In 1997, Pieter du Toit, his sons and a few friends made Kloovenburg’s first wine, a Pinotage. They didn’t have a destemmer or crusher, so they had to use their hands to remove the berries from the stems and stomp it with their feet to break the skins.

The juice was transferred to the Stellenbosch University to be inoculated, fermented and matured. The wine was bottled unfiltered and by hand. Only 200 bottles were produced.

In 1998, Pieter made 10 tons of Shiraz and 10 tons of Pinotage at another facility. This was the first wine to be released under the Kloovenburg label.

In 2000, Pieter build the cellar and made his own wine. The cellar has a capacity of 200 tons