Two Horses and a "Bokkie"
How cute is that please: Imagine you are visiting an old, somewhat neglected winery, looking at wonderful nature and suddenly discovering this: A young pair of horses are grazing peacefully in the paddock across the way ... and in between is a springbok baby , the apparently adopted by the two horses without further ado... that's exactly what happened to current owners Tyrrel and José when they were looking for a property for their growing wine business at MAN Family Wines!
"If that isn't a sign!" - and today it is actually THE symbol , more precisely the logo of Lievland Vineyards: Amor, the god of love , rides on a springbok (" Bokkie "), the national animal of South Africa , and is reminiscent of the unusual four-legged family.
But there has always been a lot of love in the winery - and especially in the name: The history of the property began in 1715 when a lumberjack from the Dutch United East India Company (VOC) was awarded a huge piece of land, the Natte Vallei. Many years and several owners later the land was divided and the current property was sold in 1934 to Baron & Baroness Von Stiernhjem from Latvia who wanted to emigrate here. However, the baron died before the trip and so the widow Hendrika moved to South Africa alone with her 5 children and gave the wine farm her name: Lievland (= land of love ) ♥
Without much financial means and experience in agriculture and viticulture, but full of pioneering spirit , Hendrika was able to gradually achieve initial successes in viniculture and sales, also thanks to support from the neighbourhood! What started out as small doorstep sales ended up managing 70 hectares of vineyards , all of which she plowed and tended by horse .
Other wine visionaries followed: A winemaker (unique enough at the time) who first tried barrel fermentation on Chenin Blanc long before it became the standard. Or the wine virtuoso who made Lievland one of the top 5 Shiraz producers in Stellenbosch.
Unfortunately, the winery then fell into a slumber for more than ten years, until it was finally rediscovered by José and Tyrrel in 2017. The different locations, excellent, old vineyards and located directly on the "Golden Mile" of Stellenbosch, which is lined with several top wineries, offer a huge potential to let the winery shine again in its old glory !
