On Saturday, it happens to be my favourite wine festival of the year - Pinotage on Tap.  If you like red wine, especially one which has a chocolate coffee taste, then you will want to be at this festival.  Barrels of the Diemersfontein Pinotage are rolled out onto the lawns  in-front of the farm house, taps are plugged into them and wine stewards are sent out to man each barrel - which are only a few of the factors which makes this a must-be-at event.

I love sparkling wine, perhaps it's a girl thing but that aside, sparkling wine just makes me happy, from the 'POP' of the cork as it comes out the neck of the bottle, to the way it looks in a fluted glass and the way it makes my nose tickle as I take the first sip - it is also the perfect gift, the perfect celebratory drink and the perfect way to make you forget about any heart-ache (well for me anyway :).  So, you can imagine my excitement when I read that at this years Franschhoek Uncorked Festival, Graham Beck Wine Estate will be contributing oysters, bubbly and artisanal eats to the event!

I thought that I'd seen it all in France. As a country we've been producing spectacular wine for as long as we care to remember. No one does it quite like us. But, that being said, there is something rather special about new age wine producing countries. The wine can, on occasion, be quite drinkable and some of the wineries are lovely.

I don't cook.

Not at all. It's why I live in boutique hotels. Life is simply too short to live without room service.

Yes, they won the category for South Africa's Leading Beach Hotel!!

Hidden Gems . . . Mmmmm. There are so many of them if you know where to look. And if I told you about them they wouldn't be hidden any longer, would they? But there is one that I'm happy and excited to share with you.

I’m supposed to write about high adventure, but this week I’m writing about a wine adventure (please forgive me Lisa). I was recently fortunate enough to visit the wine farm Annandale (just off the R44) with my dear friends Mithila and Jai from India and my son Gabriel.