South Africa is one of the oldest “New World” sources of wine dating to the late 1600s and the Dutch East India Company supply station in today’s Cape Town area, pre-dating Champagne as we know it today and Medoc as the source of coveted reds. The modern era began post-apartheid with the newly found access to world markets, vine material and winemaking know-how. Of course, with the end of apartheid, changes have not happened overnight. There were – and still are – lots of wrongs to be righted, and the modern South African wine industry has been contributing its fair share to that reckoning. One of the world sustainability leaders, it has been among the first to expand up and down the supply chain aiming at establishing and promoting the fair-trade practices that directly and positively impact the people who work the land. And today’s key industry players do that while making a strong range of wines based on mostly French signature grapes, along with the native Pinotage with top examples
competing for quality and value proposition with the best in the world.
Article from Opimian Celler 311 – South Africa and Tuscany