Rebuilding the Wineries App for a Better Wine Discovery Experience

Some of you may remember the original mobile app.

Before Wineries.co.za returned in its current form, the app was known as the Cape Wine Farms app. It was built around a simple idea: make it easier for people to discover wine farms, visit them, check in, share their experiences and keep track of the places they had been.

And for a while, it worked very well.

At its peak, the Cape Wine Farms app had more than 5,200 active users. Those users generated over 3,700 check-ins and reviews across South African wine farms. For a niche wine discovery app, that was a strong and meaningful community.

It was one of the parts of the old platform we were most proud of.

So, What Happened to the Old App?

The short answer is: Covid happened.

Like many businesses and projects connected to hospitality, tourism and real-world experiences, the app lost momentum during that period. Wine farm visits slowed down, priorities changed, and we were pulled in other directions.

Over time, the app was no longer actively maintained. Eventually, it stopped working properly and disappeared from the app stores.

In retrospect, we should have at least kept it online.

Even if we were not actively building new features, keeping the app available would have allowed existing users to access their history and continue using the basics. That is something we regret.

There were also technical challenges. The app was built on older technology, and keeping it running indefinitely was not as simple as leaving a website online. Mobile platforms change, security requirements change, app store requirements change, and the underlying systems eventually need serious maintenance.

Still, the result was the same: the app went away.

Now we are bringing it back.

The Good News: Your History Has Not Been Lost

This is probably the most important thing for previous users to know.

Your old check-ins, badges, reviews and posts have been kept.

They have not been deleted. They have not been lost. Your full history has been preserved all these years, and our plan is to give you access to it again.

Before the new mobile app goes live, we intend to allow users to log in on Wineries.co.za and review their old activity directly through the website. That means much of the app functionality will first be integrated into the main Wineries.co.za platform.

You will be able to see your previous check-ins, reviews, posts and badges again.

For users who spent time visiting wineries, checking in and building up a record of their wine farm experiences, that history still matters. We want to make sure it comes back properly.

What We Are Building Now

The new Wineries app is being rebuilt from the ground up.

This time, we are not treating the app as a separate side project. It will be part of the broader Wineries.co.za platform, connected to the website, the winery directory, user accounts, reviews, posts, events and future features.

The core app experience will remain familiar to those who used the original version.

You will be able to:

• Find wineries near your current location
• Check in when visiting wine farms
• Earn badges
• Write posts
• Leave reviews
• View your visit history
• Compete on leaderboards
• Discover new wineries more easily while travelling through wine regions

The location-based discovery feature remains one of the most important parts of the app.

South Africa has hundreds of wineries, and visitors are often looking for places nearby while they are already on the road. The app should make that simple. Open it, see what is close to you, choose a winery, and go.

That was one of the original strengths of the Cape Wine Farms app, and it will remain central to the new Wineries app.

Built on Stronger Technology

The original app was useful, but the technology behind it eventually became difficult to maintain.

This time, the new app is being built using Teruza.

Teruza is enterprise-level technology used for serious business systems, including banking environments. That matters because the new Wineries platform needs to be secure, stable and scalable from the beginning.

User accounts, location activity, check-ins, reviews and personal history all need to be handled properly. We do not want to rebuild the app on technology that feels temporary or fragile. We want the foundation to be strong enough to support the next phase of Wineries.co.za.

That includes the mobile app, but it also includes the website and the broader platform we are building around South African wine discovery.

Website First, App Next

One important change is that many of the app features will also become available on Wineries.co.za.

Before the mobile app launches, users will be able to log in on the website and start accessing parts of their old profile and activity. This includes reviewing previous check-ins, reviews and posts.

This approach gives us a few advantages.

It allows us to bring back user history sooner. It also means the app and website will not feel like two separate products. Instead, they will be two ways to access the same Wineries.co.za platform.

That is the direction we want to take.

The website should be useful when you are planning. The app should be useful when you are out visiting wineries. Both should work together.

When Will the New Wineries App Launch?

We do not have an official launch date yet.

Ideally, we would like to launch the new app during 2026. That is the target we are working towards.

However, we also want to be realistic. Depending on development, testing, app store approval and the amount of website integration we complete first, the launch may move into the first quarter of 2027.

We would rather be honest about that now than announce a fixed date too early.

The priority is not simply to get an app into the app stores. The priority is to bring back the Wineries mobile experience properly, with the old user history intact and the new platform stable enough to support what comes next.

Why the App Still Matters

Wineries.co.za is already being rebuilt as a national discovery platform for South African wine. The website is the foundation, but the mobile app plays a different role.

Wine discovery often happens while people are already out exploring.

You may be driving through Stellenbosch, Franschhoek, Paarl, Hemel-en-Aarde, Robertson, Durbanville, Constantia or another wine region and want to know what is nearby. You may want to keep track of where you have been. You may want to share a quick post, leave a review, or earn a badge for visiting a new winery.

That is where the app makes sense.

It is not just a directory in your pocket. It is a companion for visiting wine farms.

That was the original idea behind the Cape Wine Farms app, and it is still the idea behind the new Wineries app.

What Comes Next

Over the next while, we will continue rebuilding the platform piece by piece.

First, we are focused on strengthening Wineries.co.za itself. That includes the winery directory, wines, events, user accounts and the systems needed to support old app data.

Then we will start giving previous users access to their history through the website.

After that, the new mobile app will follow.

To everyone who used the old app, checked in at wineries, earned badges, left reviews or posted about their wine farm visits: thank you.

The app may have been offline for longer than we would have liked, but the idea behind it never disappeared.

We are rebuilding it properly.

And this time, it will be part of a much stronger Wineries.co.za.