Rob Boyd gives an update on the wineries of the KwaZulu-Natal Midlands - or, at least, those belonging to the KZN Midlands Winegrowers Association

Although it is the closest to me (geographically and to my heart) the KZN  Midlands is of course not the only "new latitude" wine growing area in South Africa. For instance, I read with interest in a recent Farmer's Weekly of a first harvest at Cob Creek near Jeffery's Bay in the Eastern Cape. And Tim posted on his blog back in early December of Daniel de Waal's attempts to grow Shiraz at 1500 metres at Sutherland.  And then there is a proposed development in the unlikely setting of Ilembe district, which is better known as hot, humid and tropical Ballito area of the KZN North Coast.

But as it is the closest to home and the area I've long promised to update Grape readers on, here is a quick review on the 2010 harvest in the KZN Midlands:

Abingdon - Ian and Jane Smorthwaite have managed to keep the chardonnay out of the grasp of monkeys this year, and have also erected bird netting and were delighted withj the grapes that they began  harvesting on Friday 26 Feb, which is very early for this part of the world. Sales from their newish tasting room are going great guns and they have had to stop stocking their local wine merchant in order to have stock for farm sales. The Smorthwaites were very pleased to spend time at Klein Constantia as they continue their learning curve.  (On the Lions River - Curry's Post road, Altitude 1111m)

Highgate Farm - Rudi Kassier had a practice run last season and hopes to be fully up and running with a commercial harvest this year.  He has a very popular coffee shop on his farm called Piggly Wiggly which will provide the name for a "little critter" second label, and then the more serious label will probably be called Highgate. I got to taste some of his last year's "practice" Shiraz a few days ago and was pleasantly surprised. He has Chardonnay, Merlot and Pinotage all looking to be about   week away from harvest, with the Shiraz a little further off. (On the main R103 just past the Dargle turn-off,  1109m). The picture was taken at Highgate on 14 January, the day after they started harvesting down in Robertson and it shows how far behind our growing season lags.)

Happy Springs - The Chairperson of the KZN Midlands Winegrowers Association is Sarah Allan and she and her partner Peter Weis were hoping for a full test harvest of Shiraz before hopefully bottling commercially next year. Unfortunately the first severe hail storm of the season struck a couple of week ago and they will harvest a few hundred kilograms rather than a ton and a half, but as Peter stoically points out this is not a train smash this year as it is not a full commercial harvest (Just off the Howick - Curry's Post road, 1380m).

Mount Verde - Andre Voigts is converting a family timber and sugar cane farm into a lifestyle agricultural estate and is in the process of clearing land for some half-hectare trial blocks of wine grapes to test varieties before he plants a full vineyard. Showing that he is serious (and this is good news for our fledgling industry) Andre bid on buying an entire winery in Western Cape to dismantle and move to KZN but lost out at the last minute (In Hilton Gardens, just off the Hilton College road) .

Cedara Agricultural College - Rob Osbourne is the academic who continues to give generously of his time to the fledgling industry and advise growers. He has 18 varieties that he trials at Cedara but feels the blocks are too small and hopes to plant some bigger blocks (1049m).

There are other pockets of wine grapes being grown  at Albert Falls, on the Hilton College road, in Nottingham road, outside Nottingham Road on the Loteni road and in Winterton. It is exciting to see the new plantings and to see the improvement in the older vines. Time will of course tell whether the wine from the KZN Midlands can be a commercial success in its own right rather than as a curiosity, but so far the quality is surprising sceptics and we have an enthusiastic band of pioneering folk who may continue to surprise the Western Cape.

We have many challenges here, including high humidity, rainfall during harvest season, hail, monkeys, buck and bees as well as that anomaly; soil and growing conditions that may well be too conducive to high vigour. We also need to develop a whole skills base in farm workers for things that are ingrained to farm workers in the Cape, courtesy of 350 years of tradition.