"A paradox," says viticulturist Etienne Terblanche when asked to sum up the 2024 South African harvest. "We had cool and wet conditions leading up to the vintage, culminating with the disastrous flooding at the end of September," elaborates the head of consultation services at Vinpro, South Africa’s generic wine organisation.
His comment is in reference to the extreme flooding in the Western Cape, which not only damaged infrastructure across the province, but put many vineyards under water, too. "Though," Terblanche adds, "the soils that tend to be marginal had a great run this year in terms of quantity and quality." As an example he cites the Olifants River area. "The sites on the alluvial riverbed were seriously impacted, but the further you move away from the river the soils become more brackish with clay and rock, and the red varieties did fantastically this year."
In fact, the majority of South Africa’s wine-growing regions benefited from an excellent winter, with plenty of cold spells enabling a good dormancy period while the above-average winter rainfall replenished dams and groundwater reserves. Viticulturist Jaco Engelbrecht, who consults for many producers, among them Eben Sadie, points out that, while the winter was wet, it was not as cold as the previous year, and there was very little snow in the Witzenberg, Ceres and Matroosberg mountains. Spring was "quite warm" and this progressed "to become a hot and very dry growing and ripening season". "Wind was a constant from this point on. This, together with the warm weather, made the vines grow like mad, as they had a full water tank and were constantly transpiring."
Terblanche points out, however, that there were marked differences between coastal and inland regions. The harvest came on faster along the coast, in places such as Robertson, Breedekloof and Montagu. "On the back of the cool and wet 2023 vintage, 2024 was definitely early in the coastal regions and many are down on yields."
He adds that because of the wet conditions, the main challenge of the season was the early varieties, such as Chardonnay, Pinotage and the early Chenins (coastal), which budded earlier and cropped lower than the later varieties.
"The back end of the season was moderate to warm and dry, unlike the 2023 harvest where we struggled to ripen the later reds. Disease pressure has also been consequently low. The later season this year has made up for the losses of the first half." In fact, Terblanche adds, "Sauvignon Blanc crops were up in many cases. Both Durbanville and Darling had a great vintage, as did the areas with later-ripening reds." The Orange River area is also on track for recovery despite some hail damage during the festive period, he reports.
Coastal region highlights
Cape Town
Elunda Basson, winemaker at Steenberg Vineyards, says 2024 was one of the earliest vintages in decades for Constantia, with most wineries reporting a start 10-14 days earlier than usual. Basson affirms that early varieties like Chardonnay were down on yield, while Sauvignon Blanc was up.
At Klein Constantia, viticulturist Craig Harris recalls, "No one thought water would be an issue, but thanks to weeks of south-easterlies drying the environment we started the harvest under water strain. This meant weak patches had to be harvested early to avoid stress and it made for a season of running from block to block picking ideal areas."
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Harvest for Durbanville contemporary Diemersdal began 10 days earlier than in 2023. "The lack of surface moisture in the soils led to grapes reaching ripening levels earlier," comments Thys Louw, sixth-generation winemaker and owner of the farm. But, he says, crop and quality are up. For varieties such as Cabernet Sauvignon, Shiraz, Merlot and Malbec he says the warm period boosted sugar levels and fruit flavour as well as tannin and anthocyanin accumulation.
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