Producers predict quality wine from small harvest

South Africa's wine grape harvest is smaller than usual, but wine producers say the quality will be the best to be seen in years.

They attribute this to the cooler summer weather, which meant ripening was slow.

Because of this, the harvesting period was delayed and was more than a month shorter than usual.

Erhard Wolf, who heads the grape and wine buying team of Distell, the wine and spirits conglomerate, described the quality of this year's harvest as "outstanding, despite a picking season that was shorter than average, placing enormous pressure on harvesters and cellar resources".

When necessary, picking was done after dark or before dawn to ensure grapes were gathered at their best, he said.

Callie van Niekerk, the general manager of Distell's cellars, said that by making integrated use of cellar capacity across the company, which included a wide spread of vineyards, bottlenecks had been avoided and it had been possible to press the grapes as soon as they were delivered.

Vinpro, the organisation representing the independent wine producers, agreed with Wolf's description.

Johan Viljoen, Vinpro's viticultural consultant, said an analysis of all the types of grapes showed "the best quality in years …

"All indications are that we can expect full, soft wines from this year's harvest."

Richard Rowe, KWV's chief wine maker, said: "I concur with Distell that the high quality this year is due to the cooler spring and summer and late ripening."