Sixty-one years ago, Schalk-Willem Joubert left Wellington for the fertile Tradouw Valley to farm mainly with fruit and wine grapes.

His son, Jacobus Joubert, Meyer’s father, realised the potential of growing premium grape cultivars for the production of wine.  They delivered Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc, Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon to the Co-operative Cellar in Barrydale, Cabernet Franc was planted on the farm in 1982.

In the late 1990’s, had a dream that was born whilst working as a child on the farm and making wine and working in the Napa Valley; they also worked in wine-tourism, which became a reality when an old building on the farm was restored and converted into an ageing maturation cellar. The fermentation cellar was built in 1998 out of stone from the rocky soils, characteristic of the farm. In 1999, the first grapes were harvested and crushed for the production of wine. The R62 Merlot/Cabernet Blend (60:40) was released after a 14-month ageing period in Burgundy oak barrels. The production is currently just below 3000 cases per year.

Meyer Joubert, an award-winning winemaker, studied viticulture at Elsenburg near Stellenbosch in the Western Cape and thereafter in California’s famous Napa Valley for two seasons, before returning to South Africa to make his own wine.