Wines of Origin – a basic guide to the system
 24 January 2008

From Sydney Paris:
Could somebody concisely explain the bloody WO system?  Cheers.

Response from Tim James:
In fact, it’s not very complicated. The point of it is to provide a basic guarantee that 100% of the grapes in the wine came from the officially-defined area named on the label.

Think of it as smaller units fitting inside progressively larger units.

The smallest is the single vineyard (there are rules about what consitutes them, and they must be registered). Such as Kumkani’s Lanner’s Hill (Sauvignon Blanc).

Then there is a unit for the production of estate wine, which is a bit different, but basically means that if the words ‘estate wine’ appear on the label it must come from such a unit, which is usually one farm with its own winery on the property.

Next up is the ward, a demarcated viticultural district, usually with a number of farms. In some ways this is the most important of the origins commonly given, because wards are only declared after thorough investigation to show that it is an area with a unique, shared, defined character in terms of such things as soil and climate. Most wards are part of districts (Franschhoek is part of Paarl, Devon Valley is part of Stellenbosch), but some are stand-alone (eg Constantia, Cederberg).

Districts are also defined in terms of ‘terroir’ – ie are supposed to have broadly similar characters, but more loosely interpreted, and usually relying on such boundaries as mountains and rivers. Stellenbosch, Paarl, Swartland, etc are districts. The influence of political boundaries (such as the border between Paarl and Stellenbosch) is also relevant. Some districts are part of regions.

Regions are big and pretty meaningless, frankly, in terms of defining origin. They are often used on labels (especially Coastal Region, partly to allow for wines blended from more than one district within the region, but also because producers seem to be frequently unwilling to tke the trouble to make things clear. A wine labelled Coastal region could come from Darling, Paarl, Constantia, Swartland – or a whole lot of other areas (including Tulbagh – an area which doesn’t immediately suggest the coast, does it?).

Even bigger are the three geographical units (Western Cape, Northern Cape and Kwazulu-Natal), which are obviously quite meaningless if you’re wondering where the wine in the bottle came from. It’s a pity that some respectable producers use this ‘origin’ unnecessarily. With all of these, a producer is entitled to use any of the WO names they're entitled to - you're not obliged to use the smallest one, perhaps unfortunately. So you don't have to refer to a ward name, for example, even if you're entitled to (in fact, many of the ward names are never used – would you believe there are nine wards in Robertson?).

That’s it, basically. There are some complications (eg there is a region called Boberg, which is just for fortified wines from Paarl and a part of Tulbagh).

For more detail, and maps, download the pdf booklet from the Sawis website.  As usual, that excellently informative website is user-unfriendly and you’ll have trouble finding it, so here’s the link.