Cabernet Franc has taken beautifully to the local Bot Valley landscape and there are plans afoot at Gabrielskloof to get a few more hectares into our beloved soils. As part of the carefully calculated decision as to when, where and how, we have done extensive profile pitting (love the phrase!) to determine what we have…
Wildeveld ertjies (amongst other things) formed part of the Gabrielskloof landscape for the first time during cover cropping over the last few weeks. Bring on the rain!
Our award-winning wines are best enjoyed in the company of friends. Our wine tasting venue offers a warm welcome around our fireplace surrounded by the beautiful vineyards of the Bot River. You can also relax on the terrace or outdoor seating area. Walk through a tasting of three Rivendell wines guided by one of our…
Sometimes you need little angels to show you the way. And if you are lucky enough you’ll recognise them. There was this person sitting next to me at my brother-in-law’s birthday party seven or eight years ago. I told her that we ha some grapes and we hoped to make some half decent wine from…
We are extremely proud to announce that we have received the following feedback from SAWi (SA Wine index): “2019 Multi-Year Results Platinum: – All on Perfect Scores! Wildekrans Wine Estate Barrel Select Reserve Pinotage Wildekrans Wine Estate Barrel Select Reserve Shiraz Wildekrans Wine Estate Chenin Blanc Mèthode Cap Classique Wildekrans Wine Estate Barrel Select Reserve…
We’re settling into 2019 and wines are in tank. Always a tricky time of the year just before harvest, it feels like a “hurry up and wait” scenario to me, but the grapes came in healthy, with our biggest problem being bird damage. This year we tackled the problem with bird nets and lots of…
I start off as a little flower and slowly get bigger in the shape of a little rugby ball. I’m green and hard and very sour. But as the days get longer and the sun gets hotter, I start tanning. But I don’t go red . . . I go a lovely dark purple. And…
We celebrated the final bottling for 2018 on Tuesday evening (18th December). Bottling was concluded with some very special wines: Cabernet Franc Barrel Select 2018 – another maiden vintage, and our MCC Brut 2018. We can’t wait for you to try these, and we’ll keep you posted as soon as they are available for purchase….
Villion Family creates work for the community ….. they started the Pink Lady team, where casual workers from Bot River are given the opportunity to earn an extra income. They help with cellar activities, like bottling, labelling, waxing and packaging. Cornelia, is their team leader, she is well known and respected in the Bot River…
Villion Family serves a Kevin Anderson Ace with their new release of Villion Cabernet Sauvignon 2015, true Botrivierean in style. Our wine, which is our first release, got the thumbs up by the credited panel for being a current Top SA Cabernet Sauvignon, scoring a smashing 92 points with Christian Eedes, Roland Peens and James…
The Farm Goedvertrouw was acquired by the present owners from Petrus Johannes Fourie in November 1984, who acquired the farm from the Punt family who are still in the Botriver valley. Arthur Henry Pillmann, a retired Mechanical Engineer and his newly wed wife, Elreda, settled on the farm with the aim of building a life…
With our first year living on our new farm Genevievev MCC at Klein Botrivier underway, its been a busy one, dedicated to the challenges and also slowly creating our mark on the farm, one of our first to-do’s was renovating the 2 cottages on the farm so we could start sharing the farm with visitors…
