ABOUT

US

Learn more about our family, our farm, the Alvi’s Drift vineyards, our cellar, and our wine region.

Nestled in South Africa’s fertile Breede River Valley region, Alvi’s Drift winery boasts a long and storied history. Meet our family and get to know our farm, our vineyards, our cellar, and our award-winning wines.


Alvis Drift Winery

OUR FAMILY

Known for scoring the first try against the All Blacks on African soil back in 1928, our family patriarch, Albertus Viljoen “Oupa Alvi” van der Merwe commissioned a low-water bridge to be built across the Breede River on our family farm in 1930. Locals named this bridge “Alvi’s Drift”, the name by which it is still known today.

Oupa Alvi’s grandson, Alvi’s Drift winemaker Alvi van der Merwe, named our winery after this landmark, honouring both our family patriarch and the life-giving river that nourishes our vineyards.

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OUR FARM

Alfalfa farm and its adjoining farm network is a busy agricultural centre situated in the Scherpenheuwel wine ward, situated in the cooler southern reaches of the fertile Breede River Valley.

Home to approximately 430 hectares of Alvi’s Drift vineyards, the farm boasts a large commercial dairy, cheese factory, fruit orchards, livestock herds, and free-roaming game. It is also home to three generations of the Van der Merwe family.

As custodians of the land, Alvi and Junel van der Merwe are deeply committed to environmental conservation. Through sustainable farming practices, they strive, wherever possible, to give back to the land what is taken from it.

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OUR VINEYARDS

A serendipitous combination of climate, soils, topography and abundant water from the life-giving Breede River enables the Alvi’s Drift vineyards to produce distinctive, award-winning South African wines of singular character and complexity.

Scattered across a network of adjoining farms in the cooler, southernmost part of the fertile Breede River Valley, our vineyards lie nestled among indigenous renosterveld, succulent Karoo vegetation and fynbos.

For our winemaker and his team, the location of each
vineyard is a matter of meticulous planning, ensuring the most beneficial terroir for each grape varietal cultivated on our land.

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OUR CELLAR

In the Alvi’s Drift cellar, modern and traditional production techniques are applied in tandem with a low-intervention, unhurried approach to wine making.

Here, oak barrels, giant stainless steel fermentation tanks and hi-tech winemaking equipment share a home with so-called kuipvate, the concrete, open-top fermentation tanks constructed by our family patriarch almost a hundred years ago.

The Alvi’s Drift cellar is where head winemaker Alvi van der Merwe and his team live out their passion for crafting our 9 000-tonne winery’s much-awarded, internationally acclaimed white, red, rosé and sparkling wines.

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Sustainability

At our third-generation winery, we realise that our success is only possible through the dedicated labour of our workforce.

As one of the largest employers in our area, with a team of more than 500 workers, we value and acknowledge the unique contribution of each of our employees.

We also recognise the importance of integrity, equality, fair compensation, and career advancement opportunities in a safe and inclusive working environment.

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