There was a time when Spier in Stellenbosch was a sort of Disneyland of wine farms. Around the early 2000s, it had cheetahs and eagles, an African-themed restaurant with Zulu dancing and face-painting, and a buzzing conference centre. So when I visited earlier this winter, I was surprised to find the razzmatazz gone; what’s in its place is first and foremost a farm. The 620ha property is home not only to vineyards but also pasture-raised livestock and an organic food garden, the focus now on regenerative farming – sustainable methods that support the land. It has also rewilded large parts of the estate. Today, its attractions around food, wine, art and history all sit within a considered return to the land.
The history, of course, goes back a long way. Established in 1692, Spier is one of the oldest wine farms in South Africa. Its long life is especially evident around the Werf area, the central hub with a vast lawn and 300-year-old oaks, framed by some of its oldest structures, including the Manor house (1822) and the country’s oldest dated wine cellar (1767). This area boasts 21 perfectly preserved Cape Dutch gables, the most on any farm in the country and a feature so special that Spier’s flagship wine range, 21 Gables, references it.
Wine tasting happens at the Tasting Room, a placid spot alongside a dam with seating both indoors and out. There are several experiences to choose from, including a chocolate-and-wine pairing and even a grape-juice tasting for kids. A friend and I did the 21 Gables winter tasting, three wines served at once alongside three plates designed to enhance each pour. Our sommelier was a Frenchman, unshy to share his disdain for Trump in between prompting us to notice how each bite – a spoonful of white bean velouté, a bite of beetroot and blackberry cracker or a forkful of chocolate torte – can completely change the next sip of chenin blanc, cabernet sauvignon or pinotage. Though the dishes were small, the lingering over every bit made the experience feel surprisingly substantial.
FARM TO FEAST
Larger appetites are catered to in several venues, all farm-to-table with ingredients grown here or sourced from like-minded neighbours. Around the Werf, Vadas Smokehouse & Bakery serves slow-smoked organic meats from the farm’s own “Farmer Angus” range, alongside wood-fired pizzas and sharing plates.
The more casual option is the Picknickery, a deli-style shop housed in the former slave quarters, where visitors can build their own baskets with charcuterie, salads, cheeses and breads or order ahead and collect before settling on the sprawling lawns or down by the river to tuck in.
Two more options sit at the hotel. The Garden Room, its bright interiors echoing the wild gardens outside, serves breakfast to hotel guests and lunch to booked day visitors.
Veld is the fancy dinner destination, where floor-to-ceiling art crowds the walls and woven baskets of trailing greenery hang from the ceilings over mustard velvet booths. Rather than crowded plates, the mains are the heroes, with sides ordered separately. My steak came with little more than a copper pot of sauce and a scattering of greens – the pleasure in restraint. Even the cutlery carried through the conservation goal, with a steak-knife handle fashioned from retired wine barrels. Though I barely had space, I still ordered the Amarula crème brûlée. Restraint, it turns out, need not apply to dessert made this well.
WILD AT ART
The Eerste River, running through the farm, is at the centre of its regenerative philosophy. Degraded over time, Spier has done much to restore it – replanting about 15,000 trees, which in turn attract birds and other animals, such as porcupines and bat-eared foxes. Visitors can enjoy it on the River Walk, a 30-minute trail lined with over a million indigenous plants. A suspension bridge crosses into The Wilds, a rewilded tract showcasing the diversity of the Cape Floral Kingdom from an elevated boardwalk.
You can wander at will along the farm’s many paths, but a nice touch for the curious is the option to download audio guides through the VoiceMap app, which uses live GPS to trigger stories and directions as you walk. One of these focuses on the farm’s inner workings; another is a tale by playwright Brett Bailey, which covers the Werf from the imagined perspective of a female slave in 1836.
That Bailey was commissioned to write it is telling — a deliberate reckoning with the history of labour that built farms like this one.
The same instinct runs through much of the art scattered across the farm. A standout is The Dying Slave by Marco Cianfanelli, the artist behind the sculpture at the Nelson Mandela Capture Site in Howick, KwaZulu-Natal, where 50 steel columns reveal an image of Mandela’s face when viewed from a specific distance.
At Spier, Cianfanelli uses the same trick with different materials: nine mosaiced columns, each 4.2m high, staggered across a path so one is forced to weave through them. From the right distance, the 225,000 tesserae resolve into a man’s face — his expression of suffering a reflection on the history of slave labour on Cape wine farms.
The wealth of artworks on the farm is one of its more engaging aspects. The Spier Arts Trust holds one of the largest collections of contemporary South African art in the world — around 3,500 pieces, with more than 1,000 on display here — with a deliberate focus on artists who aren’t yet household names. Spread across the property, the collection turns Spier into a living museum: paintings cover the walls from the restaurants to the hotel; sculptures lounge on the lawns, paths and even bodies of water.
Look out for the products of the Creative Block Project, which gives hundreds of South African artists identical wooden blocks to decorate however they choose. While pieces are scattered across the estate, the primary dedicated exhibition space is the Old Wine Cellar – the same 1767 building mentioned earlier. The blocks are kept deliberately affordable, around the R1,500 mark, and all are available to buy.
SUITE DREAMS
An easy walk from the Werf – or a short ride, with bicycles available for guests to borrow – lies the hotel. A year-long refurb, finished last year, saw it downsize from 150 to 80 more spacious rooms, and add a new wellness spa, rooftop bar and updated pool areas.
Surrounded by rewilded fynbos gardens, the hotel continues the Werf’s village feel, with the whitewashed buildings arranged in “lanes”. The rooms, all with private terraces or balconies, sleep two in king or twin beds, with interleading options available for families.
The four suites, on the edge of the river, sleep two amid even more lavish surrounds, with four-poster kings, private dressing rooms and separate living and dining areas plus farm-style kitchens. They are individually decorated but the overall feeling achieved by the antique furnishings, botanical fabrics and original artworks is one of homeliness, as though a family matriarch has populated each room with details handpicked over decades.
I stayed in the Water Lily Suite, whose entire bedroom is plastered in a busy water lily wallpaper, clashing gamely with a bed dressed in an Indian-style print. Here, my imaginary matriarch has boldly ignored the rules of “safe” hotel decorating to please only herself. Tucking in at night to drift to sleep in this eccentric cocoon, I was glad she had.
The new spa is styled like an old-world apothecary, with herbs in glass jars, velvet couches and lush houseplants. The treatments – no surprise here – draw heavily on indigenous botanicals and healing herbs, using scrubs, tinctures, teas and massage oils made on the farm. The signature treatment is a three-hour private bathing ritual in the purpose-built Cape Herbal Bath House but I went for the two-hour winter repair ritual. On paper, this involves exfoliation, massage and a pressure point sequence, but I’ll have to trust them on that. Just-in-case apologies to the therapist, who would neither confirm nor deny that I snored. All I know is that I surfaced somewhat over a heavenly lemon and ginger tea in the lounge before floating away along pretty paths to “recover” from all that relaxation by sinking deeper into my water lily cocoon.
Winter offer: Spier’s Slow Season Stay package includes three nights’ accommodation, breakfast, a wine tasting, a massage for two and access to the estate’s heated pool, bicycles, gardens and art collection. From R23,325 for two sharing. Valid until September 30. Book it here.
