Founded in 1682, Blaauwklippen was named the Best Heritage Wine Estate at the 2025 Global Brand Awards, putting it among a select group of elite companies
The wine estate also has the honour of being South Africa’s oldest registered company, predating the discovery of diamonds in the country.
This award comes just over a year after the wine estate faced one of the biggest crises in its history, with some of its most historic buildings devastated by a fire.
The farm’s iconic Jonkershuis, built in 1720, the Manor house from 1760, and its Millhouse were completely gutted. These buildings are in the process of being restored and are expected to reopen to the public in November 2025.
The estate has tried to reincorporate as much of the original buildings as possible, from restored stones, beams, and archways.
These efforts to maintain the estate’s architectural legacy over the centuries played as important a role as its wine in winning it the Best Heritage Wine Estate at the 2025 Global Brand Awards.
The winner of this award is determined according to three criteria – the estate’s enduring craftsmanship over time, its authentic roots, and the ability to turn a rich history into a visitor experience.
Blaauwklippen is centred on centuries of uninterrupted viticulture and winemaking, intimately involved in the growth and development of the industry.
“The Cape Winelands has a history of punching above its weight,” the estate’s CEO and owner, Roelof van den Berg, said in a statement following the awards ceremony.
“Dating back to as early as 1682, Blaauwklippen has been a defining player in the region, helping to establish what has become one of the country’s most prized winemaking landscapes.”
Van den Berg also said that Blaauwklippen is the country’s oldest registered company, but this fact is not widely known and should be celebrated more.
Alongside Olebogeng Manhe, Van den Berg purchased the wine estate after decades of international ownership.
The estate produces a dozen wines for local and export consumption, as well as a distilled brandy, an aperitif, craft gins, and sparkling grape juices.
Blaauwklippen’s history follows that of many wine farms in the Cape, benefiting from the need to supply ships on their way to and from the Far East.
The farm, which was founded in 1682, was not the first in South Africa to produce wine. The country’s first vineyards were planted around Table Mountain, and the first wine was pressed in 1659.
Soon, the areas around the modern-day city bowl were taken up by residential buildings, forcing agriculture to take place further afield in the Cape Colony.
Dutchman Gerrit Visscher arrived from the Netherlands in 1662 and was allocated land in Stellenbosch, where Blaauwklippen is still situated.
Visscher was a potter by trade and had little knowledge of farming or viticulture, being awarded the land by virtue of being a free citizen.
Blaauwklippen was originally heavily forested, and Visscher began clearing the land to plant vineyards. By 1688, over 1,000 vines had been planted, but no wine had been produced.
However, Visscher would not remain a farmer for long. In 1690, he sold the farm to French Huguenot Guillaume Niel, who received the official Grant of Ownership that same day.
Niel gave the farm its original name, De Blaauwe Klippe, meaning blue stones. This name was derived from the granite found on the farm after it was cleared.
The farm rapidly took on the architectural style it has today, with Niel transforming the barn, built in 1707, into a working wine cellar to capture the ongoing boom in viticulture in Stellenbosch. This building still stands today.
It was only after 20 years from the first vines being planted that Blaauwklippen produced its first wine, largely due to Niel’s experience in winemaking after fleeing persecution in France.
Niel expanded the farm to include 6,000 vines by 1709, which produced 570 litres of wine that year.
This expansion required significant development of the estate, with the Jonkershuis being built in 1720, followed quickly by the Manor House, and a small farm school in the 1800s.
Apart from the centuries-old buildings, Niel also planted oak trees around the farm due to the demand for wood in the Cape. Some of these trees still stand today.
Many of the trees and the Jonkershuis were burnt down by the fire in April 2024, with the buildings now in the process of being restored to their original condition.
The farm continued its expansion in the 1800s, absorbing neighbouring land used for grazing and constructing a second wine cellar to produce wine and brandy.
By 1825, the farm had over 70,000 vines and produced around 260 litres of brandy and more than 17,000 litres of wine. At this time, the farm was owned by the Rossouw family.
Francois Rossouw also diversified the farm’s operations, constructing a millhouse and producing a wider range of agricultural products.
Blaauwklippen’s history is not one of inexorable rise to becoming one of the premier wine estates in the world, as it has suffered its fair share of disasters.
Apart from the fire in 2024, the estate managed to overcome the significant financial losses caused by the phylloxera insect invasion in 1886, which destroyed eight million vines across the Cape.
Blaauwklippen still managed to produce over 1,000 litres of brandy and 28,500 litres of wine during this period.
In the 1890s, the farm was ravaged by a fire, forcing its historic thatch roofs to be replaced by corrugated iron and walls to be heightened.
This period of disaster would also result in the farm being snapped up by German scientist Dr JT Hahn, who had very little experience of farming and was bankrupt within 18 months.
His acquisition was bankrolled by Cecil John Rhodes, who then took ownership of the farm for a single day before selling it to a buyer he had lined up to replace Hahn.
Natural disaster and financial difficulty would also result in the farm’s significantly reduced size, with two sections of Blaauwklippen being sold to create the Stellenbosch suburb of Jamestown.
The greatest threat to the farm’s survival, however, was manmade, with Pieter de Waal buying the property and ripping up the vines to farm tobacco and apples, as he was strongly opposed to the consumption of alcohol.
After decades spent regaining the farm’s winemaking prowess and reputation, it was hit with a flash flood in 1953. Some parts of the farm were under more than 10 metres of water.
This flood level was surpassed by one centimetre in 2023 when the Blouklip River breached its banks due to heavy rainfall.
In the second half of the 20th century, the farm gradually became rundown, despite its participation in the creation of the Stellenbosch Wine Route.
In 1972, Graham Boonzaaier bought the rundown estate, pumping money into restoring the buildings and constructing a new winery after replanting the vineyard.
Boonzaaier also created the longest-running wine blending competition in South Africa, still hosted on the farm today.
Seeing the success of this commercial operation, the German Schorghüber Corporate Group, Farmer’s Markt Landhandel, acquired Blaauwklippen. During their ownership until 2017, the emphasis was placed on producing premium red wines.
To this end, they implemented a comprehensive barrel replacement programme with French and American oak barrels. The Blaauwklippen Barrel Selection was specifically created to showcase these premium wines.
The hospitality sector received a revamp, which included a new French cuisine restaurant, new wine tasting facilities and a wine shop.
In 2018, Blaauwklippen returned to South African ownership, with a consortium of investors buying the farm and remodelling the Manor House and Jonkershuis into luxury accommodation.
Issued on Daily Investor by Shaun Jacobs | https://dailyinvestor.com/south-africa/92792/south-africas-oldest-company-among-the-best-wine-farms-in-the-world/
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