Air-fried grapes, incinerated vines and a bouquet of burnt rubber are just some of the wildfire hazards crippling Western Cape winemakers — and because insurance premiums are so high, many have no cover for the losses and could be forced out of business.
In a particularly bad summer for fires, flames, heat and smoke have wreaked havoc in vineyards in the Overberg, Paarl-Franschhoek and Cederberg regions over the past two months.
“Often wine farms are crippled for a generation after a devastating fire,” says Bruce Jack, who makes his wine at The Drift near Napier in the Overberg. “Replacing a fire-destroyed vineyard is not only hugely expensive but also takes quality grape supply out of the model for at least four years, usually five.”
Agricultural economist Petri de Beer puts the cost of replacing a burnt-out vineyard in the Overberg at about R350,000 a hectare, with a loss of income of about R70,000 a year. “So you’re north of R560,000 per hectare.” And with no insurance, that could mean the end of your business, De Beer says.
Jack tells the FM that the insurance industry, “looking down the barrel of the climate change gun”, has reacted by making premiums “unaffordable”. Those who do have insurance still struggle with the reluctance of insurance companies to cover business interruption losses, he says.
Beyond the obvious, immediate destruction the flames cause is the menace of smoke taint, which becomes apparent only after the wine has started the ageing process.
Jack compares the dense smoke to “exposing a vineyard to the human equivalent of nuclear radiation. If the exposure is long and intense enough, the smoke gets absorbed through the skin of the grapes and results in a wine that smells and tastes of burnt rubber — unsellable.”
There are ways to try to mitigate the taint, such as adding activated charcoal to the wine, says Daniel Zieff, a wine chemistry researcher at the University of Stellenbosch, but these leave much to be desired. “The charcoal can ‘strip’ the wine of colour, which is especially a problem for red wines, and also of aroma compounds.”
Says Jack: “At best you are left with weedy, thin, neutral wine. Unfortunately, you only know if your wine is smoke-tainted after you have gone to the expense and effort of making the wine — this has obvious financial implications."
Is there a way to reduce the frequency and intensity of wildfires on the boundaries of wine farms?
De Beer is pessimistic. “A lot of our vineyards are next to conservation areas and mountains and are more exposed to fire. It’s a structural issue of how the wine industry is set up. I don’t know that there’s something we can do about it. Our environment and natural veld are set up to burn at least every 10 to 15 years.”
Fynbos fires are a natural phenomenon, he says, though arson appears to be on the rise.
Jack says more could be done by local authorities and the national government to remove alien vegetation and keep road verges clear.
“Invasive alien trees play a massive role,” he says. “In strong wind they throw the fire ahead 500m. The lack of co-ordinated management and lack of government funding to tackle this underlying issue resulted in the almost overwhelming odds we have faced this fire season. The roads department could play a hugely positive role by keeping the road reserves clean of aliens and mowed to act as a firebreak.”
One major factor justifying increased state spending on fire prevention is that the industry is the biggest employer in the Western Cape, Jack says. “It’s hard enough selling great wine from South Africa. Being under threat by the increasingly devastating effect of wildfires may be a burden some cannot carry. Job losses will follow, including those indirectly linked to tourism.”
Rico Basson, CEO of South Africa Wine, declined to comment on the high price of insurance. He has no figures yet for losses this summer but says: “At this stage, the confirmed direct vineyard damage remains limited. Notably, the fires are expected to have a minimal impact on total harvest volumes.”
Asked about premiums, a spokesperson for the South African Insurance Association says each insurer has its own way of managing and pricing risk. “Even in the Western Cape, wine-farming areas do not share identical characteristics. It is therefore not possible to classify wine farms specifically as higher or lower risk in general compared to other kinds of farms.”
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