South African wine producers fear that weeks of power cuts in the Western Cape, South Africa’s wine-making region, may have spoiled production of its white wines.
The Western Cape has been hit by blackouts since December when an electricity generating nuclear plant in Koeberg outside Cape Town broke down.
”We will probably not make as good a wine as we could have,” said manager Andre Freeborough from Distell cellar in Stellenbosch.
”These power cuts disrupted the fermentation process and temperatures went too high,” he told Agence France-Presse.
”The power cuts are complicating our work in the cellars, grapes have to wait in the sun for long hours because our cooling system is not functioning and at the end of the day that affects quality,” said Freeborough.
A number of wine farmers were buying expensive generators to prevent more disruptions during the harvest period, which is due to end in May. The power outages are expected to continue until the end of July.
The Cape winelands produces about 834-million litres of wine annually, including sauvignon blanc and chardonnay. – Sapa-AFP