Villion Family Wines is a venture spearheaded by winemaker Kobie Viljoen and his wife Elnette. The venture is focused on the production of handcrafted wines made from fruit from the Elgin, Bot River and Walker Bay areas.

Following graduation from Elsenburg Agricultural College, Kobie began his winemaking career working six vintages alongside Paul de Villiers at Landskroon. He then worked at several estates where he made award winning wines. In 2007 Kobie joined Bernhard Heyns at Gabrielskloof. He and Bernhard designed the state-of-the-art winery at Gabrielskloof and the first harvest was processed in 2008. Kobie was instrumental in developing the winemaking approach and distinctive style of the wines from Gabrielskloof. Many of his wines garnered awards and rich praise. With the appointment of Bernhard’s son-in-law as winemaker at Gabrielskloof in 2014, Kobie decided to strike out on his own.

The Villion wines are made following minimal intervention winemaking techniques with ambient yeast fermentation. All fruit is hand harvested and sorted and the wines are bottled unfiltered.

The Villion moniker derives from Francois Villion, Kobie’s forebear who was amongst the first group of French Higuenots to arrive at the Cape in 1672.