PaardenKloof Estate

About PaardenKloof Estate

PaardenKloof is one of the first South African black-owned wine estates to bring about their own vineyards. Their vineyards cover 23 hectares and harvest is limited to six/seven tons per hectare to ensure that small grape berries are produced and flavour is intensified. Kevin Watt is the viticulturalist who produces wines from low yielding vineyards and maintains exclusivity.

This estate is situated on the northern side of the Babilonstoring Mountain Range and Nature Reserve. The origin of the estate's name can be found in the 1600s when the area was used as a vet base for Vootrekker horses. Thereafter it became known as Paardenkloof meaning ‘the valley of horses' in Dutch. One of the first things you may notice about the farm is their abundance of Nguni Herd cattle grazing on the land.

They also boast organically reared sheep, rare fynbos, natural honey, olives and of course wines of the limited reserve variety. They have single vineyard varietals of matured Shiraz, Cabernet Sauvignon, Pinot Noir and Sauvignon Blanc wines. PaardenKloof Estate released its first Sauvignon Blanc in 2007 under the Ecology label. They will begin releasing wines under the PaardenKloof Estate label in 2013 whereby vintages can be savoured which have slow matured for 5 years. Kobie Viljoen makes their Bordeaux style wines using Shiraz, Cabernet Sauvignon and Pinot Noir varietals whilst Stefan Gerber takes care of the Sauvignon Blanc in a method which he has mastered.

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