Wine and Food Tourism Award for Lagoon Estate

Benguela Cove Lagoon Wine Estate was recognised at the 2020 Wine and Food Tourism Awards as one of South Africa’s top three venues in the Innovation category. Located at the gateway to the Walker Bay wine region, near Hermanus, the estate is just 80 minutes drive from Cape Town International airport. 

The estate won the award for the ‘Ultimate Benguela’ visitor experience. It features a wine tasting pontoon tour of the beautiful lagoon, where visitors can enjoy the extraordinary range of marine and birdlife on view. There are some 100 species of birds in the protected reserve and extensive wetlands - as well as mountain leopards and wild horses.

This 200-hectare wine estate is recognised as a top ecotourism destination, located in the UNESCO designated Kogelberg Biosphere. It is at the lowest height, at sea level, and with the longest seaboard of top vineyards in the world - on the edge of the Atlantic Ocean and Bot River lagoon.

Estate management meets the standards of Wines of South Africa (WoSA) and its Sustainable Wine South Africa (SWSA) initiative. With 65 hectares under vine, the maritime climate provides a terroir that produces grapes of award-winning quality.

Ultimate Benguela is a showcase for the best in viticulture and environmental protection, offering a relaxing day out for lovers of good food and wine, says estate owner Penny Streeter.

“The experience shows too how people can live and work in harmony within the fragile beauty of the natural environment; to harvest wonderful produce, with a life-enhancing experience for visitors and estate workers alike.

Visitors can tour the new state-of-the-art winery and wine-making exhibition and then dine in the Moody Lagoon Restaurant, which offers wonderful local seafood and wine-paired food options, with guidance by the helpful sommeliers. 

“Ultimate Benguela is inclusive, for everyone. This is one of the few wine estates which is wheelchair accessible. And for the children there is a Pirate Adventure Golf and a programme of regular entertainment,” says Penny Streeter

The Wine and Food Tourism awards were set up in 2019 to inspire and promote local wine, food and hospitality in South Africa. Panel judging chair Jean-Pierre Rossouw, publisher of Rossouw’s Restaurants and the Platter’s South African Wine Guide, said what had been particularly noteworthy in 2020 was how the setbacks brought on by the pandemic had not held back tourism providers from continuing to make further innovations.