Weekend Argus (Saturday Edition)
Winery refreshes its branding, offerings
Koelenhof aims to dominate household market
FOUNDED in 1941, Koelenhof Winery and Bottling emerged from humble beginnings as a family-run, bulk wine producer and first began bottling wine in 1974 with the De Vries family at the helm.
Members of the De Vries family still play an integral role at the winery, supported by a dedicated team of staff and loyal partners worldwide.
The winery was the first to produce white wine from red grapes, called cinsaut blanc, and also the first to use a fully automatic pressing cellar, needing only one person to run it.
Situated among vineyardcovered slopes 14km outside Stellenbosch, Koelenhof presses 16 000 tons of grapes every year – the fruit of the labour and commitment of 70 local shareholders. Koelenhof marketing manager Eugene Kinghorn said the winery and bottling company’s greatest achievement over the past 77 years had been that it is a leader in the industry when it comes to services.
The winery is home to more than 3 000 people in the industry. “Our long-term strategy is to support the wine industry by producing excellent quality wines, thus keeping all our farmers sustainable, as well as becoming a household name in the local market,” Kinghorn said. “Apart from the wines that we produce, we also offer numerous services to the smaller wine producers, ranging from wine products, bottling and labelling to storage. Our big attribute is that we offer these services with humbleness and we strive to be the best in what we do.”
Kinghorn said he saw Koelenhof becoming the top household wine in South Africa in five years’ time. “We recently changed our labels to keep up with the times and trends and we feel that it has helped us. We are constantly trying new wines and combinations, so be on the lookout for our new 1679 Bushvine Chenin 2017.”
Despite earning an enviable array of awards, the winery and bottling company remains humble in spirit. Recently, Koelenhof was named South Africa’s best value cellar overall in WINE Magazine’s Best Value Wine Guide, for offering wine of superb quality married with excellent value.