<P> For much of the 20th century, the wine industry of South Africa received very little attention on the worldwide stage . Its isolation was further deepened by boycotts of South African products in protest at the country's system of Apartheid . It wasn't until the late 1980s and 1990s when Apartheid was ended and the world's export market opened up that South African wines began to experience a renaissance . With a steep learning curve, many producers in South Africa quickly adopted new viticultural and winemaking technologies . The presence of flying winemakers from abroad brought international influences and focus on well known varieties such as Shiraz, Cabernet Sauvignon and Chardonnay . The reorganization of the powerful KWV co-operative into a private business further sparked innovation and improvement in quality . Vineyard owners had previously relied on KWV's price - fixing structure, that bought their excess grapes for distillation . Now they had to shift their focus to quality wine production in order to compete . In 1990, less than 30% of all the grapes harvested were used for wine aimed at the consumer market, with the remaining 70% being discarded, distilled into brandy or sold as table grapes and juice . By 2003 these proportions had reversed, with more than 70% of the grapes harvested that year reaching the consumer market as wine . </P> <P> When Bartolomeu Dias and other Portuguese explorers first encountered the Cape of Good Hope in the 15th century, they found little motivation to colonize the sparse and empty land around the Cape . In the early 17th century, the Dutch trading port of Batavia, in what is now Indonesia, grew to such a size that trading vessels were regularly dispatched on the long voyage from the Netherlands to Asia . The managers of the Dutch East India Company began looking for a logical midway point on the voyage to build a supply station that would serve the sailors making the voyage to and from Asia . In 1652, a Dutch surgeon named Jan van Riebeeck was commissioned with the task of building both a fort and farming community in the Cape . </P> <P> One of van Riebeeck's tasks include planting a vineyard, falsely believing the consumption of grapes and the wine produced from them is effective in avoiding scurvy among sailors on long sea voyages . In 1654, the Dutch East India Company sent van Riebeeck grapevine cuttings from the Rheingau . These vines were packaged in damp pieces of sailcloth which negatively affected their ability to take root in the Cape's vineyards . During the following year a larger quantity of cuttings arrived from Bohemia, the Canary Islands, France, Germany and Spain . Among these were the Muscat Blanc à Petits Grains (known as "French Muscadel") and Muscat of Alexandria, known variously as "Hanepoot", "Hanepop" and "Hanepoot Spanish". In 1659 the first South African wine made from French Muscadel grapes was successfully produced . </P> <P> As production was small, the wine produced in the Cape settlement was initially intended solely for export to the trading port of Batavia . Gradually the Dutch East India Company allowed freed Company employees or vrijburghers, released from service to the Company, to buy land and grow wine grapes for their own consumption . As the market for Cape wine grew, the Company brought in a winemaker from Alsace along with winemaking equipment and a cooper to make oak wine barrels . A makeshift winery was built on the Company - owned farm of Rustenberg as the South African wine industry took root . </P>

When was the first wine made in south africa