Due to the prowess of her researchers, the quality of her faculties and the richness of her location, Stellenbosch University produces some remarkable things (other than her alumni). There are products like bespoke jewellery, Maties Milk, sports paraphernalia and plants from the botanical gardens and, most notably, the wonderful wine our region is so famous for.

But, up until now the only way to get your hands on any of them was to do so physically. While there are outlets where locals can buy our things from, there are large numbers of tourists, alumni and connoisseurs of fine things who aren’t nearby, and cannot. The closest they can get to the items they desire is the empty bottle on their mantlepiece, the photos they took when they were here, or a small image on the website. There is a lot of demand for our products, without the means for the supply to fulfil it.

Takealot.com, everyone’s favourite online retail store and delivery wizards, will now be solving this problem for all of us. As of 15 November, we’ll be piloting this new online solution with the release of a very special product, which is brand new, but has its roots firmly planted in Stellenbosch soil.

To commemorate the centenary year of Stellenbosch University, the team has released a very special, limited edition of the Welgevallen Cellar’s Pinotage, available exclusively on Takelot.com. Called, rather logically, ‘Eeufees Pinotage’.

It will be a limited edition of around 2 000 bottles, with each bottle individually numbered. The beautiful packaging, which will brighten up any dinner party, Sunday evening or private cellar, only hints at the absolute perfection of the wine itself.        

If we take a few steps back – about 340 years – in the history of Stellenbosch, you’ll see the establishment of the Welgevallen Experimental Farm, one of the oldest wine-producing farms in the country. If you fast forward to the 1920s, you’ll find a certain AI Perold, the grandfather of our own Professor Willie Perold, and the first Professor of Viticulture at SU, cross-breeding Pinot noir and Cinsault noir (or ‘Hermitage’ as it was called then) grape cultivars to create the very first Pinotage seedlings. A short while later, the first Pinotage wine was bottled.

The release of Eeufees Pinotage is not only the first foray into the world of online ordering and delivery for the University, but also the start of a blossoming relationship between ourselves and the team at Takealot. In the next few months there will be more items for purchase and delivery – wherever you may be in South Africa (and, hopefully in the not-too-distant future), in the world.

Read the story of the origin of the Pinotage grape: http://pinotage.co.za/origin-of-the-grape/