There are more than 100 wine farms across Stellenbosch, Franschhoek and Paarl, and every one of them will tell you it’s the best. This is technically true, in the same way that everyone’s childhood dog is the best. The problem is that “best” is the wrong question. Nobody needs the best wine farm. You need the best one for your mother-in-law’s 70th, or a second date you’re trying very hard not to fumble, or the six friends who’ve been threatening to “do a Winelands day” since 2023.
So we’ve done the unthinkable and ranked them. Not by medals, points, or the opinions of people who describe wine as “austere”, but by what you actually want them for. Every estate below is grand cru at exactly one thing. If your favourite didn’t make the list, please direct all complaints to our sommelier, who does not exist.
Delaire Graff (best view)
Perched high above the Helshoogte Pass, Delaire Graff has the kind of terrace view that makes grown adults stop mid-sentence and just gawk. Vineyards, mountains, valley: it’s basically the Winelands’ screensaver. Throw in an art collection of more than 400 pieces and the only Graff diamond boutique in Africa, and there’s more than enough to keep your eyes busy. Book lunch on the terrace, and maybe leave the bank card in the car before wandering past the jewellery.
Honourable mention: neighbouring Tokara gazes out over Stellenbosch all the way to False Bay, and its deli is an excellent plan B for when Delaire’s terrace is booked by people who planned ahead (hint: be those people).
Image source: https://www.delaire.co.za/
Boschendal (best for groups)
Wrangling eight adults around a fine-dining table is a hostage situation with napkins. Boschendal’s Werf picnics are the peaceful alternative: baskets loaded with farm bread, garden salads and handmade charcuterie, served in the warmer months on shady lawns where nobody has to use their indoor voice. Bringing small people? There’s a treehouse playground and pump track right there, which is the closest thing to a babysitter that doesn’t charge by the hour. Book at least a day ahead (it’s prepaid), and note that groups of eight or more get an automatic 10% gratuity, so settle the split before the WhatsApp group starts voting on things.
Haute Cabrière (best for a quiet date)
Nothing says “I’m a person of taste” quite like watching someone open a bottle of bubbly with a sword. Haute Cabrière’s cellar is built straight into the mountain at the foot of the Franschhoek Pass, and the estate offers cellar tours and a sabrage experience. The estate is known for its Chardonnay and Pinot Noir wines, so you can spend less time pretending to understand the wine list and more time gazing meaningfully at each other. Share a bottle of Pierre Jourdan and let the view carry the conversation if things go quiet.
The Jordan Restaurant (best food)
Plenty of wine farms do a decent lunch. The Jordan Restaurant with Marthinus Ferreira does the kind you’ll bore your friends about for weeks. It sits at the very end of the Stellenbosch Kloof Road (if you run out of road, you’ve arrived) and has been one of the Winelands’ signature-chef restaurants since 2009, serving seasonal, produce-led plates alongside Jordan’s own wines. It’s a proper grown-up affair, so wear the nice shoes, skip breakfast, and accept that you’ll need a nap afterwards.
Spier (best for families)
Spier has been farming since 1692, which is long enough to have mastered the ancient art of tiring out children. There are grape juice tastings so the little ones can swirl and sniff like mini critics, riverside picnics, Segway tours through the vines and birds of prey at Eagle Encounters. Meanwhile, parents may experience something long thought extinct: finishing a glass of wine before the ice in it melts.
Image source: https://www.spier.co.za/
Fairview (best for the friend who doesn’t drink)
Every group has one, and they deserve better than a sad lemonade in the corner. Send them to Fairview in Paarl, where the cheese is the real headliner (more than 50 varieties from cow’s and goat’s milk), and the goats have lived in their own spiral tower since 1981. Nobody has ever been bored watching a goat climb a tower. Nobody.
Babylonstoren (best for impressing overseas visitors)
When your cousin from London lands and starts saying things like “it’s so cheap here”, take them to Babylonstoren and make them buy you lunch. The formal fruit and vegetable garden is genuinely jaw-dropping, and lunch at Babel, in the old cowshed, is built around seasonal produce from the farm. Book well ahead, because everyone else’s cousin is visiting too.
Where to end up
Of course, the responsible version of working through a wine farm tier list involves not driving afterwards. Luckily, the town of Franschhoek has thought of this. The Franschhoek Wine Tram runs hop-on, hop-off lines past estates including Haute Cabrière, Boschendal and Babylonstoren, so the only thing you’ll be steering is the conversation.
Stay in the village, and you can stroll to the tram stop in less time than it takes to argue about how the lunch bill will be split. Neighbourgood De Wet offers smart studios and loft apartments with Motherdough bakery right next door, which is the kind of planning your future, slightly fragile self will thank you for.
Feel free to disagree with every ranking above. We’ll be right here, eating pastries, not driving.
