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Where much of the Western Cape’s wine tourism offering is centred on centuries of history and heritage, Cavalli Estate in Stellenbosch is a pure 21st century creation designed to showcase excellence in contemporary SA wine, art, design, and cutting-edge sustainable architecture.
Within the Stellenbosch golden triangle of superior wine terroir, in the foothills of the Helderberg, Cavalli set out from the start in 2008 to create a world-class lifestyle destination — incorporating newly-planted vineyards and a state-of-the-art cellar, an equally state-of-the-art equestrian training centre, restaurant, art gallery, luxury boutique and venue for weddings and functions.
In its short history, the estate has become a premium tourist destination, the restaurant multi-awarded, and one of the country’s most popular wedding venues, hosting more than 250 weddings a year.
Owner Lauren Smith, an architect, who founded the estate with her father Jerome Smith, the founder of pharmaceutical giant Cipla Medpro, and took over its running after his death in 2021, designed the estate with sustainability in mind, in the eco-conscious architecture and in restoring critically endangered renosterveld and establishing 10ha of indigenous fynbos across the wine and olive estate.
This resulted in Cavalli becoming SA’s first Green Star-rated public building.
It’s a fascinating and beautiful place, a must-do destination, and what has been achieved in the building and experiences on offer is echoed in the journey of the Cavalli wine cellar.
Cavalli winemaker and viticulturist Eric Frieslaar was in the Bay recently to introduce the wines, previously not much available in the Eastern Cape and Garden Route but now stocked in selected Preston’s stores and making their way onto leading restaurant’s wine lists.
The estate has started gathering local and international wine awards, including top 10 places in Winemag reports and a coveted 95-point rating for the flagship Warlord Bordeaux-style blend in UK master of wine Tim Atkin’s 2024 SA Special Report, with Atkin remarking that, tasted blind “against some much higher priced wines, [Warlord] performed like the thoroughbred it is named after”.
“While awards are not everything, this puts us in the field we want to be playing in, we are benchmarking in the right places, which is impressive for an estate of only 15 years old compared to the winemaking heritage we are pitting ourselves against,” Frieslaar said.
Given the high-end, luxury focus of Cavalli as a lifestyle destination, one would expect the wines to not only be of premium quality (which they are) but also to be tagged with the kind of premium prices that put them out of reach of the average wine lover.
Happily, this is not the case, with cellar-door prices starting from R150 for the unoaked chenin blanc, to R160 and R180 for the shiraz and malbec respectively, to the flagships of Reserve White at R285 and the Warlord a modest R330 — and most rated Platter’s 4.5*.
Starting at the top, then, Warlord 2021’s blend of 50% cabernet sauvignon, 29% malbec and 21% petit verdot makes for a heady, entrancing blend of flavours and aromas underpinned by that firm cab backbone of intense fruit and chalky tannin structure.
As the name suggests, it’s powerful, bold, commanding, distinctive, with the refinement and complexity that a medieval warlord may well have lacked.
Silky and elegant, with fresh sweet-sour plums, black forest cake, cedar spice, with intense dried fruit.
Cavalli Reserve White 2024 is a blend of chenin blanc (60%) and verdelho (28%), rounded out with chardonnay and viognier, barrel fermented and matured for seven months in oak, multidimensional with unfolding layers of flavour and complexity.
The wine has the crunch and freshness of white dessert peaches and pear, a touch of exotic lemon grass, freshness and acidity threading through creaminess, with nuttiness, citrus zest, light toastiness. Vibrant, complex, a tale of opposites working together for balance.
Cavalli Chenin Blanc 2025 (unwooded) is a great starting point — fresh, crunchy, pineapple, lime, nectarines, with time on the lees adding texture and complexity, a touch of spice warmth — before heading into the delicacy and spice of the Reserve Chenin Blanc and the perky but super-elegant chardonnay.
The Cavalli reds include the powerful, elegant cabernet sauvignon — a must-try, and a story for A Vine Time to explore another day.
The Herald
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