As South Africans raise a toast to the lifting of the alcohol ban, the industry remains under enormous pressure to produce, promote, trade and consume alcohol responsibly. But what needs to change in order to avoid future bans, and keep the prohibitionists at bay?...
South Africans have been growing wine grapes since the 1600s, but have drastically adjusted their approach in the vineyard, especially over the past 50 years. Viticulturists speak to us about this evolution and what the future of wine grape cultivation holds. This is...
Prestigious experts from across the world will participate in this area for debate and reflection on the forthcoming WBWE with the aim to shed light on the commercial trade alternatives within this new global context. Some of the crucial topics that will be dealt with...
The winter of 2020 will probably be remembered for the Covid-19 lockdown and secondly for very cold conditions. With global warming in mind, it was nearly impossible to think of such a severe winter. Minimum temperatures reached -5 °C or lower multiple times and came...
Things just got more exciting and creative for winemakers with the launch of three new wine yeast strains from Fermentis, including SafŒno™ SH 12, an easy-to-use, active dry yeast ideal for Sauvignon Blanc. For a long time, yeast was considered a commodity, used for...
Roelof Joubert of Wildebeestkraal Boerdery in Limpopo, and his brothers FJ and Salmon, produce a range of soft citrus varieties on 120 hectares which are exported to the European Union, United Kingdom, Canada, the Middle East and China. FarmTrack is a GPS tracking...
As a winery, you and your colleagues have to wear many different hats. You don’t have all the time in the world to figure out a new system or software. That’s why one of Commerce7’s top priorities is ensuring that setup and use of their system is as easy as possible....
L’Avenir Wine Estate is delighted to be named as the official wine supplier for the NTT Pro Cycling team, Africa’s only registered World Tour outfit team. This partnership consolidates L’Avenir’s Sports Development Project and involvement in South African cycling...
When Nitida's award-winning winemaker Danie Keulder announced to the wine estate's owner Bernhard Veller that he was leaving to pursue opportunities overseas, Veller was rightly concerned that he was going to struggle to find a replacement winemaker who could fill...
Wine is the blood flowing through the veins of Natalie Jordaan – the only representative from the Cape Winelands at the prestigious 2020 Mrs. South Africa. We speak to the 36-year-old about her love for the wine industry and her path to pageantry. Born in Bonn,...
The alcohol industry will invest no less than R150 million in direct harm-reduction programmes over the coming year. The investment is to focus on upscaling existing programmes and finding new, innovative measures to deal with key areas of concern including the...
Netafim, one of the world's largest irrigation company, announced that following its successful community irrigation projects in India, it has secured another mega deal estimated at approximately $85 million (R1.4 billion) for providing advanced irrigation systems to...
The wine industry body Vinpro welcomes Abrie Beeslaar from Kanonkop Wine Estate as the newly elected board member for the Stellenbosch region. Abrie was nominated by the Vinpro members in the region as their representative following the resignation of Carl van der...
The new deadline for entries to the SA Young Wine Show is on the doorstep, after being postponed in view of Covid-19 realities – now set for 12 August. The organisers of this competition for young wines, produced in the current year and the oldest wine showdown in...
Renowned Stellenbosch winery, Eikendal, has embarked on a new era with the official appointment of Maryke Botha as its winemaker. Until recently, she served as assistant to cellar master Nico Grobler, who departs after an 11-year tenure to develop his own wine...
Crispy Farming in Ceres fitted 14 tractors with FarmTrack tracking devices in September last year as a management tool to record that orchards are sprayed accurately. “We encountered a problem with false codling moth (FCM) last year which led to major financial...
Putting ink to paper is fundamental to the print production of pressure sensitive labels (PSL). Inks add colour, tone and even texture to a design. Standard printing uses the four process colour inks cyan (C), magenta (M), yellow (Y) and black/key (K). K stands for...
ConeTech offers a unique service to the South African wine industry focused on client service excellence using the latest technology. Its wine services include: Mobile alcohol reduction – sweet spot determined using latest GoLo technology Alcohol...