Wine country
Wine is up +24%, wine tasting +33%, and the brunch bubble — mimosa +93%, bellini +35% — is booming. But the real story is geography: the Western Cape out-searches KZN on wine by roughly 8× per person. This is the most regionally lopsided habit in the country.
The 60-second version
- 🍷 Wine is quietly booming: +24% overall, wine tasting +33%, off a very large base.
- 🥂 Brunch bubbles surged: mimosa +93%, bellini +35% — daytime, celebratory drinking went mainstream.
- 🇿🇦 Pinotage (+20%) and rosé (+18%) lead the varietals — local pride and easy-drinking styles win.
- 🗺️ The Western Cape dominates: ~8× KZN and ~2.6× Gauteng per person — the starkest provincial gap in the dataset.
South Africa is a wine-producing country, but it's never been a uniformly wine-drinking one. The data shows a category that is genuinely growing — slowly, steadily, off an already huge base — while remaining astonishingly concentrated in one corner of the map. To understand SA wine, you have to understand the Western Cape.
The quiet climb
Wine grows up
Unlike the explosive cocktail curve, wine's growth is the slow burn of a category deepening rather than discovering itself. The momentum is real, and it's broad — spread across tasting experiences, varietals and celebratory bubbles alike.
Monthly search interest in "wine".
The takeaway: A steady, confident climb off one of the largest drink bases in the country.
Big-base growth like this is the signature of a habit intensifying. Wine isn't being discovered — it's being woven deeper into everyday celebration, dining and the weekend ritual.
Four-year change across wine styles and experiences.
The takeaway: The mimosa (+93%) and wine tasting (+33%) lead, with pinotage and rosé the strongest varietals.
Two threads stand out: the rise of the experience (tasting) and the occasion (brunch bubbles). Wine is increasingly something you do, not just something you drink.
The brunch effect
Bubbles before noon
The single fastest-growing thread in the wine world isn't a still wine at all — it's the brunch bubble. The mimosa's near-doubling captures a whole new occasion: daytime, social, celebratory, photogenic drinking.
Monthly demand for mimosa, bellini, prosecco and MCC.
The takeaway: Mimosa leads a clear upward move in celebratory sparkling drinks.
The bottomless-brunch format imported a new drinking occasion wholesale. Bubbles became the daytime equivalent of the cocktail — social, festive and built for a table of friends and a camera.
One province to rule them all
The Western Cape isn't close
If the rest of this project is about close provincial races, wine is the blowout. Per person, the Western Cape doesn't lead the wine category — it owns it, by a margin that dwarfs every other regional gap we measure.
A wine basket — wine, wine tasting, pinotage, sauvignon blanc — per million people.
The takeaway: The Western Cape towers over Gauteng and leaves KZN almost off the chart.
Geography is destiny here: the winelands are on the Cape's doorstep, woven into its tourism, dining and weekend culture. No other province has wine so embedded in daily life.
Average monthly search volume across reds, whites/rosé, bubbles and tasting.
The takeaway: Reds and whites anchor the category; bubbles (champagne, prosecco, MCC) form a substantial third pillar.
A balanced map across reds, whites and bubbles shows a mature wine culture — not a fad chasing one trendy varietal, but a country comfortable across the whole list.
| Style / experience | 4-yr change | Style / experience | 4-yr change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mimosa | +93% | White wine | +14% |
| Bellini | +35% | Sauvignon blanc | +10% |
| Wine tasting | +33% | Red wine | +8% |
| Pinotage | +20% | Champagne | +3% |
The verdict
A tale of one province
Wine in South Africa is two stories at once: a national category growing slowly and surely, and a Western Cape obsession on another level entirely. The brunch bubble may spread the occasion countrywide, but the heartland stays firmly in the Cape — where wine isn't a drink so much as a way of life that the rest of the country visits on holiday.
The rest of South Africa drinks wine. The Western Cape lives it.
- Source. Aggregated South African search demand for wine keywords, monthly, June 2022 – May 2026.
- Growth. First 12 months vs the most recent 12. Province figures normalised per million residents (Census 2022).
- Caveat. Search interest reflects demand and information-seeking, not bottles sold; the winelands\' tourism draws non-resident searches into the Western Cape figure.
References & further reading
Figures are PartyTrends' own analysis of the search-demand dataset described above. Sources below corroborate the wider context.
- Wines of South Africa (WoSA), Industry & varietal overview. wosa.co.za
- Statistics South Africa, Census 2022 — population context for per-capita figures. statssa.gov.za
- PartyTrends, The Battle of the Provinces — the Western Cape\'s tasting personality. partytrends.co.za/blog
- PartyTrends, The Cocktail Republic — the wider premium-drinking shift. partytrends.co.za/blog
- PartyTrends, Drink Stats — live wine demand tracker. partytrends.co.za/stats