An old family story.
A modern wine house.

A Family Story, Written in Wine

Across the Cape, through the generations

The Faure family’s wine story runs through some of the Cape’s most familiar farming landscapes: the valleys of Franschhoek and Stellenbosch, the countryside around Paarl, and the farms stretching towards False Bay.

Along the way, land was bought, vineyards were planted, farms passed between generations and new paths were taken. Some family members stayed on the land. Others left farming, carrying its stories with them.

Faure Family Wines is the latest chapter in that journey.

Franschhoek: where the roots begin

Our connection to wine begins with Rachel de Villiers and the family into which she was born.

Her father, Abraham, and his brothers arrived at the Cape in 1689, having left France as Huguenot refugees. They brought knowledge of planting and tending vineyards, and settled in the Franschhoek valley.

Rachel was born into a wine-growing family in the Franschhoek valley. Her father farmed Champagne and acquired Boschendal in 1715. Across the wider de Villiers family, the farming connections reached into Simondium, Paarl and Wellington.

When Rachel married Antoine Faure in 1716, that wine-growing heritage became part of the Faure family story.

Stellenbosch: a family puts down roots

Antoine and Rachel moved to Stellenbosch in 1719. Antoine worked as a teacher and served the local church, while the family established its home in the town.

In 1750, years after Antoine’s death, Rachel purchased land in Stellenbosch. The family history suggests that vines may already have grown there, although winemaking at that date has not been established.

The vineyard connection becomes clearer in later generations. Rachel’s son Abraham added adjoining land, and her grandson, Jacobus Christiaan Faure, became a substantial farmer. The family history records 45,000 vines on his Stellenbosch property, on land that included parts of today’s university precinct.

It is a reminder that places now filled with streets and university buildings once formed part of a working agricultural landscape.

Vergenoegd and the farms towards False Bay

As the family grew, its farming story spread beyond Stellenbosch itself.

De Waarburg, later known as Matjieskuil, connected the family to the Klapmuts area. Rustenburg brought another branch to Firgrove, between Stellenbosch and Somerset West.

Vergenoegd entered the family story in 1820 and became one of its longest wine chapters. Successive generations grew grapes and made wine there, with later generations earning recognition for the wines they produced. The farm remained in family hands until its sale in 2015.

Nearby, Zandvliet at Faure became another important family farm. Its name reflected the sandy ground, and grapes were grown alongside sheep and cattle. Family members continued farming there after the property was expropriated in 1969, before eventually moving on.

These farms place much of the Faure wine story on the Cape’s False Bay side, around Eersterivier, Firgrove and the village of Faure. Vergenoegd belongs to the Stellenbosch wine district, despite its closeness to the sea.

Paarl and paths further inland

Another branch of the family carried the vineyard story to Agter Paarl, in the farming countryside around Paarl.

At Ruitersvlei and neighbouring Vrymansfontein, the family grew wine grapes. In 1995, John Faure and his daughters began bottling and marketing their own Ruitersvlei wines. That chapter continued into the early twenty-first century.

The wider farming journey reached further inland, too: to Hoop en Uitkoms in Ceres and Ebenezer in Riebeek-Kasteel, in the Swartland. Those were fruit, livestock and table-grape chapters rather than extensions of the family’s wine production, but they show how closely farming remained woven into family life.

Kahlenberg: vineyards and family life

For our own branch, Kahlenberg holds a particularly close place in the story.

Philippus Albertus Brand Faure, known as Albie, grew up in the Vergenoegd family and bought Kahlenberg, a wine-grape farm at Faure, in 1920. His sons Hannes and Hennie inherited it in 1947 and built a farming partnership, growing grapes and making wine.

Hannes returned to farming after his wartime service as a fighter pilot. With Hennie, he expanded the operation to include Nuwerus, Geduld, Klawervlei, Ridgemor and Croydon.

The next generation continued farming together: Hannes’s son Johann and Hennie’s sons Albie and Noel. They later added Klein Welmoed. Family records put the combined operation at 490 hectares under vines at its peak. The farms were sold in 2015.

For Hannes and Liefie’s family, Kahlenberg was also home. Alongside the work of farming were the lunches, dinners, conversation and hospitality remembered by their children and grandchildren. Wine belonged at the family table.

Faure Family Wines: the next chapter

The sale of the farms changed the shape of the family’s involvement in wine. New generations found their own ways to continue it.

One connection led back to Stellenbosch through Knorhoek. Hannes and Liefie’s daughter Carol married James van Niekerk, whose family farmed there. Their son Barry became a winemaker and helped bring the next Faure chapter to life.

In 2018, Pierre Faure, his sons Philip and André, and Philip’s son James came together to establish Faure Family Wines. With Barry’s assistance, the new brand began by carefully selecting grapes from vineyards in the greater Stellenbosch region.

Today, the collection brings together Sauvignon Blanc, Rosé, Syrah and Liefie Cap Classique. Liefie carries the name of Hannes’s wife, Philip and André’s grandmother, and brings a personal family story to the bottle.

The family history reaches back through centuries. Faure Family Wines began in 2018, with another generation choosing how to carry it forward.

From Rachel’s childhood in Franschhoek to the vineyards of Stellenbosch, Paarl and Faure, the journey has passed through many farms and many hands. Today, we share it through our wines — and around the tables where they are opened.