Why it matters
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 and vineyards
Where the wines begin
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.
In the cellar
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 to know
The range in view
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.
A useful way in
A bottle to begin with
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.