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Now it is simply 'Namaqua' 21 September 2007 Former Vredendal winery renamed again Many thought the name rather grand at the time when Vredendal, one of the country’s biggest wineries, amalgamated with neighbouring Spruitdrift in 2002 to establish a company called WestCorp International. Now the winery has returned to a simpler, perhaps more authentic appellation, Namaqua Wines. It makes sense, because as Fanie Augustyn, Marketing Manager, explains: ‘Our biggest asset is the Namaqua brand which now sells more than 35 million litres of wine worldwide. The renaming consolidates our brand with the company name.’ The company, which also has established brands such as Spruitdrift and Gôiya, has, since amalgamation, developed its vinification technology as well as aggressively building its export markets, increasing the latter by 122 percent in five years. Namaqua is now among the top twenty brand names in the UK. What’s more, the press release announcing the name change tells us that their white wine is ‘the single biggest seller SKU of all wine countries in the UK’ – we at Grape have to shamefacedly admit that we have no idea what an SKU is, but we’re sure it’s an impressive achievement, whatever the name of the winery.
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