Overview

Nestled on the fertile slopes of the Helderberg Mountains in Somerset West, Vergelegen is one of South Africa’s oldest, grandest and most historically significant wine estates. Established in 1700, it is celebrated for its award-winning wines, magnificent gardens, historic Cape Dutch homestead and over 3,000 hectares of farmland, vineyards and protected fynbos.

Vergelegen offers far more than wine tasting – visitors can explore centuries of Cape history, stroll through internationally acclaimed gardens, dine at exceptional restaurants and discover one of the country’s finest collections of heritage camphor trees.

Heritage

Vergelegen’s famous avenue of camphor trees was planted around 1705 by founder Willem Adriaan van der Stel. More than 300 years later, these trees are protected as a Provincial Heritage Site and remain among South Africa’s most treasured botanical and historical landmarks.

The estate was founded on 1 February 1700 by Willem Adriaan van der Stel, who named it Vergelegen, meaning “situated far away.” Within a few years he had established vineyards, orchards, a Cape Dutch homestead and mill, laying the foundations of one of the Cape’s earliest great farms.

After van der Stel’s departure, the property was sold and in 1709 divided into four separate farms: Vergelegen, Lourensford, Morgenster and Cloetenburg. It then passed through a succession of owners, including the Theunissen family from 1798 and, from 1917, Sir Lionel and Lady Florence Phillips, who spent lavishly restoring the neglected estate into a cultural and horticultural treasure.

Anglo American purchased Vergelegen in October 1987 and invested heavily in restoring the historic core, re-establishing the vineyards and launching a large-scale programme of clearing invasive alien vegetation across the estate.

Gardens

Vergelegen’s internationally acclaimed gardens are among its greatest attractions, restored after 1987 in the same layered-historicism spirit as the estate’s buildings. A series of distinct garden spaces unfolds through the seasons, from the formal Octagonal Garden and David Austin Rose Garden to the Sundial, Bamboo, Agapanthus, Hydrangea, Wetlands and indigenous Fynbos gardens.

The estate is home to South Africa’s first and only International Camellia Garden of Excellence, alongside a Maple Garden, an Oak Arboretum and the shady Camphor Forest, grown from seedlings of Vergelegen’s five historic camphor trees and now the setting for the estate’s summer picnics.

Conservation & Nature

Beyond its vineyards, Vergelegen spans around 3,000 hectares and is a serious conservation project. In March 2005 it became the first wine producer to be awarded Biodiversity & Wine Initiative “Champion” status, and a 14-year alien-clearing and fire-management programme restoring some 2,240 hectares was completed in 2018, with portions of the estate declared a Nature Reserve.

The estate’s natural areas support a free-range Nguni cattle stud, a breeding herd of bontebok and, since 2020, a small group of eland introduced for veld management and ecological research. Vergelegen is also a supporter of the Cape Leopard Trust, and its restored fynbos and significant heritage trees – including five camphors declared National Monuments in 1942 – make it one of the most distinctive natural estates in the Cape Winelands.