The Food

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The farm's various restaurants all celebrate and incorporate the garden’s seasonal bounty. 

A farm-to-fork philosophy is at the heart of our food offering, which means that seasonal food is served that reflects their “pick, clean and serve” approach. The menus are guided by what is available in the garden. Fresh fruit, vegetables, herbs, eggs, and other edible delicacies are harvested daily and transformed into dishes that are both nostalgic and innovative. Babel Restaurant, situated in a refurbished old cowshed with Cape Dutch gables and modern glass walls, sets the perfect backdrop to savour these extraordinary dishes. The more relaxed Greenhouse Restaurant offers an informal experience where light, fresh meals can be enjoyed after a stroll through the garden. 

Grazing platters are also served in the farm’s state-of-the-art Tasting Room, which sits suspended atop a vineyard in a glass-walled structure. Here you can taste Babylonstoren’s full range of award-winning wines, consisting of four whites, a rosé, three elegant reds, and the beloved Sprankel MCC. 

The Bakery

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By day, the Babylonstoren Bakery supplies the estate’s Farm Shop and restaurants with freshly baked breads and by night, the space is transformed into a true celebration of La Dolce Vita! On Monday and Friday nights, the Bakery hosts Italian night with a four-course family-style meal comprising of grazing boards from the garden to start, authentic pasta as a ‘secondi’ and wood-fired pizzas – served by the slice for as long as the fires are burning – for mains. Dolcé is always something light and fresh from the farm, served with the farm’s very own buffalo milk gelato. 

The Experiences

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Visitors can get a glimpse of farm operations through various experiences, including olive oil blending, a cellar tour, or witnessing the essential oil distillery in the Scented Room. Here, an olfactory experience awaits in a space dedicated to transforming the farm’s most fragrant harvests into a range of natural bath, body and home fragrance products. 

Other in-depth experiences – hosted by master gardeners, chefs, and specialists on a variety of topics – are offered in daily and weekly workshops. The daily garden tours are a favourite, especially, where guests are guided by one of the Babylonstoren master gardeners. For foodies, the balsamic and olive oil tour is a treat, especially in autumn when the olive harvest is brought in from the orchards. Guests can see how the extra-virgin olive oil is extracted from the berry to the bottle, and even try their hand at blending their own oil. 

The cellar tour is another favourite and includes a visit to Babylonstoren’s subterranean wine tunnel. The experience offers guests a journey through centuries of making and storing wine, and culminates in a master tasting of all ten wines paired with accompaniments from the farm that complements each wine to perfection. Amid the aging barrels underground, the tasting is immersive and fun – especially on those extra hot Boland summer days or on a rainy winter afternoon.

Even without joining one of the official tours, the farm and garden provide ample opportunity to experience authentic farm life in the Boland. Seasonal exhibitions in the garden’s Puff Adder walkway, for example, tell the story of indigenous clivias in spring, or unique rock formations and their colloquial names in winter.

Atop the underground wine tunnel, The Story of Wine Museum is a new addition to the farm’s portfolio. This interactive space details the origins, cultivation, and culture behind mankind's love affair with wine, while encouraging a contemporary narrative of its age-old traditions and social gravitas. It’s a celebration of man's ingenuity and the earth's generosity, and the cultural events that have shaped our collective winemaking and -drinking heritage. It’s also the perfect pre-cursor to enjoying a tasting of the farm’s collection of award-winning wines in the adjacent Tasting Room.

The Farm Shop, Milk Room, Bakery, Butchery and Lekker Room all offer speciality items and tasty treats, sourced and cultivated from the estate and surrounding suppliers. The objective is to offer visitors a comprehensive taste of the region, and an opportunity to stock up on an array of pantry treats, fresh produce, and luxury homeware. An expansive online offering is also available for remote shoppers across South Africa. 

The Wine

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From the unique terroir of the Simonsberg Mountains, the wine produced at Babylonstoren tells the tale of this Boland region in a most enjoyable way. The wine cellar offers a library of wine making processes used the world over, from amphorae clay pots to Roman baths, concrete egg-shaped vessels as well as modern stainless-steel tanks. The winemaker, Klaas Stoffberg, and cellar master, Charl Coetzee, have great fun producing wines with the unique equipment, which are only used for small-batch production to create exclusive and limited-edition wines. 

Babylonstoren’s standard range of award-winning wines are created using state-of-the-art methods. The range comprises of four whites, four reds, a Provençal-style rosé, and a darling Cap Classique called ‘Sprankel’. 

The Stay

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The Babylonstoren Farm Hotel offers an authentic farm stay that’s perfectly attuned to nature. The Farmhouse, Manor House, Garden Cottages, Fynbos Cottages, and family-focused Fynbos Family House are all rooted in modern farm luxury with every indulgence considered – the perfect base from which to explore the garden, spa, restaurants, Tasting Room, Farm Shop, and further surrounds. 

Apart from activities offered to day visitors, hotel guests can join daily guided farm walks up the Babylonstoren koppie and through the orchards. Alternatively, they can cycle through the vineyards, enjoy bass fishing or row in a canoe, bake alongside our bakers, or join a guided drive up the slopes of Simonsberg to In the Clouds – a special lookout with glorious views of the valley and beautiful Table Mountain in the distance, where guests can savour the sunset with a glass of wine in hand.

Babylonstoren offers an oasis where visitors can ground themselves again, says farm owner Karen Roos. “To enjoy the mountains all around as much as we do, pick their own healthy fruit and veg, play pétanque, swim in the farm dam, enjoy an hour in the spa, eat a simple fresh dish at one of the restaurants, walk up the conical Babylonstoren hill, await sunset with a glass of wine in hand, and then slip in between sheets of crisp linen and drift away ...”

While it remains a working farm, Babylonstoren presents a unique opportunity to immerse yourself in a most magnificent setting at the foothills of the Simonsberg Mountain. With its garden as a living library, it is a space that celebrates a contemporary, unhurried farm lifestyle and instils a sense of wellbeing in all who wander through. We can’t wait to welcome you and share an authentic farm experience, our way.

The Food

‍

The farm's various restaurants all celebrate and incorporate the garden’s seasonal bounty. 

A farm-to-fork philosophy is at the heart of our food offering, which means that seasonal food is served that reflects their “pick, clean and serve” approach. The menus are guided by what is available in the garden. Fresh fruit, vegetables, herbs, eggs, and other edible delicacies are harvested daily and transformed into dishes that are both nostalgic and innovative. Babel Restaurant, situated in a refurbished old cowshed with Cape Dutch gables and modern glass walls, sets the perfect backdrop to savour these extraordinary dishes. The more relaxed Greenhouse Restaurant offers an informal experience where light, fresh meals can be enjoyed after a stroll through the garden. 

Grazing platters are also served in the farm’s state-of-the-art Tasting Room, which sits suspended atop a vineyard in a glass-walled structure. Here you can taste Babylonstoren’s full range of award-winning wines, consisting of four whites, a rosé, three elegant reds, and the beloved Sprankel MCC. 

The Bakery

‍

By day, the Babylonstoren Bakery supplies the estate’s Farm Shop and restaurants with freshly baked breads and by night, the space is transformed into a true celebration of La Dolce Vita! On Monday and Friday nights, the Bakery hosts Italian night with a four-course family-style meal comprising of grazing boards from the garden to start, authentic pasta as a ‘secondi’ and wood-fired pizzas – served by the slice for as long as the fires are burning – for mains. Dolcé is always something light and fresh from the farm, served with the farm’s very own buffalo milk gelato.