South Africa, part 1: Not just football

There’s a lot of talk about South Africa these days (but less and less in some countries perhaps…) with the World Cup in full spin. But disregarding if we’re watching football or not, South African wines are becoming more and more popular. In Sweden, for example, it is the biggest supplier of wines to the monopoly and in England it recently overtook France in one market segment. Why is this? Is it because the wines are good, or because they are cheap, or that they are skilful marketers? Or perhaps it is a country that many visit for vacation and become so fond of the wines so they continue drinking when they get home? All of this has no doubt contributed!

The vineyards in South Africa cover around 100,000 hectares, slightly less than Bordeaux. The production is around 10 million hectolitres (quite a lot more than Bordeaux) which makes it the world’s seventh wine producing country. the acreage has not change much the last ten years. What has change very much is that more and more produces now make and sell their wines themselves, instead of delivering to a co-operative. And of course, the wines have become much more interesting. Today there is a wealth of different wine styles and grape varieties.