Much have changed in South African wine production over a few decades. Today they use a classification system called Wines of Origin (WO) based on three levels:
- regions,
- districts, and
- wards.
There are four regions, with varying number of districts. Each district can have several wards. It is questionable if today there are any distinct differences in character between wards (and perhaps even districts and regions) but perhaps that will develop over time. It may be more likely that some regions, districts as well as wards will become well known names. It is, after all, a young wine country. Here are the districts and their regions:
Districts in Coastal Region
– Swartland
– Stellenbosch
– Tygerberg
– Cape Point
– Constantia (ward)
– Tulbagh
– Paarl
– Darling
Klein Karoo region:
– Kalitzdorp
– Langeberg-Garcia
Olifant River region:
– Lutzville Valley
– Citrusdal Valley
– Citrusdal Mountain
Breede River Valley region
– Breedekof
– Worcester
– Robertson
– Swellendam
Districts that don’t belong to a region: Overberg, Walker Bay, Douglas, Cape Agulhas, Plettenberg Bay
Wards that don’t belong to a region: Ceres, Cederberg, Prince Albert Valley, Swartberg, Lambert’s Bay, Lower Orange
However, this listing should be read with a certain caution. The WO system seems not yet quite stable and different (official) documents have different listings. Here are e.g. two sources with different details: www.wine.co.za (pdf) and www.wosa.co.za.
