Paulinasdal

SO much for the general history of South African wine after Waterloo. Let me concentrate on Rickety Bridge.

In 1831, Albertus Pepler married Paulina Maria Deborah de Villiers, the daughter of Paul de Villiers of Boschendal and the couple moved into the new manor house on what was, at that time, part of a bigger farm called Zanddrift, owned by Albertus's mother, Elizabeth Catharina, the widow Pepler.

 Two years later, in 1833, to adapt to the changing conditions when Britain reduced the tariff on French wines, Elisabeth Catharina extended her holdings by 81 morgen of grazing land, giving the whole the name Zanddrift and seems to have used her son, Albertus, as farm manager.

In 1836 Paulina died at the age of twenty-six and, in her memory, her husband changed the name of the enlarged farm from Zanddrift to Paulina’s Dal, the change being recorded on several maps and documents.

The picture is looking up the valley from the manor house towards Franschhoek.

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