Visit Three Wine Estates in Helderberg

The South African wine industry can pinpoint the day it started, 2nd. February 1659. It was on this day that Jan van Riebeeck, the first Dutch commander of the Cape declared ‘Hedden is Gode loff van de Caepse druyven d’eerste mael wijn geparst…’ ‘Today, praise be to God wine was pressed for the first time from Cape grapes, and from the virgin must, fresh from the vat, a sample taken – pressed from the three young vines that have been growing here for two years, yielding 12 mengels must from French and Muscadel grapes, the Hannepoort Spanish not yet ripe.’ South Africa is now the ninth-largest producer of wine in the world.