The International Wine Review-South Africa 2012

South Africa’s reputation for making high quality wine is centuries’ old, but the world largely forgot it by the time apartheid ended less then 20 years ago. Since then the industry has rapidly modernized, and South African winemakers have reacquainted themselves with the rest of the wine world. In November 2011 we traveled to South Africa to meet many of these winemakers and to taste their wines. Although we had tasted South African wines in America, we were amazed by what we found. Not only is the wine scene highly dynamic with scores of new, young winemakers and freshly planted vineyards in remote regions, but South Africa is today producing some of the finest wines in the world.Despite producing more wine than Chile and about half that of the U.S., South African wine is still little known in other countries. While most of the grape varieties (excepting Pinotage) are familiar, the appellations, wineries, brand names, and winemakers by and large are not. The structure of the South African wine industry—many family-run, small-scale producers—makes the task of learning about and understanding wine there all the more challenging for the consumer and wine professional alike.