So, after the rigours and immense celebrations of the Revolution, some down time.

I arrived at St James in Cape Town on Sunday afternoon. I’m staying at Rodwell House, the luxury hotel owned by Robin von Holdt of the Top 100 Wines competition.

We had a relaxing dinner together in his apartment, after sharing some wine by the pool. Marc Morey’s Puligny Montrachet 1er Cru Referts 2005 was just beautiful – taut, precise, but not ungenerous. Etienne Sauzet’s Bourgogne Blanc 2008 was punching well above its weight, too, with precision yet some richness of texture.

With dinner, the Scali Syrah 2008 that I had brought along was superb, showing rich, ripe fruit yet a sense of elegance and nice complexity. This was followed by Gauby’s Vieilles Vignes 2005, which was singing, with a similar reductive hint (nice, though) to some of the whites from the region.

This morning I headed off to Cape Town International to pick up Fiona. We’ve had some family crisis situations in the last week that called into question her trip. But she made it, and it’s great to be able to take a quick holiday together.

We spent the rest of the day lazily, in Muizenberg, St James and Kalk Bay. We ended up in the Brass Bell for lunch. It’s a modest place but has a great location, looking directly out to sea, and it was just perfect today.