South Africa – red, white and black

I recently sat next to an American wine writer who informed me that he didn’t like South African wine and would never visit the country because ‘those people are all racist’. His comment was breathtaking on many levels and I pity him. He will miss out on many excellent wines as well as one of the world’s most beautiful wine regions.

I must add before I go any further that I am not a disinterested observer. I am a white African, born in Zimbabwe in the middle of a civil war. I grew up in the newly independent Zimbabwe and...