The history of the vine in South Africa can be traced to 1652, when Jan van Riebeeck of the Dutch East India Company founded Cape Town and established its first vineyard.
The first wines of the colony, derided by contemporaries for their “revolting sourness,” emerged seven years later to sustain sailors bound for the East Indies on the long ocean voyage. But with the arrival of French Huguenots fleeing religious persecution in their homeland in the late 1680s and early 1690s came a new wealth of winemaking knowledge. The Huguenots settled between Paarl and Stellenbosch in a region that became known as Franschhoek (meaning “French Quarter”) and established vineyards. Around this same time, Governor Simon van der Stel’s Constantia estate eclipsed the modest winemaking tradition of his predecessors and introduced sweet Vin de Constance, then called the "governor's wine," to the world. This wine would be coveted throughout the courts of Europe and holds its prestige even now, over 300 years later. Founded near Cape Town in 1685, Constantia—now a ward of the Coastal Region—was divided into three estates upon van der Stel’s death in 1712. In 1778, Groot Constantia, one of these estates, was sold to Hendrik Cloete, who renovated the property and brought international acclaim to the wines.
South African wines flourished under British colonial rule, but in the latter half of the 19th century, powdery mildew and phylloxera struck. Compounding the industry’s misfortunes, the British finally abolished preferential tariffs in 1861, renewing competition with French wines. In the absence of such tariffs, Cape wines—often heavily treated with sulfur dioxide and fortified with poor brandy—simply
'South Africa’s wine-producing areas are divided into six large geographical areas (GIs)'. As noted two paragraphs above this quote, these are not 'geographical areas' nor are they 'GIs', but rather they are referred to as 'geographical units'.
For the curious, it appears that this April 2021 proposal would reduce the lees aging requirements for non-traditional method sparkling wines from 9 months to 3 months, leave traditional method lees aging requirements unchanged at 9 months, and introduce new categories of MCC and MCC-ELA with corresponding lees aging requirements of 12 and 36 months, respectively. Don't know what became of that proposal. And, I haven't figured out where one can ascertain the current regulations governing wine production, but the Methode Cap Classique (MCCs) section of the South Africa compendium landing page has the dosage requirements for Brut at less than 15 g/L, whereas the Wines of South Africa page has the limit for Brut limited to less than 12 g/L.
Hi Minh, I believe this number has changed through the years, but as of 2021, it is 12 months. I'll update as needed shortly. Thank you!
Hi Minh, it was previously, but as of 2019, it's included in the Coastal Region.
Hi, in this page, MCC indicate 9 months of lees aging. But the Expert quiz indicate 12 months since 2013.