Boschendal

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Manor house at Boschendal, one of several early 19th century buildings on the farm in the Cape Dutch style

Boschendal (Dutch: wood and dale) is one of the oldest wine estates in South Africa and is located in Franschhoek in South Africa's Western Cape.

1 Huguenot origins
2 Rhodes Fruit Farms and Anglo American
3 Phylloxera epidemic
4 The estate
5 The wines
6 References
7 See also
8 External links

[edit] Huguenot origins

The estate's title deeds are dated 1685, but this is likely to be a clerical mistake since the estate's first owner, Jean de Long, was one of the party of 200 French Huguenot refugees granted land in the Cape of Good Hope by the Dutch East India Company in 1688. In 1715 the farm was acquired by another Huguenot family, the de Villers, and it remained owned by them until 1879.

In 1812 Paul de Villiers and his wife, Anna Susanna Louw, completed a new house at Boschendal on the site of his father's home. This is the homestead as restored today.^[1] Among the guests in the later years of the de Villiers era was the British Governor at the Cape, Sir George Grey, who stayed at Boschendal whenever he visited the region.^[2]

[edit] Rhodes Fruit Farms and Anglo American

In 1887 the estate was bought by Cecil Rhodes and formed part of his commercial fruit business, Rhodes Fruit Farms. In the late 1960s the estate was taken over by the Anglo American Corporation, before being sold in 2003 to a consortium of international investors.

[edit] Phylloxera epidemic

A phylloxera epidemic, caused by tiny, sap-sucking insects, hit the vineyards of the Boschendal area in 1890. It caused much damage and led to a farming depression before resistant American vine stocks were introduced on a scale wide enough to stop the epidemic.^[3]

[edit] The estate

The estate consists of the original Cape Dutch manor house, which is open to visitors, together with associated restaurants and outbuildings. In addition, various parts of the estate have been made available for private purchase by people wishing to build homes in the vineyard.

[edit] The wines

The vineyards at Boschendal cover 2.54 km² between Groot Drakenstein and Simonsberg, and include large substantial plantings of Chardonnay and Sauvignon Blanc, together with recent plantings of Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Shiraz. The winery is noted particularly for its white wines.