South Africa · Paarl

Babylonstoren

Babylonstoren is a Cape Dutch farm estate in the Drakenstein Valley, Western Cape, founded in 1692 and bottling under its own label since 2011. The range spans Cabernet Sauvignon, Chenin Blanc, Chardonnay, Viognier, Shiraz, Bordeaux-style Babel blends, rosé, and the sparkling Sprankel.

The producer

Babylonstoren sits at the foot of Simonsberg mountain in the Drakenstein Valley, one of the oldest Cape Dutch farmsteads in South Africa and a working farm that has carried vines since 1692. Koos Bekker and Karen Roos, his wife and former editor of South Africa's Elle Decoration, bought the estate in 2007 and spent four years in vineyard and cellar preparation before releasing a single bottle. Head winemaker Klaas Stoffberg, who grew up among family vineyards, and cellar master Charl Coetzee lead the winemaking. The first Babylonstoren wine went to market in 2011.

The range is broad by design: still whites anchored by Chenin Blanc and Chardonnay, single-variety reds in Cabernet Sauvignon and Shiraz, the Babel series of Bordeaux-style blends in red and white, a rosé, and Sprankel sparkling. Simonsberg's altitude generates cool nights through the growing season, keeping acidity in the whites and allowing tannins in the reds to develop slowly on more than 230 acres of vine. The Cabernet Sauvignon is the most developed wine in the range: dark cherry, cassis and cedar on the nose, plump blackcurrant and fine-grained tannins on the palate, and a long savoury finish.

Known for

Cabernet Sauvignon; Bordeaux-style Babel blend; Sprankel sparkling

Notable facts

The story

The Four-Year Wait

Koos Bekker and Karen Roos took ownership of Babylonstoren in 2007 with a farm that had been under vine since 1692 and had changed hands only once in 163 years. They could have released a wine within a season. Instead they waited four years. Klaas Stoffberg worked the vineyards through 2008, 2009, and 2010 without a commercial release, learning what the Simonsberg site was capable of and getting the cellar ready to answer that question properly. The first Babylonstoren bottle went to market in 2011. The farm had been producing grapes since the seventeenth century, had survived phylloxera, and had carried the Louw name for more than a century and a half. The label on that first bottle was fourteen months old.

From the atlas

Babylonstoren

At A Glance

Estate: Babylonstoren Location: Drakenstein Valley, at the foot of Simonsberg mountain, Western Cape, South Africa Founded: 1692 First own-label vintage: 2011 Winemaker: Klaas Stoffberg (head winemaker); Charl Coetzee (cellar master) Grapes: Cabernet Sauvignon, Chenin Blanc, Chardonnay, Viognier, Shiraz, and blended ranges Range: Single-variety whites and reds, Babel Bordeaux-style blends, rosé, and Sprankel sparkling wine

The Producer

Babylonstoren sits in the Drakenstein Valley at the foot of Simonsberg mountain, one of the oldest Cape Dutch farmsteads in South Africa, first planted to wine and wheat in 1692. The winemaking team is led by head winemaker Klaas Stoffberg, who grew up working among family vineyards in South Africa, alongside cellar master Charl Coetzee. The estate's own label is fourteen years old. The land beneath it is more than three centuries deep.

Koos Bekker, a media billionaire, and his wife Karen Roos, former editor of South Africa's Elle Decoration, bought Babylonstoren in 2007 and spent the following four years preparing the vineyards and cellar before releasing a single bottle. That gap is not incidental. A farm this old, carrying this weight of Cape Dutch heritage, required a level of preparation that made commercial urgency beside the point. The first Babylonstoren wine went to market in 2011.

Place

The Drakenstein Valley runs northeast from Paarl, enclosed by the Simonsberg and Du Toitskloof ranges. Simonsberg rises to over 1,500 metres and moderates the climate below it, creating cooler growing conditions and longer hang time for the grapes than the valley floor temperatures alone would suggest. The estate sits within the broader Western Cape wine-of-origin designation, with Simonsberg-Paarl ward applicable to its location, though the label carries the estate designation.

Over 230 acres are planted to vine across the farm. Whites and reds share the estate, and the range's breadth, from a bone-dry Chenin Blanc to a Bordeaux-style blend to a sparkling wine, reflects the variety of aspect and altitude across those acres. Simonsberg's proximity shapes acidity in the whites and tannin development in the reds.

Soil And Site

The Drakenstein Valley's soils are predominantly decomposed granite and sandstone-derived material, characteristic of the Simonsberg foothills. Granite-based soils drain freely and warm slowly, which prolongs the growing season and encourages the gradual development of fruit intensity over raw sugar accumulation. This suits Cabernet Sauvignon, which needs time for tannin polymerisation, and Chenin Blanc, which benefits from the slow build of acidity and phenolic ripeness. The Simonsberg's altitude generates cool nights through the growing season, preserving freshness in the whites and preventing tannins from going coarse in the reds.

Story

The Louw family bought Babylonstoren in 1844 and held it for 163 years, through the phylloxera devastation of Cape vineyards in the late nineteenth century and through the long recovery that followed. Phylloxera stripped production across the region, and Babylonstoren, like many Cape estates, shifted away from wine during that period. By the time Koos Bekker and Karen Roos took over in 2007, the farm had passed through cycles of production, dormancy, and working-farm operation with fruit for export and olive oil alongside whatever wine grapes were still farmed.

Bekker and Roos did not treat the purchase as a renovation project with a delivery date. Roos, former editor of South Africa's Elle Decoration, oversaw work on the buildings and garden before the wine went out. Klaas Stoffberg and Charl Coetzee had four years to work with the vineyards before the first commercial vintage in 2011 committed the estate name to a bottle. That first vintage was not a soft launch. It was the opening statement of a wine program built on 330 years of farmed land.

Vineyards And Cellar

Babylonstoren operates as a working farm alongside its wine program: the estate produces fruit for export and olive oil from the same land that carries the vineyards. The formal 8-acre garden at the heart of the estate, designed by French garden designer Patrice Taravella, is planted to more than 300 varieties of edible plants, and the farm's mixed-use character influences how the vineyards are managed within a wider agricultural system rather than as a monoculture.

The winemaking approach under Klaas Stoffberg aims at clean varietal expression without heavy intervention. The Cabernet Sauvignon is aged to develop mid-palate depth and tannin integration. The Chardonnay receives oak treatment to build creaminess and weight around its citrus core. Across the range, the cellar's goal is wines that carry the grape's character clearly and hold the freshness that Simonsberg's cooler nights allow.

Wines

The range covers both single varieties and blended wines. Among the whites, Chenin Blanc and Chardonnay anchor the still wines, with Viognier providing a more aromatic counterpoint. The Chardonnay 2024 shows citrus fruit and cream from oak ageing, with enough weight to avoid heaviness.

Babel is the estate's Bordeaux-style blend series, available in both red and white. The red Babel draws on multiple varieties to build a wine with more layering and breadth than a single-variety red, while the white Babel functions as the most complex white in the range. Shiraz adds a darker-fruited, spiced counterpoint to the Bordeaux-leaning reds.

Sprankel is the estate sparkling wine, made from varieties not separately published in current materials, and is the most playful bottle in the range. A rosé completes the lineup.

The Cabernet Sauvignon is the best-documented wine in the range and the one with the most developed tasting record from multiple sources. It opens with rich dark berry and cedar, builds to plump blackcurrant and fine-grained tannins on the palate, and closes on a long savoury finish. It is soft and multi-layered without losing grip.

In The Glass

Across the range, Babylonstoren's wines lean toward varietal clarity over winemaking weight. The Chardonnay carries citrus, some cream from oak, and a freshness that stops the fruit from going flat. The Chenin Blanc, in Stellenbosch and Western Cape tradition, likely shows apple and orchard fruit with mouth-watering acidity, though detailed tasting documentation for this wine is thinner in available sources.

The Cabernet Sauvignon is approachable. The Cabernet Sauvignon opens on dark cherry and cassis with a cedar thread from ageing, then delivers plump blackcurrant and fine-grained tannins that are grippy without being hard. The texture is velvety on approach, with the tannins rounding through the mid-palate and the finish stretching long and savoury. It is a wine with classic Cabernet character, shaped by cooler Simonsberg nights rather than the fuller warmth of the valley floor.

Sprankel and the rosé serve the estate's hospitality setting as much as the wine range proper, and both carry the farm's abundance rather than austere specialisation.

A Bottle To Understand It

Start with the Cabernet Sauvignon. It is the bottle with the deepest tasting record across the range and the one that most directly shows what Simonsberg terroir and four years of cellar preparation produce together. Dark cherry and cassis on the nose, cedar from ageing, blackcurrant on the palate, fine-grained grippy tannins that round through the mid-palate, a long savoury finish. The wine is balanced and multi-layered without relying on ripeness to flatten the edges. It answers the central question about Babylonstoren: does a wine program this young, on land this old, produce bottles worth seeking? The Cabernet says yes plainly.

Anecdote

Koos Bekker and Karen Roos took ownership of Babylonstoren in 2007 with a farm that had been under vine since 1692 and had changed hands only once in 163 years. They could have released a wine within a season. Instead, they waited four years. Klaas Stoffberg worked the vineyards through 2008, 2009, and 2010 without a commercial release, understanding what the Simonsberg site was capable of and getting the cellar ready to answer that question honestly. The first Babylonstoren bottle went to market in 2011. The farm had been producing grapes since the seventeenth century, had survived phylloxera, and had carried the Louw name for more than a century and a half. The label on that first bottle was fourteen months old.

Final Word

Babylonstoren is a 330-year-old farm with a fourteen-year wine label. That gap is the whole story. The place predates almost every wine classification system in the world, but the wines it puts out carry no inherited prestige: they have to earn it vintage by vintage, from land whose history was in other hands for most of its life. The Cabernet Sauvignon earns it. The range around it is building toward the same standard.

Sources

Open Babylonstoren in the interactive map →