Wine

Article 107 records the South African wine industry adding roughly R26.2 billion, about 1.95%, to the economy and around R14.2 billion to the Western Cape on the 2012/13 baseline. Wine grapes grow in the Western Cape’s winter-rainfall climate. Article 108 shows exports rising sharply from about 21% of production in 1999 as a domestic surplus forced the industry onto world shelves.

Zimbabwe and Namibia have small wine industries, and Botswana and Zambia none of commercial scale. Zimbabwe had four wineries in production in 2018, down from as many as twenty in 1999, and Namibia has four commercial wineries. South African wine sales to Zambia reached US$6 million in 2025. Botswana's wine set is TBA.

Growers sell grapes to cellars by the tonne, priced by variety, quality and region. Cellars sell wine in bulk or bottled, under their own labels or to retailers’ labels. Bottled premium wine earns far more per litre than bulk. Prices depend on brand, region, vintage and channel.

South Africa exports wine to Europe, the United Kingdom, the United States and Africa. Botswana, Zimbabwe, Zambia and Namibia import most of their wine from South Africa, which makes South African wine the competition for any local producer.

Nurseries supply vines; growers produce grapes; cellars make wine; bottlers, distributors and retailers sell it. Cooperative cellars buy from many growers. Article 110 shows that buyers now audit labour and land practices as closely as the wine. Wine tourism, through tasting rooms and cellar-door sales, adds a direct, high-margin channel.

Climate decides access: quality wine grapes need the right temperature and dry ripening season. Making and selling wine requires liquor licences, excise registration and labelling compliance. Export markets require certification of origin and often social and environmental compliance.

Real minimum capital. Vines, trellising, irrigation and three to four years before the first commercial harvest; a cellar, tanks and bottling for winemaking. Many new producers buy grapes or use a contract winemaker before building a cellar.

Input choke points. Suitable climate, quality vines, winemaking skill and licences.

Offtake options. Cellars and cooperatives for grapes; distributors, retailers, restaurants, lodges and cellar-door customers for wine.

Who to call. In South Africa, wine industry bodies, cooperative cellars and contract winemakers. In the four local markets, licensing authorities and local distributors.

The verdict for a small holding. Commercial wine grapes need a suitable climate that most of the four local markets lack. The realistic entry for most students is a brand: buying or contracting wine and selling it under their own label, with a local story, into local hospitality and retail.

Wine grapes are grafted onto rootstocks, planted and trained for about three years before the first harvest, reaching full production in the fourth or fifth year and producing for twenty-five years or more. In South Africa grapes are picked from January to March. A grower who sells grapes to a cellar is paid within the season; a cellar that makes and bottles its own wine waits months for whites and years for reds before the money comes back.

The grape becomes wine in a few steps that every owner should be able to name. The grapes are crushed. For white wine the juice is pressed off the skins and fermented; for red wine the juice ferments on the skins, which give the colour, and is pressed afterwards. The wine is then matured in tanks or barrels, blended, bottled and labelled. The skins, seeds and stalks left behind, the pomace, go to distillation for brandy and spirits, or back to the vineyard as compost.

Wine grapes are paid on cultivar, sugar content measured as degrees Balling, and a quality band set by the cellar. Wine is then graded by the cellar and the market, and certified under South Africa's Wine of Origin scheme, which guarantees the area the grapes came from, the cultivar and the vintage on the label.

Origin and IP. The Wine of Origin scheme protects the names of South Africa's wine regions. Under the trade agreement with the European Union, South African producers no longer use European place names such as Champagne, Port and Sherry: sparkling wine made in that style is sold as Cap Classique. A wine brand and its label are registered trademarks.

Vineyards are sprayed on a calendar, and some diseases, once in, stay for the life of the vineyard. This is the owner's checklist, not the science: enough to protect the investment and supervise the expert.

• Downy and powdery mildew. Spray before the disease appears.
• Botrytis rot. Canopy management and sprays before harvest.
• Leafroll virus and mealybug. Plant certified material and control the mealybug that spreads it.
• Phylloxera. Plant only on resistant rootstocks.
• Birds at ripening. Nets or scaring.

When to call the expert. Call the viticulturist when leaves show oily spots, red leaves appear on white cultivars or bunches start to rot.

These are the specialists a wine business needs as it grows. You do not need to do their work; you need to know who they are, when to bring them in and what to expect from them. Module C11 teaches how to recruit, contract and manage them.

Decide between growing grapes, making wine or building a brand. Cost establishment in T-M20-02, estimate grape income under a cellar contract in T-M20-03, calculate the margin from grape to bottle in T-M20-04, compare prices in T-M20-05 and enter the result in T-M20-01 Enterprise Budget.

Calculators: T-M20-01 Enterprise Budget, T-M20-02 Establishment Cost, T-M20-03 Contract Grower Income, T-M20-04 Processing Margin, T-M20-05 Market Price Comparator.

Library sources: LIB-A107, LIB-A108, LIB-A109, LIB-A110; LIB-P-Wine; LIB-C-ZW-Wine, LIB-C-ZM-Wine, LIB-C-BW-Wine, LIB-C-NA-Wine.