Stellenbosch

WOSA's timeline dates the founding of the town of Stellenbosch by Governor Simon van der Stel to 1678, and its district profile says local winemaking goes back to the end of the 17th century. Stellenbosch became the educational and research centre of the winelands: Stellenbosch University is the only South African university offering a degree in viticulture and oenology, and the Elsenburg School of Agriculture and the Nietvoorbij Institute of Viticulture and Oenology are nearby.

The Stellenbosch Farmers' Winery was founded as a partnership in 1918 and registered as a public company in 1935. In 1968 Distillers built the Bergkelder, with maturation cellars tunnelled into the Papegaaiberg. The Stellenbosch Wine Route, founded in 1971, was the first wine route in the country, and the Cape Wine Academy was founded in Stellenbosch in 1979. The Wine of Origin legislation followed in 1973.

An ARC Infruitec-Nietvoorbij study of about 25,000 ha of the district, between the Bottelaryberg, Simonsberg and Helderberg, describes land bordered by mountains, close to the ocean and bisected by the Eerste River valley, with about 90% of it at 0–300 m. Its geology is complex, because tectonic movement mixed the parent materials. Weathered granite gives sandier, gritty soils; weathered Malmesbury shale and greywacke give more clay; sandstone gives sandy soils poor in minerals; and the Franschhoek formation gives gravelly conglomerate. Red and yellow apedal and duplex soils are widespread.

Climate varies with aspect and the sea breeze. East-facing slopes warm early in the morning and cool early in the afternoon, south-west-facing slopes catch the sea breeze from early afternoon, and north-west-facing slopes, partly sheltered from it, are the warmest. WOSA adds good rainfall and deep, well-drained soils.

WOSA says the district produces excellent examples of almost all the noble grape varieties and is known for the quality of its blended reds; red blends are a characteristic, not an exclusive, style. The ARC study concludes that the area's varied topography and sea-breeze effects should give diverse wines, each reflecting its own environment, and reports a local view that shale-derived soils are excellent for quality. A separate ARC trial near Stellenbosch found that soils from granite and from Malmesbury shale differ in clay minerals and in the potassium they supply to vines.

Stellenbosch is a district of the Coastal Region, with Cape Town, Darling, Franschhoek, Lutzville Valley, Paarl, Swartland, Tulbagh and Wellington. WOSA lists smaller viticultural areas within it: Banghoek, Bottelary, Devon Valley, Jonkershoek Valley, Papegaaiberg, Polkadraai Hills, Simonsberg-Stellenbosch and Vlottenburg. The five sub-routes of the Stellenbosch Wine Route, such as the Helderberg, are tourism divisions, not Wine of Origin units. A wine labelled Wine of Origin Stellenbosch must come wholly from grapes grown in the district, with the 85% rules for cultivar and vintage. The district has 13.3% of national plantings but 8.2% of wine production.