Paarl is located north of Stellenbosch and is one of South Africa's most important wine regions. Here are a number of prestigious wine producers and progressive coperatives. It is a very varied area with mountain ridges and valleys.
It therefore has many different mesoclimates and soils with a great diversity of wines. Irrigation is often necessary despite the considerable winter precipitation, but certainly not everywhere. Paarl itself is known for syrah wines, but Bordeaux blends are also made.
Rhone grapes such as viognier and mourvèdre have become more popular lately. Paarl has two wards, Simonsberg-Paarl and Voor-Paardeberg, which is increasingly known as topterroir.
