Blinds in Groot Drakenstein

Groot Drakenstein was settled by Huguenot refugees alongside Franschhoek in the late 1680s, and its wine and fruit farms are among the oldest continuously worked land in the Cape. It is also, more recently, a place with a fixed spot in South African history: this is the district where Nelson Mandela walked free from Victor Verster Prison on 11 February 1990. The farms and homesteads around that history still work the same valley floor, held in by the Groot Drakenstein range on one side and the Simonsberg on the other.

Homesteads here run from whitewashed Cape Dutch originals with small, deep-set windows to newer additions and guest cottages built for the same vine and mountain view that Val de Vie and Pearl Valley are known for. The valley floor gets the sun for a long, unbroken day rather than the shorter, closed-in intensity of Franschhoek proper — which argues for shading that can go on and off with the day rather than shading built for one brutal window of glare.

A working farm often means outbuildings, staff housing and a main homestead all needing different specifications on the same visit — we quote each on what it actually needs rather than a single blanket answer for the property.