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Vergelegen Winery Guide

Cellar Tours Insight — Since 2003, Cellar Tours has planned private wine journeys through the world’s leading wine regions, pairing tailor-made itineraries with VIP winery visits, fine dining, and expert regional guidance.

Winery Overview

One of South Africa’s most impressive wine estates, Vergelegen is an astonishingly picturesque and historic wine farm on hillside vineyards south of Stellenbosch. From the outset, the focus has been on producing a luxury wine brand, and the flagship red Vergelegen V is one of the region’s most impressive and expensive wines. Proof, indeed, that Stellenbosch and the Western Cape can produce wines to rival the best of Bordeaux.

Vergelegen started its journey many centuries ago as the estate of Willem Adriaan van der Stel, the governor of the Cape who inherited his position from his father, Simon van der Stel. Quickly sensing the potential of Stellenbosch for vine growing, der Stel planted several different grape varieties in 1700, including the so-called ‘Blue Muscadel,’ Chenin Blanc, white Muscadel, and Frontignan. After only six years, der Stel boasted over half a million vines on his land, an idyllic fruit orchard, a corn mill, and an extensive cattle ranch. However, he was subsequently forced to return to the Netherlands. After that, Vergelegen went through a succession of different owners until 1917, when it came under Sir Lionel Phillips’s control. Purchasing the estate for his wife, Lady Florence Phillips, the new owners wasted no time restoring the then-dilapidated estate to its former glory. Its reputation flourished as the new owners plowed their considerable wealth into making Vergelegen the most opulent estate in Stellenbosch.

The estate was sold to the Barlow family in 1941 following Sir Lionel and Lady Phillips’s death. They acquired Vergelegen at auction and showed the same care and interest in their new property as Lady Phillips, replanting the vineyards and expanding the cattle operation. Their son took over Vergelegen in the 1960s, although its importance as a wine producer faded under his stewardship, and by 1962, the last of vines had been pulled up.

Its grand resurgence came in 1987 when Anglo Americans purchased the farm and set Vergelegen on a path to greatness. After an extensive soil study, vines were replanted. A state-of-the-art winery was inaugurated in 1992, an impressive building with more than a whiff of Napa Valley. Winemaker Andre Van Rensburg took over the winemaking mantle after Martin Meinert left to find his label, and it must be said that every wine produced here is superb. The flagship Vergelegen V is undoubtedly one of the best wines from the Cape, a monumental red fashioned on Left Bank Bordeaux that will improve decades after release. If nothing else, it has taken South African wine prices to new heights, yet it is still a steal in the context of other luxury branded wine from elsewhere – magnificent!

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Further Reading

Author

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James Lawrence

With a passion for food & drink that verges on the obsessive, wine writer James Lawrence has traveled the world in search of the perfect tipple. To date, nothing has surpassed the 1952 R. Lopez de Heredia Vina Tondonia Rioja Reserva, tasted in the cobweb-filled cellars with owner María José. Meanwhile, James has been writing for a wide variety of publications for over 12 years, including Telegraph, Decanter, Harpers, The Drinks Business, and Wine Business International. He lives in South Wales and returns to his former university city, Bilbao, as much as possible.

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