The Simonsberg is named after the first Governor of the Cape, Simon van der Stel, after which Stellenbosch is also named. 1699 he granted the freehold of this piece of land to Lorenz Kamfer, a German. The farm had various owners until Hans Otto Hoheisen bought it in 1938 as a retirement home for himself and his wife Deli. German friends suggested to grow vineyards and two years later Hans Otto planted the first grape vines.
During one of Deli's visits to friends and family in Germany, she mentioned to her nephew that they needed help on their wine farm. This was just after the Second World War and he could not see any future in Germany, so he decided to join them.
Michael "Spatz" Sperling arrived in 1951 n the ship Winchester Castle with nothing more than £10 in his pocket. He soon took a keen interest in the few vineyards Hans Otto had planted. He knew nothing about wine-making and there were no books or wine-making schools in South Africa at that time, so he taught himself through a process of trial and error and with help of friends and visiting German wine-makers. Spatz began winning numerous awards and having established himself as a serious wine-maker, he ambarked on a series of pionieering intitiatives in the South African wine industry in the decades that followed, i.e. creating his first wine route in 1971. Today, the wine route counts 200 wineries.