The history of Waterkloof: from Sheep Mountain to biodynamic pioneer

Schapenberg, or Sheep Mountain, rises 300 metres above False Bay about four kilometres from the coast. For centuries it was a lookout. The Dutch colonial governor Willem Adriaan van der Stel used it to spot ships approaching Cape Town while his sheep grazed the slopes. Those same windswept slopes now produce some of the most distinctive wine in the Cape.

Paul Boutinot found the site in 1993 and then spent a decade trying to secure it. When he finally took over Waterkloof in 2004, he was buying into an idea rather than a going concern.

Going organic when nobody else was

While much of the South African industry was still thinking about volume, Waterkloof went the other way. By 2008 the entire 53-hectare vineyard was fully organic, with biodynamic practice following soon after.

This was not fashion. The exposed coastal position more or less demanded it. Breezes off False Bay create a microclimate where cool sea air moderates the African sun, so the grapes ripen slowly and hold on to their acidity. Boutinot's argument was that chemical intervention would only get in the way of what the site was already doing.

Farming around a nature reserve

Half of the 100-hectare property has been left alone as a conservation area, which has been recognised by the World Wildlife Fund's Biodiversity Initiative. That is not decoration. The indigenous fynbos covering the hillsides supports an ecosystem that affects soil health and supplies the wild yeasts that ferment the wines.

For anyone used to European precision, this is a different proposition: an estate working with its surroundings rather than imposing on them. The wines taste like the place, which is wild and mineral in roughly equal measure.

The gravity cellar

In 2009 the estate opened a gravity cellar cut into the hillside above the bay. Gravity-fed winemaking sounds like a gimmick and is not. Fruit moves from crushing to fermentation to barrel by falling rather than being pumped, which handles it far more gently at every stage.

The building also put Waterkloof on the map as somewhere to visit, with the architecture and the view doing much of that work. More usefully, it gave winemakers Werner Engelbrecht and Christiaan Loots the equipment to make wine at an international standard.

Seriously Cool Chenin Blanc

If you have looked at South African wine in the UK you have probably met Seriously Cool Chenin Blanc, which is £11.99 and rather better than the name suggests.

It captures what the site does: mineral precision from decomposed granite, bright acidity from the sea air, and a quiet complexity that comes out of the farming. Chenin Blanc is South Africa's workhorse grape, grown everywhere from hot inland valleys to cool coastal slopes, and this is what happens when a good site meets someone paying close attention. It is crisp enough for a summer evening and has enough substance for real food.

The same range includes Seriously Cool Cinsault at £12.89, a light, fresh red that is best served slightly chilled and is one of the more useful bottles to keep around in summer.

Circle of Life

The Circle of Life blends, white and red, are the estate philosophy in a bottle. Neither is a simple blend. Both are put together to show the Schapenberg site rather than any one variety.

The white at £12.99 builds on Chenin Blanc's mineral spine with Chardonnay for richness and Sauvignon Blanc for aromatic lift. The red, also £12.99, takes international varieties such as Cabernet Sauvignon and combines them with less obvious partners, so the result feels familiar and slightly off-centre at the same time.

If you want the same thinking at a lower price, the False Bay range is Waterkloof's more accessible label, with False Bay Syrah at £9.49 and False Bay Sauvignon Blanc at £9.69.

Why it is worth your attention

In an industry increasingly given over to industrial production, Waterkloof is a producer willing to make things harder for itself in pursuit of quality. The biodynamic approach is environmentally sound and, more to the point here, it produces wine with a recognisable sense of place.

These are not bargain-bin discoveries. They are carefully made wines that hold their own internationally, and they remain tied to a windswept hill above False Bay: mineral soils, cool maritime air, and the wild complexity that comes from farming alongside nature rather than over it.

Everything ships across the UK, and the rest of our South African white wines and red wines are worth browsing while you are here.