Durban - A sad note to open is the recent death of Muratie winemaker Francois Conradie after a short battle with cancer, leaving his wife, Adel, and their two young children, JD and Annabel.
Francois joined the estate in 2005 and in his tribute, owner Rijk Melck said he was struck by Francois’s “inimitable humility, honesty and ability to make time for anyone and everyone”.
“Always with a smile on his face, no job was too big… he was always ready to give and reluctant to receive. In addition to making our wines, conducting wine tastings and planting vines, he also took it upon himself to look after my mother’s beautiful garden, help her with her prized hanepoot and fig jam and do anything else that needed doing.”
Francois has left a hole in the winemaking community. Rest in peace, Francois.
* Brighter news is that South Africa’s wine industry has topped its previous export record volume, selling 5 257 million litres last year into new and established markets. The UK remains our leading market, but South Africa is now the largest new world supplier to Germany, our second-largest market, and is gaining traction in Russia.
Wines of South Africa (Wosa) CEO Siobhan Thompson attributes the rise to the bumper harvest the country experienced that allowed South Africa to fill the gap created by the poor European harvest. But, there is a safety net in knowing exports are also growing into less traditional markets.
Growth into Russia, France, Italy and Spain were undoubtedly thanks to the harvest, but Wosa is confident of sustaining the in-roads made into the US particularly given the favourable reviews South African wines have received in high-profile publications, including Wine Spectator and The Wine Advocate and among the wine-bloggers. Given the US is the world’s largest wine market, these are encouraging signs.
Maybe more remarkable is that the perception about South African wines is shifting towards being a source of interesting, original and well-made wines rather than the cheap-and-cheery trap into which we have fallen for far too long.
On the horizon are in-roads into Denmark, many of Africa’s major economies, Japan, Thailand and the United Arab Emirates. White wine sales rose 18 percent and reds 22 percent with sauvignon blanc, cabernet sauvignon, shiraz, pinotage and merlot securing the greatest volume increases. - The Mercury
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