Calitzdorp Wine Cellar

Calitzdorp Wine Cellar was born in February 1928, when local farmers in the Little Karoo town of Calitzdorp formed a cooperative called Calitzdorp Vrugte Uitvoerders Kooperatiewe Vereeniging Beperk. The early focus was not wine but fruit — grapes, peaches, and apricots were exported, and what wine was made went to a distillery in Oudtshoorn for further distillation under the KWV system. For fifty years, the cellar operated largely in the background of South African wine.

The turning point came after the cellar's 50th anniversary, when a new winemaker was appointed and the first wines were bottled under the Buffelskroon label. New tanks and facilities were introduced, and for the first time Calitzdorp Cellar began selling wine under its own name. The first red wines were Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot, but the real transformation came in the early 1990s when Shiraz, Pinotage, Tinta Barocca, Touriga Nacional, Chardonnay, and Sauvignon Blanc were planted. The Portuguese varieties proved a revelation in the hot, dry Klein Karoo climate.

Alwyn Burger, winemaker and manager, has been at the helm since 1990, guiding the cellar through its metamorphosis from cooperative fruit exporter to acclaimed port and wine producer. Under his stewardship, Calitzdorp Cellar has become one of the anchors of the town's reputation as the Port Wine Capital of South Africa. The fortified wines — made from Tinta Barocca and Touriga Nacional — are recognised as among the finest in the country, their depth and complexity a product of the region's extreme heat, poor well-drained soils, and Burger's patient cellar work.

The tasting room sits on Andries Pretorius Street in the heart of Calitzdorp, a stop along the famous Route 62 that winds through the Klein Karoo from Montagu to Oudtshoorn. A small bistro serves light meals alongside the wines, making it a natural pause for travellers exploring the region. The range stretches from everyday whites and rose to robust reds and the premium port-style fortified wines that are the cellar's crowning achievement.

Calitzdorp itself is a town of fewer than ten thousand people, yet it is home to several acclaimed wine cellars and hosts an annual Port Festival that draws visitors from across the country. The Wine Cellar sits at the centre of this unlikely wine community, a cooperative that has survived and thrived for nearly a century by adapting to what the land does best. The soils are poor and well-drained, the summers are scorching, and the rainfall is scarce — conditions that would challenge most grape varieties but that Portuguese port cultivars embrace.

Calitzdorp Wine Cellar is a story of reinvention — from cooperative fruit packhouse to one of South Africa's most respected producers of fortified wine, all in a small Karoo town that punches well above its weight.