Pulpit Rock Wine

The Brink family has farmed in the Riebeek Valley since 1865, when they purchased De Gift, a property on the foothills of the Kasteelberg Mountain. In 1890, the neighbouring farm Groenrivier was added, expanding the holding to 800 hectares. For well over a century, the Brinks farmed in true Swartland style — sheep, cattle, grain, and a smattering of vineyards — selling their grapes to others and never bottling under their own name.

The shift to winemaking was a generational dream. In 1918, old Grandpa Brink was invited by Groot Constantia to become their winemaker, but the timing was not right and he remained on the family farm. The ambition, however, never faded. It passed down through the decades until Ernst Brink decided that 2003 would be the year to finally realise it. He built a state-of-the-art cellar on the slopes of the Kasteelberg and named it Pulpit Rock, after the craggy rock formation that juts from the mountainside above like a preacher's pulpit, watching over the vineyards below.

The scale of the operation is impressive. Two vast barrel maturation cellars provide a combined production capacity of up to 6,000 tonnes, fed by 450 hectares of estate vineyards planted to Pinotage, Shiraz, Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Petit Verdot, Grenache, Chardonnay, Chenin Blanc, Sauvignon Blanc, Viognier, and Mourvedre. All grapes come exclusively from Brink family-owned land. Ernst's sons joined the business: Haumann, with a diploma in Cellar Technology from Elsenburg, and Van der Byl, with a commerce degree from Stellenbosch. Winemaker Riaan van der Spuy crafts the wines.

The portfolio is organised into three ranges. The Louisa range — named for a family matriarch — represents the top tier. The Brink Family Vineyards range offers mid-tier wines expressing the character of specific estate blocks. The Stories range provides everyday drinking with approachable wines at accessible prices. An MCC sparkling wine and a Cape Blend round out the portfolio, alongside single-varietal expressions that showcase the breadth of Swartland terroir.

The tasting room sits at the cellar, with views across the vineyards to the Kasteelberg. Cellar tours are available, and there is a restaurant on-site. The farm is closed on Sundays. What started with a shoebox of tobacco cuttings and a piece of land purchased in 1865 has become a modern wine dynasty — still family-owned, still farming their own grapes, and finally putting the Brink name on the bottle after nearly 140 years of working this Swartland soil.