Roodezandt RF

On 18 September 1953, eleven grape producers who had been delivering their fruit to the nearby Sonskyn Cellar gathered to found their own winery. They called it the Sentrale Cooperative Winery — but the name lasted barely four months before the members replaced it with something that spoke to the land itself. In January 1954, the winery was rechristened Roodezandt, after 'Over Het Roode Zand', one of the historic farms on which the town of Robertson had been established a century earlier in 1853.

The founding was modest. Buildings, machinery, and grounds were purchased from the Robertson Distillery for thirteen thousand pounds, and a thirteen-year contract for a thousand leaguers of wine was signed. That first harvest delivered 1,800 tons of grapes — mostly Palomino, Hermitage, Muscadel, Sultana, and Kanaan, the workhorse varieties of the mid-century Breede River Valley. The gable of the original office building was built as a reproduction of the historic Over Het Roodezand farmhouse gable, anchoring the cooperative's identity in the region's colonial agricultural past.

For decades, Roodezandt operated primarily as a bulk wine supplier, producing large volumes for the domestic market and for export. But the cellar quietly built a reputation for fortified wines — particularly Red and White Muscadel — that won consistent recognition at Veritas and other national competitions.

The modern era arrived in 2019, when Roodezandt Co-op and McGregor Winery decided to join forces. After negotiations and the development of a shared vision, Roodezandt RF was formally established in September 2020. The merged entity now receives approximately 45,000 tons of grapes from 40 producers farming within a 30-kilometre radius across Robertson, McGregor, Le Chasseur, and Goedemoed.

The wine range has evolved considerably from those early Palomino days. Today's portfolio includes Colombard, Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc, Chenin Blanc, Cabernet Sauvignon, Shiraz, and the heritage Muscadels that remain the cellar's calling card. A tasting room in the heart of Robertson offers the full range, and the cooperative's employer-involvement programmes have earned recognition for community development alongside winemaking.

The merger with McGregor Winery has broadened the palette of terroirs available to the winemaking team. McGregor, tucked into a narrow valley southeast of Robertson, delivers grapes with a distinctly different character — cooler nights, higher natural acidity — that complement the warmer, more generous fruit from the Robertson side. Together, the expanded cooperative can draw from limestone, shale, and alluvial soils across a diverse stretch of the Breede River Valley.

Roodezandt is not a glamorous estate destination. It is something more enduring — a working cooperative that has supplied quality wine to South Africa for over seventy years, rooted in the same red sand that gave it its name.