Sparkling wine estates

Tastings run in Cuvée, the estate's tasting room, and the options include a sparkling flight. Simonsig makes Kaapse Vonkel, the Cap Classique that Frans Malan first produced here, and the estate is still run by the second and third generations of the Malan family.

Tastings run daily at the Cellar Door, with chocolate, cheese and charcuterie pairings, and at the Manor House with seasonal platters; booking is advised, and walk-ins are taken when there's availability. The Deli serves breakfast, lunch and dinner, and there's also Retreat Restaurant, Arum and pre-booked picnics on the lawns. The estate describes itself as a regenerative farm, with walking and mountain bike trails, horse rides and cottages to stay in.

Tastings run Monday to Saturday, cellar tours are by appointment, and Rykaart's, a family-run restaurant, serves a set three-course meal built around produce from the farm. The estate on the Helderberg is farmed organically and biodynamically, and its Chenin Blanc and Chardonnay come from old vines and a block planted by John and Erica Platter.

Tastings are held in the original cellar, and the wines include a Chardonnay and a Sauvignon Blanc-Sémillon blend. On the food side there's the Avant-Garde restaurant, which draws on South African and Russian recipes, a Russian tea garden, the Babushka deli and Pivnushka, a family-friendly spot for flame-grilled food and craft beer. Dr Mark Voloshin bought the Bottelary Hills estate in the mid-nineties, and it's run as a family business.

There's a tasting room, the Terroir restaurant and a lodge on the property, which sits beside the De Zalze golf course. The Chenin Blanc runs from a bush vine bottling to a Family Reserve made from unirrigated vines more than forty years old. The Basson family bought the farm in the nineties and still owns the vineyards, while AdVini now holds a majority of the wine business.

The range here includes Trilogy, the flagship blend, alongside a Cabernet Franc and the First Lady Cabernet Sauvignon. The estate sits at the western foot of the Simonsberg and takes its name from the Warwickshire Regiment, in which a former owner, Colonel Alexander Gordon, served.

This Simonsberg estate concentrates on Pinotage and Chenin Blanc, with the Single Block Pinotage as its flagship. There's a country lodge on the working farm, and the owner is AdVini, a French wine group.

Tastings run at the Wine Tasting Centre, and there are two places to eat, the Stables bistro and Camphors restaurant. The estate has seventeen gardens, and the camphor trees by the homestead go back to Willem Adriaan van der Stel, the Cape governor granted the farm more than three centuries ago. Cabernet Sauvignon leads the GVB Red, a blend with Cabernet Franc, Merlot and Petit Verdot.

Sommeliers guide tastings of Quoin Rock and Knorhoek wines, seated inside or out with the Simonsberg vineyards in view, and oysters or a cheese and charcuterie platter can be added. Quartz Restaurant serves lunch, and guests can stay in the Manor House. Tastings are booked online, and younger children come by prior arrangement.

Tastings are held in the restored manor house, where the Helshoogte Pass begins its climb out of the Banghoek Valley towards Franschhoek. The estate also has restaurants and a country lodge. The wines are made from Bordeaux varieties, with single-vineyard bottlings, sparkling wine and the Simone and Richelle blends.

Chenin Blanc is the focus, tasted in the Wine Lounge on the slopes of the Helderberg, with food pairings on offer. Ken and Teresa Forrester bought the farm at auction in the early nineties along with two old Chenin vineyards, and the FMC, made with Martin Meinert, is the flagship.

Wine tastings and a guesthouse share the estate, which sits between Stellenbosch and Somerset West with views of the Helderberg. The wines come in three ranges, Collection, Reserve and Platinum, and the Platinum line includes an Old Bush Vine Chenin Blanc, a Pinotage and Latitude, a Cape blend. Baarsma's Holding, a wine company from the Netherlands, owns the estate.

Alongside the wine tastings on the crest of the Helshoogte Pass, you can try the estate's potstill brandy or take a tutored olive oil tasting. The Director's Reserve pair covers a Cabernet-led red blend and a white blend of Sauvignon Blanc and Semillon. There's a restaurant at the winery, and a separate deli with a shop, café and children's play area.

Tastings come with the option of a chocolate pairing, and the restaurant serves breakfast and lunch. Pinot Noir, a Bordeaux-style blend called Ansela van de Caab and a Cape Vintage port-style wine are the ones to know. The Melck family owns the farm, on land near the Simonsberg first granted in the seventeenth century.

Tastings run from Monday to Saturday, with Sundays by appointment, and the range centres on barrel-fermented Chenin Blanc and barrel-matured reds such as Cabernet Sauvignon, Pinotage and Shiraz. The Rangaka family bought the farm in Koelenhof and became the first Black family to own a wine farm in South Africa. The name comes from the Setswana word for harvester.

Bush-vine Chenin Blanc from the Bottelary Hills goes into the Secrets & Lies bottling, and the range also includes Pinotage, Shiraz and a Cap Classique. The family-owned estate farms vineyards in the Golden Triangle too. Tastings can come as pairings, one with biltong, dry wors and cheese and another with cake.

Tastings with outdoor seating on Groenvlei, a farm at the foot of the Helderberg, where the range runs from Chardonnay and Pinot Noir to Cabernet Sauvignon, Shiraz and a Blanc de Noir. Peter Falke, born in Germany, bought the farm in the mid-nineties, and his family has traded in South Africa since the late sixties.

Every tasting here comes with a food pairing, whether in the barrel room, the vinoteque or, weather permitting, out in the vineyard. The estate sits on the slopes of the Helderberg around a Cape Dutch homestead and historic cellar, with a restaurant open daily and several houses and cottages to stay in. Children can make and bake their own pizzas while the adults taste.

Tastings run every day, with flights from the Estate Range and the Short Story Collection and pairings with chocolate, cheese or small plates. There's a pairing for children too, cellar tours can be booked ahead, and the old manor house holds The Restaurant. The estate is a WWF Conservation Champion, and visitors can drive or walk its avenue of stone pines.

Guided cellar tours end with a tasting in the basement cellar, and there's a garden restaurant on the estate where booking is advised. The farm sits on the Simonsberg and makes Cabernet Sauvignon and Pinotage, including a dry Pinotage rosé and the Vera Cruz Pinotage. Its name comes from the German for Deli's home, after the founder's wife, and the Sperling family still owns it.

Chorus, the restaurant on the estate, serves seasonal four- and six-course menus. The vineyards on the Schapenberg above Somerset West are certified biodynamic, and the Circle of Life range covers a white made mostly from Sauvignon Blanc and a Bordeaux-style red.

Shiraz is the focus, with the Shiraz Select as flagship, and tastings draw on the Private Collection range alongside Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Pinotage and whites. The farm sits on Polkadraai Road, on land first granted in the late seventeenth century, and the Bührer family have owned it since moving from Switzerland in the late eighties.

Pinotage and Cape blends lead here, with the flagship Auret blending Cabernet Sauvignon and Pinotage. The Devon Valley farm has a restaurant serving comfort food and wood-fired pizzas, plus accommodation. The Pritchard family still own it and still use traditional basket presses.

Tastings here range from a flight of estate whites to a premium line-up with Cap Classique and Port, and a signature tasting runs in the historic cellar. Veldt Restaurant cooks over open flames, and the estate, on the slopes of the Simonsberg, keeps a block of old-vine Chenin Blanc. Weddings, seasonal dinners and harvest celebrations are held here too.

Tastings are private and by appointment, and they can include a tour of the boutique gravitational cellar. The vineyards on De Goede Sukses, in the Simonsberg ward, are planted to Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Pinotage, Shiraz, Cabernet Franc, Chardonnay and Sauvignon Blanc. Lyn and Dudley Marklew bought the farm, and their children Bill and Haidee run it today, with Haidee making the wine.

Tastings at the tasting room on Old Polkadraai Road are by appointment only, and large groups and children are welcome. The farm is run on biodynamic lines, and the range includes an organic Sauvignon Blanc, an organic Shiraz and Cabernet Sauvignon blend and a Reserve Red.

The full range is open to taste here, Rubicon included, a blend of Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Cabernet Franc. A seated tasting by reservation adds an older vintage of Rubicon, and the estate is closed on Sundays. The Myburgh family has owned the farm since the mid-eighteenth century, and Hannes Myburgh runs it today.

The wine and chocolate tasting pairs the estate's wines with chocolates made for it, and bookings are recommended. There's also a Wine Drive Safari and a walk along the Porcupine Trail. Cabernet Sauvignon is the core grape, with The Jem as the flagship blend, and the Ord family has owned Waterford since its founding.

Chenin Blanc from Stellenbosch, Paarl and the Swartland sits alongside a Cabernet Franc, all made with a handful of growers, one of whose vineyards was planted when the land was still turned by horse and plough. Tastings are by appointment at Leef op Hoop in the Jonkershoek Valley, on the stoep or in the cellar, with deliberately few tables. Viticulturist Etienne Terblanche and winemaker Stephanie Wiid run the label, which takes its names from weeds found among the vines.

Tastings run every day, with food platters served alongside the tutored ones, and the range includes a Banghoek Chardonnay and The Laurence Reserve red. The estate on the Helshoogte Pass also has two restaurants, one of them the Asian-inspired Indochine, along with lodges and a spa. Laurence Graff of Graff Diamonds has owned it since the early two-thousands.

Tastings run in the Tasting Room and Deli, with options that include a wine and chocolate truffle pairing, and a complimentary cellar tour goes out daily. Lanzerac describes itself as the birthplace of the first commercially bottled Pinotage, and its Cape Dutch Manor House and werf are a Provincial Heritage Site. The estate in the Jonkershoek Valley is also a hotel with a spa and several places to eat.

Guided tastings run from Monday to Saturday on the Bottelary Road, or you can settle in with a few bottles and a cheese platter. Pinotage appears in several of the ranges, and one Chenin Blanc comes from bush vines planted by the great-grandfather of Danie Steytler Jnr, who now runs the farm with Carin as the fourth generation of the family.

Red wines are the focus at this small winery on the Helshoogte Pass, with tastings in a room inside the owner's home on weekdays and by appointment at weekends. Prohibition is a straight Cabernet Sauvignon, and the Shiraz carries a new artist's portrait on its label each vintage. The farm also has self-catering cottages.

Tastings start with a walk through the underground maturation cellar before a flight of the estate's wines, and there's a chocolate pairing too. Isikhati, a Bordeaux-style blend of Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc and Petit Verdot, heads a range that also takes in Pinotage and Chenin Blanc. It's a small estate with a guesthouse on site.

Pinotage is the focus here, and Red Leaf, the restaurant beside the tasting centre, works it into the menu, down to a Pinotage burger. Beyers Truter, previously winemaker at Kanonkop, started Beyerskloof in the late eighties, and his son Anri now runs the cellar and the bistro.

Walk in for a tasting from Monday to Saturday, with premium wines poured on request and cheese and charcuterie platters on offer. The Malan family farm high slopes against the Jonkershoek mountains above the Banghoek basin, and the range includes Cabernet Franc and the Family Reserve, a Bordeaux-style blend.

P.K. Morkel planted Pinotage on a commercial scale here in the fifties, and the Bottelary Hills estate still makes it, alongside old-vine Cinsault, Malbec and Cabernet Franc. The restaurant is set up for families, with a children's menu and a play area on the lawn, and children get their own tasting of juices and treats.

Tastings run on a terrace looking over the vineyards towards the Helderberg mountains, and the restaurant changes its chef's menu weekly with the seasons. The estate also has an art gallery, a boutique and an indoor equestrian arena with paddocks, set among indigenous gardens.

Chardonnay and Cabernet Sauvignon lead at this estate at the end of the Stellenbosch Kloof Road, with Nine Yards Chardonnay and Cobblers Hill, a Bordeaux-style blend, as the flagships. Tastings and tours run every day, and there are two restaurants, the casual Cellar Door and the fine-dining Jordan Restaurant, plus suites on the estate for staying over. Gary and Kathy Jordan run it on land Gary's parents bought in the early eighties.

The tasting room on Stellenbosch Kloof Road is open every day, and booking ahead is advised. The flagship is a Reserve Chenin Blanc, with a DMZ Chenin Blanc alongside it, and Baroque music is played to both the vines and the wines. The name means the morning sun, since the farm is the first part of the Stellenboschkloof valley to catch it.

Tastings here centre on site-selected and single-vineyard wines, in a tasting room at the foot of the Helshoogte Pass. Neil Ellis started out as a négociant buying in grapes, and the fruit still comes from vineyards in Stellenbosch, Elgin and Darling. His son Warren now makes the wines.

Tastings are by appointment only, with flights drawn from the Precision Series, the V-Series and the Tales range. The vineyards sit among the Schapenberg hills near Sir Lowry's Pass, on a farm restored by the Gabb family, originally from Shropshire. The estate is Fairtrade certified and a WWF Conservation Champion.

Olive oil and wine can be tasted separately or together here, with the wines split between Bordeaux varieties and the Giulio Range, an Italian line named after operas. Giulio Bertrand, a businessman from Piedmont, bought the Somerset West estate in the early nineties, planted olive trees and brought Sangiovese vines from Italy.

Tastings are held in a former horse stable, and there's a hiking trail on the farm, with guided hikes in the flowering season that finish with a tasting. Brothers Tielman and Louis Roos run the Bottelary Hills estate, which their family bought in the sixties, and part of it is a private nature reserve set aside for fynbos.

Tastings and cellar tours run here, and the estate has its own hotel and restaurants. Most of the vineyard is planted to red varieties, and the flagship Bell Tower is a Bordeaux-style blend named after the bell tower on the property. The farm dates back more than three centuries, and its old manor house now serves as the cellar.

Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc and Sauvignon Blanc are poured in the tasting lounge, with an MCC Rosé among the premium options and a food and wine pairing on offer. The Banhoek Valley estate also has a bistro-style restaurant, a spa and rooms to stay in, and guests can swim in the pool, fish the dam or ride the bike paths.