Farm History

Dudley and Lyn Marklew bought the property, De Goede Sukses, in 1970 from Greyling du Plessis who exported much of the wine he made on the farm. Dudley had no wish to make wine and replanted the vineyards to the noble varieties: Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Pinotage, Shiraz, Cabernet Franc, Chardonnay and Sauvignon Blanc. The 45 hectares of vineyards are cultivated in dry land conditions on wonderful deep red soil in the prestigious Simonsberg Ward, Stellenbosch, arguably the premier wine producing area in South Africa.

In 2001, Dudley and Lyn retired down to Hermanus and their children took over the running of the farm. Bill, who graduated from University of Stellenbosch with honours in Finance and Economics overseeing viticulture and finance and Haidee fulfilling her childhood dream to make and market the wine on the farm. Kajo Malek has joined the young team as farm manager/winemaker.

A New Beginning

In 2002 the 180 year old cellar was renovated to press approximately 70 tons of red wine. The grapes are handpicked from selected rows in selected vineyards. In a unique concept, to make the flow of juice completely gravitational, the grapes are hoisted on the flat roof of the cellar and, after again being hand sorted, the bunches are gently destalked and lightly bruised whole berries slide into the specially lined concrete fermentation tanks where fermentation takes place within the berries to give maximum colour and integrated tannin and flavour from the skin contact. The must is regularly plunged down through the cap of berries and skins to achieve yet greater flavour, complexity and strength while it ferments dry for 10 – 14 days. This is an ancient and gentle wine making technique and at no time are the juices agitated or stressed by pumping over for extraction. All the wine techniques are the gentlest and most sympathetic possible. The juices are gravity fed into concrete holding tanks below the fermenters and the skins are given a light pressing. The wine is then stored in a special selection of French and American 300 liter oak barrels where the secondary or malolatic fermentation will take place. The wine will remain in the wood for about 12 – 22 months after which it will be bottled under the family name – MARKLEW.