When your hotel is called the Vineyard, it makes sense to make wine. Which is what Kitty Petousis (below) does, with a little help from her friends.

The wine in question, a blend of 2/3 Sauvignon Blanc and 1/3 Semillion, demonstrates a delightful Newlands nervousness and it was bottled on Warwick yesterday. Of course Warwick, along with Klein Constantia, Simonsig, Waterford and Meerlust, has something of a reputation for the grassy green cultivar and Nic van Aarde, winemaker (below), has given it the requisite zing.

The first vintage last year broke the press at Klein Constantia and this one did for the ancient corking machine. Even Mr. Cork himself, Joaquim Sa from Amorim (below), couldn’t solve the closure issue and for once, the culprit was not TCA.

Lunch was a revelation with Camembert fondus and chicken livers galore. Alas, the low cloud base must have kept Warwick dynamo Mike Ratcliffe away as his helipad was looking very forlorn in the fog.

Or perhaps he was avoiding anti-Warwick wino Joanne Gibson, who never pitched – obviously too busy visualizing for Platter, the wine label guide. In fact the only Platterite present was the doyenne of the Cape Town restaurant scene, Jos Baker (below, with Kitty) recovering nicely from a nasty brush with chilli and brandy at the Mt. Nelson. A three star experience.

Kitty was the star of the show. For a nonagenarian to make wine is a wonderful affirmation of the future. But then Kitty comes from a family of seven dominees from Paarl, which sounds like the beginning of a joke or a short story by Herman Charles Bosman.

It would take a writer with the sense of humour of Herman Charles to fully capture the proceedings of yesterday. But suffice to say, a fun time was had by all and the 2014 vintage of this Bordeaux-style white blend, literally a house wine of the Vineyard Hotel, is a fine achievement. Bacchus would approve.