About Us
FILLING and labelling wine bottles for a living might not sound glamorous. But since the mid-1990s mobile wine bottling has grown into a multimillion-rand aspect of South Africa's wine industry. One of the first to enter the mobile bottling and labelling market was Stellenbosch-based Technofill.
Owner Piet Matthee started the business in 1997, after he took a volutary severance package from teaching cellar technology at Elsenburg Agricultural College and his wife took a severance package from teaching at Tygerberg Nursing College.
A basic bottling line would cost between R2.5-million and R3-million and it is difficult to justify that for a machine which is used 10 days of a year. That is what opened the door for mobile bottling.
For some cellars it is cheaper to have a mobile unit go to their premises to bottle the wine than to transport the wine somewhere else to be bottled and labelled.
Technofill, bottles 9-million bottles of other winemakers' wine every year, but Piet also produces his own Methode Cap Classique bottle-fermented sparkling wine.
MCC Wine
However Piet's passion has always been to make a Methode Cap Classique (MCC) wine in south Africa and in 1999 he fulfilled a lifelong dream of one of his ancestors, "Francois La Garde", by producing the first cuvee which he supplied to various well known and respected wineries to be marketed under their own labels.
Using only the finest hand selected grapes from the Constantia & Franschoek valleys, Piet's attention to detail, quality workmanship, traditional methods combined with a creative flair are key factors in creating the exceptional Methode Cap Classique wines.
The fine mousse and delicate bubbles of his wines inspired Piet to name his top wines - a STRING OF PEARLS
In 2009 Piet registered the brand name "Francois La Garde' and since then Piet produces all his wine under the the FRANCOIS LA GARDE label.
To ensure the best quality, only the very best bunches make it into Francios La Garde wines. The grapes are hand selected and hand picked before being gently crushed ( whole bunch) and pressed to extract the most expressive juice. Piet believes that minimum intervention and the gentle handling of the grapes are absoutely critical in producing extraordinary MCC's
Each grape variety (Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Semillon) is vinified separately and then Piet uses his winemaking skills to decide how much of each grape variety will form the final blend. Once the wine has beeen blended, the liqueur de tirage ( a small amount of sweetened wine and yeast) is added and this will create the exquisite bubbles in the Francois La Garde MCC's. Piet matures his wines for 36 months in the bottle and this extended maturation time gives the wines the fabulous stream of small bubbles (just like a string of pearls!) as well as the delicate and complex flavors of the Francois La Garde wines.
Rent Equipment
We have the following equipment to rent on a day-to-day basis, specifically catering for smaller quantities of wine and ideal for garagiste:
- Semi-Automatic Hand filler @ R450 per day
- Sheet Filter @ R250 per day
- Corker @ R150 per day
- MCC Foiler @ R150 per day (without compressor)
- MCC Foiler @ R250 per day (with compressor)
2 Mobile bottling lines
Due to our two mobile bottling lines, we can assist you with short notice bottling orders.
In addition, we have got two labelling units, 3 000 bottles per hour (front, back certification label, orientation, optical spottling) and an external bottle washing machine.
All our technicians are highly qualified and dedicated to offer you te best level of service.
Established since 1997.
- HACCP accredited
- ISO 9001:2000 compliant
- Fully Insured