South African wine and Chenin blanc. The cool climate Overberg region has been the site of the most recent interest and development in the South African wine industry, particularly with increased plantings of Chardonnay and Pinot noir. The entire area received very little attention until the late 20th century and was not even classified in 1973 within the original Wine of Origins programme. The maritime climate of Walker Bay and the cool, higher elevation vineyards of Elgin located east of Cape Town, have had success producing these varietals as well as Sauvignon blanc. The "Klein Karoo" region (meaning Little Karoo) has a semi-desert
Karoo desert ephemerals, spaced 50 cm or more apart, and becoming very sparse going northwards into Bushmanland and, from there, into the Kalahari Desert. The driest region of the Karoo, however, is its southwestern corner, between the Great Escarpment and the Cederberg-Skurweberg mountain ranges, called the Tankwa Karoo, which receives only 75 mm of rain annually. The eastern and north-eastern Karoo are often covered by large patches of grassland. The typical Karoo vegetation used to support large game, sometimes in vast herds. Today, sheep thrive on the xerophytes, though each sheep requires about 4 ha of grazing to sustain itself. The