We have 88 hectares (217 acres) under vine and produce 13 different grape varieties with our highest vines – pinot noir and chardonnay – lying against Simonsberg at some 600 metres above sea level. Some of the vines on the farm were planted by the farm’s previous owners, the Louw family, who lived here for four generations. The Louws were grape growers for the former Simondium Co-operative Winery and other large wineries in the area.
Echoing the farm’s 17th-century Cape Dutch architectural vernacular, Babylonstoren’s modern winery was designed by renowned Cape cellar architect Gerard de Villiers. It has been fitted with custom-made processing equipment that can cater for gravity-fed production on a single level. This includes three types of red-wine fermenters – stainless steel, raised concrete and 7 500-litre French oak vats. Led by cellarmaster Charl Coetzee (formerly of Kaapzicht) and winemaker Klaas Stoffberg, the farm’s 2011 harvest led to the first bottling of wine under the Babylonstoren label.
Our wines are best exemplified by the Babylonstoren logo, which consists of the pipe (representing the farmer), the flower (representing the garden) and the bird (representing nature). It is a combination of the very essence of Babylonstoren – keeping things simple and as true to the earth as possible. "It is this that we strive to achieve in our wine," says Charl Coetzee. "Truth to the area we are situated in on the slopes of Simonsberg, and simplicity by making elegant and balanced wines as natural as possible."