South African wine grape producers expect a good, but somewhat smaller 2023 wine grape crop following a healthy, yet dry season. This is according to the first of four crop estimates issued by viticulturists and producer cellars.
“At this very early stage the net decrease in the estimate is mainly attributed to all our growing regions that have experienced a drier season, except for the Northern Cape which has had its own difficult environmental conditions during and after the harvest,” says Conrad Schutte, manager of Vinpro’s team of viticulturists who issue the crop estimates with the industry body SAWIS. “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.”
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 will have an impact on berry sizes, especially in the dryland regions, thus influencing the total grape production. In the intensive irrigation areas such as the Klein Karoo and Robertson, loadshedding also presented huge challenges due to irrigation schedules that had to change according to the availability of power.