The easing of the latest alcohol ban to beat the spread of Coronavirus coincided to the day with the South African wine industry’s 362nd anniversary. The start date for the local wine industry was recorded on 2nd February 1659 as a diary entry by Jan van Riebeeck, an official of the Dutch East India Company and First Commander of the Cape: ‘Today, praise be to God, wine was made for the first time from Cape grapes.’ Jan van Riebeeck was the first governor of the Cape.
He planted a vineyard in 1655, and on 2 February 1659, the first wine was made from Cape grapes. Vines were then planted at Roschheuvel, now known as Bishopscourt, Wynberg. Following this start, the South African wine industry grew and flourished, to become the second biggest contributor to agricultural exports after citrus, employing 290,000 people. Then the Coronavirus lockdown happened in 2020, and with it the ban on both domestic wine sales and exports. Wine tourism is a major income earner for the wine industry in South Africa, representing as much as half of all sales for many wine farms.
Wineries were closed to visitors for nearly five months – they were allowed to open and then again in the latest lockdown banned from selling wine both onsite as well as online. The impact on the wine tourism sector has been massive. Until 2020, some 10 million tourists visited South Africa annually, most of them in the spring and summer when Cape Winelands would receive an influx of northern hemisphere visitors escaping winter back home.
Penny Streeter OBE, owner of Benguela Cove Lagoon Wine Estate, says: “Times are tough today for the South African wine industry. But our hard work and investment over many years in creating superb, award-winning wines and a powerful international brand put us in a great position to recover and thrive once again when the lockdowns around the world are lifted. We would just ask all our wonderful supporters, here and in other countries, to please continue to visit wine farms and enjoy South African wine.”
