History

In late 2002, we purchased the Tulbagh fruit farm ‘Waveren’, and subsequently turned it into a wine farm.

We chose the Tulbagh valley not only for its beauty, but also its largely ignored potential to produce outstanding wines – until then most notably driven by Rijk’s Cellar. The fact that wine-growing regions other than the well known traditional regions are mostly neglected in the overall marketing campaign of South African wines, ensured that we had to work twice as hard to earn recognition in the industry.

Saronsberg consists of two farm portions, originally known as Waveren and Welgegund. The farm originally formed part of the beautiful and historical Twee Jonge Gezellen (TJG) until it was divided between the two Krone brothers in the 1950s.The wine farm and cellar (TJG) were thereafter bequeathed to N.C. Krone and the fruit farm which consists of two parts, namely Waveren and Welgegund, to Chris Krone. Waveren and Welgegund lie on either sides of TJG.

Since the historic name Waveren had already been registered by someone else as a brand name, it was only natural to choose the name Saronsberg, the slope of which is home to some of our vineyards.

The initial plan was not to build a wine cellar but rather to spend some time gradually replanting the vineyards. Fate intervened, however, and two months after buying the farm, a fire swept through Waveren, destroying almost all of the 100 hectares of fruit and 60 hectares of vineyards. This misfortune forced us to embark on an extensive replanting programme, starting in 2003. An initial twelve hectares of vines were established, followed by another nine hectares in 2004, two and a half hectares in 2005, nine hectares in 2006, one hectare in 2007 and four hectares planned for 2008. These, along with the existing three and a half hectares on Welgegund, bring us to a total of forty one hectares of vineyard.

Apart from vineyards, we are also establishing fruit and olive orchards on the more fertile soils to diversify our production. Don’t be too surprised when you encounter Saronsberg Olive Oils on the supermarket shelves soon!

In October 2003, Dewaldt Heyns joined us to take care of the wine making and management of the farm.

The cellar construction was completed just before the 2004 maiden harvest, which commenced on 25 January, 2004 at 06:01 (Dewaldt misjudged himself with the one-minute walk from his house to the cellar). The first grapes to be harvested were Sauvignon Blanc. This momentous occasion was celebrated two weeks later with a harvest party with friends both old and new. The harvest was celebrated with great enthusiasm – and justifiably so, it later emerged. The success of the first vintage seemed even to catch Dewaldt by surprise, when the entire line-up of red wines was received with great acclaim at various wine shows and competitions. You are welcome to click on the Awards tab for more details.

With our wines performing well on a continious basis since the outstanding maiden vintage, Saronsberg has established itself as one of the brightest new stars in the South African wine industry.

Following his consistent successes Dewaldt was nominated and accepted as a member of the prestigious Cape Winemakers Guild late in 2007, an honour he regards as a privilege as well as a challenge to work even harder and further improve his winemaking and viticultural skills. The Guild also serves as a platform to interact with and learn from other top-performing winemakers and pioneers of the South African wine industry. This honour is a reflection as well as a consequence of the passion and zeal of our dedicated vineyard and cellar teams.