So I’m back in South Africa. For the next few nights I’m staying in the lovely town of Stellenbosch in the lead-up to Cape Wine 2018, the tri-annual celebration of South Africa’s dynamic wine community.

It’s great to be back here. I’m feeling a little jet-lagged. I flew in from New Zealand on Friday morning, then headed over to my ex-home to collect post and see the boys, then I had a dental appointment (a brutal but much needed session with the hygienist followed by a filling), then off to Gerrards Cross to re-pack and do washing, then off to the airport to fly to Cape Town.

I always feel a bit of a buzz landing in Cape Town. It’s energetic and vital, and I really like the wine people here. I feel very lucky to be a regular visitor, getting an inside track on this rapidly changing scene. There are a lot of factors working together making the wine scene here dynamic, including the accessibility to young winemakers of high quality fruit from old vineyards, and the way that sensitive, natural winemaking from grapes picked appropriately early is so widely practised. I’m looking forward to this next week immensely.