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Olsen Private Vineyards

Winery Description

Location and History

Olsen Private Vineyards is a family-owned and operated winery located in the beautiful Klein Drakenstein Valley in the renowned wine region of Paarl, South Africa. Greg Olsen acquired the vineyard in 2002, upgrading the boutique cellar and focusing on viticulture to produce premium, hand-crafted wines.

Greg Olsen, an American entrepreneur, engineer, and scientist, is notable for becoming the third private citizen to make a self-funded trip to the International Space Station in October 2005. After training for five months at the Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center in Moscow, he launched a Russian Soyuz rocket. He spent ten days in space, performing over 150 orbits of the Earth and logging nearly 4 million miles.

Olsen Private Vineyards was registered as an estate in 2019. Vintages from that year onwards are labelled as Estate Wine, indicating that the wine was produced and bottled on the estate using only grapes grown on the farm.

Olsen currently has 11 hectares under vines, with most blocks consisting of older vines aged 19 to 35 years. In 2015, an additional 3 hectares were planted, consisting of 6 half-hectare blocks. Each rootstock and clone were carefully selected for the specific soil type to produce the highest quality grapes. The vineyard grows red varieties such as Pinotage, Shiraz, Cabernet Sauvignon, and Merlot, along with white varieties like Chardonnay and Chenin Blanc. The unique terroir of the Klein Drakenstein Valley features north-south facing slopes and sandy loam granite clay soils.

Wine Tasting

The winery uses only handpicked grapes, which are then de-stemmed and hand-sorted. Wines are fermented in open floating lid stainless steel tanks with regular punch downs by hand. After primary and secondary fermentation, the wines are moved to first-fill barrels for further maturation, depending on quality.

The tasting room is open by appointment, but once a month, they host an open day for a fun and informal day of wine tasting, meeting the winemaker and enjoying the beautiful surroundings. Open-day dates and other events are advertised on their social media.

Restaurant

Accommodation

Tours and Activities