Kanonkop

South Africa

Ask anyone who's spent time in South African wine circles which estate defines Stellenbosch reds, and Kanonkop comes up before you've finished the question. Tucked on the lower slopes of the Simonsberg mountain, this is a producer that has never chased fashion. Instead, it has spent decades perfecting two things: old-vine Pinotage and Bordeaux-style blends built to age. What makes Kanonkop worth your attention is its refusal to modernise for modernising's sake. The red wines are still fermented in open concrete kuipe, with cellar hands physically punching down the cap by hand rather than relying on mechanical pumps. It's labour-intensive, slower, and exactly why the wines carry such depth and structure. Some of the Pinotage vines here are bush-trained and over fifty years old, planted long before the grape earned any international respect. Winemaker Abrie Beeslaar has led the cellar since 2002, taking over from Beyers Truter, the man widely credited with putting South African Pinotage on the world map. Beeslaar has more than kept pace, picking up the International Winemaker of the Year title at the IWSC three times, a rare feat for anyone, anywhere. The estate remains a family business, run today by brothers Johann and Paul Krige, whose family has owned this land since 1929. We stock Kanonkop because it answers a question UK customers often ask us: what does serious South African wine actually taste like? The Kadette range, the estate's second label, gives newcomers an honest, accessible route into that answer, built on the same philosophy and fruit sourcing as the flagship wines, just at a friendlier price point. If you want to understand why critics call this a First Growth of the Cape, starting here makes complete sense. Delivered across the UK, it's as close as you'll get to Simonsberg without a plane ticket.

Browse Kanonkop Wines

The Kanonkop Story

Kanonkop takes its name from a nearby koppie, a small hill where a cannon was once fired to announce the arrival of trading ships in Table Bay. The Krige family took over the home farm in 1929, and winemaking had been part of the property's Simonsberg cellar since the 1940s. But it wasn't until the 1973 vintage that Kanonkop bottled wine under its own estate label for the first time, releasing a Cabernet Sauvignon and a Pinotage that set the tone for everything that followed.

The estate built its reputation slowly, through a succession of winemakers who each left their mark. Jan Coetzee laid the early foundations, followed by Beyers Truter, whose work through the 1980s and 1990s helped rehabilitate Pinotage's reputation at a time when the grape was often dismissed as rustic. Truter's flagship Bordeaux-style blend, Paul Sauer, first released in 1981 and named after the family patriarch, became one of the Cape's most sought-after reds.

In 2002, Abrie Beeslaar stepped into the cellar, continuing the traditional methods that had come before him: open concrete fermenters, manual punch-downs, and patient oak ageing. Rather than modernising the approach, Beeslaar refined it, and international recognition followed, including three IWSC International Winemaker of the Year awards, a distinction that speaks to consistency as much as individual brilliance.

Today, Kanonkop remains in Krige family hands, now run by fourth-generation brothers Johann and Paul. Little has changed in the vineyard or the cellar philosophy, and that's precisely the point. Some of the estate's Pinotage bush vines have been producing fruit for over fifty years, a living link to the decisions made by earlier generations. Nearly a century after the family first took on the farm, Kanonkop still makes wine the way it always has, and the results continue to prove that patience was the right approach all along.

Winemaking Philosophy

At Kanonkop, tradition isn't nostalgia, it's a method that still works. The estate ferments its red wines in open concrete kuipe, punching down the cap by hand rather than relying on mechanical pumps. It's slower, more labour-intensive, and exactly how things were done here decades ago. But the results speak for themselves: wines with real structure and a sense of place, rather than anything engineered or over-polished.

That sense of place starts in the vineyard. Kanonkop farms some of the Cape's oldest Pinotage, much of it bush-vine and averageing over fifty years old. Old vines like these naturally give smaller, more concentrated berries, and the low-yielding bush-vine training keeps the fruit intense without needing heavy intervention in the cellar. Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Cabernet Franc grow alongside on the lower slopes of the Simonsberg, where cooling mountain air and well-drained soils give the reds their characteristic firmness.

Oak plays a supporting role, not a starring one. Maturation is careful and considered, adding structure without masking the fruit or the site. The aim throughout is restraint: let the vineyard do the talking, and use time-honoured techniques to bring out what's already there rather than impose a style on top of it.

It's this combination of old vines, old methods and a refusal to chase trends that has earned Kanonkop its reputation as a benchmark producer, one that treats Pinotage and Bordeaux-style blends with equal seriousness.

Awards & Recognition

Kanonkop's reputation has been built over decades, but much of its recent momentum traces back to winemaker Abrie Beeslaar, who took over the cellar in 2002 after training under the legendary Beyers Truter. Beeslaar has since been named International Winemaker of the Year at the International Wine & Spirit Competition on three separate occasions, a rare achievement that places him among the most consistently recognised winemakers in South Africa.

The estate's flagship wine, Paul Sauer, first released in 1981, has picked up multiple 100-point ratings and top scores from leading international critics over the years, cementing Kanonkop's standing as one of the Cape's most respected producers. Together with a long run of high placings in South African wine rankings, this recognition has helped earn the estate its informal title as a 'First Growth of the Cape', a reputation built not on marketing, but on what's consistently in the glass.