Farmers battle the elements before harvest
Fires on the Paardeberg, heat waves in the Cape and floods along the Orange River. As harvest draws near, South African wine country is having a hard time dealing with the elements.
According to Vilafonté vineyard manager Edward Pietersen, the heat wave that swept the Western Cape some two weeks ago all but destroyed their Malbec harvest. “We lost 50% of our crop,” says Pietersen, adding that, fortunately, there hasn’t been any extensive damage to other varietals.
In the Cape winelands farmers also battled a wildfire on the south side of the Paardeberg mountain. The fire, which broke out on the mountain slopes on 12 January 2011, was contained by Monday 17 January 2011. According to Jane Eedes, in charge of sales and marketing at Vondeling wine farm in Paarl, there was no damage to crops due to the fast and effective reaction of Cape Town Unicity, the West Coast District Municipality and the Cape Winelands District Municipality, as well as the local landowners.
Yesterday Steenberg workers were also battling a fire which broke out on the bordering Silvermine nature reserve. At this stage the Constantia wine farm is reporting that there is no damage to crops.
Up north, grape farmers alongside the Orange River were hit with massive floods last week. Linked to the heavy rainfall experienced upcountry, the preventive water-release measures of dams such as the Gariep caused damage to vineyards stretching some 400km along the riverbanks. According to Landbou.com, 33 farmers along the Orange River banks in the Grootdrink district lost their entire crop to floods.
Farmers in the area supply grapes to Orange River Wine Cellars, but MD Herman Cruywagen says he is “cautiously optimistic” that the damage won’t be that extensive. On Wednesday flood waters were subsiding and bridges reopened, enabling farmers to investigate all areas to calculate the damage.
“At this point in time the damage to the wine grapes doesn’t look to be extensive. Red wine cultivars seem fine, and it does not seem like our top vineyards have been damaged,” said Cruywagen.
He added that the fact that the flooding took place before the main harvest activities is a positive. “But of course in any situation you have to be realistic. Yes, there is a lot of damage, but, at this stage not all looks bleak,” he said.
For more information and pictures see www.landbou.com.
