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The annual SA Wine Harvest report states that wine lovers from across the globe can enjoy outstanding wines from a much cooler and later 2021 wine grape season in South Africa.
Conrad Schutte of wine industry body Vinpro says it seems as though the vines really took their time to prepare this year’s harvest, resulting in grapes ripening slower, while developing exceptional colour and flavour.
The 2021 wine grape crop is estimated at 1.46 million tonnes which are 8.9% larger than the 2020 harvest.
The harvest kicked off around two weeks later than normal due to unusually cool weather conditions throughout the season, resulting in some wine grape producers only harvesting their last grapes in May.
The 2021 wine harvest – including juice and concentrate for non-alcoholic purposes, wine for brandy and distilling wine is expected to amount to 1.136 million litres at an average recovery of 778 litres per ton of grapes.
