Seminar: Message in a bottle: Race, consumption and advertising in the twentieth century South African wine industry

The passage of the 1928 Liquor Act was a stunning victory for the temperance movement in South Africa. A Bill that was intended to make light wines more freely available ended up greatly reducing the number of liquor outlets. But more importantly, it introduced a form of racialized prohibition which prevented blacks across the country and coloureds outside the Cape from purchasing wine, spirits or bottled beer. In 1962, the Liquor Act was revised in a way that finally permitted all South Africans to purchase alcohol. The companies involved in the production and distribution of wine anticipated a surge in wine sales amongst black consumers. But whereas the sale of bottled beer increased exponentially, that of wine increased only slightly, and by the 1980s per capita consumption was actually falling. Where had the wine industry gone wrong?