Imbuko Wines

The story starts early in 2004 when Theunis & Annalize van Zyl started Imbuko Wines from their rented home with “the office” being an old yellowwood cupboard with their outdated computer and R1200 in their bank account.

Today 8 years later Imbuko Wines is a flourishing wine business exporting wines to 32 markets around the globe. A reckoned force in the bulk wine trade as well as bottling services form part of the package Imbuko offers to their clients around the world.

The early days were tough times for the Van Zyl’s. Long hours, 2 small children and lots of guts and dedication resulted in the first order of 50 000 liters of both Pinotage and Chenin Blanc in bulk format.
The rest is history and soon hereafter the Imbuko brand was created to showcase Africa in a bottle.

The Imbuko offices today proudly stands on 27ha on Uitkyk Farm in Wellington.
Uitkyk is the family farm of Annalize van Zyl, a 3rd generation family farm.
A bottling and storage facility completes the business profile.

Imbuko today bottles wines for their Du Plevaux, Imbuko, Van Zijl Family Vintners, Shortwood, Makulu, Rebourne (Fair trade ) and Releaf (Organic) ranges. Wines are made from Uitkyk grapes as well as allocated wines from selected terroirs in the area. Brands are bottled & priced to cover a whole spectrum of the market.

Imbuko came a long way from Theunis still jokingly admitting that he thought on his first marketing trip to London that he was landing at the wrong airport because he was traveling to London and not to Heathrow.

This is the essence of Imbuko. Humble beginnings, relationships build over years and valuing these relationships to become part of the extended Imbuko family.