Why we are all Cape crusaders

spirits here. Capetonians are a frontier lot. “As long as we haven’t run out of wine,” is the standard quip, and, by Jove, we have plenty, and it’s good stuff. Outside Europe this is the oldest winemaking region in the world, and we’ve learnt a thing or two over the past 332 years.

Yet South African wines remain remarkably underrated – I’m always dismayed by how much undrinkable plonk I find on supermarket shelves. (A quick tip: labels with illustrations of wild animals are best avoided, as are wines with the vague appellation “Wine of Origin Western Cape”.) Terroir isn’t everything of course, but lesser-known regions I’m partial to include Elgin, Elim, Walker Bay and Swartland. Stellenbosch remains a stalwart, where you’ll find the likes of Abrie Beeslaar – awarded 2017 Winemaker of the Year at the recent International Wine and Spirit Competition – happily rooting around his Kanonkop vines. It’s a region I’d happily rotate like a well-basted chicken until the end of time, and most of the best estates are now open for tastings seven days a week, with views, restaurants and architecture An aerial view of Cape Town, above; Bosjes chapel, below, is in a vineyard in the Western Cape as varied as their wines.

Cape Town is cheap, too, at least while Zuma is at the helm (Tip number two: if Ramaphosa takes over as ANC president, your holiday is going to cost a tad more, so pay now or be prepared).

Some prefer a day at the spa (if so, make it Librisa at the Mount Nelson), but it’s hard to beat the pleasure of a privately curated wine tour with Stephen Flesch, rolling through vineyard-clad valleys in a cocoon-like state of bliss (yes, with wines this good, I swallow).

But enough about wine. For most the real buzz – and reason enough to revisit the city – has been the opening of the Zeitz Museum of Contemporary African Art in September this year. Housed in a former grain silo, with interior spaces magnificently repurposed by London’s Heatherwick Studio, the building alone is worth a visit but the curated work – a chiaroscuro of humour and intelligence, pride and pathos, mystery and honesty – is equally inspiring. Given that the MOCAA is the first and largest repository for contemporary work produced across Africa (and how easily one forgets that the continent comprises 54 different countries, and is bigger than China, the US and Europe put together) the exceptional standard should come as no surprise. And yet, there it is; guilty as charged.

But it hardly matters – by the time you step out, blinking under the bright sun, sparks flying off a Korean fishing boat in a nearby dry dock, the looming flat-topped mountain swathed in its billowing tablecloth, your ideas of the continent will be challenged.

That’s a moment worth celebrating, so I’d suggest making for the Silo Hotel and up to the Willaston Bar to celebrate the best view of the city. But be sure to book. Because – and here’s the last tip – to enjoy the charms of a five-times beauty pageant winner, you’ll now need to make appointments.

Pippa de Bruyn is Africa expert

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