STELLENBOSCH, South Africa, Sept. 27 (UPI) -- The vestiges of colonial plantations exist alongside South Africa's poorest shanties which cloud the reality of the country's wine region, a fairy-tale landscape of ferocious mountains peering over rolling lush meadows, eucalyptus-lined driveways and electrified vineyard fences.
All the better, then, that free wine samplings are available to numb the senses.
The wine industry is big business in South Africa, sprawling 106,331 hectares on the shoulder of the peninsular arm that is Cape Town. In fact, the region accounts for 1.5 percent of the world's vineyards and produces 3 percent of the world's wine.
And in a country with unemployment levels reaching the 25 percent range, an industry that employs almost 350,000 people is one that can't be neglected. From the looks of it, South African wines are capitalizing on that realization from every angle possible.
One aspect that South Africa has on its side is tourism, worth $350 million per year in the wine region alone and maintains over 48,000 jobs, according to the country's Wine Industry Information & Services.
This month, over 300 wine and grape producers in the Stellenbosch region solidified a partnership with credit card giant American Express to promote the region's tourism industry. The partnership aims to market the region -- one that is visited by 45 percent of tourists in the Western Cape Province-- as a consolidated whole.
On wine exports, South Africa is making strides to become competitive with the big players. Last year, the country's wine exports grew by 23 percent, compared with France and Canada's exports which grew by 93 percent and 49 percent, respectively.
And it appears that the European market will be South Africa's leading port of call for wines. Last January, the European Union signed an agreement that increases the annual quota on duty-free access of South African wine into the EU from the current 32 million liters a year to 42 million liters a year. If all goes as planned, 72.6 percent of South Africa's wine exports will end up in European stores and restaurants.
The UK remains South Africa's undisputed primary customer, pulling in over 50 percent of the country's exports.
While South African experts say there is an increasing openness to its, albeit minimal, access to Asian markets, North America seems to be the most difficult market to breach.
"In the U.S. there is a cyclic, repetitive tier system that one has to go through involving importers, distributors and retailers," says Murray Giggins, cofounder of the Cape Town-based Wine Concepts. "And in Canada, our businesses have to adjust to an exclusively government-run system that can get very complicated."
Compounding this problem, he says, are state tariffs in the United States, which can run as high as 35 percent. And in the case of some Southern states, wine imports are banned altogether.
Exports usually tell an interesting story in developing countries that are prone to the whims of a temperamental world economy, and South Africa's wines have been one such example. The collapse of Argentina's economy last year flooded the global wine market with cheap Argentinean wines, which were already running at overproduction levels of 20 percent.
But in December, before South Africa's local wine market felt the blow of Argentinean cheap imports, the rand (South Africa's currency) plunged to historic lows of 13.8 to the dollar, and backlogged wine reservoirs were soon relieved.
Meanwhile, Chilean wines, famous for the chianti variety, are catching pace on South Africa's exporting success, according to Giggins. But the long-term effects might still fall in South Africa's favor.
"The Chileans may be able to make greater quantities than South Africa, but this actually makes their ability to invest in new wines prohibitive," says Giggins. "We're currently finding ways of innovating on what we already have, in addition to building our output capacity."
South African wine experts are positive that this year's production of Sauvignon Blanc, Shiraz and Red Blend varieties will carry the torch in world repute, with estates such as Rustenburg (with their flagship red, Peter Barlow) and Paul Cluver (featuring a 2002 Sauvignon vintage) taking the lead.
According to André Morgenthal, communications director for Wines of South Africa, 2002 won't be the year for the country's exclusive Pinotage variety, which is made from a grape indigenous to South Africa and affects a taste often described as "tangy" or "peppery." But he says that most wineries will spend the year fine-tuning their Pinotage production methods.
But South Africa has more than unusual grapes that put its wine industry on the map. It's also the origin of a global winemaking trend known as the Integrated Production of Wine system, which sets international standards in sustainable grape growing, production practices and waste management. The system, which was established by the country's ministry of agriculture in 1998, covers 98 percent of South Africa's grape harvests, and 95 percent of the country's wine cellars as being registered under IPW guidelines.
"This system not only sets universal standards on sustainable grape growing and wine production, but it makes South Africa's a leader in the global wine industry," says Andries Tromp, board member of the Wine and Spirit Board, a governmental body appointed by South Africa's ministry of agriculture.
IPW guidelines are being implemented in several Californian wineries, and has already caught on in Europe, Latin America and New Zealand.
