The South African wine industry has come a long way since its humble begginnings in the 17th century in the Cape. The first batch of wine the Cape produced was undrinkable but today the Cape Winelands produce award-winning wines.
The Cape Winelands history dates back to early colonialism in the Cape. Soon after Jan Van Riebeeck, landed in Cape Town in 1652, he wrote to his superiors in the Netherlands, requesting vine cuttings. Van Riebeeck was sent by the Dutch East India Company (VOC) to establish a settlement in the Cape. As a consequence of his time as part of ship medical crews, he believed that wine held medicinal properties that could cure the ailments of sailors’ suffering from scurvy. Taking into account that the Cape was set-up as a refreshment station for ships en route to the East, he convinced the Dutch East India Company of his theory and the Cape was supplied with vine cuttings. The first three vines arrived from Spain in 1655 and were planted in the company gardens.
The first Cape wine was produced in the VOC gardens in 1659 by Jan Van Riebeeck and the chief gardener. 15 litres of French Muskadel wine were produced but it was almost undrinkable and thus did not receive a good response from the European markets.
Determined to create good wine from Cape soil, Van Riebeeck sent Simon Van der Stel to explore the vastly untouched land beyond the immediate settlement area. Van der Stel founded Stellenbosch (loosely meaning “Van der Stel’s bush) which was about 55 Kilometres away from present day Cape Town. Van der Stel is known as the “Father of Wines” in the Cape for his fundamental influence in passing on his enthusiasm, understanding and passion for winemaking to early settlers and encouraging them to plant and nurture vines. Van der Stel also left his mark in Stellenbosch and other parts of the Cape where he planted hundreds of Oak Trees for the main purpose of using their wood for barrels for the wine. Due to the high rainfall in the Cape, the Oak Trees grew too quickly to produce strong enough wood for barrels and to this day the barrels are all imported from Europe.
Simon Van der Stel was later promoted to governor of the Cape and went on to establish the wine making areas of Constantia (1685) and Franschhoek (1687). It was in the fertile Constantia Valley that Van der Stel produced the first South African wine to be exported to Europe. The detail in the architecture, the beautiful cellars, the vineyards and the sweeping views of Table Mountain and the Constantiaberg Mountains – makes the Constantia Valley a truly beautiful and exclusive wine-making area. The world-famous estates established back then still produce some of South Africa’s finest wine, namely, Groot Constantia, Klein Constantia, Buitenverwachting and Constantia Uitsig. Later additions to the Constantia wine route are the estates of Steenberg, Constantia Glen and High Constantia. These seven farms are notorious for producing famous award winning premium wines.
Van der Stel and the Cape winemaking industry received a breakthrough in 1688 when over 150 French Huguenots received assistance from the VOC to settle in Franschhoek (meaning “French Corner”). These French refugees were given the land to cultivate because of their knowledge and experience in viticulture. The fertile Franschhoek Valley offered excellent conditions for wine-making and in less than two decades Franschhoek became the number one producing wine land in the Cape. You can see the Huguenot Monument in the Village which was constructed in 1938 to celebrate the 250th year of the Huguenots arrival in the Franschhoek valley.
South African wine’s long history which began almost at the start of the colonisation of the Cape developed over time to become one of the worlds most respected winemaking countries. However, during apartheid times, the industry struggled with inferior grape varieties and industrial winemaking and because economic sanctions prevented South Africa from exporting wine to the US and other markets. The lifting of sanctions, the dismantling of the old state cooperatives and gaining access to new international markets created a renewed enthusiasm for the Cape wine industry both abroad and and at home. New investment and international acclaim has resulted in South Africa producing over 1000 new wines and labels for the market each year.
