Hailing from the vineyards of Du Toit Household Wines, Knolfontein is a boutique vary that displays heritage, excellence and distinctive expression of the place the place the vineyards thrive.
The farm lies within the Riebeek Valley, within the foothills of Kasteelberg, The place the soils and local weather have confirmed over generations their suitability for producing excellent fruit. They’re the rationale among the nation’s premier wineries could also be discovered within the area.
‘My household has all the time farmed grapes right here,’ proprietor Pieter du Toit, a fourth-generation wine grower, says. ‘The truth is, there have been vineyards on the farm when my Nice Grandfather purchased the land in 1907.’
‘Even again then, the fruit was sought-after, and I grew to become accustomed to that standing as we offered our grapes over time. The time has come to present them their very own id and label.’
One yr within the late Nineties, South Africa claimed three gold medals on the Chardonnay du Monde competitors, says Pieter. One in every of them went to a wine produced from Knolfontein fruit.
‘In 1998, my father gained the prize for the area’s greatest winery block. A decade later, I did the identical. To me, this affirms how a excessive commonplace of viticulture over a few years continues to result in excellent high quality in grapes.’
Every wine is a mirror of its atmosphere and historical past. The vineyards from which the Chenin blanc is made, for instance, are 30-year-old bush vines. Like your complete 480ha farm of which 140ha comprise vineyards, they profit from the marginally larger winter rainfall that comes with being nearer to the mountain.
For his launch, Pieter has targeted on three single cultivar wines devoted to these for which the Swartland is most famed – Shiraz, Chenin blanc and Cinsaut. Past the identify, the historical past is within the partitions of the farm buildings themselves. The tasting room is inbuilt what was the farm’s wine cellar – a constructing estimated to have been constructed within the mid-1800s.
Guests can expertise it first-hand by reserving tastings hosted by Pieter himself. Accessible by appointment, Pieter hosts teams of as much as 10 folks on Saturdays.
Together with the wines, the expertise sees Pieter grill and serve a beneficiant “plankie” steak snack platter (with secret dipping sauce!), served up contained in the historic constructing or out within the courtyard.