A Wine Weekend on the Cape Whale Coast

14 hours ago

5 min read

Villa Chad, cool-climate wines and why Kleinmond makes such a good base for exploring the region

Plenty of wine weekends are built around fitting in as many tastings as possible. This one gave us time to talk: about the wines, where they came from and what is happening across this corner of the Overberg.

Villa Chad in Kleinmond invited a small group of wine writers and creators for a Winefluencer Weekend on 19 and 20 September, with the guesthouse as our base for two days of wine, food and exploring.

Starting in Kleinmond

Villa Chad guesthouse in Kleinmond below the Kogelberg mountains — *Villa Chad sign and building with the mountain*

Villa Chad is run by Ludvig Mörnesten and Suzanne l'Ami, a Swedish-Dutch couple who swapped Europe for the Overberg. Ludvig is a sommelier with a long career in the international wine industry. Suzanne spent many years in Chile building and running a high-end adventure travel company. Between them they’ve lived and worked across several continents, which explains the very international feel of the place.

With just seven rooms, a garden and pool, Villa Chad feels intimate rather than hotel-like. The Kogelberg mountains rise behind it, with the coast only a few minutes away.

Madeleine Stenwreth MW with Villa Chad owners Ludvig Mörnesten and Suzanne l'Ami — *Madeleine with Ludvig and Suzanne*

We arrived at Villa Chad late on Saturday morning, settled in over lunch and a glass of Lomond Sauvignon Blanc 2025, and then moved into the part of the weekend I’d been looking forward to most: an afternoon tasting with Madeleine Stenwreth MW.

An afternoon with Madeleine Stenwreth MW

Madeleine Stenwreth is a Swedish Master of Wine who has worked with South African wine for almost 30 years. She chose the wines, and the afternoon ran as an open conversation

Wines from the fireside tasting at Villa Chad

Line-up of bottles

Eleven wines moved from Sauvignon Blanc and Chenin Blanc through Chardonnay and Pinot Noir to Mourvèdre and Syrah. They came from Gabriëlskloof, Die Kat Se Snor, Hamilton Russell, Beaumont, Creation and Ghost Corner.

Madeleine led us through the tasting, bringing the perspective of someone who is constantly tasting wines from around the world. Her insights were fascinating, but the discussion was never prescriptive. We compared notes, asked questions and didn’t always agree — which is exactly as it should be when taste is personal.

Madeleine Stenwreth MW leading the wine chat

The line-up was a good reminder of just how many exceptional wines are coming out of Bot River, Elim and the Hemel-en-Aarde — and how much there still is to discover beyond the usual names.

Dinner with the people behind the bottles

That evening, Dean Leppan of Gabriëlskloof and Ampersand, Josh Benians of Barton Vineyards, and Melissa Nelsen, founder and winemaker of Genevieve, joined us at Villa Chad. Chefs Hugo and Micha of Home Grown, known for their pop-up dinners, cooked a menu built around their wines.

Melissa Nelsen with Genevieve Blanc de Blancs 2013 — *Melissa with the Genevieve Blanc de Blanc 2013*

We started with Genevieve Blanc de Blancs 2021, then moved through Barton's Merlot Rosé and Wooded Chenin Blanc and Ampersand's Albariño and Cinsault. Later a 2013 Genevieve Blanc de Blanc appeared, and Creation's Fine Cape Vintage closed the night.

Dinner gave us the chance to continue the conversations from the afternoon. I spent much of the evening talking with Melissa Nelsen of Genevieve and Madeleine, which led to some fascinating conversations about Cap Classique and the next chapter for Genevieve.

That was one of the things I enjoyed most about the weekend — tasting the wines with the people behind them and having enough time to talk beyond the usual tasting-room questions.

Wine poured at the winemakers dinner at Villa Chad — Dean Leppan pouring Ampersand

Into Hemel-en-Aarde

Sunday started optimistically, in hiking shoes. After an hour's hike up Jean's Hill and breakfast back at Villa Chad, we drove into the Hemel-en-Aarde Valley.

Morning hike group on Jean's Hill above Kleinmond — *Hike on Jean's Hill*

Our first stop was Thamnus, and this ended up being one of the discoveries of the weekend for me.

The vineyards sit in a remote corner of the Overberg, overlooking the Hemel-en-Aarde Valley and Walker Bay. Thamnus focuses entirely on Chardonnay and Pinot Noir, grown on north-facing slopes around 285 metres above sea level. The name comes from Orothamnus zeyheri, a rare mountain rose found on the farm and in only a handful of places in the Western Cape.

P.J. Geyer has a long winemaking background, including time in the United States, New Zealand and Bordeaux, but Thamnus itself is still relatively young. The first wines were bottled in 2020, and there has already been some serious recognition. Their 10 hectares of vineyards are farmed with regenerative practices, including grazing sheep used to suppress weeds and help manage the vineyard floor.

P.J. Geyer of Thamnus Wines during the tasting — *P.J. Geyer of Thamnus Wines*

We tasted around a long table overlooking the valley, with P.J. talking us through the site and the wines as we went.

He poured the 2024 and 2023 Chardonnays side by side. I always find tasting consecutive vintages useful because the differences tell you as much about the place and the year as they do about the winemaking. The 2023 was one of the wines that stayed with me after the weekend. Thamnus feels like a producer at an interesting point in its story: still small and relatively new, but with a very clear focus on what it wants to do and where the wines come from.

Thamnus wines

Lunch at Creation

From there we went to Creation Wines on the Hemel-en-Aarde Ridge, where JC and Carolyn Martin hosted us for lunch.

Food and wine pairing courses at Creation Wines

We started with Creation's Confetti Bush course — a crisp topped with a single nasturtium leaf. Then came sardine with avocado and samp alongside the Ridge Chardonnay, ostrich with chakalaka on the Ridge Pinot Noir, and ystervarkies — South Africa's answer to the lamington — with honeybush gelato to finish.

JC also opened Emma’s Pinot Noir 2025, named after his and Carolyn’s daughter and not yet labelled. It was a firm favourite of mine and one I’d happily seek out again when it is released.

Winefluencer Weekend group at Creation Wines, Hemel-en-Aarde Ridge — *Winefluencer Weekend group at Creation Wines, Hemel-en-Aarde*

Why Kleinmond worked

My biggest surprise of the weekend was Kleinmond itself. I’d never really thought of it as a base for exploring wine country.

It’s around an hour and 15 minutes from Cape Town, 25 minutes from Hermanus and roughly 30 minutes from the Hemel-en-Aarde Valley, with Bot River easily within reach. In two days we had the coast, mountains, Bot River wines and the Hemel-en-Aarde all in the mix. It felt much broader than basing the weekend around a single wine route.

Hiking trail signpost in Kleinmond] — *Hiking trail signpost in Kleinmond*

What stayed with me wasn’t how much we managed to fit into two days, but how much there still was to discover. Kleinmond surprised me. So did a few of the wines. And two days suddenly didn’t feel like enough.

Villa Chad hosted my stay for the Winefluencer Weekend. They've also shared a friends-and-family code: Villafriends15 gives 15% off direct bookings on the Villa Chad website. I don't earn anything when you use it.