Welcome South African wine lovers.
In this video we are going to look at the state of the South African wine industry, an industry currently in dire straits and an industry that needs our help.
2020 has probably been the most difficult year the South African wine industry has ever faced with the Corona virus creating havoc. We had a Nationwide lockdown for three months of the year, 3 alcohol bans and very little international tourism.
Wine tourism is a significant revenue generator for the South African economy having contributed R7.2 billion to GDP in 2019. This includes direct expenditure of a visitor at a wine farm, indirect expenditure of goods bought by wineries from other local businesses to deliver the tourism service, as well as induced expenditure by the wineries’ employees at shops.
According to the study, the wine tourism sector directly employs between 8,464 and 10,233 people, depending on the season. Allowing for the indirect and induced impact of the sector, it supports more than 36,000 employment opportunities in South Africa.
Restricted trading hours, the specific exclusion of on-site consumption of alcohol and ban on domestic overnight leisure travel (intra- and inter-provincial) and supporting services like accommodation and air travel have an adverse effect on the sector.
“We estimate that wine tourism has lost more than R2.5 billion in revenue between March and July 2020, with the majority of these losses incurred at the tasting room. This will inadvertently have a severe effect on profitability, employment and the financial stability of the communities that are dependent on this sector,” says Marisah Nieuwoudt, Vinpro wine tourism manager.
While the turnover from wine tourism activities represented nearly 15% of wineries’ total revenue, micro wine cellars with a turnover of less than R10 million per year are most dependent on wine tourism, which represents 41% of their total turnover.
It is especially the small and micro enterprises that do not have sufficient bridging finance to sustain them through the current and continued restrictions.
Vinpro estimates that the entire wine industry, which consists of 2 778 wine grape producers and 533 wineries, could lose more than 80 wineries, 350 wine grape producers and 18 000 jobs over the next 18 months due to the previous and current bans on exports and local wine sales.
- Ahead of the incoming harvest, South African wine producers are still stuck with surplus stock of 280 million to 300 million litres of wine.
- This is the equivalent of total wine sales in the country in the past year.
- Wine prices have already started to fall as producers try to shift product, while next year’s grape harvest could end up in juice or hand sanitiser
Ahead of the start of the new harvest next month, South African wine producers are still stuck with a massive glut of unsold wine in the country.
The lengthy freeze on sales at home and ban on exporting during the first phase of lockdown, have left South African wine producers with surplus stock of 280 million to 300 million litres, says Daneel Rossouw, Nedbank’s divisional manager of agriculture in the southern part of SA.
Despite the tough year the industry continued to make fantastic wines and one of the highlights of the year was when Groot Constantia’s 2019 Sauvignon Blanc won the prestigious International Sauvignon Blanc Trophy at the 2020 International Wine Challenge (IWC).
The prestigious competition selects the best wines from around the world. Wines are judged based on their vintage, region and faithfulness to style, according to Groot Constantia. Each winning wine is sampled on three separate occasions by a panel of at least 10 judges, comprised of leading international wine experts.
The entrants to the international awards have to qualify by winning a Gold medal at the IWC. These gold medalists then go head-to-head in a final round of tasting by the judges. From there, trophy winners are chosen.
“We are very excited about the IWC trophies for our Sauvignon Blanc,” says Boela Gerber, Winemaker for Groot Constantia and official Cape Wine Master. “The Constantia Valley has always produced beautiful Sauvignons and we put a lot of effort into these vineyards. It is a great award for all our efforts.”
The #SaveSAwine campaign on Facebook was created towards the end of July 2020 by Winelands Podcast “About The Winelands”, as a result of the initial launch of #SaveSAwine by Wineland Media, and has since reached millions of people worldwide via Social Media as well as mentions in the traditional press.
This awareness resulted in a direct increase of consumption of South African wine all over the world. The large number of images of support posted in the @SaveSAwine Facebook group bears testimony to this and many international retailers and wine merchants have reported an increase in the sale of South African wine.
Furthermore our members have directly supported the industry by purchasing wine online while patiently waiting for delivery until after the ban ends. This can be seen as a tremendous “crowdfunding” effort which alleviated the cash flow of many producers enabling them to continue their businesses and importantly to help them to meet payroll and other expenses.
Erica Taylor (@Uncorkified) spearheaded the #60in60 campaign to introduce the world to 60 South African Wine Producers in 60 Days.
Another initiative, The #SaveSAWine + Robinson & Sinclair Mural Project was launched 3 December 2020 in Cape Town. Artist Waynebks of Baz-Art painted our homage to the South African Wine Industry opposite the Robinson & Sinclair Wine Shop on Loop Street
These initiatives have proven that the wine industry has the support of the public and more of these initiatives are planned for 2021. We thus appeal to all fellow South African wine lovers to support the #SaveSAwine campaign.
How to support the campaign – CLICK HERE
Thank you for your support please subscribe and follow us on social media use hashtags #savesawine #savesawinemural #visitwinelands
We wish all our wine lovers and our beloved wine industry the best for 2021!
