Book contents
- Race, Taste and the Grape
- Race, Taste and the Grape
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Note on the Text
- Contents
- Figures
- Tables
- Acknowledgements
- Note on Measurements
- Abbreviations
- Maps
- Introduction
- 1 Contesting the Moral High Ground
- 2 ‘South Africa Calling the World’
- 3 Orchestrating a White Wine Revolution
- 4 De-racializing the Liquor Laws
- 5 Bureaucracy without the State
- 6 Selling Wine to the Many
- 7 A Perfect Storm
- 8 The Renaissance of South African Wine
- 9 Terroirs, Brands and Competition
- Conclusion
- Bibliography
- Index
3 - Orchestrating a White Wine Revolution
Merchants, Farmers, Co-operatives and Consumers, c. 1940–1962
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 16 March 2024
- Race, Taste and the Grape
- Race, Taste and the Grape
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Note on the Text
- Contents
- Figures
- Tables
- Acknowledgements
- Note on Measurements
- Abbreviations
- Maps
- Introduction
- 1 Contesting the Moral High Ground
- 2 ‘South Africa Calling the World’
- 3 Orchestrating a White Wine Revolution
- 4 De-racializing the Liquor Laws
- 5 Bureaucracy without the State
- 6 Selling Wine to the Many
- 7 A Perfect Storm
- 8 The Renaissance of South African Wine
- 9 Terroirs, Brands and Competition
- Conclusion
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
This chapter addresses the rapid increase in the consumption of white wines in the 1950s. It traces some of the changes to the efforts of the wine companies to develop the consumer market through brand building. But the breakthrough came with the perfection of the method of cool fermentation that permitted the preservation of the aromatic character of white wines. Boosted by innovations in the cellar, in the form of temperature-controlled stainless steel tanks, it became possible to produce wine of a reliable quality on an industrial scale. The chapter argues that while the KWV criticised the merchants, they worked with selected farmers to improve the quality of the wine. This was true of Stellenbosch Farmers’ Winery (SFW) and Distillers. The greater costs involved, however, led many farmers to resort to selling their grapes to the cooperatives rather than making their own wine. The chapter focuses on specifc farms like Rustenberg where it is possible to precisely date the turn to cool femerntation The importance of brand development is underlined through an account of the meteoric wise of SFW’s Lieberstein, which was reputedly the world’s largest brand in the early 1960s.
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- Race, Taste and the GrapeSouth African Wine from a Global Perspective, pp. 105 - 127Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2024