Peter Bayly Wines

Peter Bayly Wines is a tiny, family-run boutique winery hidden in the Groenfontein Valley of the Klein Karoo, about 15km north of Calitzdorp at the foot of the Swartberg Mountains. Peter and Yvonne Bayly bought the remote farm in the late 1990s as a holiday retreat with a few vines planted as a hobby; after their first harvest in 2004 they never looked back and turned it into a full-time winery. Before winemaking, Peter had a varied career as a Cape Town restaurateur and hotelier — running Walter's Grill in Sea Point and Farthings in Kenilworth in the 1970s, and later co-founding the Ellerman House hotel, where he built and managed its wine cellar. Today the farm has just 1.2 hectares under vine out of 7 hectares total, planted mainly to the Portuguese varieties Touriga Nacional, Tinta Barroca and Souzão, alongside a block of Chenin Blanc planted in 1968. Peter describes the valley's schist soils and climate as remarkably similar to Portugal's Douro Valley, though considerably wetter and cooler than Calitzdorp itself — a distinct microclimate that gives the wines their own character. Winemaking is deliberately old-fashioned: grapes are foot-trodden, basket-pressed, fermented naturally and matured in large seasoned oak casks for around 18 months before being bottled by hand, unfiltered and unfined. The estate is best known for its Cape Vintage Port and Cape White Port (made from Chenin Blanc), alongside the dry red blend Peter Bayly III and a barrel-aged dry Chenin Blanc. The farm, marked by a whimsical flying-pig sign at its gate, welcomes visitors for tastings and cellar tours strictly by appointment.