The worst drought in living memory has hit vineyards in South Africa’s Western Cape hard, reducing grape harvests and adding to pressure on the region’s centuries-old wine industry, officials said on Tuesday.
In its latest wine harvest report, industry body Vinpro said South Africa’s wine-grape production was down 15 percent from last year, and would lead to a production shortfall of 170 million liters of wine and prices rising as much as 11 percent.
South Africa’s wine sector, which dates back to the arrival of the first European settlers in the 1650s, employs 300,000 people directly and indirectly and contributed about $3 billion to the economy in 2015, according to an industry study.
The government has declared the drought a disaster in the Western Cape, the country’s main wine-producing region around the tourist city of Cape Town.
Besides vineyards, it has decimated wheat crops and cut apple, grape and pear exports, most of which go to Europe.
Vinpro managing director Rico Basson said more than a third of vineyards were operating at a loss and overall numbers were shrinking as farmers uprooted vines to make way for more profitable fruit crops or simply failed to replace old vines.
Over the last decade, the amount of land used for growing grapes had shrunk by 9 percent, he said.
The problems in South Africa mirror those in other wine-growing countries and are likely to fuel concerns about changes in weather patterns as a result of global warming.
Globally, wine output fell to its lowest in 60 years last year due to unfavorable weather, especially in Europe, according to the international wine organization OIV.
In April, the OIV said South Africa, the world’s eighth largest producer, had produced 1.1 billion liters of wine in 2017, a 3 percent increase on the previous year.

This has had a knock-on effect on rural employment, with the loss of about 30 000 seasonal farm worker jobs during the harvest season, University of Cape Town (UCT) Professor Mark New has said.
Fruit and wine farmers usually replaced their orchards and vineyards in cycles, when the plants reached the end of their lifespans after 15 to 20 years.
But once national government had cut off the water supply to farmers, when they had reached the limit of their drought allocation in late February, many of the deciduous fruit and wine farmers stopped irrigating those orchards and vineyards which were due to be replaced in the next five to six years.
De Lille ‘really changed momentum’ Demand had increased and the Department of Water and Sanitation, responsible for bulk water supplies, had been incredibly reluctant to bring on additional water supplies in the Western Cape.
In addition, the City of Cape Town’s water managers had been rather complacent during 2017 and had thought the city would not get a third dry year.
The narrative around the drought had changed last year when Mayor Patricia de Lille had decided to take action by setting up a drought crisis committee.
New said that water managers now should be thinking that there is an almost equal chance of another dry year this rainy season.
Water managers would get an indication by the end of April if this winter was going to be dry or wet.
“If rainfall in April is above average, there is a high probability the whole year will be above average.
If low, there is a high probability that that pattern will persist to the end of the year.” This meant water managers would have an early warning system by the end of April, and certainly by the end of June, which would mean they could institute water demand management processes based on evidence, rather than wait until the end of the rainy season to take stock.—News24

A dry winter and growing season was challenging for vines in the Cape wine regions Old vines, likes these for Alheit winery, fared better in a dry year in the Cape wine regions.
South African vintners dealt with an extremely dry growing season in 2017, resulting in a small crop.
Both vintages made very concentrated wine, just different in nature."
"Nighttime temperatures were cooler and this resulted in higher acid retention," said Adam Mason, winemaker at Mulderbosch.
"We had to start irrigation in December before veraison.
The cooler days and nights resulted in slower sugar accumulation but the phenolics kept developing.
It was unique to see phenolic ripeness at lower sugar levels."
"The old vines were fabulous this year.
The crops were decent and the fruit very healthy and flavorful."
In the end, the producers say the wines are showing ripeness and concentration.