Plaisir
You knew it as Plaisir de Merle. It's Plaisir now — a Huguenot farm on the Simonsberg's Paarl flank, restored into a wine-and-country estate with elegant Bordeaux reds and rooms you'll want to stay the night for. Here's who to see and what to carry home.
You came for a tasting. You'll end up staying the night. That's the whole design of Plaisir — a restored Huguenot farm on the Paarl flank of the Simonsberg, in the Simonsberg-Paarl ward of Paarl, that you almost certainly know by its old name: Plaisir de Merle. New owners, a full restoration, and a quieter, more private way of doing things have turned a supermarket label into a place you drive to on purpose.
The name is worth a second. Plaisir de Merle — roughly "the blackbird's pleasure" — goes back to a late-seventeenth-century land grant to a French Huguenot family fleeing persecution, one of the refugees who carried vine know-how to the Cape. For most of the modern era the farm lived inside a big drinks portfolio: the wines respected, the gates mostly shut to anyone just passing. Not anymore.
From de Merle to Plaisir
The relaunch is the story. New ownership stripped the farm back, restored it, and reintroduced it simply as Plaisir — shorter name, open doors, a destination rather than a bottle on a shelf. The manor and grounds were done up for overnight guests. The old cellar-door counter gave way to a wine lounge that feels closer to a private members' room. The message is unmissable: linger, don't drive through.
Come for the Cabernet; the blackbird's pleasure is that you stay the night.
What the makeover left untouched is the thing that matters most — the land. Mature vineyards on granite-derived soils, in a corner of the Cape that has always favoured structured reds. The mountain shelters the slopes; the granite hands the wines their spine. This is Cabernet country, and Plaisir plays to it.
The wines
Red is the reason. The Cabernet Sauvignon is the anchor — cassis and cedar, poise over sheer weight — and above it sits the flagship Cape Bordeaux-style blend, Cabernet drawn together with its Bordeaux stablemates into something layered and built to keep.
This is Paarl wine at its more refined end: warm-climate ripeness reined back toward balance and length. The house wants elegance, not muscle. These are reds you open with dinner rather than lock away as trophies — though the best of them will happily take a decade if you let them.
There's a white too. The barrel-shaped Chardonnay is pitched restrained and food-friendly, not big and buttery. It isn't why most people make the drive, but it earns its place on a lunch table and proves the estate can do finesse in white as well as red.
The setting
Position is Plaisir's trump card. The farm sits below the Simonsberg near Simondium, on the quiet back road that threads between Stellenbosch and Franschhoek — near enough to both to be an easy detour, far enough to feel like an escape. Oaks, water, the mountain rising behind. The restoration leaned into that unhurried grandeur rather than polishing it away.
Serious vineyards, a handsome old manor, real hospitality: that's what separates Plaisir from a cellar door. It's built to hold you for an afternoon or a weekend, not twenty minutes.
Visiting
Book ahead — this isn't a walk-in. Tastings run in the wine lounge, not a busy counter, so expect sit-down and unhurried rather than stand-and-sip. The natural move is to make a night of it: take a room, taste the range at your own pace, eat well, and let the Simonsberg do the rest.
Rooms are few and the estate works largely by appointment, so don't arrive unannounced, especially over the busy summer months. Arrange the tasting, any meal, and your stay through the estate's own site, and confirm the current details there first — the offering has shifted with the relaunch, and the estate's page is the one to trust.
What to buy
One bottle home: the flagship Cape Bordeaux-style blend in a strong vintage. It's the estate at full stretch and the clearest read of what these Simonsberg-Paarl slopes can do. The Cabernet Sauvignon is the more immediate pleasure and the classic way in. For the table, reach for the restrained Chardonnay. Confirm the current range and vintages on the estate's site before you order.
Common questions
Same land, new name. Plaisir is the reborn identity of the historic farm long known as Plaisir de Merle, on the Simonsberg-Paarl side of the mountain near Simondium. New ownership restored it, relaunched it as a luxury wine and country estate, and dropped the old label — but the vineyards under your feet are the ones de Merle bottled. If you're old enough to remember the supermarket bottling, this is where it went.
Yes, and honestly it's the whole point. Lodging isn't a side hustle here — the restored manor makes Plaisir as much a country retreat as a tasting stop, and the wines taste better when you're not driving home. Rooms are few, so book well ahead, especially over summer. Reserve through the estate's own site.
Bordeaux, in a Cape accent. The Cabernet Sauvignon is the anchor and the Cape Bordeaux-style blend is the flagship, both off Simonsberg-Paarl fruit, with a restrained barrel-shaped Chardonnay rounding out the table. The house chases poise over power — reds for dinner, not for the trophy shelf, even if the best of them will take a decade.
Yes — don't arrive unannounced. Tastings run in the wine lounge by appointment, and any meal or overnight stay wants arranging ahead, particularly in high summer. Check the estate's site for the current format before you set out; the offering has shifted with the relaunch.
Glossary
- Cape Bordeaux blend
- A red blend built from the classic Bordeaux grapes — Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Cabernet Franc and sometimes Petit Verdot and Malbec — made in South Africa. It is one of the Cape's benchmark red styles, and the Simonsberg wards are among its heartlands.
- Simonsberg-Paarl
- A demarcated ward on the Paarl side of the Simonsberg mountain, whose granite and decomposed-granite soils and warm slopes suit structured red varieties, Cabernet Sauvignon especially.