Wine Industry Report

Elmari Swart & Izak Smit’s The Essential Guide to South African Wines – Terroir & Travel (Cheviot Publishing ZAR 195.00) received the Gourmand “World’s Best Book on New World Wines” Award at the annual Gourmand World Cookbook Awards held in Beijing, China.

Edouard Cointreau, CEO and Chairman of Gourmand presented the Awards in front of an international audience of wine and food writers, media representatives and publishing houses. In its 11 year history, the Gourmand Awards have highlighted international superstar publications including Hugh Johnson’s A Life Uncorked, James Halliday’s Australian Wine Companion, and Tom Stevenson’s The Sotheby’s Wine Encyclopaedia.

“South African wines are a success internationally and so are wine books from South Africa,” said Cointreau, “Wine tourism is quite developed in South Africa, while terroir is still controversial for some. This book is clearly excellent.”

“Together we identified a need for greater depth in South African wine writing and, in true entrepreneurial spirit, formed a unique partnership to write The Essential Guide,” says Swart, “as we believed we (the South African wine industry) should tell the story of our unique wines.”

From this innovative premise, Swart and Smit established the ‘Wine Pockets system’ for major wine producing regions, from the tip of Africa at Cape Point to the Orange River nearly 600 kilometres away. Swart and Smit then assemble wine styles for each Pocket, a connection between the terroir and the flagship wines produced - exactly as you might zero in on a designer label at a boutique clothing store.

“Learning the Name Game (of the different Pockets) will help you make the correlation between grape and place,” Smit muses, “But learning about your favourite wine growing regions through the Wine Pocket system will take you several steps further, by empowering you to begin associating place with taste, wine style and grape varieties.”

The Essential Guide to South African Wines is presented in such a way that wine lovers of all knowledge levels will enjoy it. Written in a conversational tone, the book covers all the basics for beginners while delving into weighty topics that will interest more advanced wine enthusiasts. Swart and Smit believe that wine should not be feared or revered - simply enjoyed. In the authors’ words “Pleasure is always said to be heightened by knowledge.” and The Essential Guide certainly provides plenty of knowledge and reading pleasure.

[Source: Cheviot Publishing]