Why South African wines don’t sell in the UK

“When I tell people I’m covering South Africa for the Wine Advocate, they nearly always come back to me and say ‘what did you do wrong?’” Not a particularly promising opening statement from Neal Martin as he arrived to take part in the Old Mutual Trophy Wine Show judging. Thankfully a fabulous flight of Chardonnays rapidly changed his mind and a week’s further tasting his way around the Cape has clearly convinced him that there is a seriously exciting story waiting to be told about South African wine.

International wine judge Neal Martin

 

Which is a good thing, because if Martin is to be believed, then SA wine still has a long way to go in the UK market. “When you have a choice of what to spend your money on, people don’t often choose South African wine.” Why is that? He mused for a moment and then suggested that perhaps memories of negative events such as the green pepper/KWV scandal still linger – possibly even whiffs of apartheid and images of crime and disorder are all bound-up in the mental buying decision as well. Efforts to promote positive South African wine initiatives such as Fairtrade and BWI haven’t really registered in the UK in his opinion, although his interest was piqued when the protégé programme of the CWG was explained to him. “If there is no difference in price then perhaps people might choose a wine which was ‘good’ over another one. But the quality is going to have to be there too and that hasn’t always been the case in the past.”

At the end of the day, he believes it will be the traditional arguments of quality and price which will increase market share for South African wines in the UK. “You need to improve the quality of your wines at the lower end. Other countries such as Australia are offering much better value for entry level wines.” And on the subject of money, he also warns South African producers to keep an eye on international prices “if your wines cost as much as a Côtes-du-Rhône, then that is what people will choose over an SA wine, simply because it’s familiar. The only way to overcome this is on price.”

But it’s not all doom and gloom – in fact, far from it. “You need to be a bit more positive about your own wines and have a bit more confidence in them, because at the end of the day that is what people want to hear about. I’m only coming here to look for the good things, for wines which score 85+” he declares. The fact that he’s returning home full of zeal and enthusiasm for his forthcoming Wine Advocate report, suggests that he just might have found them.