Event information
Rijk Melck, passionate custodian of Muratie and entertaining storyteller, hosts the Stories With Rijk event at Muratie.
This popular event involves a wine tasting and Rijk's take on the estate’s rich, centuries-old heritage, as part of a series of history talks and tastings.
According to Rijk, heritage is the golden thread that connects past, present and future. At Muratie the heritage is more than the historical buildings and artefacts, and the famous residents immortalised by the wines produced there. It is the stories of traditions and relationships that have endured through centuries, as well as values and a team culture that are actively nurtured as part of the living heritage.
Muratie, the historic estate established in 1685 in the beautiful Knorhoek Valley north of Stellenbosch, is one of the oldest farms in South Africa. With this age comes a remarkable legacy passed on by the many extraordinary characters from the farm’s colourful past. Thanks to the Melck family’s passionate guardianship, Muratie is a haven of heritage.
Magnificent ancient oak trees guard the estate, and a white gabled memorial celebrating all the previous owners through the decades, greet visitors on arrival and set the scene for an enchanting experience. Wherever you are on the estate you cannot help being moved by a sense of the many generations who came before, whose stories still resonate among the old walls of a farm where it feels like very little has changed over the centuries.
The unique old-world ambience is almost tangible, with the estate’s prized heritage captured in every nook and cranny. Historic buildings, crumbling statues, ancient wine-making equipment, the rickety cob-webbed tasting room, age-old stained-glass windows, original tartaric-encrusted fermentation tanks, antique carpets, original art, relics, artefacts, and memorabilia all adorn a unique and magical environment honouring a bygone era.
A multi-sensory wine experience awaits you at Muratie where ‘every wine tells a story’. The estate’s wines are named after the intriguing individuals from the past who moulded Muratie as we know it today, each wine with its own charming story described on the back label.
