As the Cape winter fast approaches, Spier Wine Farm invites guests to welcome the change in weather with a host of warming experiences designed to celebrate the farm’s generous bounty.
From hearty soups paired with award-winning wines to fireside wellness retreats, Spier offers the perfect antidote to the incoming winter chill.
“Winter at Spier has its own special magic,” says Frans Smit, Managing Director at Spier. “It’s a time when the vineyards rest, the cellar quiets and we turn our attention to creating spaces of warmth and connection across our farm.”
Here are five ways to experience the best of Spier as the mercury drops:
Comfort at its Finest: Spier’s Winter Soup & Wine Pairing
Step in from the cold and discover Spier’s new seasonal wine and soup pairing, available from 1 May to 30 September 2025. This cosy tasting features three hearty, farm-fresh soups paired with award-winning wines that effortlessly complement every spoonful.
The experience begins with a velvety white bean and truffle soup served with a garden mushroom toastie, perfectly matched with Spier’s Creative Block 5 2021. Guests can then enjoy a charred tomato soup accompanied by a parmesan toastie, paired with Seaward Chardonnay 2024. The tasting concludes with a delicate pumpkin velouté topped with goat’s cheese foam and pumpkin spice paired with 21 Gables Pinotage 2020. And for those with a sweet tooth, a surprise chocolate brownie awaits as a delightful finale.
R180 per person at the Spier Tasting Room. Reservations essential.
Retreat & Restore: A Winter Wellness Farm Stay
Guests can experience three nights of winter wellness at the newly reimagined Spier Hotel, where misty mornings lead to fireside wine tastings and warming farm fare. The Winter Wellness Farm Stay Package includes accommodation in a Luxury Garden Room, daily breakfast, farm walks, and wine experiences featuring award-winning reds. Make the most of your stay by booking a couples massage at the one-of-a-kind Cape Herbal Bath House, in the new spa.
Available from 1 May to 31 August 2025. Book online.
Indigenous Healing: Cape Herbal Sanctuary
Speaking of the one-of-a-kind spa, Spier’s thoughtfully designed spa offers a particular magic – a sanctuary where cold-weather renewal happens amidst vintage apothecary-style decor and rewilded Cape gardens. The 120-minute signature Cape Herbal Bath House experience – not so much a treatment as a ritual – begins with a thorough exfoliation using indigenous botanicals harvested from the farm, followed by a deeply restorative herbal soak and expert massage in a purpose-built sanctuary space.
For those seeking refuge from the cold, resident phytotherapist Dr Caren curates personalised botanical treatments using remedies is grown, harvested and dried on the farm. After your treatment, linger in the infrared sauna, embrace cold therapy, or join complimentary fireside yoga sessions in the movement studio overlooking mist-shrouded vineyards.
Individual spa treatments from R850; Cape Herbal Bath House Experience R1,950 per person.
A Seat at the Table: 2025 Winemaker Dinner Series
There’s something truly special about gathering around good food and wine – especially when it’s chilly outside. Spier’s 2025 Winemaker Dinner Series once again opens the doors to the beautifully restored Spier Manor for six intimate evenings with the people who walk the vineyards and work in the cellar vintage after vintage.
Limited to just 22 guests seated at one long table, each dinner focuses on a single grape variety showcased in all its versatile forms. Each varietal voyage is paired with a four-course meal drawing inspiration from the farm’s seasonal bounty, much of it sourced directly from Spier’s food garden.
The upcoming dinner series includes:
- 16 May: Mastering Chenin
- 6 June: Shiraz Sessions
- 4 July: A Cabernet Celebration
- 1 August: Our Pinotage Legacy
- 5 September: Bubbles In Bloom: A Spring Celebration
- 3 October: Our Sauvignon Blanc Story
R850 per person includes a four-course meal with paired wines. Booking essential as these intimate gatherings fill quickly.
Winter Feasting at Veld and The Garden Room
The newly transformed Spier Hotel offers two distinctive dining experiences that celebrate winter’s ingredients with honest, unfussy reverence. At the glass-walled Garden Room, breakfast and lunch are served with views across the hotel’s rewilded Cape garden and heated pool. As night falls, dinner service shifts to plant-filled Veld, where an open-plan kitchen runs the length of one wall and the winter menu follows the season’s rhythms.
“Good food, good company and our time-crafted wines are brought to life at Veld,” explains Executive Chef Craig Paterson. “Rooted in the earth’s cycle, our dishes are generous, nourishing and full of integrity – respectful of South African flavours and the ingredients that make them shine.”
Winter menus will feature favourites like Farmer Angus’ slow-braised beef brisket with herbed dumplings, or roasted butternut risotto finished with brown sage butter and Spier Food Garden herbs. The adjacent Wine Library invites exploration of Spier’s extensive cellar offerings.
Veld dinner reservations are essential. The Garden Room welcomes walk-ins for lunch daily.
This winter at Spier is all about embracing the season’s quiet beauty while enjoying the warmth of good wine, good food and good company. All experiences can be booked at www.spier.co.za or by calling +27 (21) 809 1100.
