Top White Grape Varieties Planted in South Africa, 2017

Cultivars used for Champagne and Sparkling wines

At the recent Champagne & and Sparkling Wine World Championships 216 wines were awarded with either gold (119 wines) or silver (97 wines) medals.

The most used cultivars were Chardonnay, Pinot noir and Pinot Meunier. Other noteworthy cultivars were Glera for Prosecco sparkling wines and Chenin blanc mostly for Loire sparkling wines. Other cultivars used include Pinot blanc, Riesling, Furmint, Gruner Veltliner, Pinot gris and Malbec.

Source: https://www.champagnesparklingwwc.co.uk/results/results-2018/

Chardonnay ENTAV 1066

ENTAV Chardonnay clone 1066 with much improved fruitset this year

Pontac

Pontac

Synonyms

Dix fois coloré — ‘coloured 10 times’, Teinturier mâle (France); Färbertraube, Tintewein (Germany); Pontacq, Pontak (South Africa).

  

Origin and cultivation background

Pontac is one of the oldest cultivars in South Africa and was probably cultivated in Van Riebeeck’s time, but definitely in the Van der Stel era. As early as 1772, the Dutch ship De Hoop carried, along with other wines and brandies, a leaguer of Pontac to the Netherlands, where it was sold at a price four times that of Chenin blanc.

Prof. Perold proved that Pontac is similar to Teinturier mâle. Documentary evidence that the early Cape cultivars came from France (probably from western and south-western France) posed the question whether South African Pontac might have a connection to the famous Pontac family of  Bordeaux, after whom the small area south of Bordeaux is named. Until relatively recently, fortified sweet Pontac was quite popular in South Africa, but it hardly exists any more. The cultivar is still grown, however, with limited quantities found in all the regions, except for the Orange River and Paarl areas.

Cultivation characteristics

Pontac has moderate vigour and a semi-upright growth habit. Grows best on relatively fertile soils in the warmer regions. The yield potential is medium to low because of its small bunches. Despite the high fertility of the basal buds, cane pruning and low trellising are often utilised in order to achieve satisfactory crops. Susceptible to oidium but reasonably resistant to other diseases — a normal spray programme should be followed, however. Under ideal conditions it produces a rich, red juice with a very strong, characteristic bouquet that can be used with great success to produce fortified, sweet Pontac wines. Good compatibility with commercial rootstocks.

GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS

Yield potential

8 -10 tons per ha

Average sugar concentration

23—2 5°B

Average acid concentration

8—9 g/l

Clone characteristics :

The available clones are characterised by good quality stable colour, and grass and

berry flavours.

MORPHOLOGY :

Shoot tips

Felty, white with violet-red colouration around the margins.

Leaves

Small, round, five-lobed, dark green, markedly blistered, downy underneath. The petiole sinus is lyre-shaped and closed to overlapping. .

The apical and middle sinuses are reasonably deep and open. The teeth are short, blunt and convex. The petiole is red. Leaves often display early autumn colours (probably as a result of leaf roll infection).

Bunches

Small, cylindrical to somewhat conical, usually fairly compact. The peduncle is short, thick

and tough.

Berries

Medium-sized, practically round, dark black when fully ripe with moderate bloom. The skin

is thick and tough. The pulp ¡s blood red with little juice when fully ripe. Coloured juice. The

brush is blood red.

PHENOLOGY

Bud burst

First half of September.

Flowering

End of October to first half of November.

Ripening

Mid-season, first half of March.

(Grape Cultivars for wine Production in South Africa – PG Goussard)

New varieties for the future

According to Jose Vouillamoz co-author of Wine Grapes: A Complete Guide to 1,368 Vine Varieties, Including Their Origins and Flavours Hardcover , 2012 with Jancis Robinson (Author) and Julia Harding (Author), the following varieties will be the new stars of the future. The varieties are currently obscure. .

Italy has 377 varieties commercially to make wine.

• Timorasso 20 ha currently – Piemonte white variety very aromatic, not easy to grow but many producers replanting this. The new star.
• Mammolo 147 ha – Tuscany – grown in Corsica too. Much fruit, soft tannins
• Nieddera 60 ha – Sardinia – has structure and nice body and has been rescued by Contini
• Teroldego 839 ha – Trentino – lots of colour and fruit, very alpine. Fresh with bitterness. Grows pergola or gobelet. See Foradori for good examples. 

France 

• Douce Noir 2 ha – Savoie. Used to be the most widespread variety in the region. In Argentina they have more than 18 600 ha of this, which they call Bonarda. 
• Counoise 443 ha – South of France, and one of the permitted varieties in Chateauneuf – brings spices – soft and aromatic 
• Tibouren 445 ha- Provence, mostly rose wines but excellent reds, such as Clos Sibon. Wines with personality, structure and fruity aromas. 

Spain 

• Graciano 1468 ha – ‘I’d like to see more of this,’ says José. ‘I love these wines in Sardinia.’ Tinta Miuda in Portugal 
• Garro 2 ha – part of the Torres rescue program in Catalonia. Very promising. 
• Gorgollasa 4 ha Majorca 

Portugal 

• Alvarelhao 67 ha – from the Minho Rabigato 2452 ha – Douro 
• Alfrocheiro 1492 – Dão, Lisboa 
• Jampal 106 ha – Lisboa

Greece 

• Limniona 10 ha 
• Chidiriotiko 60 ha – the pinot of Greece from lesbos 
• Kydonista 10 ha 

Switzerland has 39 varieties and 15 000 hectares

• Arvine 173 ha 
• Rouge du Pays/Cornalin 135 ha 

Croatia

• Lasina 10 ha – light red with soft tannins 
• Svrdlovina Crna 1 ha just one producer, everyone amazed by this wine at a recent conference 

Hungary 

• Ezerjo (1665 ha) 
• Fekete Jardovany (2 ha) 

Georgia Claims to have 525 varieties but José says they aren’t all different

• Kisi – 50 ha 
• Shavkapito – 10 ha 

Turkey

•  Emir 92 ha – light-bodied white Bogazkere 

 Austria

• Sankt Laurent 795 ha – a child of Pinot 
• Zierfandlen 

 Armenia

•  Voskeat – white Areni – ‘for me one of the best varieties of the world, Armenia’s Nebbiolo’

Management of grapevine during drought

New varieties from Vititec

Since 2007 Vititec imported 60 new clones and 15 new cultivars from ENTAV, France, as part of our ongoing process to introduce new cultivars to the South African Wine industry.

Ongoing climate change affects the characteristics of the grape harvest in many wine regions.  Some of these varieties, mainly from the Mediterranean area, can be the South African wine producers answer to adapt to climate change.

New cultivars include among others Arinarnoa, Marselan,  Macabeu, Piquepoul blanc, Sauvignon gris and Vermentino.

The following amount of vines have been allocated for planting in 2016:

Arinarnoa	135
Counoise	165
Macabeau	917
Marselan	128
Piquepoul blanc	298
Vermentino	2995

The following amount of vines were grafted for planting in 2017:

Counoise	1125
Macabeu	1755
Marselan	405
Piquepoul blanc	495
Terret noir	180
Vermentino	7268