Skip to content
Case & Cork

Producer Cape South Coast, South Africa

Gabriëlskloof

Bernhard Heyns founded Gabriëlskloof in 2001, when the land in Bot River was still wheat and sheep pasture. He saw what it could become, and it now has more than 60 hectares of vines.

His son-in-law Peter-Allan Finlayson took charge of the wine from 2015. He brought in wild yeasts, whole bunches, clay amphorae and older oak, all to let the fruit and the place speak. He is now cellar master, working with winemaker Anmar Van Niekerk, who got the job at just 28.

Winds off the Atlantic and Walker Bay keep the hillside vines cool and the yields low. The shale and sandstone soils suit Syrah and Cabernet Franc especially well. Rosa Kruger advises on the vines, which are farmed without herbicides, with cover crops and wild fynbos, and the aim is to go organic.

Gabriëlskloof wines