NEW SOUTH AFRICAN WINES AT GANYMEDE

Van Loveren is South Africa’s leading family-owned wine farm, popular for a range of excellent wines and a welcoming, family-friendly experience. The farm is located in Robertson, about 175km east from Cape Town.

The Retief family has been making wine since Hennie Sr. and Jean Retief bought the farm in 1937. The winery name is an ancestral connection: in 1699 Christina van Loveren left Holland by ship with her husband, Willem van Zyl, with the hope of a new beginning in South Africa. In the 60s, Wynand and Nico Retief, the sons of Hennie Sr. and Jean Retief, started making and bottling their own wine for wholesale. A major milestone was reached in 1980, with the birth of the Van Loveren brand. Under this brand, the first 500 cases of Premier Grand Cru were bottled. It took a whole year to sell all 500 cases!

The story of the third generation of the Retief winemakers began in the 1990s. Wynand’s sons, Phillip and Neil, and Nico’s sons, Bussell and Hennie, joined the family farm after completing their studies. In 2000, they introduced the Four Cousins range of wines, which today is South Africa’s biggest-selling bottled wine brand.

Van Loveren Vineyards now has 750 hectares of vineyard and an annual production in excess of 8 million litres. The proud member of the Biodiversity and Wine Initiative has over 500 hectares of land set aside to conserve the natural ecosystems on the farm and was named South African Farm of the Year in 2012.

Van Loveren participates in the South African Wine Certification Scheme, under which, each batch of wine is analysed by an external panel of professional tasters before and after bottling to ensure its quality.  Each bottle that passes inspection is issued with its own unique seal number!

Ganymede now has the following Van Loveren wines available for purchases in Hong Kong:

• Christina Chardonnay 2018 
• Christina Cabernet Sauvignon 2017 
• Christina Shiraz 2017 
• Retief Reserve Cape White Blend 2018 
• Retief Reserve Cape Red Blend 2017