Rupert & de Rothschild Vignerons is a partnership in wine production on the historic French Huguenot farm Fredericksburg, between the Rupert family of South Africa and Baron Benjamin de Rothschild son of the late Baron Edmond de Rothschild of France.

Both families have deep interests in wine. The Rupert family also owns two wine estates in the Franschhoek Valley: L’Ormarins and La Motte. The Rothschild family owns Château Clarke, a cru bourgeois in Listraz as well as two nearby wine estates (Peyre-Lebada and Malmaison), and are partners in first-growth Château Lafite-Rothschild in Pauillac.

Fredericksburg is situated on the slopes of the picturesque Simonsberg mountains between Paarl and Franschhoek. The farm was founded in 1690, more than three centuries ago, by the brothers Jean and Daniel Nortier (Nortjie).

Life started as a simple whitewashed two-roomed Cape Cottage. In these two rooms, built of stone with a thatched roof, lived the widow of Daniel Nortier, Marie Vitu. Marie, an enterprising refugee of the French purge of the Protestants, built her humble two-roomed home some time around 1700.

The manor house, built around 1711 and originally also a simple two-roomed home, was transformed over the next two centuries by a string of owners, each adding his own piece, dictated by necessity, prosperity and the fashion of the day.

The late Anthonij Rupert, youngest son of Dr Anton Rupert, acquired Fredericksburg in 1984. His aim was to produce wine of the highest international standard. Replanting of Noble varieties on the 90-hectare farm started in 1986. Restoration of the original buildings commenced in 1991 after extensive research into the history of the farm.

With the love of wine as a common interest and with Fredericksburg’s past firmly rooted in two cultures – French Huguenot and Cape Dutch – the Rupert and Rothschild families share one goal: to produce world-class wine.