There is excitement in the Stellenbosch air with harvest time upon us! This year winemakers will crush the 353nd grape harvest of South Africa’s wine history, making South Africa the oldest New World wine making country in the world.
On the 2nd of February 1659 the first wine was produced from Cape grapes. According to documentation found, the grapes were in all probability muscadel, and they only produced 15 litres. Jan van Riebeeck wrote in his diary: “Today, praise be to God, wine was pressed for the first time from Cape grapes.”