Weltervrede Wine Estate Bonnievale an International Winner
Weltevrede Wine Estate just outside Bonnievale in the Robertson Valley was announced as the international winner of Innovative Wine Tourism Experiences by the Great Wine Capitals’ 2023 Global Best Of Wine Tourism Awards.
Winners of the Great Wine Capitals’ Global Best of Wine Tourism Awards – representing the best of the best wine tourism businesses from wine regions across five continents – were announced recently at the prestigious Great Wine Capitals’ annual Gala event held in Mendoza, Argentina.
Since 2003 the Great Wine Capitals Global Network has celebrated and acknowledged innovation and excellence in wine tourism through its flagship program, the Best Of Wine Tourism Awards, shining a light on the distinctive craftmanship of 11 wine tourism businesses in Adelaide (South Australia), Bilbao, Rioja (Spain), Bordeaux (France), Lausanne (Switzerland), Mainz, Rheinhessen (Germany), Mendoza (Argentina), Porto (Portugal), San Francisco, Napa Valley (USA), Valparaiso, Casablanca Valley (Chile) and Verona (Italy), and Cape Town, Cape Winelands (South Africa).
According to the Managing Director, Catherine Leparmentier, more than 540 applications from the wine Capitals were received for the contest with innovation, quality and excellence from these wine tourism businesses being an outstanding feature of this year’s awards. 11 Winners were selected from the list of 76 regional winners by an expert international jury. “Our congratulations go to the 11 winners of the 2023 Global Best Of Wine Tourism Award – they represent the crème de la crème of wine tourism”.
“What a privilege and honour to have been chosen as the best in the world in offering innovative wine tasting experiences. There are so many fascinating experiences and places of wonder in the world of wine and to be selected as the one wine tasting experience in the whole world not to miss out on, is truly most humbling,” said Philip Jonker, Weltevrede Wine Estate’s fourth generation winemaker and custodian.
Steeped in history, the family-owned Weltevrede Wine Estate in Bonnievale in the Robertson Wine Valley, is arguably one of the oldest South African wine brands still owned and run by the same family – the Jonker family.
Weltevrede Wine Estate has set a new standard of innovative wine experiences when they opened up their underground tasting experiences called, Captivated by Chardonnay, and Captivated by Cap Classique. In these ancient tunnels there is a fascination of terroir, wine philosophy and world history of wine in beautifully curated displays as part of the working winery of Weltevrede. The opportunity to complete your own bottle of Philip Jonker Brut Cap Classique is a popular activity and visitors love the gardens of heritage roses with open air gallery of living sculptures of grape vines planted in 1926. The latest addition to the Weltevrede experience is the opening of Kapokbos Restaurant and Deli.
Weltevrede Wine Estate is a Chardonnay and Cap Classique specialist and boasts 72 distinct vineyards, some of which are smaller than half a hectare. The limestone terroir allows the wines to reflect their unique minerality, luminous vibrance and limey aftertaste reflected in the Weltevrede Calcrete, Weltevrede Place of Rocks and Weltevrede Poet’s Prayer Chardonnays. Now in the hands of Philip Jonker, the fourth-generation family winemaker, the Estate has been inspiring South Africans with wine of the purest quality.
