Industry body Vinpro’s flagship Gen-Z Vineyard Project has highlighted in a report for the 2022/23 period the efforts of the project across its demonstration sites, including on innovation, precision farming, addressing climate change, new wine styles emanating from new grape varieties and knowledge-transfer initiatives.

Since 2017, the Gen-Z Vineyard Project has established 63 demo sites over the Cape Winelands area, including 22 cultivar demo sites, 22 clone demo sites, 15 rootstock demo sites, three trellis-system demo sites and one pruning demonstration block.

Year-on-year harvest comparisons from the sites saw the team start a week earlier this season and finish a week sooner.

The number of samples collected reached 480 in 2022/23, compared with 332 in 2021/22, Vinpro reports.

This year, the team established cover crop demo sites at the Welgevallen and Goudini Cellars.

Five more demonstration sites will be established in the 2023 vine planting season, which Gen-Z Vineyard Project founder and leader Francois Viljoen says are aligned with the future vision of the project, to follow demonstrations from the soil to the cellar.

The planned demonstrations, with support from Vititec through sponsored vines, include four new interplanting demos with the ultimate goal of establishing fewer demonstration sites with more vines per site.

The four new interplanting demo sites include 300 vines of Egiodola and Vermentino planted at Cederberg Wines in the Cederberg region, 250 vines of six different clones of Shiraz each at Saronsberg Cellar in Tulbagh, 400 vines of Arinarnoa on Ramsey in Vredendal planted with the aim to see if this relatively new cultivar will be suitable for this area, and ten vines of eight hybrid cultivars each at Welgevallen, sponsored by Bosman Adama Nursery, which will be planted within the cultivar collection block.

An experimental demonstration site for the Vine Academy in Kakamas is also planned for 2024.

“This site will serve to educate producers and students on known cultivars but also provide a platform to plant lesser-known cultivars such as Malbec that could have the potential to increase wine complexity,” says Viljoen.

He adds that the site at Boland Agricultural School is also doing well, with all vines on the wire. The foliage wires will be installed in the new year after the demo has been pruned for winter.

Vine training and development at the Welgevallen site in Stellenbosch, which was developed with the chief aim of training the next generation of winemakers and viticulturists, is ongoing.

This year, 11.4 t of Chenin Blanc was picked from this site and processed by Stellenbosch University students at Die Laan Cellars.

Another first from the Gen-Z Project was a platform for knowledge transfer for the youth of the South African wine industry in the form of information days. This year, 70 young wine industry professionals attended these days to network, learn and create a shared vision.

Vinpro CEO Conrad Schutte praises the efforts of the Gen-Z team, commenting that the sites provide vital information to make future best decisions – from soil to vine.

“Having established the Welgevallen demo site and being part of educating the next generation of winemakers and viticulturists in South Africa is a rewarding undertaking. As custodians of the wine industry, we are proud to be part of creating a more informed future for everyone working in the wine value chain,” he says.