton of grapes.

Wines of South Africa CEO Siobhan Thompson remarks that the industry is showing consistency in quality in recent years, which reinforces South Africa’s overall standing alongside international competitors.

She notes that the volume and value of wine exports from South Africa are higher compared with the year-on-year figures in 2020 and 2019.

South Africa is the ninth-biggest wine producer globally and produces about 4% of the world’s wine.

Moreover, Vinpo MD Rico Basson says intermittent restrictions on the export and local sale of alcohol in South Africa from March 2020 to February 2021, as part of the country’s national state of disaster, resulted in 650-million litres of wine stock at the end of 2020, of which a large portion was not yet contracted.

“With so much stock still in the tanks at the beginning of harvest time, producers and wineries were concerned about processing and storage capacity when taking in the new harvest, many of whom rented additional storage space or restored old tanks.

“However, the fact that sales reopened, along with the harvest starting later than normal, helped ease the pressure to some extent. A number of wineries were also able to secure contracts with grape juice manufacturers, which helped work away some of the stock,” Basson explains.

He concludes that the larger wine grape crop will require careful planning from producers and wineries to sell the current wine stock in a responsible and sustainable way.

This situation will, however, also create the opportunity for innovation and growth of existing and new markets.