Let’s hear it for South Africa

Drought, wildfires and now pestilence have hit South Africa’s wine industry hard. Jonathan Ray explains how you can do your bit to save the day – and enjoy it

I’M slightly richer than I thought. Or, more accurately, I’m marginally less broke than I feared. I’m usually boracic at this time of year, my net income invariably failing to cover my gross habits (to paraphrase the great Errol Flynn). Amazingly, I’m nearer to being out of the red than I have been for yonks thanks to the fact that almost all the hard-earned do-re-mi that I forked out for trips to Lord’s, Glorious Goodwood, Royal Ascot, Glyndebourne, the Brighton Festival and so on has come winging back to me, what with 2020 having been more or less cancelled. And all the dosh I would normally have spent on carousing around town is still safely in the bank propping up my overdraft. And, yes, before you ask, I did do the right thing and asked one or two venues to keep some of the refunded ticket price.

Other than that, my greatest expenditure this year has been on the 2019 Bordeaux en primeur campaign. Not that I’m likely to live to see the finer wines in their full maturity, pomp and glory, given my great age. In truth, I got a bit carried away but, heck, why not? It was a cracking vintage; prices were down some 30% on last year and there were many bargains to be had. I mean, who wouldn’t want to snap up some 2019 Château Cissac at £105 per dozen In Bond? (If you hurry, you can still find some.) Oh, and thanks to HMRC treating wine as a wasting asset, if I come to sell some of the higher end wines in a year or so and reinvest the proceeds, there’ll be no capital gains tax due. Hurrah!

Anyway, the result of such vinous profligacy was that Mrs Ray put her dainty little foot down and banned me from buying any more wine. Until now, that is, and I’ll tell you why: the winemakers of South Africa are in a bit of a jam and, with the UK the largest export market for their wines, they desperately need our help.

At the time of writing there’s a ban on all domestic alcohol sales in South Africa and a 9pm curfew, a decision taken by the government in order to keep hospital beds free from those suffering from drink-related ailments and thus available for COVID-19 patients. This follows a previous nine-week ban, which started at the end of March and not only prohibited domestic wine sales but also (for five weeks) any wine exports. There was a time when it was feared that wine production would have stop altogether and that the harvest (being gathered as the ban took hold) would be lost.

This wretched plague and pestilence has hit the South African wine industry hard, putting thousands of jobs and scores of wineries at risk, not least because it comes on top of terrible wildfires a year or so back and severe drought, which brought many producers to their knees. The tourism industry, too, has taken a body blow and, although wineries are open to visitors, the current ban means no cellar-door sales are permitted either.

Despite the domestic ban, wine exports are now permitted again and it should be the solemn duty of every British wine lover to buy and drink as much Saffa wine as they can. That shouldn’t be too much of a chore because the wines have never been more exciting and there is just so much to enjoy. Wines I particularly admire include those of Glenelly, Journey’s End, Thelema, Rustenburg and Tokara in Stellenbosch; Boekenhoutskloof, La Motte and La Petite Ferme in Franschoek; Fairview and Nederburg in Paarl, Paul Cluver in Elgin and the world class Pinot Noirs and Chardonnays of Hamilton Russell in the Hemel-en-aarde Valley. Oh and don’t forget that Méthode Cap Classique, the term South Africa gives its traditional method sparklers, is probably the best value champagne-style fizz around.

Happily, UK retailers are doing their bit to encourage us. The Co-op, for example, the largest retailer of Fairtrade wine in the country, doubled its rate of ordering wine from South Africa to help protect farmers during the key harvest period and to secure the cost of grapes in these uncertain times. If you fancy heading to your local Co-op (and you should, for I reckon it’s second only to Waitrose among supermarkets in the quality of its wine department), you won’t have to spend a fortune stocking up as the stores currently have some 40 or so South African wines available between £4.60 and £10. I mean, how much encouragement do you need?

Winemakers of South Africa are in a bit of a jam and they desperately need our help