Hillcrest Wine and Olive Estate

Hillcrest Wine and Olive Estate

Hillcrest Wine and Olive Estate is a boutique winery, nestled in the Tygerberg Hills on the outskirts of Durbanville. Only a 30-minute drive from Cape Town, this unique estate offers visitors a host of activities, a much-loved restaurant, delicious olives and award winning wines.It is the terroir of the farm's vineyards, cooled by afternoon sea breezes from the Atlantic Ocean, which makes it one of the prime growing grape regions in the Western Cape. The estate's well-drained soils have a good water retention capacity and are differentiated into Oakleaf, Hutton and Clovelly types which favour the production of good quality grapes and consequently great wines. In addition the vineyards are strewen with baked shale or “Hornfels”. This is a result of a geological event millions of years ago, which has imparted a distinct minerality to the wines and has lead to the name of our Flagship Bordeaux Blend.Our vineyards are planted on Northwest facing slopes between 200 & 380 meters ASL. Hillcrest's undulating landscape offers a range of micro-climates which allows different grape varietals to be planted in the various suitable conditions to attain optimal quality. Thus Sauvignon Blanc which requires cool ripening conditions is planted on the higher slopes. The cooler conditions also extend the ripening period which favours the accumulation and concentration of typical sauvignon lime and passion fruit flavours. The five Bordeaux varietals are planted on lower slopes, with Cabernet Sauvignon & Petit Verdot planted on the lowest slopes . These are late ripeners which require warmer conditions to ensure that the grapes are optimally ripe at harvest. Various vineyard management techniques such as leaf plucking to increase sunlight penetration and green harvesting to attain uniform ripeness at harvest are practiced to improve grape quality. Feel free to visit them next time you are in the area.