Gerhard de Villiers

Since starting his consulting company in 1983, Gerard de Villiers has worked almost exclusively on the design of wineries and distilling processes.

He specialises in the process design of the winery, which entails the flow of grapes, juice and wine from off-loading through pre-cooling, sorting, fermentation, maturation, blending, bottling, storing and distribution.

Since starting his consulting company in 1983, Gerard de Villiers has worked almost exclusively on the design of wineries and distilling processes.

He specialises in the process design of the winery, which entails the flow of grapes, juice and wine from off-loading through pre-cooling, sorting, fermentation, maturation, blending, bottling, storing and distribution. His work often includes the civil and structural design of the buildings as well as the appurtenant services such as water purification and effluent treatment, as well as bulk service supply to the facility and distribution in the facility, of water, electrical power, standby power, cooling etc. Although he is not actively involved in the field of architecture or planning, he enjoys working closely with these disciplines.

He has been involved in the design of more than 150 wineries in South Africa. Although some of these were additions to existing facilities, most of these projects were new wineries. More often than not, he has been responsible for the process design as well as the civil and structural design of these cellars.

A few of the more noteworthy South African wineries are:

Rupert & Rothschild, DGB, Bergkelder, Nederburg, Delaire, La Motte, Graham Beck, Hermanuspietersfontein, De Toren, Uva Mira, Dornier, Franschhoek Vineyards, Boschendal, Kleinood, Cordoba, Durbanville Hills, Bellingham, Vilafont?, Adam Tas, Plaisir de Merle, Glen Carlou, Stellakaya,  Newton Johnson, L'Ormarins, Ernie Els, La Bri, Hamilton Russell, Mont Destin, Zorgvliet, Tokara, Hidden Valley, Le Joubert and Babylonstoren.

International wineries:

• Preliminary process design for the 80 000 case a year new sparkling wine winery for Nyetimber estate in West Sussex, UK.
• Design for the 5 000 case a year new sparkling wine winery for Gusbourne Estate in Kent.
• Design for a new 5 000 case a year winery in Sonoma Valley, California for Michael and Loretta Orvavecz.
• Design of a 10 000 case local winery for Charles Banks of the Terroir Group (ex owner of Screaming Eagle Estate in Napa, California).