Investors can get fractional ownership in a wine farm that aims to become a leading producer of world-class fine wine.

Roland Peens wanted to buy a wine farm but, like most people, didn’t have deep enough pockets – especially when some 20-hectare wine farms in the Western Cape sell for no less than R31 million.

While on a wine tour, he and Extreme Fighting Championship President Cairo Howarth reasoned that while many individuals wanted to own a wine farm but lacked the means to buy one on their own, if they clubbed together they could use fractional ownership to each get a share of one.

They approached winemaker Gordon Newton Johnson to join their venture and eventually made a bid for a 60-hectare farm in the Hemel-en-Aarde Valley near Hermanus.

They renamed the farm Hemelzicht, and came up with a novel investment proposal.

In exchange for R1 million, investors get:

• A 1% holding in the wine farm;
• Members-only single vineyards and limited-release wines;
• Collectively, 20% of the bottles of wine produced annually on the farm as dividends;
• Owners will also be able to sell their allotted wine dividends back to Hemelzicht to match excess demand of current and vintage wines;
• No lock-in period or service costs;
• Owners with a 3% or larger shareholding are offered a bespoke wine-making experience; and
• They will also be able to stay seven nights a year at the luxury four-bedroom Icon Villa, or 15 nights in the luxury three-bedroom Vineyard Villas, set to be completed in 2022.

The plan is to raise R80 million in this way.

This money will not only be used to buy Hemelzicht but also to develop the farm, with a state-of-the-art winemaking cellar, an owner’s tasting room and later on the development of a high-end cellar, restaurant and other hospitality assets.

Although it is still early days, Peens says there is a lot of interest. He expects Hemelzicht to reach its capital raising target by the end of February.