Montpellier Wine Estate

Montpellier Wine Estate is one of the oldest farms in the Cape, granted to Huguenot refugee Jean Imbert by Governor Maurits Pasques de Chavonnes in 1714. Imbert and his companion Jacques Theron had arrived in Table Bay in 1688, fleeing religious persecution in France. Before seeking refuge in the Tulbagh valley, they had lived near the historic city of Montpellier in southern France — and when Imbert finally held the deed to his own land, he gave it the name of the place he had left behind.

The farm was used initially for grazing cattle, but vines were planted shortly after the original Cape Dutch homestead was built around 1815. The first serious winemaking experiments replaced Cinsaut with Clairette Blanche, Colombard, Riesling, and Chenin Blanc. Innovation came early: the winemaker pioneered the use of CO2 to reduce oxidation, regulated fermentation temperatures with cold running water, and introduced small picking boxes to keep grapes cool. In 1967, a thousand bottles of Riesling were hand-bottled, corked, and laid down for maturation. The 1971 Riesling, matured for eighteen months, became the first wine to receive a Gold Superior classification — a milestone in Tulbagh winemaking.

After Jean Imbert's death in 1723, the farm changed hands several times before being acquired by Jacques Theron's descendants in the 1880s. The Theron family held it for a century. On September 29, 1969, a devastating earthquake levelled the Tulbagh valley, destroying the original Cape Dutch homestead. De Wet Theron painstakingly restored the ancestral home, preserving its structural heritage.

In 2001, Johannesburg advocate Lucas van Tonder saw the farm's potential and purchased it, embarking on a massive restoration that stayed true to the original Cape Dutch design. Today Montpellier produces a wide range of estate wines — Cabernet Sauvignon, Shiraz, Pinot Noir, Chardonnay, Chenin Blanc, Viognier, Semillon, MCC Brut and MCC Rose — under the Spyseniersberg label for its premium blends. The estate's hillside chapel and Cape Dutch homestead make it one of the most sought-after wedding venues in the Winelands. Self-catering cottages and manor house bed-and-breakfast accommodation allow visitors to stay among the vineyards, surrounded by three mountain ranges and the tranquil beauty of the Tulbagh valley.