So I managed to sleep through most of the flight from London to Cape Town. I was helped by a pair of eye shades and some ear plugs, the first time I have tried these on a plane. And they worked quite well. It meant that when I arrived, I was feeling fresh.

I spent today with three producers: Bruwer Raats, Johan Kruger (Sterhuis) and Carsten Migliarina. All three are relatively small producers making superb wines. Bruwer specializes in Chenin Blanc and Cabernet Franc, Johan makes great Chardonnay and a superb white blend called Astra, and Carsten makes one of South Africa’s most exciting, elegant Shiraz wines. A full report will follow.

After our tasting, we lunched at Pomegranate restaurant on Vergenoegd estate, owned and run by Micheal Israel. The food was quite beautiful, and Israel does good theatre, describing each dish on the menu quite exhaustively. We were sitting outside, and it was a great experienced, washed down with good wine. Pictured above at the restaurant: Carsten, Bruwer, me and Johan.

Bruwer had a bottle of DRC Echezeauz 2005 open in his tasting room, which he’d just uncorked to allow to breathe a bit before serving at a dinner tonight – he’s just turned 40, and this is one of his celebration wines. He told me how he’d got it from Greg Sherwood at Handford Wines in London. He also allowed me a little taste – I didn’t spit. Quite dense and structured, but even though this is just a baby – and needs to be given more time – it’s already delicious.

I’m staying in Durbanville, at one of the guest cottages on D’Aria estate. Below is a picture of a vine here.