The South African wine industry is sitting with between 250 million and 300 million litres of “uncontracted wine”, which is almost equal to the volume of wine sold on the local market every year, according to Vinpro and the South African Wine Industry Information and Systems (SAWIS).
This wine glut was already having a negative impact on local and international wine prices, which had fallen 7,4% since the introduction of COVID- 19- related trade restrictions. The next season’s wine grape harvest was due to start in about four months, with early indications pointing to a normal harvest.
“Farms in general experienced enough cold units for uniform bud break, while soil moisture and dam water levels look better than during the previous season,” said Wanda Augustyn, media and communications manager at Vinpro.
The current situation raised serious questions about where the wine should go, whether there would be enough cellar space to accommodate the new harvest, and how the new harvest would affect prices, she said.
“While large cellars might be restoring wine tanks and buying additional tanks, smaller cellars might look at opportunities to share space and improve their cellar capacity management, which could include the uprooting of vineyards that might no longer be profitable, and changes to vineyard practices to reduce production costs and manage the harvest size, without negatively affecting the wine quality.”
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