Farm Stories

A short while ago Tom Wark posted an interesting new letter on the Fermentation blog. The title, In Praise of Colonisation, was rather audacious and came as quite a surprise. His opening paragraph, “Imagine a world without Sonoma Coast Pinot...

A peek into winemaker Lawrie Moore's diary, and heart, during his first harvest on Kleinood Farm, along with film photographs from the disposable camera which he carried in his pocket. 30 January 2026 Part I: The Great Viticultural Lie The first rule...

READ: The Story of Syrah | Chapter One listen while you read The Kleinood Nocturne A twenty-minute audio experience created from Kleinood terroir. https://www.kleinood.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/Kleinood_Naturescape_ft.Kyle%20Shepherd.mp3 READ: The Kleinood Nocturne 312 Years Ago In 1688, the French Huguenot, Jacob de Villiers, arrived...

READ: The Story of Syrah | Chapter One 25 years ago The moment we set foot on Chatford farm, as it was then called, and named it Kleinood, we knew this would be our life and our work. Since that...

25 years ago We were dreaming of making Syrah - only Syrah. The terroir afforded us the fruit to make a Rhône Syrah in the most honest way we could - for it to be not of what we did to it...

Kleinood Farm turns 25 In the year 2000 the small farm, that was to become Kleinood, was very different from what it is now. But it stole our hearts and we decided to give it our best... Now, 25 years...

25 years ago We cleaned up the forest and river by pulling up and chopping down all the alien plants. Very soon the Wild Olives and Wild Peach trees started showing new growth and the indigenous bulbs started flowering. We...

25 years ago We decided to call our wines Tamboerskloof, because that is where we came from, this suburb, against Signal Hill where our children grew up and where the dream was born. It is also from here that, in...

25 years ago In the year 2000, the small farm, that was to become Kleinood, was very different from what it is now.  Although its inherent natural beauty and charm was always there, it was, sadly, just a run down...