Le Bonheur Wine Estate

About Le Bonheur Wine Estate

They built the homestead, a classic example of the H-shaped Cape Dutch style architecture of the 1820s, complete with its original doors and floors and again today painted in subtle ice-cream hues typical of the day.

By 1972, when the Estate was acquired, no wine had been made on Le Bonheur for 50 years. The vineyards were neglected and the cellar had become antiquated. Since then, Le Bonheur has been completely redeveloped. Lusan Holdings (Pty) Ltd (Distell and Hans-J Schreiber) own Le Bonheur and have transformed the estate and successfully run the wine production and farming of the land.

Le Bonheur is one estate that still prides themselves in hand sorting all their grapes and believes that it's one of the reasons that their wines continually win global awards. It took years of hard labour to get a perfect soil structure to plant vines. There are four basic types of soil at Le Bonheur including decomposed granite, red loam, sand and sand over pot clay. They grow varieties of Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Chardonnay and Sauvignon Blanc.

Sakkie Kotzé is the winemaker and ensures that once grapes are harvest and hand-picked, they're placed into small baskets to prevent bruising and fermented to ensure top-quality wine.

To view more wine estates in the region see Bottelary Hills Wine Estates or see South Africa Wine Estates for a general overview and links to other wine producing regions.