ABOUT US

Our Name

Abbi and Lee lived and became engaged on the farm Dunstone in the UK. This romantic background, all the stones on the farm, and the family's Weimaraner, Shiraz, gave birth to a perfect name and logo for Dunstone Wines!

Dunstone Logo

The name Dunstone reflects the name of the UK farm where owners Abbi & Lee fell in love, and where he proposed to her in the winter of 2001. As the vineyard has so many stones, the name seemed ideal.

Why the logo? Shiraz - our weimaraner - looks great on top of the entrance wall: it just seemed catchy! Merlot - the ridgeback - is jealous and consoles himself by chasing Cabernet - the horse.

History 

Dunstone Winery was established and built in 2006 when wine making was brought onto the farm by Abbi & Lee Wallis and Abbi’s father, Robert Frith. This is also the home to Bovlei Valley Retreat Guest House where wine, fruit and lavender beautify the estate.

The owners, Abbi & Lee Wallis arrived from the shores  of England in 2002 and embarked on a South African adventure.  They came for Lee’s work for a year but fell in love with the beauty, culture, the people and the climate, and decided to stay.Winemaker and owner Lee Wallis, trained in medicine at Edinburgh University, before joining the Royal Navy as a doctor, where he did he training in Emergency Medicine. After 4 deployments on ships, including a year in Antarctica, he spent 2002 completing his PhD at the Red Cross Children’s Hospital in Cape Town. He was pulled out from this early, and was medical cover to the Royal Marines on the ground in southern Iraq throughout the 2003 Iraq war. After returning to Cape Town later in 2003, Lee was appointed Head of Emergency Medicine for the Western Cape government.He is also the Professor of Emergency Medicine at the University of Cape Town and Stellenbosch University. In addition, he also holds the office of President of the Emergency Medicine Society of South Africa, and President of the African Federation for Emergency Medicine. He is actively driving the development of emergency care throughout the country, and into Africa – having recently been directly involved in Madagascar, Botswana and Cameroon.Abbi, a trained Chef with hospitality background; manages the four star guest house on the farm - Bovlei Valley Retreat.The wines are handcrafted with passion by this family team: Lee & Abbi Wallis, with Abbi's father Robert Frith, along with wine consultant Adi Badenhorst.

 

The exclusive Guest House boasts with luxury en-suite rooms, mountain views, fantastic food, award winning wines, and swimming pool as well as conference and event facilities like weddings/social functions/photo- and filmshoots and exhibitions.

 

Our winery

The cellar is open Monday – Saturday. Wine tasting can either be enjoyed in the coolness of the cellar overlooking the barrels and touring the wine making equipment, or on the veranda overlooking the magnificent mountain views.

Light lunches and teas can be enjoyed but we do ask for you to book in advance. The winery too, lends itself to the ideal venue for private functions, parties, private dinners, business lunches  and small conferences.

Dunstone is managed by Cathy Scholtz. Cathy conducts the wine tastings and tours, and is the person to chat to about all wine related business. Lena Bosman is our cellar hand. Lena works closely with Lee and Robert and our wine consultant, Adi Badenhorst. Lena and her team tend to the vines, prune and hand select the best grapes for picking during harvest. During harvest, Lena organises the team early in the morning and ensures that all the grapes are picked before the temperature warms up. Lena then brings the grapes into the cellar and is quality controller during the hand sorting process. Once in the tank, Lena, Lee and Robert share the responsibility of pumping over and punching down the wine up to 6 times a day.

With Lena as cellar hand, Lee and Robert take on the role of wine makers, adding the vital ingredients, monitoring the temperatures levels and pumping over the wines, whilst Adi ensures that everything is running smoothly.