Winery · Durbanville

Groot Phesantekraal: The Pirate, The Enslaved Woman, and Every Bottle That Tells Her Story

1698 estate with 1767 stone stable: Brink family restores organic wines in Durbanville where Atlantic sea breeze meets interior heat, now a restaurant and tasting room.

What to do there

TastingGroot Phesantekraal: The Pirate, The Enslaved Woman, and Every Bottle That Tells Her StoryAngela van Bengal was enslaved by Jan van Riebeeck himself. Freed in 1666, she bought land on the Heerengracht (today's Adderley Street) -- becoming the first Black person to own land in the Cape Colony. Her daughter Anna married Olof Bergh, a Swedish explorer caught stealing from two shipwrecks who spent 4+ years on Robben Island. After prison, Bergh got farmland that became Groot Phesantekraal. When he died in 1724, Anna inherited everything -- unprecedented for a woman, let alone a formerly enslaved woman. Today, the "Anna de Koning" Chenin Blanc honours her story on every bottle.

Wineries nearby

Winery · Cape Town Duncan Savage's Urban Winery: World-Class Wine from an Industrial Unit Duncan Savage operates Cape Town's only urban winery from Salt River, producing 3,000 cases annually of Syrah-focused reds from marginal high-altitude Western Cape sites.
Winery · Cape Town Baudelaire's Poem Hunt: Reading Les Fleurs du Mal in the Vineyard Literary wine experience pairing Baudelaire's Fleurs du Mal poetry with Cape Town vineyard tastings.
Winery · Stellenbosch Rust en Vrede Rust en Vrede (1694) is South Africa's noble house — Jean Engelbrecht restored the National Monument estate in 1977.