Provocative and quirky, Grape is the highly readable story of vineyards and wines in South Africa. It takes us from the earliest Dutch settlers’ struggle to plant vines under difficult conditions, through slavery, the forgotten black wine makers, land dispossession, a long history of making plonk (with a few exceptions) and the emergence of a world-class fine wine culture in the 1990s.

In gripping journalistic style, Grape follows the fluctuating fortunes of the wine industry and the growth of a thriving table grape export business, recounting the stories of real people, from slaves and farm workers to the modern-day businessmen who buy wine farms not for the returns, but for the almost mythical status of owning a wine farm.

Stimulating and wide-ranging, Grape debunks many myths as it brings to life the realities of life on a wine farm. It grapples with contentious issues like the dop system and Fetal Alcohol Syndrome, the threats posed by climate change, the move to biological farming and the role of wine in South Africa’s exports and economy. A mix of history and economics, journalism, agriculture, and geography, Grape is first and foremost the true account of a divergent group of people, many of whom were classified “Colored”, whose lives have revolved around the vine. .

JEANNE VIALL is a freelance journalist. She has 25 years experience as a journalist, mostly working in a newsroom.

Dr. WILMOT JAMES is a Member of Parliament for the Democratic Party and Federal Chairperson. He holds honorary professorships at the Universities of Cape Town (Human Genetics) and Pretoria (Sociology) and he is a Visiting Research Professor at the Open University in the U.K. He has published a number of books.

Dr. JAKES GERWEL is a noted South African politician and academic. He has been awarded numerous awards for his achievements and now serves as the Chancellor at Rhodes University, chairman of the Nelson Mandela Foundation, the Mandela Rhodes Foundation, the Allan Gray Orbis Foundation and vice-chairman of the Peace Parks Foundation.