KWV South Africa (Proprietary) Limited (founded as ''Ko-operatiewe Wijnbouwers Vereniging van Zuid-Afrika'') is a South African wine and spirits producer. Its brands include Roodeberg, KWV Wines & KWV Brandies, and Laborie.

History

KWV was founded as a winemaking co-operative on 8 January 1918 by

wine Wine is an alcoholic drink made from Fermentation in winemaking, fermented fruit. Yeast in winemaking, Yeast consumes the sugar in the fruit and converts it to ethanol and carbon dioxide, releasing heat in the process. Wine is most often made f ...

makers from the

Western Cape The Western Cape ( ; , ) is a provinces of South Africa, province of South Africa, situated on the south-western coast of the country. It is the List of South African provinces by area, fourth largest of the nine provinces with an area of , an ...

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. Its Provinces of South Africa, nine provinces are bounded to the south by of coastline that stretches along the Atlantic O ...

, with Dr. Charles Kohler as its chairperson. The name “Koöperatieve Wijnbouwers Vereniging van Suid-Afrika” is Dutch for "Co-operative Winemakers Union' of South Africa". The purpose of KWV was to create unity amongst the wine farmers of South Africa and to ensure continuous improvement in the quality of South African wines and brandies. From the early 1920s, the co-operative was granted increasing legislative control over the production, sale and export of South Africa's distilling wine and spirits, which allowed the body to experiment with innovations in the industry which aided its development. The organisation also invested a great deal in the promotion of South African wine and brandy both locally and abroad. KWV's legal hand over the industry was lifted with the end of Apartheid in 1990 and subsequent change in government, and in 1997 converted from a co-operative to a company structure. In 2004, KWV negotiated the South African wine industry's largest Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment (BBBEE) deal with Phetogo (Pty) Ltd, attaining 25.1% shares. For the first time, KWV products entered the local market with its branded wines and brandies, having previously only been available to international consumers. In 2010, KWV formed a subsidiary of Niveus Investments, part of the HCI black empowerment investment group, and was the only South African producer listed on Drinks International's Most Admired Wine Brands Global register. In 2016, KWV was acquired by the London-based investment firm Vasari for ZAR 1.15 billion. In 2024, Masimong Group and Rand Merchant Bank (RMB) became minority shareholders of KWV.

Description

The KWV Headquarters and main production complex are situated in the Cape Winelands in

Paarl Paarl (; ; derived from ''parel'', meaning "pearl" in Dutch) is a city with 294,457 inhabitants in the Western Cape province of South Africa. It is the largest city in the Boland, Western Cape, Cape Winelands. Due to the growth of the Mbekweni ...

. KWV is South Africa's second largest brandy producer, producing around 15-million liters annually. It sources its base wine from 60 cooperatives and 52 vineyards, using mostly

chenin blanc Chenin blanc (, ; known also as Pineau de la Loire among #Synonyms, other names) is a white wine grape variety from the Loire Valley (wine), Loire Valley of France (wine), France. Its high acidity (wine), acidity means it can be used to make var ...

and

colombard Colombard (also known as French Colombard in North America) is a white French wine grape variety that may be the offspring of Chenin blanc and Gouais blanc. This makes the grape the sibling of the Armagnac Meslier-Saint-François and the nearl ...

grapes.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Kooperatieve Wijnbouwers Vereniging Van Zuid-Afrika Bpkt Food and drink companies established in 1918 Economy of the Western Cape South African wine Wineries of South Africa Wine industry organizations Paarl