Gabriëlskloof Wines

Tucked away among rolling valleys, just an hour from Cape Town along the N2, lies the secret gem of the Bot River wine route. This is “where real people make real wines”, and it’s here that you will find Gabriëlskloof, whose sole focus is to perfect the art of wine making.

Although a new arrival on the exciting Bot River wine scene, Gabriëlskloof’s wines have been a long time in the making. In 2001, general manager and viticulturist Barry Anderson passed on his passionate belief in the potential of the land to Bernhard Heyns, and since then there has been no looking back for Gabriëlskloof. After carefully matching cultivars and terroir, the first vines were planted in 2002 and in 2009 award-winning winemaker Kobie Viljoen joined the team to make the debut vintage.

Barry and Kobie like to say that they constantly are hard at work in the vineyards and the cellar. But they are also having lots of fun experimenting with the unique terroir and carefully selected grape varietals while and working their magic to produce wonderfully expressive wines.

The Gabriëlskloof team is united in their obsession with making top-notch, well-priced wines that showcase the spirit of the Bot River region. Today, the carefully designed vineyards are seven years old and it’s nice to think that the land might remember 150 years ago, when farmer Gabriël le Roux planted the first vines here. He produced wine and brandy to sell to travellers journeying from Cape Town to the outskirts of the colony. A century and a half later, we think he’d be pleased with what has been accomplished in his valley.