Mountain Ridge Winery

Mountain Ridge Wines traces its origins to 5 March 1949, when a group of farmers in the Breedekloof Valley established the Romansrivier cooperative winery in the picturesque landscape between the Boland towns of Worcester and Wolseley. For more than half a century, Romansrivier was a dependable cooperative supplying bulk wines to local and international customers. The transformation began in 2004 when the winery started bottling wine under the Mountain Ridge label, and in 2006 the entire operation was rebranded as Mountain Ridge Wines.

The past two decades have seen Mountain Ridge evolve from a bulk-wine supplier into a wine company housing several award-winning brands across three distinct tiers. The entry-level Die Liefde range -- named after the road on which the winery sits -- offers easy-drinking Chenin Blanc and a Cabernet Sauvignon-Merlot blend designed for everyday enjoyment. The mid-tier Mountain Ridge range steps up with varietal Sauvignon Blanc, Shiraz, Merlot, and Cabernet Sauvignon. At the top, the Romansrivier range honours the winery's founding name with premium reserve expressions: a Grande Reserve Chenin Blanc, a Cabernet Sauvignon Reserve, and a Shiraz Reserve, all matured in oak.

Winemaker Christo Stemmet has been at the helm since January 2010, following Francois Agenbach who reopened the cellar in November 2002 after a period of closure. Stemmet works with grapes sourced from individual parcels of the best vineyards in the Breedekloof Valley, a region defined by alluvial soils, warm days, and the cooling influence of mountain breezes that funnel through the valley. The cellar retains its original large concrete tanks from the late 1940s -- some relined in 2013 -- alongside modern centrifuge and bulk filter equipment that gives the winemaking team flexibility to custom-make wines to precise specifications. Total bulk capacity stands at nine million litres.

The winery is situated on De Liefde Road in Wolseley, just an hour's drive from Cape Town. The airy, open tasting room provides a warm Wolseley welcome, with guided cellar tours offering visitors a glimpse into the operation's remarkable scale. Mountain Ridge proves that transformation is possible at every level of the industry -- that a cooperative born in the post-war years can reinvent itself as a modern wine company without losing the community spirit that built it.