Stellenbosch, the Cape South Coast and the Klein Karoo are set to exceed last year’s wine grape crop, predicts the South African Wine Industry Information and Systems (SAWIS).
In a statement with its latest crop estimates, SAWIS warns, however, that overall a smaller wine grape crop is anticipated. This, because of fewer vineyards, high disease pressure and heatwaves in certain parts of the country.
SAWIS’s alert coincides with the harvesting season that just commenced in Mzansi’s wine-producing regions.
“At this early stage, we expect this year’s wine grape crop to be smaller than in 2021,” says Conrad Schutte, who manages Vinpro’s team of viticulturists.
“The South African wine industry is spread over a wide range of cultivation areas throughout the Western and Northern Cape, with often diverse climatic conditions. Because of this variation, the crop is estimated upwards and others downwards in the respective regions.”
Schutte attributes the overall decline in the 2022 wine grape crop to vineyards being uprooted in especially the Northern Cape, Olifants River and Robertson regions. Also, high downy mildew and powdery mildew infections hit some of these regions. The ripening period was cooler than normal, but heatwaves in December and January caught some vineyards off guard, causing sunburn damage to grapes.
A truly exceptional season
Other than that, wine grape producers experienced an exceptional season, says Schutte in a media release issued yesterday afternoon.
Winter conditions were excellent, characterised by mostly above-average cold units – as reflected by frequent snowfall on mountain peaks – along with higher-than-normal rainfall that supplemented groundwater levels.
Due to a cool, wet spring, budding was seven to 14 days later than normal in general, but consistently good and even. The cool weather also delayed initial growth, but most vines caught up during flowering, which occurred about five days later than usual.
“There is always a great buzz around harvest time, and we are excited to build on the great quality wine grapes and wines that we’ve seen year on year in the vineyards and cellars,” Schutte adds. “We wish all of our producers, winemakers, viticulturists and their teams all the best for a prosperous 2022 harvest.” The next crop estimate by viticulturists and producer cellars will be released in the third week of February 2022.
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