The name Kanonkop is derived from a kopje (hillock), from which a cannon was fired in the 17th Century, to alert farmers in outlying areas that sailing ships plying the waters between Europe and the Far East had entered Table Bay for a stopover at Cape Town.

Kanonkop is a fourth generation family estate, which was originally purchased by JW Sauer, a cabinet member in the parliament of the Union of South Africa. His son Paul Oliver Sauer, also a cabinet minister, who was the Minister of Railways and Harbours and later became a Senator, took over the reins from his father. He was joined by one of the characters of the day, Danie Rossouw. In 1968 former Springbok rugby great Jan 'Boland' Coetzee joined the team as a young graduate winemaker from the University of Stellenbosch.

Mary Sauer, daughter of Paul Sauer, inherited the Estate. She married Jannie Krige, a rugby administrator at the University of Stellenbosch, who took early retirement and together with Coetzee made the first estate bottled wines in 1973.