Tucked away into the Hemel-en-Aarde Valley that leads down to Walker Bay and the historic fishing and renowned whale-watching town of Hermanus is Bouchard Finlayson. Built in 1989, this wine estate is centuries younger than the vast majority of its Cape contemporaries but its award-winning range of delicious wines goes to show that you don’t ?

Touring the grounds and cellar

We arrived at Bouchard Finlayson on a spectacular autumn day in the southwestern Cape with only the gentlest of breezes stirring. From the vantage point of the estate’s reception, we drank in rolling vistas of hills lushly carpeted with vineyards and, on the 100 or so hectares of land that isn’t cultivated, thriving fynbos vegetation of which Bouchard Finlayson is actually a conservancy. Above us, an azure sky yawned with almost artistic smears of crystalline high-level clouds. The Hemel-en-Aarde valley (“sky and Earth”) is one of those places whose name perfectly captures the reality.