Why is De Waal important to Pinotage?

Because the family owns one of the oldest Pinotage vineyards in South Africa — the block behind the Top of the Hill bottling, planted around 1950. If you want to taste what the country's own grape does off genuinely old vines, this is close to the source. Pour it against a young commercial Pinotage and the difference is the whole lesson.

Is De Waal the same as Uiterwyk?

Yes. De Waal Wines is the family label; Uiterwyk is the historic estate it comes from, in the Polkadraai hills west of Stellenbosch. The De Waal family has farmed it for over a century.

Do I need to book a tasting at De Waal?

Booking is wise, especially over summer. It's a working family estate on the quieter Polkadraai side, so a call ahead gets you an unhurried tasting and, if you ask, a proper walk-through of the old Pinotage story.

De Waal

If you want to taste old-vine Pinotage at something like its source, this is the address. The De Waal family farms Uiterwyk, a historic estate in the Polkadraai hills west of Stellenbosch, and behind its flagship red stands a block of Pinotage planted around 1950 — one of the oldest surviving plantings of the grape in the country. The wine is called Top of the Hill, and it is the reason to make the drive.

Old vines are the whole story here. Come ready to taste what age does.

A century on one hill

The De Waals have held Uiterwyk for over a hundred years, which in Cape terms buys a rare thing: continuity. While estates around them changed hands and chased trends, this family stayed put on the same granite-and-shale slopes of Polkadraai, farming the same blocks generation after generation. That patience is not sentiment — it is why the old Pinotage vineyard still exists at all. Younger owners rip out low-yielding old vines. Families that stay tend to keep them.

Old vines survive where families stay. Uiterwyk is the proof.

The oldest Pinotage in the country

Here's the block that matters. Planted around 1950, it is among the very oldest Pinotage vineyards in South Africa, and it yields the fruit for Top of the Hill — a Pinotage with the depth and savoury restraint that only genuinely old vines give. This is the antidote to everything people dislike about the grape. No sweetness, no mocha varnish, just concentration, structure and a long finish.

Pour it against a cheap, young commercial Pinotage and you have the entire argument about the variety in two glasses. One is a caricature. The other is what the grape can actually do.

Alongside it, the CT de Waal Pinotage carries the family name forward — a nod to the De Waal forebear tied to the grape's early history, and the more everyday way into the house style.

Not only Pinotage

The Polkadraai hills catch cooling air off False Bay, and the estate uses it. There's a structured Cabernet Sauvignon here, and cooler-leaning whites off the higher blocks — enough range to round out a tasting. But make no mistake about why you came: the Pinotage lineage is the headline, and everything else is supporting cast.

Visiting

Book ahead and go on a weekday if you can. Uiterwyk sits on the quieter Polkadraai side of the region, away from the busiest routes, which means an unhurried tasting and room to ask real questions. Do ask — the family will walk you through the old-vine story if you show genuine interest, and standing near a seventy-year-old Pinotage block changes how the wine tastes. Fold it into a Polkadraai-and-west morning, where the estates worth visiting are more spread out and the crowds thinner.

What to buy

The bottle to carry home is Top of the Hill — you are buying old-vine Pinotage at close to its origin point, and there is very little like it. For everyday drinking and the family history, the CT de Waal Pinotage is the way in. And the Cabernet is the well-made red that proves the Polkadraai slopes do more than one thing.