Severe flooding hits parts of Western Cape wine region

By Hamish Graham

Published: 14 May, 2026

Vineyards lying alongside the Breede River in South Africa’s Western Cape have been devastated by severe flooding after the river burst its banks.

The Robertson Wine Valley has been particularly badly hit with producers including Springfield Estate, Bonnievale Wines, Bon Courage Estate and Van Loveren Family Vineyards all reporting damage.

Severe flooding is unfortunately not a new phenomenon for the region. In a recent Instagram post, Van Loveren detailed that “the Robertson Valley has faced devastating floods before in 1981, again in 2003, and now for the fourth major time in just the past three years”. It added: “Yet somehow, each time, this community finds the strength to stand together and rebuild.”

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The Breede River flooded the area previously during severe weather in 2023 and 2024.

Heavy storms hit the Western Cape over the past weekend. As detailed by Springfield, Robertson only received 20mm of rainfall, though upstream areas of the catchment received 200mm to 300mm. By Monday evening at the estate, 90 of its 220ha were submerged.

The producer also detailed in an online post that, “15 hectares of new vineyards planted last winter have been completely washed away – soil preparation, cover, crops, irrigation, trellising and vines, gone in a matter of hours”.

It continued: “Our rebuilt pumphouse, all eight frost-fan motors, and our private transformer have all been hit. The full picture will only emerge once the water recedes.”

Since 2023, Springfield Estate had deepened and widened the nearby river channel, raised retaining walls and dykes by three metres, lifted walls around its frost fans by two and a half metres, while also rebuilding its pumphouse on a new site “higher and stronger than we ever believed necessary”. All of these interventions have been proven “futile” against the scale of the flooding.

According to reports from South Africa’s news24food, Van Loveren Family Vineyards said that “water reached two metres high throughout its winery, damaging homes, equipment and 1.3 million bottles of stock”.

Wineries throughout the affected area have been encouraging the public to buy their wines, in an effort to provide funds for the producers in their inevitable rebuilding and recovery efforts.

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