South African grape harvest produces larger than expected yield

South African wine producers are looking forward to a bigger than expected harvest, with some "exceptional" wines from the 2017 vintage.

At 1,425,283 tonnes, the yield is higher than initially anticipated, up by  1.4% on last year.

"A decrease was expected due to the second consecutive very dry, hot season," said wine industry body VinPro. "However, cooler nights throughout the growing season and the absence of significant heatwaves during harvest time buffered the efffect of the drought to some extent," said VinPro's viticulture service manager Francois Viljoen.

Crops in the Swartland and Paarl regions have seen an increase in the size of their crops this year, after sharp declines in 2016. While Robertson's production was close to the record harvest last year, Olifants River and Breedekloof increased somewhat following small crops last year. And in the Northern Cape, Stellenbosch and Worcester regions, slightly smaller yields were reported, with a much smaller harvest in the Klein Karoo.

While higher rainfall brought relief to some regions, it was still well below average and the warmer weather meant producers had to manage their water usage very carefully.

However, the dry conditions have resulted in healthy vineyards and smaller berries with good colour and flavour concentration. These conditions, combined with the ideal cool weather during the harvest make for an exceptional quality grape harvest, according to Viljoen.

 “Having spoken to many of our producers, general sentiment is that the harvest was one of the best seen in many years, specifically in terms of quality," said Wines of South Africa's CEO Siobhan Thompson.  "The cooler than normal weather experienced in February saw to more even ripening periods and winemakers from various regions have commented positively on the outcome, despite the challenging weather conditions we’ve experienced. We are looking forward to seeing what this somewhat exceptional vintage does for South African wines as a whole in international markets.".

“We are grateful that the weather played along during the 2017 harvest, but looking towards the 2018 wine grape season that is around the corner, we are really hoping for rain during the upcoming post-harvest and winter period,” added Viljoen.

South Africa is the 8th largest wine producer world-wide and produces about 4.1% of the world’s wine.