Old Balgowan

Thokoza winery was established in 1988 and was known for its Honeymead, Sherry and Fruition Fruit Wines. In 2004 Relay Farming purchased the business and grew the range of products into liqueurs, vodkashots and a basic range of light and crispy beers under the label CaveRock.

These handcrafted products were brewed in glass carboys and the grapes for our sherry were pressed in an antique wine press. We stuck to the old ways and re-named the winery and brewery after our farm, Old Balgowan. With the movie being shot next door, we also made a range of wines from grapes from Paarl under the name Spud and the reaction to our product was fantastic.

In 2020 Old Balgowan moved down to Morewood Farm but was hit with the lockdowns and other Covid restrictions and so only towards the end of 2021 did the Old Balgowan find it’s feet again making “Four Storey’s Gin” using a minimum of 4 ingredients in line with the number of levels of our well visited Hermit Treehouse and a Brandy from our distilled Sherry as well as a Whisky matured in light, medium and dark roasted oak. With Chef and Brewer Catherine Todd becoming more involved in Old Balgowan, she has recently introduced a new variety of full grain craft beers into the range along with her specialty ciders under our “Pebbles” label including her highly popular “Cherry Cider”.

The Mad Catter, as chef Cat is affectionately known, is busy making our Fruition Fruit Wine range again as the seasonal fruits are available. She has become somewhat of a mad scientist playing with the grains and the flavours she can get out of them

The trademark “Pebbles” was inspired by the fun trend of painting a pebble and leaving it in the forest for someone to find and to either add their pebble to the cairn or do a swap. This has inspired us to soon start this same trend at Morewood where any Pebbles beer ordered will arrive with a pebble and some paints to inspire creativity and fun as well as it is also a way to raise funds for The Heart Donor Foundation.

Cat or Brett are available for questions or tours including for those wanting to make their own wines / gins / beers / ciders for their wedding, birthday or anniversary.