Kleinood

Kleinood began in 2000 when Gerard de Villiers and his wife Libby discovered a run-down fruit farm in the Blaauwklippen Valley on the slopes of the Helderberg Mountain outside Stellenbosch. Gerard is a direct descendant of the Huguenot Jacob de Villiers, who arrived in South Africa in 1688, and the family's connection to Cape winemaking runs deep in their blood. What they found was a neglected property with potential -- sheltered slopes facing the Helderberg, well-drained soils suited to red varietals, and a quiet valley location away from the busier Stellenbosch wine routes.

The name Kleinood is an Afrikaans word meaning something small and precious, and that is precisely what the de Villiers family set out to create. They transformed the property into a boutique estate with twelve hectares of arable land -- ten devoted to vines and two under olive trees. Gerard, a passionate engineer who has designed and built several important wine cellars across South Africa, designed and constructed the state-of-the-art cellar at Kleinood himself, ensuring that every detail reflected his exacting standards.

The wines carry the name Tamboerskloof, after the suburb in Cape Town where the family lived before moving to the farm -- the place where their children were born and grew up, and where the dream of their own wine estate first took root. Winemaker Gunter Schultz oversees the cellar, vinifying individual vineyard parcels separately and blending them only when they meet the quality threshold for the final wines. It is in this blending phase, Schultz has noted, that the building blocks of each vintage come together.

The portfolio is deliberately focused. Syrah is the heart of the estate, expressed in the Tamboerskloof Syrah and the flagship Tamboerskloof John Spicer Syrah, named after the first-born child and only son of the family and distinguished by its black label. Viognier and the Katharien Syrah Rose complete the range. Two hectares of olives produce the acclaimed de Boerin Extra Virgin Olive Oil from Favlosa, Leccino, and Coratina varieties, alongside verjus and estate honey.

Visitors to Kleinood experience a full behind-the-scenes winery tour ending with a tasting of current vintages alongside an abundant seasonal platter, all for R600 per person. The farm is open daily from 10:00 to 16:00, and the intimate scale ensures a personal, unhurried visit in one of Stellenbosch's quieter corners.

Kleinood is a family estate in the truest sense -- built by hand, named from memory, and dedicated to producing wines and olive oil of uncommon quality from one small, precious piece of the Stellenbosch winelands.