Just one year ago wine farmers, lawyers, conservationists, consumers and the media all united to successfully thwart a proposal to prospect and mine in the Stellenbosch winelands. Wine producers affected by the proposal include Zevenwacht, Saxenburg, De Grendel, Mooiplaas, Jordan and De Morgenzon. The public face and lynchpin of the movement was Gary Jordan, uniquely qualified to speak out as both a wine farmer and trained geologist.

This week, Gary and Kathy Jordan hosted a lunch to mark one year since the various parties’ combined efforts succeeded – as well as to launch two new Jordan wines. The Jordans admitted they couldn’t let the opportunity to keep the threat at the forefront of people’s minds go by – and have named one of the two wines the Prospector Syrah.

The Shiraz vineyard which supplied the fruit for this wine is located at the brow of the Bottelary hills on Jordan, adjacent to Zevenwacht and smack dab in the middle of the prospecting area. The Jordans and their neighbours were well aware of the old mines in that spot. Not only does Zevenwacht have mining equipment and shafts on their farm – as well as a range of wines called The Tin Mine – but this particular shiraz vineyard slipped slightly a few years ago. “It was because of what was happening to the underground mining shafts,” the Jordans said, joking about the earth moving for them!

“As a former geologist, I understand the need for prospecting and mining, however in this case The Prospector Syrah will provide far more value, pleasure and enjoyment than a real prospector would have done,” Gary Jordan said this week.

They both believe that the underlying minerals (tin, copper, silver, zinc and manganese were among those on the African Exploration and Mining Finance Corporation’s wish list) contributed to the richness of this wine.

The campaign, which was mobilised using social media, garnered both thousands of followers and vital attention within a matter of days and the public outcry forced the cessation of the proposal. Conservationists and lawyers said it was not often that efforts such as this succeeded and it has been adopted as a model in other contested areas.

Two months ago the five wine cellars which comprise Orange River Wine Cellars (ORWC) were all affected by the massive flooding which hit the region. Considering that the wineries – Upington, Grootdrink, Keimoes, Kakamas and Groblershoop – are separated geographically by roughly 400km, the extent of the worst flooding in four decades gains some perspective.

Herman Cruywagen, ORWC general manager, said this week that the intervening time had enabled accurate assessments of the extensive damage to be made. Around 800 hectares of vineyard of their members’ total 17 000ha was totally flooded. “There wasn’t too much direct damage to wine grapes or wine vineyards, not to the point where vines would have to be removed or replanted wholesale. Our yields or the tonnage that ORWC process is usually in the region of 150 000 to 160 000 tons. At the end of the day, our final figure is in the region of 120 000 tons which is fine. We’re satisfied with the quality that we received and believe that the 2011 harvest will still produce some good wines.” Roughly one third of all the grapes ORWC received are destined for bulk and bottled wine for a range of own labels and contract clients. The rest is used for fruit juice, distilling and rebate wine.

The difficulty arose at harvest time when farmers were either unable to access their vineyards in order to pick because of flood waters or be able to truck the harvested fruit to the respective wine cellars because the roads and bridges were flooded or washed out. Cruywagen said the problems were mainly infrastructural. “We have nearly 900 members who belong to ORWC and almost all of them are mixed farmers. They don’t farm wine grapes exclusively. Many of them produce table grapes or raisins – and it’s in those areas that the most damage was experienced. If our region actually manages to produce 20 000 tons of raisins this year it’ll be a lot…”

The flood had the biggest impact on irrigation equipment, canals, weirs and levees. The national government has already said there will be no assistance to farmers for crop losses. The loss of direct income to farmers in the Northern Cape has been estimated at R280 million. “That’s the kind of loss that the entire community feels,” Cruywagen said. “But it’s in the area of infrastructure that government is going to have to assist. There’s absolutely no way that farmers can replace what they’ve lost without State assistance. The levees and the irrigation canals are going to require major reconstruction because they stretch for kilometre upon kilometre.” Infrastructure damage is believed to exceed R1 billion.

Riesling is a grape variety that taxes the hearts and brains of wine writers and winemakers alike. It’s not a ‘love it or hate it’ grape but when you do love it, it really sets its hook into you.

A recent Riesling tasting in Cape Town set three local examples against some German examples – and the styles varied substantially. But there was one wine which gave me pause during the tasting. It was Howard Booysen’s wine.

One of my fellow tasters, a winemaker, said he would have been hard-pressed to pick it as a South African example. While this says a lot about the internationalisation or homogeneity of styles that have developed worldwide, it also speaks volumes about initiatives to train previously disadvantaged winemakers.

Howard Booysen was one of the original members of the Cape Winemakers Guild’s protégé scheme which was launched in 2006. The idea is that a promising young winemaker is granted the opportunity of working with Guild members over a three year period – and being paid to do so. It’s an internship with a difference because these promising youngsters are giving the phenomenal opportunity of working with and learning from a variety of the country’s best winemakers. What a great career kickstart when ending tertiary education!

Booysen spent time working with Carl Schultz at Hartenberg, Gary Jordan at Jordan, Graham Beck Wines with Pieter Ferreira as well as Bruce Jack at Flagstone. The Protégés spend between six months and a year with each mentor. The latest two recruits are Tamsyn Jeftha and Sacha Claassen who have begun their second harvest with their second mentors. Jeftha spent a year working at the Company of Wine People with Nicky Versfeld and has moved onto Jeff Grier at Villiera while Claassen has swopped Villiera for Nitida where she will be mentored by Bernard Veller. Meanwhile, Elmarie Botes is currently working her first harvest on the programme with John Loubser at Steenberg.

When launched under the auspices of the Nedbank Cape Winemakers Guild Trust, the aims and objectives of the programme were to not only transform the local wine industry by nurturing and cultivating promising young people who might previously have been denied such opportunities through lack of access to education or by economics, but to ultimately empower them to become ‘winemakers of excellence’.

On the evidence of Booysen’s Riesling, I think both the Guild and the greater South African wine fraternity can be happy about the results being produced.

Frances Horder, competitions director of the International Wine & Spirits Competition, is currently braving 40°C-plus temperatures in Paarl, South Africa, organising logistics. That’s because – for the first time ever – the IWSC will be judging South African wines in South Africa.

“Three years ago we were looking to expand the competition and decided to judge American wines in America – a sort of a Mohammed going to the mountain kind of thing – and it worked really well. It was expensive, logistically, but the costs were more than covered since we doubled our entry,” Horder said.

The IWSC is very cognisant of the strength of the rand and the pressure that local wine producers are under with regard to containing expenses – and international wine competition entries is one of those Horder said. “The entry fee doesn’t change but it does mean that the only transport costs involved are those of getting the samples to the Grande Roche in Paarl rather than shipping them overseas.” It is hoped that this cost saving is enough of an incentive for more local producers to enter.

“We’re very happy with the South African numbers as there’s a strong entry every year. We get around 700 entries and South Africa traditionally does well. We’re not expecting the entries to increase this year.”

Horder said that the American experiment turned up some interesting results. “We used local judges and were expecting results to improve – and quite the opposite happened. We found that the American judges were very hard on their own wines.”

The judging takes place in Paarl mid-July and local judges will be pressed into service. “We’ll be using a number of South African judges who would otherwise have travelled to the UK as well as some who haven’t judged at IWSC before.”A full day will be spent with all judges ahead of the final tasting in an induction process. “We want to ensure that all IWSC procedures and methods are followed throughout.”

All wines which win their respective classes will be shipped to the UK at the IWSC’s expense. Not only will these wines be technically analysed but will also go forward for consideration in the Trophy rounds for assessment by a full panel of international judges.

One difference between the judging at IWSC headquarters in the rural Surrey countryside and the charms of Paarl in mid-winter will be the lack of squealing tyres. The IWSC operates out of premises at an old World War II airfield, Dunsfold, which is also the venue for the popular motoring series, Top Gear! Dunsfold’s runway forms the “track” on which presenters Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May (and The Stig!) do high-speed vehicle tests.