Perfect Climate in South Africa for the Wine Industry

In South Africa, viticulture originated and still mainly takes place at a latitude of 27°-34° south in an area with a Mediterranean climate. The Western Cape is cooler than its position might suggest, with conditions that are ideal for growing a wide range of noble wine cultivars. The traditional winegrowing areas along the coastal zone are seldom more than 50 km from the ocean and experience beneficial coastal conditions, especially cool sea breezes. The temperate climate features warm summers and cool winters with frost rarely a problem.
Rain falls mainly between May and August, and diminishes in a northerly and northeasterly direction, in the latter case caused by the prominent mountain ranges which follow the coastline, making irrigation essential in these areas. Temperature is probably one of the most important factors affecting the grapevine as it has an effect on almost every aspect of its functioning. Temperatures follow an inverse pattern to rainfall, increasing in a northerly direction and with distance from the sea.
The impressive Cape mountain ranges form a dramatic backdrop to one of the most beautiful wine-producing areas of the world. The vineyards lie on the valley sides and mountain foothills, benefiting from the many different mesoclimates offered by the mountainous terrain and diverse terroirs. There's constant interaction between the rugged peaks and multi-directional valley slopes, and the proximity of two mighty oceans - in particular the Atlantic, chilled by the icy Benguela current which flows northwards up the west coast of Africa from Antarctica - moderates the summer warmth. Cooling moisture-laden breezes blow in from the sea during the afternoon, and seasonal fog is prevalent. Adequate sunshine plays an important role too.
Macro-, Meso- and Microclimates
Climate is described in viticulture on three levels, namely macroclimate, mesoclimate and microclimate. Macroclimate is the climate of a region. Mesoclimate differs from the macroclimate of the region due to differences in altitude, slope inclination, aspect or distance from large bodies of water; this term usually describes the climate of a particular vineyard. Microclimate is the climate immediately within and surrounding a plant canopy and can differ within a few centimetres and seconds.
The Cape Doctor
This legendary - and sometimes ferocious - southeasterly wind blows across the southwestern Cape during the spring and summer months. Living up to its name, it inhibits the development of disease in the vineyards. The southeaster has a moderating influence on temperature, lowering it by several degrees. It occasionally brings rain to the most southern vineyards in the coastal zone and more seldom carries moisture to the vineyards beyond the first range of mountains.
The effects of sea breezes
The ARC Infruitec-Nietvoorbij automatic weather station network has been installed in the Cape for a number of years, allowing for climatic investigation with the priority being viticultural terroir identification. In the Western Cape there is a significant contrast between the cool ocean and the warm inland temperatures as shown on the NOAA Satellites and Information image below. This results in a fequent occurrence of the sea breeze, especially during the maturation period in February (Bonnardot, 1997; 2000) when land temperatures are high (mean February temperature is 22°C at Cape Town International airport compared to 23°C past the first mountain range) and the ocean remains cool due to the cold Benguela current (below 15°C in some places).

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South African Plants - Poverty Of Plant Life - Fynbos, Forest, Karoo, Grassland, And Savannah

South Africa's large areas of semi-desert scrub and grassland might suggest a certain poverty of plant life. Aside from the fact that a tract of pristine grassland can hold up to 60 grass species, nothing could be further from the truth.
There are five major habitat types in South Africa: fynbos, forest, Karoo, grassland, and savannah. The country can also be divided into seven biomes, or ecological life zones, with distinct environmental conditions and related sets of plant and animal life: Nama Karoo, succulent Karoo, fynbos, forest, thicket, savanna, and grassland.
Whichever classification is used, some 10% of the world's flowering species are found in South Africa, the only country in the world with an entire plant kingdom inside its borders: the Cape Floristic Kingdom, which contains 8 600 species, 68% of them endemic. The Cape Peninsula alone boasts more plant species than the whole of Great Britain.
Fynbos:
This southwestern area of South Africa is the home of the fynbos, which is composed of ericas (heathers), proteas and the grass-like restios. Most spectacular in flower are the proteas, which include the king protea - the national flower - and others of broadly similar shape, the pincushion leucospermum types and spiky leucadendrons. The colour range is vast.
The ericas, the largest genus of flowering plants in South Africa, are more delicate, repaying close examination of their almost infinite variety of colour and form. One or other of these species will be found in bloom at almost any time of the year.
These share their Cape home with such beauties as the red disa orchid, one of South Africa's 550 wild orchids, which grows in the mountains, as well as numerous irises, pelargoniums and many more.
South Africa's pelargoniums, in particular, have contributed greatly to gardens all over the world, as have the arum lilies - the classic white species is from this area, the yellow and pink from elsewhere in the country.
The world's gardens also have South Africa to thank for the agapanthus, gladiolus, Barberton daisy and Gardenia thunbergia, to name a few.
Carpet of flowers:
The Cape in the spring is a breathtaking sight, but even more astonishing is Namaqualand. Dry, rocky and desert-like for the rest of the year, it yields its floral wealth for a short few weeks in the spring in dazzling sheets of colour.
The golden yellow and orange Namaqualand daisies are predominant, but in between them are a wide variety of flowers, including the iridescent succulent mesembryanthemums. Colours here are particularly intense, although there is also much fascination in less colourful species such as the quiver tree (the San, or Bushmen, used to make quivers from its fibrous stem) and the bizarre-looking tall succulent known as the halfmens (half human).
And anyone interested in plants' abilitiesto adapt to harsh circumstances in a myriad different ways (not all are succulents) need not wait for spring to visit the area.
Forests:
Although South Africa has more than a thousand indigenous trees, large species are relatively scarce in many parts of the country.
But they are very much at home in some areas, such as the Knysna-Tsitsikamma forest with its tall stinkwoods, black ironwoods and yellowwoods, and the northeastern region in Mpumalanga and Limpopo, home to the ancient cycads and Lowveld species such as the fever tree - so called because of its association with malaria areas.
It is also in the north that one finds the famous thick-stemmed baobab, which according to African myth was accidentally planted upside down, accounting for the odd shape of its branches.
Then there are the forests of KwaZulu-Natal, where the beautiful shade-loving orange Clivia miniata, a now much cultivated member of the amaryllis family, is found.
Another popular orange (and purple) garden flower, now the emblem of the US city of Los Angeles, originates in the Eastern Cape: the strelitzia. In much the same colour range, South Africa's winters are marked by the flowering of some of the country's 140 species of aloes.
The Eastern Cape's Greater Addo National Park, which stretches 200 kilometres from the coast to the Karoo, includes samples of six of the seven South African biomes mentioned above, lacking only the succulent Karoo.

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