There are many romantic ideas about the wine industry; people liesurely picking grapes by hand in their vineyard and then treading the grapes by foot in a trough. Families passing down the knowledge of their wines from one generation to the next. The rush of excitement you get from discovering a hidden gem.
Not many wineries conform to this view and in South Africa, it is possible to find a vast array of wineries at all points on the beauty scale.
Years of state control of the wine industry in South Africa meant that coops dominated the wine scene. Scores of farmers would sell their grapes to a large regional winery who would in turn blend everyone's grapes together into one wine. Coops still dominate the industry here in South Africa, but thankfully they have upped the ante and now produce some stunning wines.
Today I visited wineries that were built in old colonial houses, dating back over 300 years. There is no denying the beauty of these estates. Many tend to be nestled in the hills of the winelands and have incredible vistas as well as stunning architecture.
I also saw purely functional wineries, many of which did not own their own vineyards and were built on an industrial site. Certainly these lacked the charm of the colonial wineries, but does this matter?
The only way to decide this is to try the wine produced and in the name of research, this is what I set-out to do. After merrily sloshing my way through several hundred samples, I am happy to conclude that bricks and mortar do not make a winery. The care and attention that goes into the vineyards and the careful management of the wine maker are far more important.
The moral of the story? Never judge a book (or a winery) by its cover. South Africa has some delicious wines from wineries at all ends of the beauty scale. The quality of the wine in the glass has never been better and I for one say cheers to that!
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