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About Miravel

A wine as unique as the people behind it

About Maarten

For much of his life and until 2002, Maarten was a Zimbabwean farmer farming fruit, cattle, pigs and ostriches. But in 2003 many things changed and he and his family found themselves in Somerset West, embarking on a new career as wine farmers.

Maarten and his wife Janine acquired their farm Miravel, a portion of the then existing Dellrust, and built a home on their new property, with a view to turning a lifelong love of wine into a new way of life.

In 2014 the farm was sold to Milnerton Estates but Maarten and Janine continue to live in the house that they built. They now purchase the grapes from Milnerton and Lanrust Estates and the Miravel label continues!

Maarten and Janine have four children – Mark, Michael, Melanie and David – and the Miravel label is a loose play on a combination of their children’s names. The four siblings have all left home, but return to the farm regularly, “especially now that there’s plenty of wine on offer!” says Maarten.

 

Maarten has always had a passion for wine and the medium for expression it offers. Traveling as a family over the last 30 years has taken the van Beuningen clan through Mauritius, South Africa, Swaziland, Kenya, Zimbabwe and now back to South Africa; the family’s journey forms the core of Maarten’s wine-making ethos. With support from friends, family and within the local wine community, and supplemented by extensive study of wine farming and production – including plenty of tasting – Miravel is a Boutique Winery and is one of the hidden gems in the Helderberg ward.