Wines of South Africa

I'm really enjoying the South Africa bit of Unit 3 of my Diploma studies. It's a much more manageable country to study than somewhere like France where there are significant distinctions between the various regions in the south without taking into account the rest of the country.

There are several very useful web sites that help bring the WSET notes and the Oxford Companion to life. Given the need to take on board some statistics, the SA wine information systems site also helps with numbers. So South Africa has the fifteenth largest area under vine in the world but produces the eighth largest volume of wine? They export most to the UK where we take more white than red whilst Germany, their second largest export market, takes more red than white. It's amazing what you learn when you are studying.

I'm also very impressed with SA Wines online web site. I decided to order a case of wines so I could taste my way around the country. You can search by grape, producer and region and links exist to each producer's web site. The wines seem good value and the important producers are all represented.

Next study stop is North Africa which doesn't immediately spring to mind as a significant wine producing region, although I was in Morocco last year and was surprised how much local wine there was.