Background

“PIONEERING SPIRIT – DISTINCTIVE WINES”

Just as wine evolves, so the Viljoensdrift portfolio has progressed and adapted since being launched in 1998. The various markets have diverse requirements, but the single, indelible constant that is ingrained in each wine, is quality.

Proprietors:
Fred & Lindy Viljoen
Manie & Lindie Viljoen

Location:
Robertson region
About 90 minutes drive from Cape Town
Situated between Robertson and Bonnievale

Farming operation:
120 hectares of land in the foothills of the Elandsberg Mountains.
Wine – 120 ha
Fruit – 50 ha
Indigenous mountain vegetation – 100 ha

Ranges:
Viljoensdrift River Grandeur
Viljoensdrift

Exported to the Netherlands, UK, USA, Norway, Germany and Belgium.

Export brands to the Netherlands and Belgium:
Die Breedekloof
Elandsberg
Keurfontein

At present 60 percent of the harvest is bottled to own labels. As markets grow, so it is expected that more wine will be made available for these labels.

History:
Fifth generation farm owned by Viljoen family
Farm established in 1863

This is a family owned and run winery, which prides itself on the high standards of quality, introduced and maintained in the short period it has been creating the wines on the property.

Quality has always been present in the fruit emanating from the vineyards, so carrying that dedication through to the cellar was a natural progression.

After about 30 years of their father delivering grapes to a local co-operative brothers Fred and Manie Viljoen and their wives took over the winery.

Constantly changing circumstances in the global wine scene contributed to them taking their destiny in their own hands.

In 1998 they cleared out and sanitized the old wine cellar on Viljoensdrift, bought in the necessary equipment and started pressing and making their own wine.

Fortune shines on the brave and in that same year, Dutch wine importers looking for new wineries arrived at their door. Their wines and their name held great appeal and their first wines were shipped over the equator a few months later.

Since then the cellar has been vastly extended and additional state of the art equipment introduced. At the heart of the cellar, however, are the original open cement tanks of “kuipe” as they are known locally – used to ferment the red wines created for Viljoensdrift.

Included in the design of the cellar was an intimate tasting room below the administration area. Besides the cool, restful interior, it also offers a beautiful vista of the vineyards, for as far as the eye can travel along the valley floor and offset by majestic mountains.

Tourism:
Going hand-in-hand with developing the Viljoensdrift wine portfolio is the evolvement of wine tourism on the scenic property.

Blessed with a stretch of easy flowing river through Viljoensdrift presented an ideal opportunity to use it for leisure purposes. A flat-bottomed motorized raft was built in 1998 and cruises were introduced to that stretch of the Breede River for the first time.

A second wine tasting venue was also constructed on the banks then further developed to provide for delicatessen style lunches, for both private as well as corporate use – allowing people to enjoy the beautiful river environs.

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