Bonnievale Wines | Unpretentious with a clear vision for the future!

An unforgettable day out discovering Bonnievale Wine Cellar and learning more about Bonnievale Wine Valley. Bonnievale is becoming an increasingly popular tourist destination, attracting wine lovers from around the world to sample the region's award-winning wines and take in its stunning natural beauty.

The Bonnievale Winery itself was established in 1949 by a group of wine grape farmers. The winery has since grown to become one of the largest wineries in the region, with a focus on producing high-quality wines using sustainable farming practices.

Over the years, Bonnievale Winery has received numerous awards and recognition for their wines. In recent years, they have focused on producing wines that are both environmentally and socially responsible. They are members of the Biodiversity and Wine Initiative, which aims to promote conservation and sustainable wine production in South Africa.

Together, they enable the Bonnievale Wines Group to manage each of the grape and wine classes independently. Enabling winemakers to track and monitor the source of the best wines back to the exact vineyard where they were produced and continue to work with the growers on improving even further.

Working with clear intent, from the vineyard, maintaining long-term relationships with producers through to the winery, where Marthinus Rademeyer has been the head winemaker for more than a decade!

Unpretentious wines and people with a clear vision for the future under the wing of CEO John Barnardt.

I was thrilled to receive a bottle of the first release of Elethu Skalie - the standard-bearer for this remarkable initiative. The name is inspired by the shale – or skalie, in Afrikaans – that dominates the farm. Elethu is a proudly South African wine-growing enterprise comprising of black-owned land; black-owned and managed vineyards; and; black-managed winemaking. Click here for more about Elethu.

Elethu Skalie Cabernet Sauvignon 2020

After the winery visit we explored Bonnievale’s incredible waters canals - which were completed more than a century ago, an ambitious project lead by Mr Christopher Forrest Rigg, founder of Bonnievale.

Today, all of the east side and large sections of the west side of Bonnievale still use the water from the canals, which are much as they were when built by Rigg, in spite of great development having taken place since then!

Bonnievale Water Canals

Bonnievale Water Canals

I'd highly recommend a trip to Bonnievale for a weekend getaway! There’s so much to see and incredible wines to taste....

More about Bonnievale Wines here

More about Bonnievale Tourism here