It all started with squid
Founder and family patriarch Piet Dreyer has been a fisherman all his life. When he was 16 years old, his father was seriously injured in a motorbike accident and he helped his mother support the family by catching fish on a friend's fishing boat at weekends and after school. The sea and fishing remained his passion and he developed into the owner of a freezer ship, and the ‘kaalvoet (barefoot) skipper’ on his ship Raka became well known among squid catchers.

As the cuttlefish splashed the ship with black ink, Piet decided to have a black freezer ship built so that he wouldn't have to paint it so often, and named it RAKA. (From the Afrikaans poem by N.P. van Wyk Louw about an African tribe threatened by Raka, half man, half beast and black as night). This name became his trademark when he devoted himself to viticulture with the same passion - hence the slogan: born from the sea, guided by the stars, blessed by the earth.

 

The farm
Piet bought the Remhoogte farm in the Akkedisberg area, south-east of Hermanus, in 1982. They bred cattle and later planted citrus trees. Piet's wife and children looked after the farm when he was not there. In 1999, the Dreyers planted 10 hectares of Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Shiraz. Since then, a few hectares have been added every year, so that the farm now covers 68 hectares. Pinotage, Sangiovese, Viognier, Mourvedre, Petit Verdot and above all Cabernet Franc, Malbec and Sauvignon Blanc are cultivated there in order to have every necessary variety for different blends on the farm.

The farm is located in a gorge of the Kleinrivier Mountains, where the Klein River flows, and is 17 kilometres from Stanford. The Kleinrivier Mountains are the southernmost mountain range in Africa and have many different slopes and soil types. A farm close to the sea benefits from refreshing afternoon breezes from Walker Bay. The south-easterly wind from Agulhas on the Indian Ocean softens the heat in summer. The new Klein River wine growing area borders the Walker Bay area and is cooler than the traditional wine growing areas in the Cape.

 

A family business
Piet and Elna Dreyer have three sons and a daughter. The eldest, Gerhard, went squid fishing after school and now helps his father with many tasks. Josef, the second eldest, graduated with a degree in agriculture from Elsenburg at the end of 2006 and is now Raka's winemaker. Pieter, the Dreyers' younger son, is responsible for wine production and managing the business, while Jorika, the only daughter in the family, takes care of marketing and sales. During the harvest, the whole family works together to utilise every hand.