2019 Harvest Insights

Thursday, 14 February, 2019

Hein on Wine

After a record low, drought-related yield in 2018, Vinpro has predicted the harvest to be about 5% bigger this year. Despite the wet 2018 winter, most vineyards are still recovering from the drought and some areas such as the Little Karoo still experience dry conditions. Volumes are also affected by farmers uprooting more vineyards than they plant due to unsustainable wine prices.

Wine’s average retail selling price did increase by 7% during 2018, mainly due to the small 2018 harvest, and I hope this is a trend for 2019 as well. Does this encourage grape farmers to keep their vineyards? Perhaps. According to Vinpro’s Francois Viljoen, uprooting has exceeded planting since 2002. In 2018, however, plantings were better than in previous years, hopefully indicating a more positive sentiment.