The History of Wine Making in South Africa

A historical chronology of events and influences

• 1652 The Dutch East India Company (Jan Van Riebeeck and his party) establish the first european settlement at the Cape Of Good Hope.
• 1657 First Free Burgher farmers released from Company service to work their own land.
• 1659 February 2, Van Riebeeck records the making of the first wine at the Cape.
• 1662 Van Riebeeck leaves the Cape for the East Indies.
• 1679 Appointment of Simon van der Stel as Commander of the Settlement. Later in the same year, his foundation of the town of Stellenbosch.
• 1688 Arrival of the first Huguenot immigrants.
• 1699 Simon van der Stel retires to his estate at Constantia. His son, Willem Adriaan van der Stel takes his place as Governor. The first modest exports of wine from the Cape take place.
• 1708 Willem Adriaan departs to exile in Holland
• 1761/2 The first notable exports of red and white Contantia wine takes place.
• 1778 Groot Constantia is acquired by the Cloete family. The following decades see the sweet Contantia wine winning acclaim throughout Europe.
• 1795 The first British occupation of the Cape.
• 1802 The end of the first British occupation of the Cape.
• 1806 The Battle of Blaauwberg and the start of the second British occupation of the Cape.
• 1811 Quality control instituted by the British authorities in the Cape on wines exported from the Colony.
• 1825 The British Government imposes heavy tariifs on the importation of French wines and sales of Cape wine in Britain increase rapidly.
• 1834 Emancipation of slaves and the start of the Great Trek.
• 1860 First appearance of the phylloxera epidemic in the French vineyards.
• 1861 Palmerston Government reduces tariffs on French wine imports which had protected the Cape wine market.
• 1863 Louis Pastuer's investigations into the diseases of wine in France.
• 1885 The appearance of phylloxera in the Cape vineyards.
• 1886 Discovery of gold in the Witwatersrand
• 1899 Start of the Second Anglo-Boer war.
• 1906 Formation of the first SA wine co-operatives, the first being the Drostdy in Tulbagh.
• 1909 Overproduction causes a slump in wine prices to an all-time low.
• 1910 The Union of South Africa is established.
• 1918 Serious over-production leads to great quantities of unsaleable wine being poured down the drain. The KWV is formed.
• 1924 KWV is empowered to fix the minimum price for distilling wine.
• 1925 Professor Perold crosses various vines which eventually give rise to the first specimens of the Pinotage cultivar.
• 1935 Formation of the Stellenbosch Farmers' Winery (SFW)
• 1940 KWV empowered to fix the minimum price for good wine.
• 1945 Formation of the Distillers Corporation. The years following the Second World War see the further development of cold fermentation which gives impetus to the production of quality white wines.
• 1948 The National Party comes to power. Start of the Apartheid policy.
• 1950 Gilbeys (SA) formed.
• 1955 Oenological and Viticultural Research Institute established at Nietvoorbij outside Stellenbosch.
• 1961 First bottled pinotage appears. First Lieberstein marketed.
• 1965 Amalgamation of Stellenbosch Farmers' Winery, Monis of Paarl and Nederburg.
• 1971 Stellenbosch Wine Route opened.
• 1973 South African Wine of Origin (bus tickets) legislation is implemented.
• 1975 First auction of rare Cape wines at Nederburg.
• 1979 Formation of Cape Wine and Distillers.
• 1980 The newly formed Cape Wine Academy begins courses for the trade and public.
• 1983 The Mouton Commission recommends a less monopolistic structure for the wine industry, but this is not accepted by the Government.
• 1991(?) Wine of origin legislation is changed.
• 1994 April 27, End of apartheid era! More free trade?