It seems as if we have gone from winter time to Christmas decorations overnight and we are really looking forward to this new season. Bring us sunny days, chilled glasses of wine, swimming pool parties, trips to the beach, Christmas music, Christmas shopping, December holidays and of course, road trips. Situated in Calitzdorp along the popular and scenic Route 62, De Krans is the perfect destination this summer. When visiting our tasting room, you will have the opportunity to taste our wide range of award-winning wines, and stock up on your favourites. Browse through our deli stocked with selected local products such as rusks, preserves and olive oil, and enjoy breakfast or lunch at our Bistro. With the option to sit inside or outside under the lush green vines, you will be able to enjoy a range of homemade dishes, accompanied by true Klein Karoo hospitality. Want to stretch your legs? Enjoy a vineyard walk and the ample outside space with a children’s play area conveniently located by the outside seating area. We are also pet friendly, so please feel free to bring your dogs along (don’t forget a leash).
We are open seven days a week, and will be closed only on Christmas Day, 25 December. Please note our trading hours below:
Tasting Room
Mondays – Saturdays: 9am – 4.30pm
Sundays: 9am – 4pm
Bistro
Mondays – Sundays: 10am – 4pm (kitchen closes at 3.30pm)
For restaurant bookings or for more information, please contact us at T: 044 2133 314 or send us a mail at bistro@dekrans.co.za.
Whether your holiday brings you to Calitzdorp, or you buy our wines online, or at your local store, we thank you for your support, your loyalty and for choosing De Krans to share in your Festive Season. From our family to yours, we wish you a wonderful Christmas time and Summer – may it be filled with adventure, laughter and recharging for the year ahead.
As we are writing this newsletter, we are preparing to start our first fruit picking of the season – Bulida apricots. From 23 November to 8 December, visitors are welcome to visit the farm to pick their own apricots at R10 per kilogram. Don’t worry – if you can’t make this one, be sure to diarize the Hanepoot picking, which usually takes place in the month of February. The Hanepoot picking is an annual highlight which has been part of the De Krans calendar for over 30 years, and if you haven’t had the joy of experiencing it with us, we hope you can join us this time around. This fantastic opportunity to pick your own fruit brings family and friends together to enjoy spending time in nature. Please note that fruit picking is always subject to availability and final dates will be confirmed closer to the time. We look forward to sharing this tradition with you.
A new event also not to be missed is the De Krans Hanepoot Trail Run, which made its debut last year. The Trail Run will once again be hosted by Jakhals Events and will be taking place on Saturday 22 February 2025. Participants will have the option of doing a 5km, 10km or 21km trail run through the vineyards and apricot orchards of De Krans. This event promises to become another highlight on the De Krans calendar – you don’t want to miss it. And yes – dogs are welcome!
The wine industry’s award season wrapped up, with results of the Platter’s Wine Guide 2025 that were announced last week. The Platter’s Wine Guide, a comprehensive guide with ratings and descriptions of South African wines, has long been one of the most important and respected ratings in the country. With the launch of the 2025 guide, De Krans once again excelled with a variety of wines scoring 4 stars and 4½ stars and their flagship, the Cape Vintage Reserve 2022 awarded a 5-star rating yet again. This is the 15th time a 5-star rating was awarded to a De Krans Cape Vintage Reserve port-style wine – an incredible feat we are so proud of. The 5, 4½ and 4 star-ratings are as follows:
5 Stars
Cape Vintage Reserve 2022
4½ Stars
Tritonia Verdelho 2023
Tritonia Red Calitzdorp Blend 2022
Tinta Roriz 2021
Cape Vintage 2020
Cape Tawny Limited Release NV
Muscat Blanc (White Muscadel) 2024
Garden Route Sauvignon Blanc 2024
4 Stars
Touriga Nacional 2023
Premium Cape Ruby NV
Wild Ferment Chardonnay 2023
Garden Route Shiraz 2022
A firm favourite among consumers, our De Krans Premium Rosé Moscato Perlé was just awarded Double Gold at the Rosé Rocks 2024 awards this past week, where Rosé wines of all styles were celebrated. This Premium Rosé Moscato is natural sweet wine, with a slight fizz and refreshing acidity. Produced using Muscadel and Hanepoot grapes with a touch of Pinotage, this award-winning wine also has a lower alcohol level of 9%, making it the perfect wine for every occasion and a great alternative to a bubbly, especially for the festive season ahead.
With the official release of the 2024 South African Wine Report by Tim Atkin (Master of Wine) in September, a highly regarded annual report, we are delighted and honoured to announce that five of our wines scored 90 points or higher, with our flagship port-style wine, the 2022 Cape Vintage Reserve, scoring 94 points. In close second is our 2022 Tritonia Red (Calitzdorp Blend – a beautifully delicate yet full-bodied blend of Portuguese varietals) with 92 points, together with another port-style wine, the Cape Tawny Limited Release (Non-vintage) with 92 points as well. The newly released 2024 Garden Route Sauvignon Blanc, produced at De Krans with the grapes grown in the Upper Langkloof area near Outeniqua, scored an impressive 91 points with the 2022 Touriga Nacional rounding out our top five wines in the report, with a 90-point score. De Krans planted its first Touriga Nacional grapes in 1994 and was the first farm in South Africa to produce a single varietal Touriga Nacional wine in 2000.
The Cape Vintage Reserve has a stellar reputation going back many vintages. This year’s Veritas Awards in October was no exception where both the De Krans Cape Vintage Reserve 2020 and 2021 were awarded Gold medals. Silver medals were awarded to the Cape Tawny port-style wine (Non-vintage), Tritonia Red (Calitzdorp Blend) 2022 and the Touriga Nacional 2023. The Cape Vintage Reserve is the perfect port-style wine to enjoy by the glass on its own or paired with matured cheeses like cheddar or blue cheese. This wine style can mature for many years (more than 25) if stored correctly under ideal circumstances and is a great gift for a special occasion, birthday or anniversary.
Shortly after the release of our rebranded Moscato range in April this year, we are back with more exciting news with the launch of our brand-new label design for the Classic Varietal Range. This range consists of four wines, which includes the Free Run Chenin Blanc, Wild Ferment Chardonnay, Dry Pinotage Rosé and Basket Press Cabernet Sauvignon. The Classic Varietal Range is easy drinking, has intense and beautiful varietal character, balanced acidity levels, which implements and showcases unique underlying winemaking methods, and of course, is available at an affordable price. There really is nothing better than finding an all-in-one, everyday favourite that serves consistent quality and doesn’t break the bank.
With the rebranding of the De Krans logo earlier this year, which showcases a beautiful, hand-illustrated drawing of a buffalo by designer John Pace, it seemed only natural to incorporate it into our labels as well. The Classic Varietal Range proved the ideal range to use this design, as the aim was to incorporate both traditional and modern into the new label – where the old meets the new.
The use of the buffalo, heavily steeped in tradition, pays tribute to the original De Krans farm name, “Buffelsvallei” or Buffalo Valley, where buffaloes roamed freely less than 300 years ago. Bespoke Stellenbosch-based design company, GRAFT, took the buffalo and proverbially ran with it, as they presented this illustration in a modern, simplistic and creative way, combined with the use of white, open space, modern design layout and a pop of colour. This new design seeks to elevate this range of everyday favourites, while keeping the focus on the unique winemaking technique implemented with each wine. Not unlike these new labels, are the wines that fill the bottles – traditional varietals, well-adapted to our climate, creative and unique in our winemaking approach.
Summer is a season of celebration and what is better than the combination of sweet and sparkling to do just that? If you are looking to a more affordable, lighter style alternative to a bubbly, look no further than the Premium White Moscato Perlé 2024. This natural sweet wine has a slight fizz, making the wine super refreshing and enjoyable. With a lower alcohol level of 9%, this is the perfect wine for every occasion this summer. De Krans Wines made the first White Moscato Perlé in South Africa back in 2012 and it has been a firm favourite with consumers ever since. Made from Muscadel and Hanepoot grapes, the wine has delicious fruit flavours of muscat, litchi, apricot, as well as honey and exotic spice.
In celebration of the new label design, we had to include our Classic Varietal Range in our Summer selection. First up is our Free Run Chenin Blanc, where only the free-run juice is used to produce this wine. This juice contains less phenols, making the wine more fruit-driven and able to mature better. This unwooded Chenin Blanc has beautiful fruit flavours of guava, ripe banana, passion fruit and hints of lime.
Our second summer selection wine is the Wild Ferment Chardonnay. Using the method of wild fermentation allows for spontaneous fermentation, with no yeast added. This results in a much slower fermentation process, intensifying the complexity of the wine, and giving it a better mouthfeel. The wine has a typical Chardonnay profile of creamy butterscotch, with notes of citrus, grapefruit and a chalky minerality.
The Dry Pinotage Rosé has a beautiful blush, pink colour achieved by allowing less than an hour of skin contact with the Pinotage grapes before a light pressing. This dry Rosé boasts beautiful aromas of strawberries and candy floss, with a balanced acidity, making the wine smooth and very refreshing.
The last in the range and the only red in our summer selection is the Basket Press Cabernet Sauvignon. In the production of this wine, we use our big basket press to ensure a softer press action and eliminating any harsh tannins. What makes the press so special is that it was imported from France in 1955 and acquired by De Krans Wines in the 1985. Made from French oak, this beautiful, old press has become an integral part of the winemaking process at De Krans Wines. The Basket Press Cabernet Sauvignon is a medium-bodied Cabernet Sauvignon with flavours of cassis, fresh prunes, plums, dark cherries and cedar spice.
Our last summer selection wine is one of our port-style wines, the Cape Pink. De Krans produced the very first Cape Pink port-style wine back in 2008 with the idea in mind to create a port that can also be enjoyed in summer. This lighter style of port has a beautiful blush pink colour, with delicious strawberry, cherry, plum and candy floss flavours. This wine is best served chilled or on crushed ice, but is ideally served as a cocktail mixer. Simply add tonic water, soda water or ginger ale, and add some garnish like lemon, mint or mixed berries.
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Buy wine to the minimum value of R2000 and stand a chance to be one of our three lucky winners who will each receive a free case of our summer selection. The competition will close on Wednesday 11 December at 5pm and the winners will be announced on Friday 13 December. This competition is open only to South African residents aged 18 and above.
We invite you to become part of the De Krans Wine Club if you are not yet a member, where you will not only qualify for free delivery nationwide for orders of R2000 or more, but will also enjoy several other benefits. This time we want to encourage and celebrate new members signing up to our De Krans Wine Club by giving the first five NEW wine club members each, who place an order to the value of a minimum of R2000, a magnum bottle of the Cape Vintage Reserve 2004 (with a value of R1500 per magnum).
De Krans Wines Wine Club membership terms and benefits:
Order wine to a minimum value of R2000 and receive a FREE door-to-door delivery nationwide (one delivery address per order). Should your order be for less than R2000, we are happy to calculate a delivery quote based on your delivery address. We will then furnish you with a pro forma invoice with our banking details. After payment, you will receive a Tax invoice. Please note that regardless of the value of your order, we will only courier wine in multiples of 6 bottles (a full case) to minimize breakages.
