South African wine estate history is often told through dates: a founding year on a label, a black-and-white portrait, an old cellar carefully preserved.
Those things matter, but they are not the whole story.
The Alvi’s Drift heritage is more personal. It lives in a family that has farmed beside the Breede River for generations, in a rugby story woven into South African sporting history, and in the belief that anything worth doing should be done properly.
Alvi’s Drift has been family-owned since 1928. The story begins with Albertus Viljoen van der Merwe I, remembered as Oupa Alvi; continues through his son, Albertus Viljoen van der Merwe II, known as Oom Bertie; and is carried forward today by Oupa Alvi’s grandson, Albertus Viljoen “Alvi” van der Merwe III.
Three generations faced very different challenges. What connects them is not that they made the same choices, but that each had to decide what to do with what had been handed to him.
The man who set the standard
In 1925, Oupa Alvi left home to attend Rondebosch Boys’ High School. A young Afrikaans boy entering an English-speaking school, he had to adapt quickly and hold his own. He became the first of four generations of the family to attend Rondebosch.
Family memories describe him as intensely competitive and determined, but also charismatic, generous and remarkably grounded. He dressed impeccably, enjoyed a good glass of wine and appreciated the finer things in life without being showy.
The quality his family returns to most often, however, is his humility. His grandson Alvi remembers knowing that his grandfather had been a Springbok and seeing him wear his Springbok blazer to functions, but Oupa Alvi never spoke about the try that made rugby history. Alvi only learned the full significance of it much later in life, through friends.
For a man whose achievements would eventually become central to the family story, his silence about them says a great deal about who he was.
Three brothers, one historic match
Alvi van der Merwe, far left in the front row, played against the 1928 All Blacks as a 19-year-old from Worcester. His two older brothers also played in the match: Hendrik, directly behind him in the back row, and Pierre van der Merwe, the captain, pictured in the front row with the ball in hand.
On 30 May 1928, the touring All Blacks opened their South African tour against Western Province Country at Newlands in Cape Town. In that Western Province Country side were three Van der Merwe brothers: Alvi, Hennie and Pierre.
The All Blacks won 11–3, but the home side’s three points came from 19-year-old Albertus Viljoen “Oupa Alvi” van der Merwe. His try made him the first player to score a try against the touring All Blacks on African soil.
That single match gives the family’s rugby heritage unusual substance: not only was Oupa Alvi part of the beginning of one of world rugby’s great rivalries, he took the field that day alongside two of his brothers.
Oupa Alvi later earned his place in Springbok history as Springbok number 221, and went on to represent South Africa on the 1931–32 Springbok tour of Britain and Ireland.
Rugby did not stop with number 221
Western Province Rugby Football Union Under-20 team, 1985. Current winemaker, Alvi van der Merwe III (back row, far left).
The rugby story continued through the family. Oupa Alvi’s son Oom Bertie played provincial rugby for Boland with his brother Dawid. Their younger brother, H.P., also played provincial rugby and represented Western Province at Under-20 level.
The next generation followed. Alvi’s brother Johan played for Boland, while Alvi himself represented Western Province Under-20 before stepping away from the game.
That makes the rugby connection more than a single famous try. Across generations, the Van der Merwes repeatedly found themselves on rugby fields at school, provincial and international level. Competition, preparation and teamwork were not abstract family values; they were lived.
The farm was built by doing the work
The Alvi’s Drift farm story began as a working farm and family home. Oupa Alvi built steadily with the emphasis on what the farm could produce and sustain, season after season.
That practical beginning still matters. As a private, family-owned wine farm in South Africa, Alvi’s Drift carries a history that accumulated through work, relationships and decisions made over decades rather than through a story created for visitors.
It is part of the Breede River Valley wine heritage because the same family has continued to farm, adapt and build here as agriculture, markets and winemaking have changed.
Three generations, different responsibilities
Oupa Alvi established the foundation. Oom Bertie inherited the responsibility of sustaining it as a working agricultural enterprise and preparing it for the next generation.
When current winemaker, Alvi van der Merwe III became more involved in the wine business, relatively few bottles were being produced under the Alvi’s Drift label and much of the wine was still made in bulk. His focus was to expand the business, but, as he explains, not simply from a monetary point of view. It was also about bringing the family story forward and building wines that could carry the name with credibility.
I have a simple philosophy: I do not think you can enforce your views on the next generation. What is important is to create values and principles that guide the company, and to establish a governance structure that makes things simpler. - current winemaker Alvi van der Merwe
That is the challenge of a family-owned wine farm in South Africa: respecting what came before without assuming that the next generation should simply repeat it. Vineyards change. Markets change. Consumer expectations change. The business has to move with them.
Alvi’s own view is that you cannot impose your ambitions on the next generation. Values, principles and sound governance can provide a foundation, but each generation should still have the opportunity — and the responsibility — to create something for itself.
Heritage, in that sense, is not repetition. It is continuity with room for each generation to make its own contribution.
Why 221 still matters
Alvi van der Merwe, running out against Swansea in the third tour match of the 1931/32 Springboks where he played in the international against Wales alongside Danie Craven.
Oupa Alvi’s Springbok number began as a record of one man’s sporting achievement. Almost a century later, it has become a bridge between the family’s rugby history and its winemaking story.
Alvi himself only came to understand the significance of the number later, when his friend Graham Marwick, an avid rugby supporter, drew his attention to it. The 221 range was created as a way of carrying that history forward through wine. it includes the 221 Chenin Blanc, 221 Sauvignon Blanc, 221 Pinotage and 221 Special Cuvee Red.
The story would mean little if the wines could not stand on their own. The 221 wines have gone on to become multiple award winners, giving the number a contemporary identity rather than leaving it only as a piece of family history.
This is where a private family story intersects with a national one. Oupa Alvi’s rugby achievement belongs to South African sporting heritage; the wines carrying his number continue the story in another form. It is what makes Alvi’s Drift a South African heritage wine estate whose history is still being written.
Heritage Day at the table
Current winemaker Alvi van der Merwe III keeping the family braai tradition alive, preparing their signature steaks with our friends and Springbok Women players Libbie Janse van Rensburg and Aseza Hele.
Heritage Day means different things to different South Africans, and no single meal or tradition can represent the country’s heritage. For many families, however, gathering around a fire remains one familiar way of spending the day.
The Alvi’s Drift Family Heritage Day Braai Recipe
Choose a thick, bone-in steak large enough to share. A substantial ribeye, porterhouse or tomahawk works well. The Van der Merwe approach being that bigger is generally better.
Remove the steak from the refrigerator well before cooking so that it loses its chill. Season generously but simply with coarse salt and freshly ground black pepper. Good meat and a proper wood fire should do most of the talking.
Prepare a strong bed of coals, keeping one area of the braai slightly cooler.
Start the steak over the hotter section to develop a deep, charred crust. Then move it to the gentler heat and allow it to cook more slowly through the centre.
Turn it regularly and don’t rush it. A steak of this size needs patience.
Once cooked, rest it properly before slicing it across the grain and serving it in thick pieces at the centre of the table.
Heritage Day Wine Pairing
Pair the steak with Alvi’s Drift 221 Special Cuvée or Alvi’s Drift 221 Pinotage.
The 221 Special Cuvée has the depth and structure to stand up beautifully to the richness of the meat, while the 221 Pinotage is a natural match for the smoky, charred flavours from the braai.
Two proudly South African red wines, made to be enjoyed around the fire and shared around the table.
The standard remains
Nearly a century after the 1928 All Blacks match and the beginnings of the farm, the family name remains on the bottle and the responsibility has moved to another generation.
The vineyards have grown, the methods have changed and the wines travel further than Oupa Alvi or Oom Bertie could have imagined. What remains is the expectation that the work must justify the name attached to it.
That is the heritage of Alvi’s Drift: not history held still, but a story carried forward — from three brothers on a rugby field in 1928 to a third-generation winemaker deciding what the family name should mean today.
