Vilafonte

Vilafonté is the first American and South African joint wine-making venture. This ground-breaking red wine project is a partnership between a respected group of wine specialists from South Africa (Mike Ratcliffe) and the United States (Zelma Long and Dr. Phil Freese). The name Vilafonté is derived from the primary soil type of the 100-acre estate.  Recorded as one of the oldest soil types in the world (somewhere between 750 000 and 1.5mil year...

 Vilafonté is named after vilafontes, one of the more unique soil types in our vineyard. Vilafontes is one of the oldest recorded soil types in the world and has been defined as being somewhere between 750 000 and 1.5mil years old. The age of the soil is important as it is deeply evolved and has been stripped of much of its inherent capacity, with a low production potential that encourages smaller vines, lower yields and highly concentrated fr...

The Vilafonté project presented an opportunity to grow great wines; from the ground up, investing all the knowledge and experience we gained in our decades of growing and making wine. We chose South Africa for this opportunity. I thought that great wines could be made here, in fact that the “calling” of the Cape was to make great wines for the world. Now when people ask why we chose South Africa, we say: South Africa chose us.” – ZELMA LONG