The Old World has always understood the importance of place. Travel 10km from one tiny French or Italian village to the next, and you’ll be faced with drastically different foods, dialects, cultures, and wine. However, it was only in 1936 when the Bourgogne AOC formalised their 1855 classification. In the process, regulators meticulously connected vineyards or climats to the distinctiveness of the wines via maps, scientific studies, and general consensus of what these places stood for. The intention was not only to establish a protected geographical indication (PGI) but a coherent regional identity. Taste a Pinot Noir from the Côte de Nuits and you won’t confuse it with one from the Hemel-en-Aarde Valley, for example. It undoubtedly tastes like itself.
Yet, while the Old World have long touted regionality to prove their status and worth, perfecting the language and taste of place, the New World focused on grape varieties instead (by contrast, variety is secondary in places like Burgundy or Bordeaux). Think of Sauvignon Blanc and New Zealand, or Shiraz and Australia. It was only later that Cloudy Bay Sauvignon Blanc transformed the fortunes of Marlborough, New Zealand, and the Penfolds Grange Shiraz the Barossa in Australia. These countries steered clear of classifying or status ranking vineyards or producers, relying on an arguably more democratic system of allowing critics to do the rankings for them. However, the Old and New are slowly merging. As some cult wine producers in the Old World are declassifying their wines, New World fine wine producers are increasingly highlighting their regional identity, overcoming considerable regulatory hurdles and negotiations to formally demarcate them. While large tracts of district vineyard land remain un-demarcated in South Africa, there has been a steady spike in the number of wards, increasing from just over 60 in 2016 to almost 100 by 2022.
New World producers have only recently started to develop their own vocabulary to communicate their regional identity, but have tended to use terms like “terroir”, “regionality” and “typicity” interchangeably, though they are subtly different. Terroir is a unique sense of place or “somewhere-ness” that is influenced by the physical location and savoir-faire of local producers. Regionality, on the other hand, is the reputation a region acquires for producing wines of a particular character, while typicity is the taste profile that people have come to expect from wines of the region over time. Regionality is built on intention, a common understanding and storytelling. Even established wine districts like Stellenbosch must constantly tell and retell their story. Elmarie Rabe, head of Stellenbosch Wine Routes, talks about their recently published Stellenbosch Terroir Booklet, explaining: “We felt it was important to concentrate our efforts on telling the story of our wines and the dynamic place where they’re born.”
Whether you’re making wine in mountainous continental climates like Citrusdal and Ceres Plateau, or close to the ocean like Agulhas and Constantia, connecting with wine drinkers and gaining a loyal following will depend on how clearly you collectively articulate your area’s story and taste memory.
