The season looks promising, but a lot could still change leading up to the harvest. File picture: Adrian de Kock
SOUTH African wine grape producers expected a good but somewhat smaller 2023 wine grape crop following a healthy yet dry season, according to the first of four crop estimates issued by viticulturists and producer cellars.
Conrad Schutte, the manager of Vinpro’s team of viticulturists who issue the crop estimates with the industry body Sawis, said on Monday that at this very early stage the net decrease in the estimate was mainly attributed to all the growing regions that had experienced a drier season, except for the Northern Cape which has had its own difficult environmental conditions during and after the harvest.
“Poor flowering and set in various areas, together with the uprooting of vineyards, also contributed to the decrease in our estimate for the 2023 harvest,” Schutte said.
In the Northern Cape, where the season was characterised by unseasonably wet and rainy conditions, vines budded on a minimal reserve status, and from the beginning fewer bunches were formed. Foliage also budded poorly and even stopped temporarily in some instances.
In the rest of the regions, flowering conditions were good to outstanding. Few diseases and pests occurred, but the general average rainfall was lower in most regions compared to the previous year, which would then impact on berry sizes, especially in the dry land regions, thus influencing the total grape production.
In the intensive irrigation areas such as the Klein Karoo and Robertson, load shedding was said to have presented huge challenges due to irrigation schedules that had to change according to the availability of power.
Schutte said the season looked promising, but a lot could still change leading up to the harvest.
In October, Winetech and Vinpro partnered with wine grape producers, cellar representatives, viticulturists, and other interest groups in the wine industry during its recent information days. The latest research and innovation in viticulture were shared in the Olifants River, Paarl and Swartland, Worcester, Robertson and Breedekloof regions.
A total of five million tons of agrochemical formulations was sprayed annually in crop cultivation against pests.
According to Marius Ras from Ras Consult, until recently there was still little knowledge about the effectiveness of these formulations due to uncertainty as to whether they reached the primary target surfaces.
"New drop-site technology has changed everything. Now producers can measure and know what the formulation’s deposition will be. The technology is available, affordable, and easy to use,” Ras said at the time.
The next crop estimate by viticulturists and producer cellars will be released in the third week of January.
BUSINESS REPORT