Blinds in Simondium

Simondium is less a town than a crossroads — a scatter of historic wine and fruit farms either side of the R45 between Paarl and Franschhoek, with a working church, a school and a handful of farm stalls holding the centre together. It is unpretentious by winelands standards, which is part of the point: the land here has been under vine and orchard for generations, long before any of the newer estate developments, including Val de Vie itself, were laid out across the surrounding farms.

That means two very different kinds of window turn up on our Simondium call-outs. There is the old farmhouse: thick walls, deep-set windows, shutters that were built for a different climate problem than glare. And there is the new build on a subdivided portion of farmland, often with the same wide, view-chasing glass we fit across the neighbouring estates — because the view being chased is the same vineyard.

Farm properties out here also tend to run more outbuildings than a standard suburban home — a wine cellar, a tasting room, staff accommodation — and we quote each on its own light and its own use rather than treating a farm as one undifferentiated job.