Due to the British love of winter breaks in South Africa, the wine lands of the Cape are becoming amongst the most familiar of all wine areas. It’s a rewarding place to visit with warm weather, ever-improving wines and a surfeit of good winery restaurants. One of the most popular areas to stay is Constantia, to the south of Cape Town, and home to Klein Constantia estate. The Stellenbosch area starts back around False Bay and here, in the privacy of its own valley, Rustenberg makes a good Chardonnay under the Brampton label. Nearby Fran Botha, her mother, Irina Von Holdt, and their band of ladies specialise in Chenin Blanc for their Spring Valley and Old Vines bottlings. Over the hill, in the popular, arty town of Franschhoek, Douglas Green now runs Franschhoek Cellars, producing the great value Freedom Cross wines. Above the town is La Petite Ferme where Mark Dendy-Young makes particularly gooseberry-flavoured Sauvignon at the back of this famous restaurant. A spectacular drive over the pass brings you to the apple growing area of Elgin and Paul Cluver’s winery, source of elegant white wines. They are a partner in the Slowine joint venture. Catherine Marshall is close by, making very fine wine from carefully sourced grapes. Continuing back to the coast, Bouchard Finlayson in the Hemel-en-Aarde Valley above Hermanus is a specialist in Burgundy-inspired wines.