[2] KWV was founded as a winemaking co-operative on 8 January 1918 by wine makers from the Western Cape in South Africa, with Dr. Charles Kohler as its chairperson.

From the early 1920s, the co-operative was granted increasing legislative control over the production, sale and export of South Africa's distilling wine and spirits,[5] which allowed the body to experiment with innovations in the industry which aided its development.

KWV's legal hand over the industry was lifted with the end of Apartheid in 1990 and subsequent change in government, and in 1997 converted from a co-operative to a company structure.

[6] In 2004, KWV negotiated the South African wine industry's largest Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment (BBBEE) deal with Phetogo (Pty) Ltd, attaining 25.1% shares.

Based in London, Vasari is a consumer focused investment group that acquired the operational assets of KWV for ZAR 1.15 billion.