South Africa: dry winter likely to affect harvest

Dry weather across South Africa is putting increasing pressure on vineyards and may result in lower wine volumes, producers have warned.

VinPro, a cooperative of 3,500 growers and wineries across the country, warned that groundwater levels had dropped as a result of the significantly lower rainfall over the spring and summer, and this was affecting vineyards. Irrigation dams are currently only around 40% to 60% full, it noted.

“The heatwave that occurred in the last week of October, is also an anomaly at this time of the year and placed further pressure on water resources and available ground water, as the vineyards’ water usage has increased drastically,” manager of the VinPro Consultation Service Francois Viljoen said.

Although Viljoen admitted that flower clusters were looking “promising so far” and the dry weather has helped boost vine health, he warned that if the dry weather conditions continue through the flowering and berry set stages, there could still be a lower wine grape harvest than in 2015.

“There is an urgent need for rain in during November,” he said

VinPro said some late-flowering dryland vineyards had already been affected and were likely to see lower harvest – and other regions could follow suit if the dry weather continues.

Sauvignon Blanc had already seen a later than usual season and bud break was “uneven”, it noted.

The UK is the biggest buyer of South African packaged and bulk wine, and in report last month bulk specialist Ciatti showed wine exports to the UK has grown 4% growth. However bulk exports had fallen 8% overall, as packaged wine exports rose nearly 5% over the last 12 months, year-on-year. This growth was boosted by the weakening of the rand against all other major currencies, it noted.

South Africa exported around 416.7mL of wine between August 2014 and July 2015.