Boschendal - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Boschendal is one of the oldest wine estates in South Africa

South Africa

The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...

and is located between Franschhoek and Stellenbosch in South Africa's Western Cape

Western Cape

The Western Cape is a province in the south west of South Africa. The capital is Cape Town. Prior to 1994, the region that now forms the Western Cape was part of the much larger Cape Province...

Huguenot Origins

The farm's title deeds are dated 1685, but this is likely to be a clerical mistake. The estate's first owner, Jean le Long, was one of the party of 200 French Huguenot refugees who were fleeing religious persecution in Europe. He was granted land in the Cape of Good Hope

Cape of Good Hope

The Cape of Good Hope is a rocky headland on the Atlantic coast of the Cape Peninsula, South Africa.There is a misconception that the Cape of Good Hope is the southern tip of Africa, because it was once believed to be the dividing point between the Atlantic and Indian Oceans. In fact, the...

by the Dutch East India Company

Dutch East India Company

The Dutch East India Company was a chartered company established in 1602, when the States-General of the Netherlands granted it a 21-year monopoly to carry out colonial activities in Asia...

in 1688 and the title deed was written in 1713. In 1715 the farm was acquired by another Huguenot, Abraham de Villiers who sold it to his brother Jacques in 1717. The de Villiers family farmed Boschendal until 1879. In 1812 Paul de Villiers and his wife, Anna Susanna Louw, completed a new house at Boschendal on the site of his father's home. This is the homestead as restored today. Among the guests in the later years of the de Villiers era was the British Governor at the Cape, Sir George Grey

George Grey

George Grey may refer to:*Sir George Grey, 2nd Baronet , British politician*George Grey, 2nd Earl of Kent *Sir George Grey , Governor of Cape Colony, South Australia and New Zealand...

, who stayed at Boschendal whenever he visited the region.

Rhodes Fruit Farms and Anglo American

In 1887 the estate was bought by Cecil Rhodes and formed part of his commercial fruit business, Rhodes Fruit Farms

Rhodes Fruit Farms

Rhodes Fruit Farms, founded by Cecil John Rhodes in 1902, exists today as Boschendal The Estate, one of the oldest wine estates in South Africa.-Founding of Rhodes Fruit Farms:...

which has become today’s Boschendal - The Estate.

Phylloxera Epidemic

A global phylloxera

Phylloxera

Grape phylloxera ; originally described in France as Phylloxera vastatrix; equated to the previously described Daktulosphaira vitifoliae, Phylloxera vitifoliae; commonly just called phylloxera is a pest of commercial grapevines worldwide, originally native to eastern North America...

epidemic, caused by tiny, sap-sucking insects, spread through the Cape vineyards in the 1880s and 1890s, destroying the vines of the Boschendal area in 1890. It caused much damage and led to a farming depression before resistant American vine stocks were introduced on a scale wide enough to stop the epidemic.

In the meantime, farmers needed alternative forms of agriculture and the lucrative fruit industry in California provided a suitable model for the Cape. Pioneering work was done by fruit farmers in Wellington and the Hex River Valley. The introduction of refrigerated cargo space on shipping lines between the Cape and the UK made the export of fresh fruit an attractive proposition.

Rhodes & Pickstone

Harry Pickstone, an Englishman with experience of growing fruit in California convinced Rhodes that a commercial nursery was needed to propagate new varieties of fruit trees for the industry. Rhodes financed his first venture, the Pioneer Fruit Growing Company.

Rhodes’s political career had seen him rise to Prime Minister of the Cape Colony. When he was implicated in the Jameson Raid, an unsuccessful attempt to overthrow the Boer Republic in the Transvaal, he was left with little option but to resign. In 1896 Rhodes decided to invest further in fruit farming. Pickstone advised him to buy old wine farms in the Groot Drakenstein, Wellington and Stellenbosch areas.

In March 1897 Rhodes secured the first of more than 20 farms, including Boschendal and Rhone. Twelve young managers were appointed, many of whom had been trained in California. Under Pickstone’s tutelage they transformed the farms, introducing modern methods of pruning, grafting and irrigation, and training farm workers in the new skills. They planted 200 000 deciduous fruit trees - pears, apricots, plums and peaches.

In its new incarnation as Boschendal - The Estate, the former "Rhodes Fruit Farms" continues to be a major source of employment for local communities.

Boschendal - The Estate

The Boschendal estate is crowned by the original Cape Dutch

Cape Dutch

Cape Dutch are people of the Western Cape of South Africa who descended primarily from Dutch and Flemish as well as smaller numbers of French, German and other European immigrants along with a percentage of their Asian and African slaves, who, from the 17th century into the 19th century, remained...

manor house, which is open to visitors, together with associated restaurants and outbuildings and visitor attractions.

In the late 1960s the estate was taken over by the Anglo American Corporation, before being sold in 2003 to a consortium of international investors, led by the property developer Clive Venning. With the vision to offer investors residential property that was both historic and five star, while benefiting the local community and preserving an icon of South African heritage.

Founder’s Estates

The first phase of the residential development comprises Founders Estates measuring from 21 to 44 hectares, some with historic buildings. The Goede Hoop Homestead, built by Pieter Hendrik de Villiers in 1821 graces the De Oude Zilvermijn Founders Estate (Afrikaans for The Old Silvermine).

Extensively revamped and refitted during the 1990s. The Cecil J Rhodes cottage, built by Sir Herbert Baker, is situated on Founders’ Estate 20.

The Wines

The vineyards at Boschendal cover 2.54 km² between Groot Drakenstein and Simonsberg, and include substantial plantings of Chardonnay

Chardonnay

Chardonnay is a green-skinned grape variety used to make white wine. It is originated from the Burgundy wine region of eastern France but is now grown wherever wine is produced, from England to New Zealand...

and Sauvignon Blanc

Sauvignon blanc

Sauvignon Blanc is a green-skinned grape variety which originates from the Bordeaux region of France. The grape most likely gets its name from the French word sauvage and blanc due to its early origins as an indigenous grape in South West France., a possible descendant of savagnin...

, together with recent plantings of Cabernet Sauvignon

Cabernet Sauvignon

Cabernet Sauvignon is one of the world's most widely recognized red wine grape varieties. It is grown in nearly every major wine producing country among a diverse spectrum of climates from Canada's Okanagan Valley to Lebanon's Beqaa Valley...

, Merlot

Merlot

Merlot is a darkly blue-coloured wine grape, that is used as both a blending grape and for varietal wines. The name Merlot is thought to derive from the Old French word for young blackbird, merlot, a diminutive of merle, the blackbird , probably from the color of the grape. Merlot-based wines...

and Shiraz

Shiraz

Shiraz may refer to:* Shiraz, Iran, a city in Iran* Shiraz County, an administrative subdivision of Iran* Vosketap, Armenia, formerly called ShirazPeople:* Hovhannes Shiraz, Armenian poet* Ara Shiraz, Armenian sculptor...

. The winery is noted particularly for its white wines.

When Anglo American took ownership of Rhodes Fruit Farms