ABSTRACT
South Africa's wine industry has a long vintage, dating back to the second half of the seventeenth century and some of the original white settlers such as Jan Van Riebeek and Simon van der Stel. This chapter presents an overview of the political economy of South Africa's wine industry to a discussion of the interrelated pressures and effects of globalizations and liberalizations. In so doing it raises a set of issues or debates about this industry in comparative perspective— i.e., wine industries elsewhere, other industries in South Africa, and alternative approaches to its analysis. The local response to contemporary challenges—South African Wine Industry Trust (SAWIT) and Vision 2020 and the transnational reaction—Ethical Trading Initiative (ETI)—constitute interesting, interrelated forms of local to global governance at the start of the new millennium. The chapter concludes by highlighting a range of possible insights for both national and sectoral policy discourses as well as for related disciplines.
