Local and largely unsung wine heroes
Monday, 6 December, 2004
Graham Howe
In a market dominated by beer, brandy and flavoured alcoholic beverages, it is a sobering fact that only seven wine brands make South Africa's top forty liquor list. Who are these workhorse and often unsung brands? With domestic wine consumption (or SA's lack thereof) at the top of the industry's agenda for the first time since sanctions fell more than ten years ago, Graham Howe reports on the state of local wine market.
Trend-spotters will find many fascinating facts in the new annual edition of the alcoholic beverage review. Astutely identifying the dynamic trends in the local liquor industry, the commentaries by industry leaders, statistics and sector overviews make essential reading. Hats off to editor Andrew Moth and Clifford Roberts who did the number-crunching
JC Le Roux is the newest wine brand in the top forty - entering the charts at 35. SA's biggest-selling wine brands are Autumn Harvest Crackling (22) and Nederburg (26), followed by Drostdy Hof (30), Overmeer (33), Namaqua (36) and Cellar Cask (37). What's more, the cork versus screwcap debate tends to overlook the future of wine packaging. Four of the top wine brands are sold by bag-in-the-box in a market dominated by plastic/tapped/foil and tetra-packs - whereas glass containers only account for 37,4%.
The review also shows that wine contributes R4-billion or 12% to an alcohol industry worth R33,5-billion in annual sales - though per capita consumption of all wine fell from 8,91 to 7.92 litres. The export slow-down, the prices of SA wine exports and the wine glut are linked to static domestic wine sales, the domestic launch of export brands by Westcorp, Kumala and KWV and mergers within Winecorp, Western Wines, Vinfruco and Stellenbosch Vineyards. The review reports, ‘Sales of high-priced wine dropped from a high of 12% to 2,8% ... The pressure has been placed hardest on small, unknown brands.’
The trade review is a timely reminder that the big wine brands, the unsung workhorses of the industry, rarely receive the same attention or praise as the icon wines in the consumer media. At a wine tasting deep in the vaults of the Distell cellar a few weeks ago, the heritage value of some of South Africa's oldest brands - Libertas, Zonnebloem, Nederburg and Tassenberg - struck journalists viewing vintages that hark back to the 1930's. Some three million litres of wine are sold on the domestic market under the country's oldest wine trademarks today - while newer brands like Kumala are spearheading South Africa's export drive, moving millions of litres into foreign markets.
In a marketplace flooded by new boutique wine labels, the review reveals that the top six wine brands with staying power in the higher price (HP) category are Nederburg, Graca, Grunberger, Chateau Libertas, Douglas Green and Bellingham. The red market leaders are Chateau Libertas, Nederburg Baronne, Nederburg Cabernet and St Raphael - the dry white leaders, Graca, Nederburg Lyric, Versus and Craighall. Overall, ‘Nederburg is the market leader in high-priced wine’ - from reds and rosé to sparkling wine and stein.
When did you last read any petillant pearls of wisdom in the wine press? If you thought off-dry and soet wine had gone out of fashion with perlé, stein, 5th Avenue Cold Duck and avo ritz with pink mayonnaise, think again. Ad-spend on perlé wines - led by Autumn Harvest, Paarl Perlé and Capenheimer - is dramatically on the increase.
Lastly, the semi-sweet charts are dominated by Bellingham Johannisberger, Grunberger, St Anna and Nederburg Stein. Who would have guessed that the biggest-selling Saint in the top-selling Douglas Green range would be sweet St Anna? Interviewed in the review, Harry Dare, marketing director of DGB, comments, ‘More and more black consumers are going to be exposed to wines and sweet wines are generally more accessible than dry. Take a brand like Bellingham Johannisberger, for example. In the black consumer market, it's used a lot as a celebration drink … It is seen as a premier, prestige product.’
* alcoholic beverage review 2004, incorporating beverage business yearbook, is published by Hotel & Restaurant. For subscriptions and sales, contact the publishers Ramsay, Son & Parker at (021) 530 3143, raziya@rsp.co.za or see www.hotelandrestaurant.co.za
Graham Howe is a well-known gourmet travel writer based in Cape Town. One of South Africa's most experienced lifestyle journalists, he has contributed hundreds of food, wine and travel features to South African and British publications over the last 25 years.
He is a wine and food contributor for wine.co.za, which is likely the longest continuous wine column in the world, having published over 500 articles on this extensive South African wine portal. Graham also writes a popular monthly print column for WineLand called Howe-zat.
When not exploring the Cape Winelands, this adventurous globetrotter reports on exotic destinations around the world as a travel correspondent for a wide variety of print media, online, and radio.
Over the last decade, he has visited over seventy countries on travel assignments from the Aran Islands and the Arctic to Borneo and Tristan da Cunha - and entertained readers with his adventures through the winelands of the world from the Mosel to the Yarra.