As we reflect on his life, we celebrate the extraordinary legacy he leaves behind: a legacy built from soil, sweat, creativity, and above all, love for wine, art, family and life.
There are some lives that don’t simply unfold – they sweep you along, capturing your imagination and attention, like a bottle opened with a flourish on a golden afternoon. The life of Achim von Arnim was one of these rare stories. A life lived with large imagination, mischief, intuition, and the deep knowing of how to not only see, but share the beauty in the world. Wine, he often said, is memory.
Achim’s story began long before Haute Cabrière was a twinkle in his eye. As a young cellarmaster, his time at Boschendal laid the foundation for a bold career. There, he produced one of South Africa’s earliest traditional method sparkling wines – the second Cap Classique in the country and the first Chardonnay Pinot Noir Cap Classique blend for South Africa. From the very beginning of his career, he already understood something most never grasp: that wine could be an art form, and that the land itself held stories waiting to be revealed. He carried this search for beauty everywhere – whether he was pruning vines, writing poetry, practising karate, painting bold strokes of colour, or lovingly restoring one of his beloved Citroëns.
But his life’s great love story began when he found a section of Franschhoek soil that whispered to him of France - of slopes and clay and the old world traditions that shaped the wines he admired most. He recognised it instantly, like a reunion with something he had not yet known but had always felt. That moment seeded Haute Cabrière, and from it, a dream would became reality with the loving support of his rock, Achim’s wife Hildegard von Arnim. Married for more than 56 years, Achim and Hildegard built a future and a family together in Franschhoek. “The story of Achim and Haute Cabrière is not just about wine and its sparkle. It is about people. It is about risk and reward, about family, about love, and the pursuit of something greater than oneself,” reflects Hildegard.
Here, beneath the Middagkrans mountain, Achim breathed life into his first range of wines produced at Haute Cabrière – Pierre Jourdan. His Cap Classiques paid homage to the valley’s original 17th-century Huguenot owner and echoed the spirit of French Champagnes. With his characteristic flair – half-scientist, half-magician – he imagined a future where South African bubbles could stand proudly beside the finest in the world.
Yet one of his most iconic creations was born not from ideal conditions, but from chaos as only Achim could do. One difficult harvest, when the grapes ripened too quickly for Cap Classique, Achim saw an opportunity to create. Rooted in his belief that great wines are grown, he took what nature had produced and crafted something entirely new. The Haute Cabrière Chardonnay Pinot Noir was a first for South Africa. A pioneering blend of elegance and amazing food-pairing possibility, that would become a South African icon and a signature of the estate. From challenge, he made beauty – perhaps the most perfect metaphor for his life.
For Achim was not only a talented cellar master. He was a storyteller. A philosopher. An artist. A collector of people and moments. He believed in long lunches that spilled into late afternoons, in conversations that circled the table like old friends, in the shimmering ritual of sabrage as if to say: life is meant to be celebrated boldly.
Visitors remember the twinkle in his eye, the generosity of his laugh, the way he made you feel as though the story he was telling existed only for you. Many remember him best through a shared bottle, a shared moment, a shared sense of wonder.
His creativity lived everywhere – in the vineyards, in his cellar innovations, in his poems, in his art, and in the way he and Hildegard raised their four children; Takuan, Zoë, Tanja, and Tamo. Since their retirement, the estate rests proudly in his children’s hands: Tanja von Arnim, now CEO, and Takuan von Arnim as wine director. Zoë von Arnim continues the family legacy in Belgium importing Haute Cabrière wines to Achim’s beloved Europe. Together, his family and team carry forward his vision, his values, his reverence for land and craft, and his unshakeable belief that wine and beauty can bring people together for moments of joy.
And so, we honour a man who lived as he created – passionately, playfully, fearlessly. A man who taught us that beauty lies in simplicity, and that joy multiplies when shared. And in his honour, we remember that: Wine is not made – it is lived.
And what a life Achim lived. His legacy will be carried forward, lovingly, by all of us at Haute Cabrière, a testament to his ingenuity and love of life.