THE FUSE

One of the more profound pleasures in being intimately involved in (and reporting on) South African wine in the past quarter-decade or so of change has been seeing the growth of infant wine-projects into something substantial without overwhelming outside financial support. I’m thinking particularly of those that have led to the building of significantly vineyarded estates or at least wineries. There are not actually all that many – a sizeable proportion of the big names of the new world of Cape wines are not only buying in all (or the vast majority) of their grapes but are also making them in other people’s cellars.