Winter Update

Friday, August 5th, 2011

Recently South Africa’s tourism minister Marthinus van Schalkwyk announced that tourism arrivals grew to eight million in the past year. During a parliamentary media briefing he said that was one million more tourists than in the preceding year. A full one third – or 309 000 – of those tourists were here for the 2010 Soccer World Cup – and the economic impact of their spend was in the region of R3.6 billion alone.

Much of that was spent on accommodation and food and while detractors stated that it was a pity South Africa was hosting the tournament in winter – traditionally cold and wet in the Cape and just plain icy everywhere else barring coastal KwaZulu-Natal – it appears that visitors were undaunted by the timing.

Had they come again this year they would have been forgiven for wondering what all the fuss over cold winter was about. The Western Cape’s winegrowing area has had a sustained period of positively balmy weather! But daytime temperatures in the mid-20's is already having an effect on the vines with the notorious ‘green flags’ (early leaves) beginning to make their appearance.

Brows are also beginning to furrow at the lack of rainfall and cold in places. At the release of Dombeya’s new vintage wines in July, assistant winemaker and vineyard manager Wicus Pretorius said their Helderberg property had had less than half of its average winter rainfall. Dams in and around Stellenbosch and Paarl are less than half full. Not only has there not been enough rain to fill dams to provide irrigation to get the vines through the hot summer in 2012, but the groundwater stocks are not yet close to being replenished.

“But it’s the lack of cold that really has me worried,” said Pretorius. “It’s been way too warm and guys are beginning to talk about the vines starting to bud.” Proper dormancy is an essential part of the vine’s annual growth cycle – and extended periods of cold weather are necessary for the vine to shut down. His sentiments were echoed by Edgbaston’s David Finlayson who said only 5mm of rain had fallen on his property. “Our average July rainfall is 200mm.” Finlayson is of the opinion that South Africa’s winelands are heading into a periodic dryer cycle.

The whales have made their seasonal migration to Walker Bay and mating season is in full swing. Walker Bay winemaker Kevin Grant of Ataraxia said green flags had begun making their appearance in the area as well. “Now it’s a rush to get pruning done in time – but we definitely need more rain and cold. Rainfall has been below par to date and our dams are rather empty testimony to that.” However Grant said he was optimistic that more rain would fall in the next two months.

Conversely Danie de Wet of De Wetshof in Robertson was upbeat. “I’ve just analysed the most recent data on cold units with viticulturists Phil Freese and Francois Viljoen – and it’s been our second coldest winter in the past decade.” In an average winter Robertson experiences light ground frost roughly 15 to 20 times. “We’re only halfway through winter and already we’ve had frost more than 30 times.” Regarding rainfall he said that while the area looked good in terms of cover crop and vegetation precipitation had been sporadic.

“The main thing I’ve noticed is that our rain is coming from a different area. Usually it’s from the north – but much of the rain we’ve had to date has come from south-easterly frontal systems and low pressure systems over the interior. It’s been unusual and different but it’s good for the vines nonetheless.”

However it’s a very different story in the Swartland. Andrea Mullineux of Mullineux Family wines said it has not only been a dry winter to date in their neck of the woods “but we had an extremely dry summer – so there’s little or no reserve. Farmers are extremely nervous…”

Ever the optimist, Mullineux said they were hopeful that good rains would still fall in the second half of the season. “Last year we had very late rains too. There were some quite heavy falls in May and then nothing until much later. We’re hoping for a repeat of that…”.

But some South African regions are not alone in being at the mercy of warmer weather than usual. At Vinexpo much of the casual conversation among French winemakers revolved around the dry summer. Their rainfall has been dramatically reduced this year with dams running dry and river flows decreased as well. Forecasters have stated that harvest will be between two and three weeks earlier than usual.