Beyond the Paardeberg: Meet the winemakers shaking things up in Swartland's rugged north

Green wheat fields peel back on either side of the N7, that endless road that goes all the way to Namibia. Fog swishes up and down like a theatre intern’s first time at the ropes.

Trucks thunder past. Soon the Desert Rose Farm Stall looms ahead, all punk Afrikanerism: its gaudy glory the symbolic gateway to the northern Swartland.

For all the hype, the region remains an enigma, largely because of its sheer size. Its 999,000ha stretch from the Paardeberg in the south to the Piketberg and West Coast in the north.

Where rhinoceros roamed

It begins here in Koringberg, home to a handful of wineries. Nieuwedrift slips past, owned by the Mostert family since 1965.

A little further along is Org de Rac, one of South Africa’s pioneering organic estates.

Nearby is Mphumeleli ‘Mphumi’ Ndlangisa’s organic concern. Although this is a hot part of the Swartland with a wide diurnal range, ‘the Berg River is a moderating influence as well as the strong southeasterly winds coming off the ocean,’ explains Ndlangisa, who left a career in investment banking to start natural wine label Magna Carta.

In 2020, he bought his 7ha virgin Koringberg farm. ‘It was wonderful to find indigenous renosterveld,’ he remarks.

This type of shrubland is named after the bitter-tasting renosterbos – rhinoceros bush – as black rhinos once roamed here.

Into the mountains

Passing rocketship-shaped grain silos, the Piketberg mountain range starts to dominate the skyline.

Clouds boil over the precipice as I drive towards Schenkfontein wine cellar, established in the early 1900s.

Descendant Philip Hanekom greets me in his timber-and-brick office, a taxidermied caracal frozen mid-prowl behind him.

‘It’s the people that make the north different,’ he laughs as we taste his Chenin Cap Classique. ‘The further you travel, the less English you hear.’

It’s also drier. ‘Our average rainfall is between 250mm and 450mm. As you move towards Cape Town the rainfall increases.’

From here an iron-red road leads me towards Bandit’s Kloof, home of South Africa’s leading natural wine label, Testalonga.

The fynbos-clad Olifantsberg Mountain seems to tuck the 135ha farm in. It was bought in 2015 by Craig and Carla Hawkins, who planted Mediterranean vines at 400m above sea level, which they farm organically.

Inside their home we taste the El Bandito and Bandits Kloof ranges – the latter is their recently launched estate tier.

Termite topography

Speaking about what makes the north special, Craig says: ‘Well, it’s built by termites.’

It’s true; ancient mounds swell like goosebumps from the Berg River all the way to the West Coast.

Known as heuweltjies (little hills), they are the world’s oldest active termite nests, some dating back 34,000 years.

‘Everything north of the river is Die Noordelikes,’ explains Craig. Meaning ‘The Northerners’, it’s the name of their unofficial tasting group.

Other than the termites, Craig cites the diversity of soils. ‘My farm alone has seven different soil groups,’ he explains.

He prizes the intersection of sandstone and Bokkeveld shale, adding that ‘the groundwater levels are good’.

Testalonga is making a commitment to the north. From its fairly substantial portfolio, six wines originate here, three from their farm, and another two from an old Chenin Blanc block planted at the foot of the Piketberg in 1961.

Coastal treasures

A little further afield in the West Coast, the north extends into the St Helena Bay ward (Eben Sadie’s Skerpioen also comes from here).

Here Hawkins farms Chenin planted in 1961, growing on limestone and sandstone.

‘It’s in the middle of nowhere. You can watch the fog bank roll right off the ocean,’ notes Craig.

The coast holds another of the north’s hidden treasures. Tucked away between Aurora and Elands Bay is the ancient vineyard from which Sadie makes ‘T Voetpad (footpath).

Just 1.4ha in size, it was planted with Cape heritage varieties between 1887 and 1928, all on their own roots.

Remarkable too, is its survival without irrigation, sustained by an underground river flowing beneath the vineyard.

Aiming high

It’s a winding, hair-raising mountain pass to the Piket-Bo-Berg plateau, a high-altitude farming community that feels a world apart.

The temperature drops sharply in this newly minted Wine of Origin (WO) region.

The WO was championed by winemaker Johan ‘Stompie’ Meyer, and 2025 marked the maiden release of his Mother Rock wines bearing the designation.

‘We had a leopard kill here recently,’ says Meyer, pointing at a patch of rocky ground as we bump along in his bakkie (pick-up truck) taking a tour of his vineyards.

‘This mountain is the most densely populated leopard habitat in South Africa.’

Meyer’s farm, Platteklip Vineyards, is perched 650m above sea level with the slopes ascending to 785m.

He bought the property in 2016 after seeing its wealth of sandstone and koffieklip (iron-rich soil, literally ‘coffee stone’).

‘There was nothing here. We built everything from scratch.’

Cool climate Swartland

The farm has both south- and north-facing slopes. The cooler, southern side is planted to Pinot Noir and Chardonnay, the other to Rhône varieties such as Grenache and Mourvèdre.

‘Between them there can be a temperature difference of five degrees,’ explains Meyer. This is why Piket-Bo-Berg needed its own identity, he says.

‘If you see “Swartland Pinot Noir” on a shelf, you’re going to walk straight past it.’

Stompie is no longer the lone winemaker on the mountain. On the way down the pass, I pop my head in at the cellar of Thinus Krüger of FRAM Wines, and his wife, Hanneke Krüger, formerly winemaker at AA Badenhorst and now focused on her Vino pH label.

It’s still early days. Vineyards are slowly being established, and so far they have filled two barrels: Cabernet Sauvignon and a white blend: Chenin with Palomino and Verdelho.

The plan is to bottle the wines under a new label.

Watch this space…

Another name to watch. The Krugers share their cellar space with Adriaan van Zyl, formerly of Testalonga.

His family’s organic and biodynamic farm, Vergesig, lies further down the mountain, where he has planted Grenache Noir and Chenin Blanc.

‘It’s unique, which is a good start,’ says Thinus, when asked why Piket-Bo-Berg? ‘It’s also affordable. Well, the land is.’

The Paardeberg was at one point, too. ‘And it’s not anymore,’ he laughs. ‘Now you have to move a little bit further north.’

He may be onto something. As this road trip has shown there is real momentum building here.

And as land becomes scarcer and more expensive, the search for distinctive terroir and fresh opportunity has the compass pointing assuredly north.

Top bottles to try from Northern Swartland

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