/ 26 March 2003

Profits down the drain as flood hit Van Loveren

Extensive flooding in South Africa’s Western Cape, sparked by very heavy weekend rains, has caused extensive damage to about R12-million worth of wine at Van Loveren Wines, the family-owned wine producer located outside of Robertson.

Van Loveren said on Wednesday it would experience supply disruptions for at least three months after a flash flood swept through its cellars, toppling 100 000 cases of wine that were ready to be shipped to market.

The Retief family is working around the clock to recover some of its product from the heaps of broken glass that shattered when the wine palettes, stacked three high, collapsed. At the same time, barrels filled with Chardonnay from this season and Shiraz and Cabernet Sauvignon from last year were floating in the maturation cellar,

causing at least R500 000 in damage.

The wine in stainless steel tanks has not been affected, but pumps, air conditioning plants and other equipment was damaged. Cleaning up operations were being hampered because the farm’s water supply had been cut off. All was not lost, however, and a consignment of wine was destined to go to Cape Town on Wednesday.

“About a third of the wine was destined for exports and the rest for the local market, so we expect a disruption in our supply chain over the next three months,” said family representative Phillip Retief.

“We estimate it will take at least two weeks to tidy up completely, then we will have to start catching up with preparing and bottling wines which were earmarked for the various markets,” he said.

The Van Loveren cellar is situated close to the junction where the Kogman’s River flows into the Breede River. Phillip related how the family stood and watched how the normally placid stream turned into a raging torrent 300 metres wide on Monday.

Heavy rain fell in the area and the Kogman’s, which has its source in the Langeberg Mountain Range, rose to levels not experienced in more than 70 years. More than 400 mm fell in certain places.

The average annual rainfall on Van Loveren for the past four years was 187mm and on Sunday/Monday 125mm fell in 24 hours. The last serious flood to hit the cellar was when the Breede burst its banks in 1981, but then there were only 150 cases of wine damaged.

“We could see the surge of brown water coming down and there was absolutely nothing we could do,” Retief added. “Initially there was about 30cm of water going through the cellar and even though we had put sandbags in to try and stop it, two doors gave way and the water flooded the cellars. It averaged about a metre, but at its height topped 1,6 metres. By late Tuesday we still had water seeping in through our manholes in the cellar.”

Winemaker Bussel Retief’s house was also damaged when about 10cm of water washed through it. The family still has some Colombard, Shiraz and Cabernet Sauvignon that needs to be harvested.

“We will assess the situation later in the week to see what we can harvest. Our neighbours have been absolutely great. They have rallied around us, offering personnel to help with mopping up operations, warehouse facilities for us to store our wine until everything is back to normal. We will also see whether we need to use outside cellars to harvest the last of our wines. – I-Net-Bridge