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
the Lower Duivenhoks Rover would spell River
On The Southern Districts of the Cape says: A fifth, Plettenberg Bay, lies over 250 miles to the east, along the southern coast of Africa. A sixth, Plettenberg Bay, lies over 250 miles to the east, along the southern coast of Africa.
It is the same sentence.
Sounds like as of this morning, Cape West Coast subregion is now official.
Cape Coast GI, as we know, encompasses a wide array of regions, wards, and districts. I believe the idea with outlining the contours for Cape Coast was to allow for producers to make and blend wines from regions that experience a similar maritime climate. It's not a perfect system, and it is being discussed and renegotiated all the time as they grow up.
Not that this fully addresses your question, but I learned of a proposal in the works as well for a Cape West Coast 'subregion' (not a region, district or ward). It would include districts of Darling, the western half of Swartland, and Lutzville Valley plus the wards of Groenekloof (as part of Darling), St Helena Bay, Lamberts Bay, Bamboes Bay, and Koekenaap. As a colleague explained, they are trying to address the issue with - “Coastal Region” regions that aren’t particularly “coastal” in character.
Also, RIP Boberg. Despite your long life, we hardly knew you.