Located in the picturesque village of Franschhoek, La Petite Provence is a small residential wine estate of outstanding beauty. This 36 hectare farm lies in the middle of the magnificent Franschhoek valley, surrounded by majestic mountain ranges in the heart of the Western Cape Winelands, yet is only 80 Kms from Cape Town.
For those lucky enough to know Franschhoek, it is not surprising that this village is third only to the Kruger Park and Cape Town on the “must visit” list of overseas visitors to South Africa.
La Petite Provence was once part of ‘La Terre du Luc” farm and traces it’s origins back to the 17th century French Huguenot settlers. Today Franschhoek is recognised as South Africa’s culinary capital where locals and visitors alike take their time to enjoy the areas natural beauty, superb climate and outstanding restaurants whilst the winemakers nurture the vines to produce some of the world’s finest wines.
Construction of the La Petite Provence residential wine estate commenced in 2000. Four hectares of new Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon vines were planted with the aim of producing high quality grapes from which we produce our wines. Twenty years later approximately 150 houses and apartments nestle amongst the vines in perfect harmony.
A group of enthusiastic homeowners decided to create a wine business from these vineyards and the La Petite Wine Trust was established in 2005 with 35 homeowners as Trust members. In 2006 the Olifantshoek Wine Company [Pty] Ltd was established to produce and market the wine.Since these early beginnings,the Wine Trust has opened its membership to all interested parties and the Wine Company expanded sales within South Africa and into export territories such as Europe and China.
The company buys the harvest from the estate and produces wines under the brand name of ‘La Petite Provence’ for local consumption and ‘Olifantshoek’ for export to overseas markets. We are also proud of our Elephant logo, used on our brands and the “Olifantshoek” Company name, as wild elephants used to roam in the Franschhoek Valley 300 years ago [ “Elephant” translates as “Olifant” in Afrikaans].
Our initial vintages were produced by a neighbouring farmer/winemaker Johan van Rensberg of La Provence farm, but from our 2017 vintage we appointed Helena Senekal of Simonsvlei as our winemaker. The rewards of this collaboration are clear and can be gauged by the success that the wines have achieved over the years. The two wines most recently released, the 2018 Merlot and the 2018 Cabernet Sauvignon have both been awarded 3.5 stars by Platter’s Guide, the authoritative reference book for South African wines.