Xenophobia is a disease that permeates almost every segment of South African society. It flourishes because if there are more beneficiaries than visible resources it’s a fight over the size of the slices to go around. At the wealthier levels it’s about the implied inequality over the buying power supremacy of international investors compared with local operators. Regarding wine it has become fashionable to suggest that we have surrendered our viticultural heritage to French, German and British landowners.
To any well-established and self-sustaining rumour there’s obviously an element of truth. There are well-known estates (perhaps more here than the average South African realises) — Klein Constantia, Glenelly, Stellenzicht, Delaire Graff — where the foreign presence is explicit. Advini, a major French wine company, now owns (or controls) Le Bonheur, Stellenbosch Vineyards, Ken Forrester, L’Avenir, and Kleine Zalze. After Covid-19 Grands Chais de France acquired Neethlingshof and Villiera.
Many lesser-known estates have been under foreign ownership for some time: there’s nothing secret about this — it’s just less visible because the operations are smaller. These include Marianne in Stellenbosch, Constantia Glen and Beau Constantia. Others appear to be local but are in fact owned by overseas entities ― Vergelegen is an example: it’s owned by Anglo, but Anglo’s primary listing is no longer in South Africa; and Nederburg (Heineken). No-one, as far as I can tell, seems to be objecting to these.
In addition, there are offshore-owned grape farms, mainly in Stellenbosch and Constantia. Some subcontract the management of their viticulture to established South African producers, entering into leases that permit the contracting companies that buy the grapes to replant the vineyards. This can only be positive. The local wine producers are assured of long-term supplies of high-quality fruit, while the so-called lifestyle owners have a home close to Cape Town on the 21st-century equivalent of a “gentleman’s estate”.
It’s difficult to think of a good reason to discourage any of this investment. In almost every case the foreign purchaser has substantially enhanced the property’s real estate value. Whatever happens in the future, money spent on improvements remains in South Africa. As former French president Charles de Gaulle said when asked to block the purchase by an English syndicate of the Bordeaux First Growth Chateau Latour, “They can’t very well take the soil with them.”
Some of South Africa’s most creative winemakers depend on foreign ownership of their wineries to produce their magic. Jean Smit’s beautifully crafted Damascene wines are made with fruit sourced from different sites in different appellations and vinified in a winery funded by his partner and co-visionary, David Curl — wine entrepreneur and former owner of Chateau Gaby in Bordeaux. Talent without the means of expression ends up in a cul-de-sac.
Finally, there are the enterprises, seemingly hiding in plain sight, of which we hardly know anything: the ownership and the markets they target essentially remove them from the public eye. One such estate is Aaldering, which I have driven past often on the road through Devon Valley. At Cape Wine last year I met Gert-Jan Posthuma and his wife, Jacqueline. Her father bought the property about 20 years ago and in 2014 built a neat, compact cellar ideal for producing the 10,000-15,000 cases that can be made from the estate’s fruit.
Most of their sales go through the family’s food distribution business in the Netherlands. The guest house and cottages on the estate are there for tourists. Many then become enthusiasts of the Aaldering wines. There are also local wine buyers — people (with perhaps more time or curiosity than I) who saw the Aaldering sign at the gate and turned up the driveway. They would have discovered a delicious 2022 shiraz, a finely crafted unoaked 2024 pinotage, Lady M, and the Florence red blend, which I scored 91 points and sells for R150 at the cellar door. That’s affordable, even for rand-locked South Africans.
This article was first published in Business Day.
