South Africa · Wine Region

Western Cape

Le Domaine draws its fruit from vineyards scattered across the Western Cape, from coastal sites cooled by Atlantic breezes to warmer inland slopes, all planted between 50 and 300 metres above sea level. This broad sourcing is deliberate. By blending components from different microclimates, the cellar builds a consistent house style that balances the crisp acidity of cooler sites with the ripe generosity of warmer ones. It's the Western Cape's extraordinary diversity captured in a single glass.

Shop Western Cape Wines

Producers in Western Cape

Baleia

Baleia is a true one-off. It is the only winery on the Lower Duiwenhoks river at Vermaaklikheid, a remote and unspoilt pocket of the southern Cape coast where almost nobody else has thought to plant vines. The Joubert family established it in 2009, drawn by the Mediterranean climate and a stretch of rare limestone soil, and built their whole philosophy around it: living soils, strong roots, healthy vines, fruit that honestly reflects its place. Baleia is Portuguese for whale, a nod to St Sebastian Bay, the whale nursery on their doorstep, and those striking labels carry that story. This is wine made by people chasing harmony with a wild landscape, not chasing trends.

Forge Mill

Indaba

Indaba takes its name from the Zulu word for a meeting of the minds, and that spirit runs through everything the label does. Born as a celebration of a new South Africa, the project has always paired honest, affordable winemaking with a serious commitment to the communities behind the bottle. A share of every sale funds the Indaba Foundation, which supports early childhood development across the Cape Winelands, training Montessori teachers and building learning spaces for the children of vineyard workers. The wines themselves come from long partnerships with conscientious growers in prime Cape appellations, farmers who have spent generations learning their land. It's wine with a conscience, and it shows in the glass.

JC Le Roux

The House of J.C. Le Roux holds a special place in South African wine history. Founded in 1983, it was the country's first cellar devoted entirely to sparkling wine, a bold move at a time when most South African producers considered bubbles an afterthought. The name honours Jean le Roux, a French Huguenot viticulturist who planted vines in Stellenbosch around 1704, and that pioneering spirit runs through everything the house produces. Based in the Devon Valley just outside Stellenbosch, the cellar released South Africa's first Pinot Noir Méthode Cap Classique in 1985 and has been pushing boundaries ever since. Under cellar master Melanie van der Merwe, the range spans everything from serious Cap Classique to fun, fruit-driven sparklers like Le Domaine. It remains the country's leading dedicated sparkling wine house, the name South Africans reach for when there's something to celebrate.

Sedgwicks

The story starts with Captain James Sedgwick, a British sea captain who came ashore in Wellington in 1850 and set up a distillery that's still operating today. Old Brown itself launched in 1916, which makes it South Africa's original oloroso-style fortified, and more than a century on, it remains a genuine cultural fixture. Affectionately known as 'Obies' back home, it crosses every demographic line you can think of, poured at family gatherings, winter braais and quiet evenings in equal measure. The James Sedgwick Distillery in Wellington is now part of the wider Distell group and also home to Three Ships and Bain's Cape Mountain Whisky, but Old Brown is the heritage piece, the bottle that built the brand.

South African White

The Alvi's Drift story starts with a bridge. Back in 1928, Albertus Viljoen van der Merwe, Oupa Alvi to everyone who knew him, bought a stretch of land on the Breede River, and two years later commissioned a low-water crossing so locals could move between the two halves of the farm. That crossing, the 'drift' in the name, is still there. Three generations on, Oupa Alvi's grandson Alvi van der Merwe runs the cellar, which is a wonderful detour from his earlier career as a GP working across Canada, the UK and South Africa. He came home in 2003 to join his father Bertie in the vineyards, and now makes the wines alongside his wife Junel, a Cape Wine Master. The Signature range is their everyday calling card: serious winemaking dressed in approachable clothes.

Van Loveren Family Vineyards

The Retief family have farmed in the Robertson Valley since 1937, when Hennie Retief snr bought the land and, on his wife's suggestion, named it Van Loveren after an ancestor who arrived at the Cape in 1699. Sweet wines and brandy came first, dry whites followed in the 1970s, and the Van Loveren label launched in 1980. Then in 2000 four cousins from the next generation (Bussell, Hennie, Phillip and Neil) put their heads together and created Four Cousins: a range built around family tables, easy sharing and everyday celebration. It has since grown into South Africa's biggest-selling bottled wine brand. Bussell makes the wine, Hennie and Neil look after the vines, Phillip runs the business. Still family, still Robertson.

Wild Garden

Wild Garden is a small, own-label range put together specifically for us: two wines, one white, one red, both showcasing the classic South African grape varieties in an honest, everyday style. The name is a nod to the wild, wind-swept stretch of fynbos and vineyard that runs up the Cape's west coast, where the fruit is grown. There's a Pinotage in the range too, but this Chenin Blanc is the one that gets poured most often. Carefully selected, blended and bottled with a clear brief: keep it fresh, keep it fruity, keep it drinkable. It's the kind of bottle you open on a Tuesday without a second thought, and reach for again on Wednesday.