South Africa/Wineries
South Africa is one of the big wine producing countries in the world, ranking within the top 10 by annual volume of wine produced.
It would be great if South African wineries could be well represented on OpenStreetMap!
How to map wineries
In OpenStreetMap, wineries are tagged using craft=winery. This should at least be accompanied by a name=* tag.
The easiest (and safest) way to map a winery is to place a node at the centre of the building where the wine is produced, and apply the tags to that node.
Some wineries are also mapped as ways or relations, but this is more difficult to verify and maintain in the long term.
Further useful tags:
- website=*: Add the official website
- wikidata=*: Add the wikidata item ID to link it to the respective item on Wikidata (e.g. Nederburg wikidata item)
- wine_tasting=* (Proposed): Add wine_tasting=yes if the winery offers wine tastings, or wine_tasting=separate if the wine tasting is mapped separately (using tourism=attraction, attraction=wine_tasting, name=* and winery=* tags).
Please note that:
- Some wineries are on wine farms/estates, and some are not.
- For wineries that are on a farm, the node with the craft=winery will most often be separate from the node with the place=farm tag (which is typically placed at the centre of the farmstead).
Sometimes the winery is relatively far from the centre of the farmstead (Example: Vergelegen winery and Vergelegen farm)
Common mapping mistakes
- For every winery, there should be only one point/way/relation with the craft=winery tag. This comes from the One feature, one OSM element principle.
Therefore:- Don't add a winery without a name. Without a name, it's very difficult to verify if the data is accurate.
- Don't tag every building that forms part of the winery with the craft=winery tag.
Buildings can be tagged as building=industrial and industrial=winery, and the operator=* can be used to indicate which winery operates that building.
Buildings also sometimes have a specific name which is not exactly the same as the name of the winery ("Vergelegen" winery node placed on top of "Vergelegen Cellar" building).
- Carefully consider when and where to add the shop=wine (or shop=alcohol) tag. A wine shop is a shop which typically sells many different kinds of wine. It should almost never be on the same node/way/relation as a winery (craft=winery).
Good Examples
- Groot Constantia winery in Cape Town
- Nederburg winery in Paarl
- Clos Malverne winery in Stellenbosch
- Whalehaven winery in Hermanus
Current state of wineries mapped in South Africa
According to SA Wine Industry Statistics there are more than 500 wine cellars in South Africa. As of February 2025, there are about 150 mapped on OpenStreetMap.
The craft=winery tag doesn't currently render on the standard OpenStreetMap layer. But there are several ways to see how many wineries are already mapped:
- Looking at the tag: Taginfo (Geofabrik South Africa): craft=winery
- Looking at the map: Overpass Turbo map of wineries in South Africa
Legend: Red - craft=winery with no name, Yellow - has name, Green - has name and website, Blue - has name, website and wikidata tag