There’s never been a better time for wine lovers to visit Cape Town in South Africa. Critical acclaim for the oldest New World wine region has kept on gaining momentum since renowned vineyard manager and viticultural consultant Rosa Kruger made her benchmark presentation of the Cape’s most exceptional old-vine wines at the 2013 London Masters of Wine seminar on old vines.
South Africa’s new generation of winemakers are embracing a forensic approach to site selection, better viticultural practices, greater restraint in the cellar and experimenting with more diverse grape varieties. As a result, the country’s wine scene is evolving into ‘one of the most exciting on the planet’ as Decanter contributor Tim Atkin MW wrote in his 2023 South Africa Special Report. In that same report 201 South African wines scored 95 points and above.
But South Africa’s strength – namely that its geographical diversity provides an intensely varied terroir – also makes it challenging to get to grips with its vinous character. Set aside a week or two, trawling farms and estates, and you’ll certainly experience manifold tasting experiences. But with 30 distinct districts and some 100 smaller wards sprawled over 800km across the country, you’ll only ever experience a fraction of what’s on offer.
Thankfully there are easier ways to tour – involving nothing more arduous than taking a seat and listening to the patter of a well-informed Cape Town sommelier as they pour a broad and well-curated selection of wines. With the value of every major foreign currency steadily rising relative to the rand, world-class wining and dining in this splendidly beautiful city is incredibly good value, particularly in winter, when just about every restaurant in town is running a special. Come summer, even fine dining is still a relative bargain, but tables may be hard to come by. It’s best to research and book online soon after you’ve purchased the airfare.
Here then are Cape Town’s best fine dining restaurants for unbiased wine pairings, informal bistros with great wine lists and dedicated wine bars selected for the excellence of their wines by the glass. The two Stellenbosch inclusions are worthy of the 45-minute cab ride. They are all part of what I suggest should be an integrated research trip. A flutter on a pretty sure fire return. Because it’s a generally accepted fact that South Africa’s wines are undervalued and underrated. Prices will inevitably rise as they are increasingly appreciated, not to mention a potential rally of the rand. See you at one of the following – soon.
Fine dining
Aubergine
Ask Eben Sadie – one of South Africa’s most venerated winemakers – which restaurant has the best wine list and he doesn’t hesitate. Aubergine opened in 1996, but chef-owner Harald Bresselschmidt had been collecting wines prior to that date. Today his restaurant has one of the most extensive, diverse wine collections in the city. No wonder Aubergine was the deserved recipient of the inaugural Star Wine List Grand Prix South Africa in 2022. Cuisine is relatively old-school; from a dining point of view it has been overtaken by any of the names below. But for many the pleasure is the cosy comfort of being shown to your table in a converted 19th century home and being guided by sommelier Ralph Reynolds through the treasure trove that is Bresselschmidt’s cellar.
Insider tip: Indicative of Bresselschmidt’s quirky curation, Aubergine has the full Fleur du Cap Cabernet Sauvignon Oak Collection 1986. These Cabernets were made from the same grapes and fermented the same way, but matured for 24 months in five different oak barrels: Nevers, Allier, Limousin, Spanish and North American. The sixth wine is a blend of those five.
39 Barnet Street, Gardens, +27 21 465 000
Dusk
Dusk chefs Darren Badenhorst and Callan Austin
Chefs Callan Austin and Darren Badenhorst and sommelier Bafana Zondo provide an 11-course menu paired with interesting wines sourced from across the Western Cape. Combinations include Wildeberg The Tea Leaf – a blend of Chenin Blanc, Grenache Gris and Marsanne from old vineyards planted in 1977 – matched with a trio of amuse-bouches; the delicate floral parmesan rye tuiles showcasing technical skill. Mosi Wine Tinashe Chenin Blanc is made from 38-year-old bush vines by Joseph Dhafana, a Zimbabwean refugee who only tasted his first wine on his 29th birthday. It’s paired with succulent line fish marinated in nasturtium miso, served on a tiny panisse (chickpea fritter) with salmon beurre blanc and roasted almond foam. It’s intimate, it’s fun, service is exceptional and the wine experience is worth the trip to Stellenbosch.
Insider tip: Indicative of Dusk’s playful irreverence is the Pandora’s Box pairing. Guests choose one of six boxes in the wine cellar, each containing its own unique wine pairing – a stretching test of sommelier versatility.
43 Plein Street, Stellenbosch, +27 21 023 4100
FYN
Alongside chefs Peter Tempelhoff and Ashley Moss, Jennifer Hugé is the formidable general manager at FYN, delivering service ‘the way the French intended’ – a well-choreographed dance. French-born Hugé is also at the helm of FYN’s wine cellar, now more than 1,200 bottles strong. She’s a firm proponent of South African wines and talks animatedly about the strides made in the last two decades. ‘More experimental winemaking, more naturally crafted wines, lighter styles that suit our style of food,’ she explains. This lightness – a kaiseki menu merging traditional Japanese culinary methods with South African ingredients – means you leave FYN happily sated but never overstuffed. The first standalone Relais & Châteaux restaurant in Africa, it’s an experience not to be missed.
Insider tip: You need to book months in advance for dinner. If you’ve left it too late, aim for the six-course lunch, which has more availability and only costs R1,375/£59pp. (The eight-course dinner is R1,975/£85pp.) There’s usually a smashing lunch offer in winter – currently R895/£39pp.
5th Floor, Speakers Corner, 37 Parliament Street, City Centre, +27 21 286 2733
La Colombe
Credit: Andrea van der Spuy
Vying with FYN for best fine dining restaurant on the continent, La Colombe currently holds the crown, with the World’s 50 Best judges ranking La Colombe 49th in 2024. Expect extraordinary visual artistry from chef James Gaag. Every course is painstakingly paired by head sommelier Michelle Erasmus, who brings next-level dedication to her position. To keep abreast of the wine world, she runs daily 10.30am on-site tastings with winemakers and producers. She also never buys or orders the same wine twice outside of work – with a few exceptions! Erasmus explains: ‘We try to pair always from our own valley first, but also strive to accurately reflect the identity of individual wine regions in our selection, offering our guests snippets or detailed insights, something they’ll remember during their future wine adventures.’
Insider tip: The additional wine cellar experience, ordered as a supplement, is an exclusive tasting of a vintage auction wine. It will be paired with a dish specially developed for the wine and served in the cellar underneath the restaurant.
Silvermist Wine Estate, Main Road, Constantia Nek, +27 21 794 2390
Salsify
The Somerset Room at Salsify
It’s South Africa versus the world (France in particular) at Salsify, with the wine list playing both sides, so to speak. The choice is between local or imported; the same cultivar is paired with each course, for the same cost, indicating the worth placed on South African wines here. Wine aside, you are in for a fantastic evening, seated in one of the oldest buildings in the Cape. Surrounded by Camps Bay’s leafy Glen, with stone pines fringing distant sea views, Salsify is perhaps the most atmospheric dining experience in the city – and the ever-evolving menu by chef-owner Ryan Cole is stellar. Come hungry!
Insider tip: As is the case with La Colombe and FYN, it’s best to book your table shortly after your airline ticket. In summer it’s well worth requesting a table in The Sea Room; in winter a table by the fireplace.
The Roundhouse, Roundhouse Road, Camps Bay, +27 21 010 6444
Bistro dining
Belthazar
When owner Ian Halfon opened Belthazar in 2003 he claimed it was ‘the biggest wine by the glass bar in the world’. Now with more than 250 available by the (Riedel) glass, it’s still a serious contender. Reopening in 2022 after a brief Covid-induced hiatus, Belthazar offers a respite from the Waterfront buzz with slick service and great steaks aged by its in-house master butcher. There are also decadent seafood platters and a range of lighter meals – I’d recommend the grilled calamari. The wine list is easy to navigate, with wines listed by varietal or blend, and region, vintage, style and local Platter rating provided for each one. With Table Mountain views and a shaded terrace, plan for a lazy afternoon.
Insider tip: It’s wonderful to find highly sought-after wines by the glass in the South African Icons section. The selection currently includes Waterford The Jem 2016, Kanonkop Black Label Pinotage 2017, De Trafford Elevation 393 2019, Boekenhoutskloof Syrah 2012, Sadie Family Wines Treinspoor 2021 and Mullineux Syrah 2021.
Shop 154, Victoria Wharf, V&A Waterfront, Cape Town, +27 21 4213753
ëlgr
Credit: Sean Gibson Photography
The name ëlgr – Old Norse for moose – is a nod to chef Jesper Nilsson’s Swedish heritage. It’s a marvellous restaurant choice, even if sommelier Le Roi van de Vyver hadn’t bagged some of South Africa’s most coveted allocation wines. The best are listed on his Sommelier’s Selection list, though even the standard wine list is anything but. For a wine pairing you have to order the Chef’s Choice Sharing Menu, which is very good value at R595/£26pp, with paired wines at R650/£28pp and premium paired wines at R1,045/£45pp. But cobbling together your own meal from the a la carte sharing plates menu is usually more delicious and fun. That’s particularly true if you enjoy vegetarian food, as more than half the menu is made up of dishes such as ‘Aubergine, Sumac, Yoghurt, Pinenuts, Mint, Cumin’; ‘Radicchio, Kale, Romesco, Almonds, Beetroot’; ‘Kohlrabi, Persimmon, Red Wine Soaked Kilimanjaro [a delicious local goat’s cheese], Pine Nut’. But there’s plenty for carnivores too, and while the pizza choices are usually limited to two, they’re two of the best you’ll find in the city.
Insider tip: Look out for the Sommelier’s Selection wines available by the glass – thank you, Corovin. Options include the possibility of ordering a vertical tasting of the 2018, 2020 and 2021 vintages of Alheit Vineyards Cartology.
75 Kloof Street, Gardens, Cape Town, +27 21 422 0384
Grub & Vine
British chef Matt Manning serves very refined bistro-style fare in this intimate candle-lit restaurant. You can order the two- or three-course menu du jour, with two to three options for each. But to experience the breadth of the wine list go all-in with the six-course tasting menu. Pairings can be chosen from either the ‘Culture House Wines’ – a range made specifically for Manning’s wine bar by various winemakers, which are several cuts above your usual house wine – or a selection of ‘Local Legends’. Meanwhile the ‘South Africa vs The World’ selection stacks two wines side-by-side per course. If you prefer to go off-piste, sommelier Keize Mumba will chart the course through Grub & Vine’s awarding-winning wine list. There’s a fantastic selection by the glass, featuring local cult classics as well as up-and-coming talents. Guests also have access to all glasses in the adjacent Culture Wine Bar (see below).
Insider tip: Meet The Makers, an intimate five-course dinner with some of the Cape’s top winemakers, held in a private room, is a regular event well worth looking into (details online). Manning has opened a sister branch of Grub & Vine in the Norval Foundation, Constantia, arguably the city’s top contemporary gallery for African art. Same menu and pairing; free weekly wine tastings on Thursday 6-8pm.
103 Bree Street, Cape Town City Centre, +27 21 216 0035
Judd’s Local
Bryan Judd (right) with Bryan Judd Sr
Relative to the other venues featured here, the selection of wines by the glass at Judd’s Local is limited. But the list is good. Describe the kind of wine you like, and your server will return with a couple of alternatives and pour sip-sized samplers until you’re happy with your final choice. Located in a Victorian terrace at the top of bustling Kloof Street, the atmosphere is laid back. Dishes are elevated comfort food; think lamb parcels with slow-braised shredded lamb baked in filo pastry, the richness cut with a tart tomato salad and tzatziki. The Judd’s – a proper brioche bun with a thick grass-fed beef patty basted in a Guinness glaze, topped with crispy bacon, rocket, homemade Guinness mayo and bacon jam – is a benchmark burger.
Insider tip: Get here every Tuesday from 6.30pm for free tastings, hosted by a different winery each week. Owner Bryan Judd is there most days, along with general manager Armandt Rossouw. Both are happy to talk wine – and there’s a wine shop in the bistro for take home bottles.
141 Kloof Street, Gardens, +27 64 527 1272
The Wine Glass
Only The Wine Glass offers an entire menu of horizontal wine flights. Each flight comprises six samples to showcase the Stellenbosch wine region, arranged according to varietal or blend, with a choice of two price points. Service is well organised for scale (and it gets busy in summer): your six glasses are placed on a numbered paper placemat with accompanying printed tasting notes for each flight. It’s a bit more corporate than the intimate wine bars listed below and has a narrower focus on the Cape’s most popular varietals. But it offers an inexpensive and efficient introduction to a far larger array of wines due to the flight menu. Plus there are 130 Stellenbosch wines available by the glass. The unfussy and hearty food is a bit hit and miss – the bobotie spring rolls being the former.
Insider tip: Note that there is also a branch of The Wine Glass in Hermanus offering 96 wines by the glass from the cool-climate Walker Bay region.
13 Ryneveld Street, Stellenbosch, +27 82 555 2332
2 Harbour Rd, Hermanus, +27 82 082 0007
Wine bars
Culture Wine Bar
Hats off to British chef-owner Matt Manning and his sommelier Keize Mumba for winning triple gold in the South Africa section of the 2023 Star Wine List awards: Sparkling Wine List of the Year, Best Medium-Sized List of the Year and overall Grand Prix South Africa. Culture is located on the second floor of a historic building in the heart of Bree Street’s buzzing restaurant scene. With Grub & Vine (see above) adjacent and jazz club Blue Room below, it’s the most sophisticated wine bar in town. It’s certainly the most comfortable too, with leather banquette booths, candles in wax-crusted bottles, yellowwood floors and easy listening music. Add in a great menu of small plates and this could easily be your destination for the night.
Insider tip: Every Wednesday 6-8pm is Vine Night, when a winemaker or wine ambassador visits every table, giving an overview while pouring a flight. You can find details of upcoming sessions online. Culture also has a satellite bar at the Time Out Market in the V&A Waterfront.
103 Bree Street, Cape Town City Centre, +27 21 216 0035
Furny’s Fine Wines & Taste Bar
If you only have time to visit one wine bar, Culture is for serious reconnaissance, but Furny’s is my favourite… A family-owned wine shop, wine bar and restaurant, located in a quaint little complex built into the milkwood forests that carpet the base of Chapman’s Peak, it’s unpretentious and welcoming. You’ll find hippies with their children or dogs seated here alongside tourists pink-cheeked from walking Long Beach. Opt for a flight of any four from over 50 wines available by the glass (R95/£4 for a standard and R180/£8 for a premium selection). Staff are encouraged to assist your choice according to wine style rather than colour or varietal. There are also food and wine pairings if you don’t want to think about what to order. Browse the wine shop for interesting bottles, some of which are long sold-out in the city centre wine boutiques.
Insider tip: There’s a complimentary wine tasting every Friday 4.30-6.30pm; booking for dinner afterwards is recommended. It’s worth noting that Limoncello, an excellent Italian restaurant with great pizzas, is located right next door. If neither is too busy, they will serve you a meal at Furny’s (which will provide cutlery) extending your menu options.
67 Beach Road, Chapman’s Peak, Noordhoek, +27 21 72 455 0184
Leo’s Wine Bar
It’s Max Bagels on Bree from 8am-4pm. But at 5pm every Monday to Saturday ‘Leo’s’ flickers across the signage in pink neon and the wines are lined up. These bottles are all made by lesser-known low-intervention winemakers. Matthew Freemantle, who has dabbled in winemaking himself, opened Leo’s at the end of 2019, white-knuckling his way through COVID-19 to create this popular after-work hangout for locals and wine-loving visitors. It’s small and intimate, making it easy to converse with your pourer – assuming you get there early enough to sit at the counter. If not, join the patrons on the pavement where there is additional seating (though it must be said these stools are less than comfortable).
Insider tip: In 2021 Freemantle and close friend Andrew Kai opened Tomson right next door to Leo’s, offering really good Cantonese-style street food. You can order from Tomson and eat at Leo’s – or vice versa – making this a wine bar experience with an excellent value, top meal. But do get here early to grab a comfortable seat!
Shop 28, De Oude Schuur, 120 Bree Street, Cape Town City Centre, +27 21 76 042 0224
Openwine
Rafael Paterniti and Marta Gobbo opened their wine bar on Wale Street in 2016, a year after Publik (see below) first set the stage for smaller boutique wineries to reach new audiences. Sharing a passion for live music – plus a lack of any kind of wine snobbery – has attracted a cool, predominantly young and very diverse crowd. Openwine gets particularly busy on Sunday evenings from 5pm when it hosts live jazz musicians, and the evening morphs into a funky jam session with local artists and poets pitching in. Paterniti eschews formality – ‘The wine list is on the shelf!’ he quips. But there are usually more than 100 wines to try by the glass, and what’s opened changes weekly. If there’s a particular bottle of interest, the staff will open anything – as long as you’re prepared to buy two glasses of it. According to Paterniti South African white blends are the ones to watch.
Insider tip: You know it’s summer when you drive down Wale Street on a Thursday evening and the pavement outside Openwine is packed. Openlive Thursdays start at 7pm but like the Sunday sessions there is no reservation or entry fee, so get here early if you want to bag a seat.
42 Wale Street, Cape Town City Centre, +27 79 944 2754
Publik Wine Bar
Cape Town’s oldest surviving neighbourhood wine bar attracts the trendiest patrons. It also encapsulates exactly what a wine bar should be: ‘To help people efficiently discover new wines, in an accessible and unpretentious way’. A short wine list – six reds, six whites, three bubblies – showcases new generation winemakers who meet the criteria: ‘Sustainable vineyards; independent; minimal intervention; organic, biodynamic or natural production’. No flights are served, but you can sample-sip a few wines before committing to a full glass. It’s a small space where people sit elbow to elbow, often spilling out onto the pavement. A one-minute stroll and you’re in the bustle of Kloof Street. But great plates are served here, including excellent local cheeses and freshly sliced charcuterie. Wednesdays are steak tartare nights.
Insider tip: There are no reservations and limited seating, so you need to get here early in summer. Opens 4pm on Monday to Friday and at 3pm on Saturday.
11D Kloofnek Road, Tamboerskloof, no phone
