Black owners of wine brands in South Africa may be on the rise, but branding is only one part of the complete value chain in the wine industry. The other aspects are land ownership, grape production and cellar ownership, all of which continue to be challenges for black people in the industry. The lack of statistics makes it hard to say how many black-owned wine brands there are in the market, and even harder to say how many white-owned wine brands . I deally, ownership should encompass every stage of production - from producing grapes and wine to bottling it and getting it into shops.Edo Heyns, editor of WineLand Magazine at VinPro, a wine producers' organisation , said there are at least 60 black-owned wine grape properties and black wine farmers own about 2 500ha of land, accounting for about 2.5% of vines.The remaining black participants either own shares in white-owned companies, or source the wine from white producers to create their own brands.story_article_left1According to Matome Mbatha, marketing manager at Wines of South Africa: "The wine industry is a very capital-intensive industry in terms of ownership and the area of land. You have to be practical - it's going to take time before you can get full participation.""The previously disadvantaged look into other areas such as promotion and marketing. They create their own wine brands, source wine from different producers and then place that and sell it to the world."Ntsiki Biyela, a winemaker at Stellekaya Winery and one of the few qualified black winemakers in South Africa, said: "As much as black people get into the industry, it's a very difficult and complicated industry compared to other industries. Financially you have to have big pockets - if you don't, you are not going to make it."From acquiring the land, planting and producing grapes to make wine, wine owners had to wait between three and seven years before they could produce the finished product, said Jabulani Ntshangase, the first black wine owner in South Africa and owner of Highberry Wineries.Black people had "a slower march into the wine industry" because of the time it took, he said ."If you had to do it from scratch, to plant is the most expensive undertaking. Besides that, you have to wait for those little baby vines for about five to seven years before they give you any fruit ."Ntshangase said there had been no qualified black winemakers before 1995, but now there were about 30.Owning a share of a wine company was one way of increasing black ownership in the industry. But, Ntshangase said: "People buying the shares don't have control; they don't even have that much interest in it. They bought shares because they just wanted growth in their investments."Heyns said there were many BEE initiatives that try to include black people in the sector, but a lack of data made it difficult to come up with accurate figures on ownership."There are many initiatives happening now - many BEE schemes are collaborations of current owners and employees, and so that figure is very tricky. It is difficult to say what the current state of black ownership is," said Heyns.One plan is to have at least 30% of wine-grape producing land under black ownership by 2030.block_quotes_start Sometimes they have to be associated with a certain company that has been around for long - and then they will be trusted block_quotes_endAccording to Biyela, overcoming barriers to entry is just the first hurdle, and further obstacles await, such as building trusted brands."People want to know how long you have been in the industry in order to trust your brand," she said.It was only in the late '90s and early 2000s that black owners entered the industry. "So that plays a big factor in terms of getting access to the market. Sometimes they have to be associated with a certain company that has been around for long - and then they will be trusted," said Biyela.Ntshangase said black people were generally not consumers of wine, and this was another reason for the slow growth and penetration of black ownership in the industry. "We are the majority consumers of beer, we are the majority in the consumption of whisky, and vodka, and everything but wine."Heyns said sweeter wines such as Four Cousins and 4th Street were doing well among the middle class. "A lot of initiatives are being done to sort of create that culture of wine drinking," he said."It's an easy way to begin drinking wine - the hope is that, eventually, those new wine drinkers will start with those products but then evolve to products that are a bit drier," he added.Mbatha said black ownership was on the rise in the wine industry, and even though the long-term vision was to have full participation throughout the value chain, "at this stage we are doing well taking it phase by phase in areas where we [black people] would impact"...