The wine harvest is a stressful enough time for farmers without having the pressure of external problems.

The sudden discovery that a state-owned mining company intends prospecting for a variety of minerals on some prime land in Stellenbosch and Durbanville, with only a short time to register as an interested party, diverted the attention for those involved from harvesting to call an urgent meeting to discuss the matter. (See Tim James’s Biodiversity is in our … way for further details).

From a report in today’s Sunday Independent, geologists have expressed the view that there is very little likelihood of finding valuable mineral deposits in this area, which is not only prime wine country but also home to many endangered species of flora, which the farmers, with Cape Nature Conservation, have done much to protect. At a loss to think of any other reasons why this application has been made, several landowners wonder whether the real purpose behind the ‘prospecting’ claim isn’t expropriation of the land or even a Zimbabwe-type land grab.

The Sunday Independent also reports that Advocate Martin Coetzee, legal representative of De Grendel Wines in Durbanville, will be lodging objections with the Department of Mineral Resources on behalf of all the affected farms. These include Jordan, Saxenburg, Zevenwacht, Mooiplaas in Stellenbosch and De Grendel in Durbanville.

If this situation must be of concern to all Cape farmers, how much more immediate and distressing must life been for their Chilean colleagues, who, just as harvest is about to get underway, have been hit by a devastating earthquake.

Stuart Downes, who works in the Chilean wine industry and lives in Santiago, but is also a partner in Shannon Vineyards, the family wine business in Elgin, kindly gave me a brief overview of the situation, which as yet is far from clear.

He says that the business he works for lost a lot of barrels in their Casablanca winery, but the stainless steel tanks appear to be alright, subject to a more detailed inspection next week.

The news could be much worse for others, as the majority of wineries lie south of Santiago and much closer to the epicentre of the quake. Harvest here should already have started. This is also where much of Chile’s fruit industry is also located; Stuart reckons it must have been hard hit, with well over a third of the crop to pick and pack.

‘It’s a very challenging time for the country, but the government is very active and people are calm,’ he assures.

So, whilst we offer support to our own farmers in their fight for the winelands not to be transformed into minelands, let’s spare a thought for all the Chilean wine farmers, owners and their families and hope their lives will return to normal before too long.

PS Members of Wine Spectator can follow how the Chilean earthquake is affecting the wine industryon James Molesworth's blog. Otherwise Wines of Chile are encouraging producers to Twitter. For Spanish speakers, www.chilevinos.cl and www.planetavino.cl should have news once the situation becomes clearer.