Our Story — The Winemakers
Five winemakers in five decades
Continuity is the rarest thing in wine. Since the first bottle under the Kanonkop label in 1973, just five people have held the cellar keys.
1968 – 1980
Jan “Boland” Coetzee
The Springbok flanker who bottled the maiden Kanonkop Pinotage and Cabernet Sauvignon in 1973 — the estate speaking with its own voice at last.
His legacy runs deeper than wine: the community hall and the estate's sports teams he founded in the 1970s still anchor life on the farm today.
1980 – 2002
Beyers Truter
Named international winemaker of the year in 1991 — the moment the world learned what Stellenbosch already knew.
Under his hand Pinotage from these granite slopes became South Africa's calling card to the fine wine world.
2002 – 2024
Abrie Beeslaar
Twenty-two vintages of stewardship, and the era of the Black Label Pinotage — released in 2006 from bush vines planted in 1953, South Africa's definitive icon Pinotage.
2024 – · Head Winemaker
Francois van Zyl
His mind was made up by a glass of the 1991 Paul Sauer. He took the cellar keys from Abrie Beeslaar in November 2024 — the fifth custodian of an unbroken style.
Winemaker
Dirk van Zyl
Alongside Francois in the cellar. His full profile — and the story of the newest generation of Kanonkop winemaking — is on its way from the estate.