History

The estate was originally purchased by JW Sauer, a cabinet member of the union of South Africa. His son Paul Oliver Sauer, took over the reigns from his father and was in 1967 joined by Springbok rugby great, Jan Boland Coetzee. Mary Sauer, daughter of Paul Sauer, married Jannie Krige, a rugby administrator at the University of Stellenbosh. He took early retirement and together with Coetzee made the first estate bottled wines at Kanonkop in 1973.

Beyers Truter joined Kanonkop in 1980 as winemaker, and developed the reputation of the estate still further with his excellent winemaking skills, especially by developing Pinotage into a world class wine. Beyers has now left Kanonkop in the able hands of new winemaker Abri Beeselaar to devote more time to Beyerskloof, but he remains an active consultant to the winery. Worldwide acclaim for the top quality of Kanonkop has fuelled huge worldwide demand for these iconic wines  

Kanonkop is renowned for its red wines, with Pinotage making up 50% of all plantings, Cabernet Sauvignon 30%, Merlot 15% and Cabernet Franc 5%. The Pinotage vines are retained as bush vines to provide maximum ripeness and assist with regulating the crop. Most of these vines are more than 50 years old. The Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Cabernet Franc have been trellised into a five strand hedge.

Except for a small portion of the estate where the soil is slightly sandy, no irrigation is done. Pinotage, Merlot and Cabernet Franc yield approximately six tons per hectare (4 000 lit/ha) while the Cabernet Sauvignon yield is on average four tons per hectare (2 600 lit/ha).