Diemersdal Estate

The farm that became Diemersdal was first granted to early Cape settler Hendrick Sneewind in 1698, during the era of Governor Simon van der Stel and at the very beginning of South African winemaking. Its name comes from later owner Antonie Diemer, who farmed the land in the early 1700s. The Louw family acquired Diemersdal in 1885 and has owned and worked it continuously ever since, making it one of the oldest family-owned wine estates in the country. Six generations of Louws have farmed the same Durbanville slopes, each adding their own quiet refinement to the estate's wine philosophy. Tienie Louw, the fifth-generation patriarch, ran the estate through the late twentieth century. Tienie's son Thys joined Diemersdal in 2005 after wine studies and internships at other Cape estates, and represents the sixth generation today.

• Original farm grant 1698 under Governor Simon van der Stel; named for early eighteenth-century owner Antonie Diemer
• Louw family ownership since 1885; six unbroken generations on the same property
• Sixth-generation Thys Louw joined the family farm in 2005 and now owns and runs the estate
• One of the oldest continuously family-owned wine estates in South Africa

When Thys Louw returned to Diemersdal in 2005 fresh from wine studies, his father Tienie was famously cautious. Rather than handing the cellar over, Tienie restricted Thys's ambitions by permitting him to vinify just eight rows of one Sauvignon Blanc vineyard, on the basis that a young winemaker should prove himself before being trusted with the family farm. Thys made the cut. That first eight-row experiment became the 8 Rows Sauvignon Blanc, which is still made from those same original rows today and which became a foundational bottling of modern South African Sauvignon Blanc. Two decades later, Thys has built Diemersdal into the most awarded Sauvignon Blanc house in the country, while also driving Pinotage forward through the flagship The Journal. Under his stewardship the estate took six five-star wines in the Platter's 2025 South African Wine Guide, a result that reflects both deep family tradition and a willingness to experiment with whole-bunch fermentation, skin contact and winter fermentation in pursuit of new varietal character.

• Thys Louw joined Diemersdal in 2005 after wine studies and internships at other Cape estates
• Tienie Louw originally restricted his son to vinifying only eight rows of one vineyard; the resulting wine became the 8 Rows flagship
• Six five-star wines for Diemersdal in the Platter's 2025 South African Wine Guide under Thys's stewardship
• Combines deep generational tradition with experimentation across whole-bunch ferments, skin contact and winter fermentation

Diemersdal extends over 340 hectares on the cool Atlantic-facing slopes of the Drostberg in Durbanville, just twenty minutes from central Cape Town. Approximately 180 hectares are planted to vine, with the remainder devoted to grazing land and a sizeable area of Renosterveld, one of the most threatened vegetation types in the world. The mesoclimate is shaped by the Cape Doctor, the south-easterly summer wind that pushes in off the Atlantic and keeps daytime temperatures measurably lower during the ripening months. That cooling effect, together with morning sea mist and the Tygerberg Hills shielding the valley from the warm interior, gives Durbanville its signature long, slow ripening and white-wine purity. Soils are a mix of Hutton red clay, decomposed granite and Glenrosa, on which Sauvignon Blanc, Chenin Blanc, Pinotage, Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon and Shiraz are all planted. Many of the Pinotage and Sauvignon Blanc blocks are unirrigated bush vines, with some Pinotage parcels approaching fifty years of age.

• 340-hectare property on the cool Atlantic-facing slopes of the Drostberg; approximately 180 hectares under vine
• Cape Doctor south-easterly wind cools the canopy through the ripening season; morning sea mist further moderates temperatures
• Mix of Hutton red clay, decomposed granite and Glenrosa soils; many older Pinotage parcels are dryland bush vines
• Significant tracts of Renosterveld preserved on the estate; one of the most threatened vegetation types in the world

Diemersdal makes five distinct expressions of Sauvignon Blanc, each chosen to reveal a different angle on the variety in Durbanville. The Sauvignon Blanc Reserve is the classic bench-mark cool-fermented style, brisk and aromatic. The 8 Rows is Thys Louw's debut wine, still made from the original eight rows on a single elevated block, with citrus drive, fynbos lift and saline length. The MM Louw, named for great-grandfather Matthys Michielse Louw, is barrel-fermented in French oak for a richer, longer mouthfeel that has won the General Smuts Trophy as overall Best Wine at the South African Young Wine Show. Wild Horseshoe is a naturally fermented skin-contact wine named for the hundreds of antique horseshoes turned up in the vineyards from the era when ploughing was still done by horse. Winter Ferment is the most distinctive of all: after harvest the juice is frozen at minus twenty degrees Celsius for five months, then thawed and fermented in the heart of the Cape winter, producing a uniquely tropical and textured style unlike any other South African Sauvignon Blanc.

• Sauvignon Blanc Reserve: cool-fermented benchmark of the Durbanville style
• 8 Rows: single-vineyard flagship from Thys Louw's original eight rows; first made 2005
• MM Louw: barrel-fermented in French oak; General Smuts Trophy winner as overall Best Wine at the South African Young Wine Show
• Wild Horseshoe: naturally fermented skin-contact wine, named for horseshoes uncovered in the vineyard from the pre-mechanisation era
• Winter Ferment: juice frozen for five months, then fermented in the Cape winter; uniquely tropical and textured

While Diemersdal's reputation today rests heavily on Sauvignon Blanc, the family was an early and committed champion of Pinotage, with bush-vine plantings going back decades. The Pinotage Reserve is the everyday expression: deep, supple, with red and black berry fruit and softly worked tannins. The flagship sits in an entirely different register. Launched as the estate's most ambitious red, The Journal Pinotage is made from 48-year-old dryland bush vines on deep Hutton red soils, hand-harvested, fermented in open-top French oak vats with a portion of whole-bunch fermentation, and matured in fine-grained French oak. The result is a Pinotage with the perfume, structure and ageworthiness that the variety's best advocates have always insisted was possible. The Journal 2022 scored 96 points and is the highest-rated Pinotage in the Platter's 2025 South African Wine Guide, with a 95-point result at the 2024 International Wine Challenge backing up the local accolade.

• Diemersdal was an early and committed Pinotage producer; some bush-vine blocks now approach fifty years of age
• Pinotage Reserve is the everyday expression, with supple red and black berry fruit and softly worked tannins
• The Journal Pinotage from 48-year-old dryland bush vines on Hutton red soils; whole-bunch fermentation in open-top French oak vats
• The Journal 2022 scored 96 points in the Platter's 2025 Guide, the highest-rated Pinotage; 95 points at the 2024 International Wine Challenge

Diemersdal is one of the producers that have most clearly defined what Durbanville means as a wine region. The ward was awarded Wine of Origin status in 1989 and sits within the broader Cape Town district, which the estate has embraced on selected bottlings to highlight its urban-edge location at the foot of the Drostberg. The combination of Cape Doctor cooling, morning sea mist drawn in over the Tygerberg Hills, and a mix of Hutton red clay and decomposed granite supports a style of Sauvignon Blanc that is more textured, mineral and saline than the more overtly tropical Elgin and Cape South Coast expressions further south. Diemersdal's Pinotage, drawn from old dryland bush vines, has been instrumental in showing what Pinotage can do when grown cool and farmed slowly. Together with neighbours Durbanville Hills, Nitida, Bloemendal and a small cluster of other Tygerberg-side estates, Diemersdal has helped position Durbanville as a serious Sauvignon Blanc capital in its own right.

• Durbanville wine ward gained Wine of Origin status in 1989; sits within the broader Coastal Region and the Cape Town wine district
• Diemersdal selectively bottles under the Wine of Origin Cape Town designation to highlight the urban-edge identity
• Cape Doctor cooling, morning sea mist and the Tygerberg Hills produce more textured, saline Sauvignon Blanc than further-south Elgin
• Together with Durbanville Hills, Nitida and Bloemendal, Diemersdal helps anchor Durbanville's reputation as a Sauvignon Blanc capital

Under Thys Louw's stewardship Diemersdal has become one of the most consistently decorated wineries in South Africa. The estate took six five-star wines in the Platter's 2025 South African Wine Guide, an unusually high tally for any producer and a particularly striking result for a Sauvignon Blanc and Pinotage specialist. The Journal 2022 was named the country's highest-rated Pinotage in the same guide. Five of Diemersdal's Sauvignon Blancs sit in the Top 20 of the most rigorous national Sauvignon competitions: 8 Rows, MM Louw and the Reserve are routinely featured among the country's reference bottlings. The MM Louw Sauvignon Blanc has won the General Smuts Trophy as overall Best Wine at the South African Young Wine Show. Critics including Tim Atkin MW, Greg Sherwood MW and the Platter's panel have consistently identified Diemersdal as the leading Sauvignon Blanc producer in the Durbanville Wine Valley and one of the most reliable family-owned estates in the country.

• Six five-star wines in the Platter's 2025 South African Wine Guide
• The Journal Pinotage 2022 is the highest-rated Pinotage in the Platter's 2025 Guide at 96 points
• Five Sauvignon Blanc bottlings, with 8 Rows, MM Louw and Reserve repeatedly in the country's Top 20 of the variety
• MM Louw Sauvignon Blanc General Smuts Trophy winner as overall Best Wine at the South African Young Wine Show