Su Birch, de grote baas van Wines of South Africa (WOSA) spreekt tegen dat de strenge wijnwetgeving in haar land gaat veranderen. Ze doet dat naar aanleiding van het eerder verschenen bericht dat er straks water bij de most kan, om het alcoholgehalte in Zuid Afrikaanse wijnen te verlagen. Wij citeren:

“We have been fascinated to see how quickly the news that Wine Cellars SA has proposed a change in the South African wine legislation to allow water to be added to must in controlled quantities before fermentation, has spread. Wine Cellars proposed this as they feel that in certain warmer areas, grapes can dehydrate if left on the vine to reach proper phenolic ripeness, resulting in exceptionally high alcohol levels in the wine. They feel adding water is a more natural intervention than techniques such as spinning cones.

Before the industry has had a chance to debate the proposals, and long before a decision has been reached, we discovered this morning that the Australian Wine news was trumpeting "South African wine plan breaches European laws." This was based on an article that ran in Decanter.com on August 16th (yesterday), which in turn was sparked by an article in last Friday's Harpers. The Wine and Spirit Trade Association confirmed, said the report a tad gleefully, that adding water to must contravenes the OIV and EU rules. Twittering has turned the proposal into fact and the news is circling the globe.

Let's have a reality check please. If it is not allowed in the EU, then it is not allowed in SA wines going to the EU. Full stop. Regardless of whether or not it could be allowed for the local market anytime in the future. Remember that this is South Africa with its super strict wine legislation that was put in place and run by a monopoly which had a huge and effective bureaucracy to police it. And the best of that system with all its inspectors and plethora of forms and "please explains" is still in place today, run with an efficiency that would make an Army General smile. And if you need any proof of that, check out our new sustainability label, with built in traceability (see www.swsa.co.za). Now what other country has the systems in place to run guarantees like that?”