1300 South African wines to choose from

Südafrikaner steht vor einem Tisch mit Weinflaschen und schaut sich eine Flasche, die er in der Hand hält genauer an

From everyday wines to top wines, find your favourite wine in Germany's largest range of South African wines!

The cradle of wine growing in South Africa was in Cape Town. At the southern tip of the African continent, where two oceans meet, the elegance of the classic old wine world and the fruity wine styles of the New World come together today. The unique terroir at the Cape stands for wines with an enormous variety of flavours, from full-bodied and hearty red wines to light, fruity white wines. South Africa has become one of the most exciting wine countries in the world.

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Interesting facts about South Africa as a wine country

Strictly speaking, the history of viticulture in South Africa began with the stranding of a Dutch sailing ship. It was in 1647 when the "Nieuw Haerlem" ran into a storm at the "Cape of Good Hope" and sank. The crew of the ship saved themselves on land and from then on sent enthusiastic reports home to the Netherlands. There they were delighted with the abundance of fresh water, fish and game in faraway South Africa and decided to set up a provisioning station at the Cape for merchant ships on the route from Europe to India.

So it was that five years after the shipwreck, the Dutch East India Company sent the merchant Jan van Riebeeck to the Cape region with the task of cultivating the land there. He not only took care of grain and fruit cultivation, but also ordered the first vines from France, the Rhineland and Spain in 1655 and planted them on the Company's land in Table Bay near Cape Town. From then on, it took another four years until Riebeeck's diary entry on 2 February 1659: "Today, God be praised and thanked, wine was pressed from the grapes at the Cape for the first time, and the fresh must was tasted straight from the barrel."

Cape Town - the gateway to South Africa's wine-growing regions

The cradle of winegrowing in South Africa was in Cape Town. And the South African capital is still the gateway to the wine-growing regions of the Cape, where the elegance of the classic old wine world and the fruity wine styles of the New World come together at the southern tip of the African continent, where two oceans meet. The unique terroir at the Cape stands for wines with an enormous variety of flavours, from full-bodied and hearty red wines to heavy, fruity white wines. South Africa has become one of the most exciting wine regions in the world.

Winegrowing in harmony with nature

In terms of taste, the wines of South African winegrowers are now at the forefront of wine lovers' favourites. And South Africa's winegrowers can also score points with their customers when it comes to sustainability . They recognised early on that it is important to protect the environment and have therefore invested in research and development. At the same time, South African winegrowers optimised the official control systems in order to make the process from the vine to the bottle transparent. In 1998, the South African wine industry was one of the first wine nations to draw up guidelines for a sustainable winegrowing programme. The Intergrated Production of Wine (IPW) regulations provide winegrowers with comprehensive guidelines for the entire production process and wine lovers can be sure of enjoying a truly sustainable product.

Wine of Origin" seal as a guarantee of authenticity for South African wines

Almost 95 percent of Cape winegrowers also cultivate their grapes in accordance with the sustainability standards of the international wine organisations FIVS and OIV. The "Sustainable Wines of South Africa" seal allows wine lovers to recognise certified wine production in harmony with nature. And South African winegrowers have gone one better: in 2004, they founded the "Biodiversity & Wine Initiative" and voluntarily placed large areas of vineyards under nature protection in order to preserve South Africa's diverse flora and fauna.

Since 1973, the "Wine of Origin" seal has also guaranteed the authenticity of South African wines in terms of grape variety, vintage and origin. All information on the label can be traced using an identification number. South African wine is probably one of the best certified in the world. A wine enjoyment where you can be sure with every sip that you have done something good for the diversity of South African nature.

Constantia sweet wine as the first milestone

The success story of South African wine could hardly have been better imagined by Jan van Riebeeck as the founder of South African viticulture three and a half centuries earlier. It began with the planting of a vineyard in Bishops Court, which van Riebeeck planted with around 1000 vines and which, after his death, passed to Simon van der Stel, his successor as Cape Governor. Van der Stel, a recognised Dutch wine connoisseur and viticultural expert, not only planted the first vineyard in the Steenberge in Constantia in 1685, he also founded his wine estate "Constantia Estate" on 750 hectares in a valley facing the famous False Bay.

It wasn't long before Van der Stel invented the "Vin de Constance", a sweet wine made from the Muscatel, Pontac and Frontignac grape varieties as well as red and white muscatel, which made him famous and was still considered the most valuable wine in the Cape region around 200 years later. The German King Frederick the Great of Prussia enjoyed drinking it just as much as the Danish Foreign Minister Johann Sigismund Schulin, the French poet Charles Baudelaire, Napoleon Bonaparte and the British writer Jane Austen. The first milestone in South African viticulture was laid and soon the winegrowers in the Cape followed the successful example of their governors. Professional viticulture in the Western Cape took off. Today, the wine-growing region around Cape Town is considered the oldest and most famous wine-growing area in South Africa.

Huguenots revolutionised South African viticulture

French Huguenots opened a new chapter in the eventful history of South African viticulture in 1688. They planted the first vineyards in the Drakenstein Valley, today's Franschhoek region, where cereals had previously been grown. The Huguenots had profound expertise and revolutionised South African wine. It was given a completely new quality and a refined flavour. The French are also regarded as the founders of the Boschendal and Annandale Wines estates, which still exist today.

First heyday in the 19th century

Nevertheless, it was a long time before South African wines finally made their international breakthrough. The 18th century is regarded as a learning phase, which was mainly due to an export boycott. The established European wine nations had no interest in competition from the Cape and supplied too few wine barrels to South Africa. While some winegrowers, out of desperation, used barrels that had once been used to store cured meat for wine production, others experimented with different grape varieties in different regions. With great success, as viticulture in South Africa experienced its first heyday in the first half of the 19th century. Production increased tenfold to around 45,000 hectolitres per year.

New vines for more quality and wines with international flair

However, the next slump was not long in coming. Phylloxera also ravaged South Africa in 1886, destroying almost all of the country's vines. It took until the beginning of the 20th century for the winegrowers to recover from the catastrophe. Over the next few decades, South African winegrowers planted more than 80 million new vines with phylloxera-resistant American roots and from then on focussed on even higher quality. However, it was primarily European immigrants, who worked in the South African diamond and gold mines and were very fond of liquid gold, who initially benefited from the wines that were produced and could have easily held their own in international comparison. Trade relations with Europe were hardly possible until the mid-1980s due to South Africa's apartheid policy. Only the "Lieberstein", a semi-dry white wine from the Stellenbosch Farmers' Winery, became the first globally successful South African wine brand thanks to aggressive advertising strategies.

New knowledge and fresh ideas for South African wine

The upswing in South African winemaking came with the end of apartheid in 1990. Not only were new vine cuttings allowed to be imported into South Africa again, but the modernisation of the South African wine industry also began. The joint export association "Wines of South Africa" for international marketing was founded and a young generation of winemakers and cellar masters gained their first experience abroad. The new knowledge and fresh ideas led to a change in the style of South African wines: more internationally recognised and high-quality grape varieties such as Chardonnay and Cabernet Sauvignon were planted, laying the foundation for internationally important wines. Today, there are more than a dozen wine-growing regions with over 550 private wine estates covering an area of almost 97,000 hectares in Cape Town. Well over 1200 million litres of wine are now produced there every year and a good half is exported. South African winegrowers supply almost 600 wineries, 60 co-operatives and over 20 producing wholesalers. In short: winegrowing in South Africa is now an important economic factor!

The Beluga Current ensures the best wine-growing climate

South Africa's wine-growing regions are among the most beautiful in the world and are located almost exclusively in the south of the country in the Western Cape province. They lie between 27 and 34 degrees south latitude and are rarely more than 50 kilometres from the coast. It is the proximity to the coast that makes viticulture in the region possible at all. The proximity to the oceans and the cooling Benguela Current ensure a temperate maritime climate and therefore optimal conditions.

Special quality from the Western Cape

The organisation of the Western Cape wine-growing region is difficult for the layman to understand. Roughly speaking, there are four regions, which in turn are divided into 20 districts and 60 wards. The almost 97,000 hectares of vineyards in the Western Cape are also divided into two geographical units: The very mountainous Coastal Region around Cape Town, bordered by the Boland Mountains, which is rainy and moderately warm, and the rather dry and hot region around Worcester in the Breede River Valley , as well as the semi-desert region of Klein Karoo, which is bordered by the Swartberg mountain ranges to the north and the Langeberg and Outeniqua mountains to the south. Sauvignon Blanc grows very well along the cool coastal region, while Chenin Blanc, Pinotage and Shiraz/Syrah vines are predominantly cultivated in the hotter inland areas.

Coastal Region: Appreciated by wine lovers worldwide

Whether rainy and cool or dry and hot: the Coastal Region stands for world-famous wine-growing areas such as Cape Point, Constantia, Darling, Franschhoek, Paarl, Swartland, Tulbagh and Tygerberg. Perhaps the best-known wine region in South Africa is Stellenbosch. Located around 50 kilometres east of Cape Town, the wine-growing region stretches from the Boland mountain landscape with its reservoirs and fertile valleys to False Bay in the south and Paarl in the north. Vineyards in Stellenbosch can be found at altitudes of up to 600 metres, on the fertile alluvial plains along the Eeste River, in the primary rock in the east and north and in the Table Mountain granite in the west. The area is a real treasure trove for winegrowers. The diversity of the soil, the climate and the vines provide the basis for over 200 wine estates to produce dark red and tannin-rich red wines from Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Shiraz/Syrah or Pinotage grapes. Sauvignon Blanc, Chardonnay and Chenin Blanc grow on the high slopes of the Simonsberg and Helderberg, from which powerful, fruit-orientated white wines are made. The winegrowers also like to produce Cabernet Sauvignon as a cuvée. All in all, Stellenbosch today stands for the highest density of top wine estates in South Africa.

Excellent South African red wines and cuvées

Located north of Stellenbosch is the relatively warm and elongated Franschhoek valley. Almost the entire range of South African grape varieties is cultivated here in the midst of high mountains. Thanks to the special microclimate, it is mainly Syrah and Cabernet Sauvignon vines that thrive here, from which excellent full-bodied red wines are made. Sémillon is also a speciality of the region. In the historic valley of Constantia, once world-famous for its sweet wines, there are only a few wineries left today. The winegrowing scene there is essentially dominated by the state-owned Groot Constantia estate, the Klein Constantia family winery and the Buitenverwachting estate, which is in German hands. They specialise mainly in the cultivation of Sauvignon Blanc, which is given its characteristic freshness by the winds from the sea. The Chardonnays produced here are among the best in South Africa. The Constantia region is also famous for its Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon cuvées. Together with Elgin, Swartland and Elim, Constantia is one of the prominent hotspots of the South African wine industry.

The Breede River Valley

The Breede River Valley wine-growing region lies to the east of the Drakensberg. Almost 40 per cent of South Africa's wines are produced here. It is divided into the Breedekloof, Robertson, Worcester and Swellendam growing areas. The best-known area for wine lovers is probably the Robertson district. Large private wineries, which are among the most successful in the country, characterise the area, which is primarily a white wine region. Westerly winds provide cool air and ensure that the Chardonnay grape thrives particularly well. However, red wines from Shiraz and Cabernet Sauvignon are also produced in Robertson in excellent quality.

The Worcester district is dominated by co-operatives and large wineries. They mainly process the white grape varieties Chardonnay, Chenin Blanc, Colombard and Sauvignon Blanc. Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Pinotage and Syrah grapes are used to produce red wines. White wines from South Africa: from floral to Burgundian. The diversity of the South African terroir is reflected in the variety of authorised grape varieties. Among the white grape varieties, three grapes dominate South African viticulture. The most commonly cultivated grape is Chenin Blanc, also known as "Steen" in South Africa. Although a large proportion of Chenin Blanc wine is used for brandy production, the grape variety also produces excellent wines with notes of peach and pleasant floral aromas. When matured in wood, Chenin Blanc wine has a Burgundian flavour.

Sauvignon Blanc - a perfect summer wine

In second place among the white grapes is the Sauvignon Blanc, which produces very fresh wines with gooseberry and citrus flavours and therefore perfect summer wines to enjoy straight away. In regions with a milder climate, Chardonnay vines are cultivated to produce first-class white wines with a rich structure that are ideal accompaniments to food. Sémillon wines are considered a speciality of the Stellenbosch region. Other important white South African grape varieties are Sultanat, Colombard and Cape Riesling.

Red wines from South Africa: flavoursome and complex

In recent decades, South African winegrowers have increasingly focussed on red wines made from the Cabernet Sauvignon, Petit Verdot, Shiraz/Syrah and Pinot Noir varieties, among others. And not forgetting South Africa's famous Pinotage, which was developed in 1925 as an indigenous grape variety. The Pinotage grape was created by crossing Cinsault (then called "Hermitage" in South Africa) and Pinot Noir. Wines from Pinotage vines are very full-bodied with flavours of leather, tobacco and black berries.

Cabernet Sauvignon - Spicy wines with character

Cabernet Sauvignon is the most widely cultivated South African grape today. It is synonymous with particularly flavoursome and complex wines that have their very own character and are now highly regarded internationally. Together with the Merlot grape, Cabernet Sauvignon is also blended into a kind of Bordeaux cuvée. One hundred per cent Merlot wines are rare and are mainly found in the Coastal Region. They are usually very fruity and aromatic with a flavour profile characterised by red berries. South African Syrah wines are also becoming increasingly popular with wine lovers. They usually have a pronounced chocolate flavour and great spice aromas.

Here you will find a few typical English (South African) terms in the language of wine.

Balling - is a common measuring system in South Africa for determining the must concentration

Blend - also known as a cuvée, a blend of high-quality wines

Boutique winery - small winery that produces wine with the greatest care and attention to detail

Bushvines - in some growing regions of South Africa, vines grow in the shape of a bush with a low trunk on which the shoots are arranged in a circle

Cultivar - Botanical term for cultivated grape varieties

Finish - the aftertaste of a wine that lingers on the tongue after swallowing

Premium - Wines with the best and most sought-after quality, also used for premium varieties and the resulting wines, e.g. Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc, Merlot or Cabernet Sauvignon

Skin contact - maceration on the grape skins to extract colour and flavours, typical in red wine production, rather atypical for white wine

Steen South African name for Chenin Blanc

Vintage - vintage year

Winemaker - New World winemaker, usually a cellar technician with oenological training

Winery - wine estate, wine cellar