In 1692 Willem Barend Lubbe, a German settler, began farming the site he had been granted by Simon van der Stel on the Bottelary Hills overlooking False Bay. He named the farm De Wolwedans, which means “The Dance of Wolves”, because he mistook the packs of jackals which roamed the countryside in those early days of European settlement for wolves.

After Lubbe sold the De Wolwedans in 1717 the farm changed hands multiple times until 1788 when Charles Marais and his 18 year old wife, Maria Magdalena Marais, bought the farm. They immediately started improving the property by expanding the vineyards, building the cellars and planting tobacco.

The Marais family finished the wine cellar in 1802 to enable wine production to start.

Maria and Charles had five children of whom two unfortunately died in infancy. They started to build the manor house but Charles died during 1813, just more than one year before the house was completed in 1814. The finishing of the house (where The Restaurant is currently housed) was personally supervised by Maria and the building was completed in 1814, with Maria adding the date as well as the 6 flower images with her own hands.

Maria’s daughter Anna Margaretha married Johannes Henoch Neethling in 1825 and he was made joint owner along with Maria’s youngest son, Petrus Johannes Marais. Soon afterwards Petrus sold his portion of the farm to Johannes Henoch Neethling making him the sole owner, and De Wolwedans was changed to Neethlings’s Hof.

Neethling’s youngest daughter inherited Neethling’s Hof and after she married Jakobus Phillipus Louw in 1870 he formally took ownership of the farm. The farm stayed in the Louw family for ± 90 years during which time the spelling was changed to Neethlingshof.

In 1963 Jan Momberg bought the farm.

Jan Momberg sold Neethlingshof to Hans Joachim Schreiber, a Geman banker, in 1985. Schreiber immediately embarked on a total renovation programme restoring the buildings and replanting the vineyards.

In July 1999 Distillers Corporation joined forces with Schreiber to form Lusan Premium Wines. Lusan was responsible for the farming activities and production of wine from three farms previously owned by Distillers, namely Le Bonheur, Uitkyk and Alto, together with the four farms owned by Schreiber (Neethlingshof, Stellenzicht, Olives and Hillandale) which traded under the brand names of Neethlingshof Estate and Stellenzicht Vineyards.

The joint venture with Distell came to an end and Neethlingshof is now once again 100% owned by the Schreiber family.

Neethlingshof has been sold to Iwayini, the South African subsidiary of GCF (Grands Chais de France), a company owned and run by the Helfrich family.