The Sweet Wines of Constantia: a Feasible First PDO From the South African Wine Sector?

The Sweet Wines of Constantia are historically famous wines from the Constantia Valley in South Africa - with its production being as established as the South African wine industry itself. It represents the potential that South African wines hold in fetching globally competitive and sustainable prices and accolades. With the fact that South Africa has shown capacity to run one of the best systems of origin and regulation for its wines, the utilisation of this system as the backbone for the implementation of the Geographical Indications (GI) scheme seems like a natural step to take. This, of course, will come with challenges. For example: would it be considered restrictive of the innovation that occurs within a wine industry? Could it lead to further gentrification in an already deeply unequal country? The potential that the South African wine industry has to benefit from this scheme has been explored in academic literature. This thesis will look at this potential in the context of a case study - a wine which holds an established, traditional code of practice, and the terroir and prestige required to be a strong contender as the first wine of Protected Designation of Origin (PDO) to come from South Africa. These requirements have made the Sweet Wines of Constantia an obvious candidate. The impacts of the implementation of the GI scheme within the South African wine industry will also be explored in this thesis.