When you think of premium, world-class South African wine, Stellenbosch’s Polkadraai Hills are always top of mind. Nestled in this beautiful region is De Toren Private Cellar, a boutique estate known globally for its extreme attention to detail and forward-thinking winemaking.
They are famous for crafting exceptional Bordeaux-style blends and managing South Africa’s very first 100% gravity-fed cellar. But once those award-winning wines are crafted and bottled, a new challenge begins: keeping the finished product in perfect condition before it gets enjoyed by wine lovers around the world.
We recently visited the team at De Toren to see how they rely on a premium refrigerated container in the Western Cape to protect their bottled wine.
While crafting the wine requires incredible precision, storing bottled wine is just as critical. Stellenbosch summers are beautiful, but temperatures can easily climb to 35°C. For premium, organic wines, this kind of heat is a massive risk.
If bottled wine is stored in a space that is too warm, several problems can quickly ruin a great vintage:
High temperatures can literally "cook" the wine in the bottle, souring the flavor and destroying the complex aromas.
Heat causes the liquid inside the bottle to expand, which can push the cork outward, break the seal, and let oxygen leak in.
Warm storage accelerates the chemical aging process in an uncontrolled way, robbing a premium red blend of its structure and longevity.
To stop this from happening and preserve the wine's quality, having reliable on-site cold storage in South Africa is essential for agricultural producers and boutique estates.
By keeping a dedicated 40ft refrigerated container right on-site, De Toren has an insulated, highly reliable, temperature-controlled warehouse space exactly where they need it.
Feature | Winemaking Advantage |
Precise Climate Control | Holds steady, optimal cellaring temperatures (typically between 12°C and 15°C) to ensure the bottled wines age gracefully and safely. |
Generous 40ft Capacity | Offers plenty of organized space to store pallets of bottled and boxed wine safely before distribution. |
Insulated and Secure | The highly insulated structure acts as a perfect shield against external summer heatwaves, ensuring zero temperature spikes. |
For many local wineries and fruit exporters, using a flexible reefer container rental or buying a unit is a smart, scalable way to handle bottled stock during peak production months without having to build costly permanent warehouses.
Every bottle of De Toren wine is the result of years of hard work, passion, and meticulous gravity-fed winemaking. Our job at Almar is simple: to provide the reliable refrigerated storage solutions that protect that hard work, ensuring every cork pulled reveals the exact quality the winemaker intended.
We are proud to work with the team at De Toren and help support the incredible quality of South African winemaking.
Whether you want to taste world-class wine or protect your own harvest, here is how to get in touch:
Taste the craft: Book a tasting, plan a visit, or browse their incredible Bordeaux-style blends on the De Toren Private Cellar Website.
Protect your produce: Don't let summer heat affect your bottled stock or harvest. Chat with our team today about our flexible, on-site refrigerated storage solutions.
Get a quote or talk to our cold storage specialists via our Contact Page or call our national line on 0860 017 476.
