Here is another good reason for Bulgaria to join the European Union: the possibility of drinking more South African wine.
In January 2002, the EU and South Africa signed a wine and spirits agreement, which provides for, among other things, an annual quota of 42 million litres of South African wine being allowed duty-free into the EU.
Bulgarians who have had the chance to sample South African wine speak highly of it; they are not alone.
After democracy came to South Africa in 1994, bringing to an end the era of anti-apartheid boycotts of the country’s produce, exports have climbed spectacularly.
Within six years, exports of wine had climbed from just less than 24.6 million litres a year to about 130 million litres; another leap was between 2000 and 2001, when exports grew 29 per cent. By 2002, exports reached 220 million litres. More recently, wine export volumes (excluding fortified wines) in the first eight months of 2005 were 35 per cent higher than the same period in 2004.
While South African wines have time and again won medals, garnering even more after 1994, there have been other accolades. At the beginning of 2006, it was announced that influential US magazine Wine Enthusiast had named Vergelegen in the Cape “New World Winery of the Year”.
The Cape region is the home of wine production, with about 110 000 hectares under the vine, producing about 700 million litres of wine a year, about 2.5 per cent of world production, in which South Africa ranks eighth.
The industry has come very far from the day when the founding official of the Dutch colony at the Cape, Jan van Riebeeck, wrote in his diary on February 2 1659, “today, for the first time, God be praised, wine has been pressed from Cape grapes”. After the arrival of French Huguenot immigrants who brought the industry much closer to maturity, wine exports began in earnest in the 1760s. Notable devotees of South African wine have included Frederick the Great and Napoleon, who imported a supply of crates while in his final exile on St Helena.
Gerhard Visser, South Africa’s charge d’affaires in Sofia, is of a great vintage himself: he comes from Stellenbosch, about 50 km from Cape Town, one of the most honoured wine-producing areas in the country.
South Africa, he explains, has an ideal climate for wine production: long, hot summers and moderate winters.
While it is in the thick of tough competition in global markets against wines from Chile, Argentina, Australia and California’s Napa Valley, South Africa’s wine is in such demand that all possible land in the Cape region suitable for wine production is being used. Producers are striking out further afield, even to the Free State in the centre of the country and to the sweltering areas along the Orange River, one of South Africa’s northern borders.
“South Africa’s wines are of high quality and very popular,” says Visser.
South Africa, christened by former Archbishop of Cape Town Desmond Tutu the “Rainbow Nation” for its multi-cultural character, offers the full spectrum of wines.
Reds, whites, roses, sparkling wines, sherries and ports (the last two, in terms of the agreement with the EU, will have to be renamed), as well as a wide range of brandies and liquers emanate from South Africa.
The UK is the biggest client for South Africa’s wines, taking about 48 per cent of exports, followed by Ireland, the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, and Russia, among others.
There are 14 wine industry organisations, each generating marketing to stimulate exports.
South African wine has earned consistently good publicity abroad. One example recently was the summer 2005 edition of US magazine Wine House Drinks, which said that South Africa produces “high quality, reasonably priced” wines, and said that more than 40 per cent of South Africa’s vineyards had been replanted in recent years in an effort to improve quality and tap into changing tastes.
The most widely planted grape in South Africa is Chenin Blanc which now accounts for about one-third of total wine production. Of the other white grapes, Chardonnay, which has been increasingly planted all over the world in recent years, accounts for less than five per cent of all plantings. Colombard and Palomino comprise about eight per cent each. Palomino plantings are declining as demand for fortified wines has decreased. Other white varieties include Muscat d’Alexandrie, Cape Riesling, Sauvignon Blanc, Semillon, Weisser or Rhine Reisling, Gewurztraminer and Ugni Blanc.
Perhaps one of the most interesting white wine grapes in South Africa is Riesling. There are two distinct varieties, Cape Riesling and Weisser or Rhine Riesling. Cape or South Africa Riesling is thought to be related to Crouchen Blanc, a French variety relegated to table wine production in France.
Red grapes account for about 15 per cent of the total production in South Africa. About half of this total is Cinsault, known locally as Hermitage, which makes an ideal blending wine. Other grape varieties are Cabernet Sauvignon, Pinotage, and Shiraz with smaller plantings of Pinot Noir, Cabernet Franc, Merlot, Malbec, Gamay, and Grenache. Pinotage is a hybrid grape variety unique to the Cape. It was created in 1925 by Professor Abraham Perold at the University of Cape Town from a cross of Cinsault and Pinot Noir. The Pinotage grape produce complex and fruity wines with age, that are mostly also drinkable when young.
Gradual reduction in yields, new investment in winery technology and in oak barrels, and the emergence of single estate wines has put South Africa firmly on the map as a serious quality producer.
Of Bulgarian wines, Visser - who generally prefers white wines - has developed a particular respect and fondness for those produced by Todoroff, Targovishte (especially the Chardonnay), and Domaine Boyar, while among the reds, he appreciates Bulgaria’s Merlots and Mavruds.
South African wines have not yet penetrated Bulgaria’s wine market to any significant degree, with the only producer usually found in supermarkets being the wines of Landskroon, an estate dating back to the 17th century which now has 300 hectares of vineyards, producing reds - including Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, Merlot, Shiraz, Pinot Noir, Pinotage and Cinsaut, whites - Sauvignon Blanc, Chenin Blanc, Chardonnay and Morio Muscat, and ports - Tinta Barocca, Tinta Roriz, Souzao and Touriga Nacional.
