Earliest Cape wine publication: Memorandum on Cape Wines by Dr H. H. Gird, 1846

The very first script on the subject of wine in South Africa, titled Memorandum on Cape Wines by Dr H. H. Gird, published by the Cape of Good Hope Agricultural Society, appeared in 1846. A guide of sorts, it gave practical advice to wine-makers, and was meant to be distributed to wine-farmers in the Colony.

Henry Hobart Gird (1802-1861) was born in England and died in Malmesbury, South Africa, an important wine and wheat area north of Cape Town. He was a medical practitioner and farmed at Malmesbury, where he focussed on wine. Gird’s Memorandum, an essay of 6 pages (posted below), was published in a Cape Town Dutch newspaper; it is quite possible that is was distributed with the newspaper as a supplement. This has not been verified. The on-line inventory of the National Archives reveals many interesting documents related to him.

 

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