This low-key family estate produces natural wines for contemplation.

On the day of the visit, the farm on the hills facing Kuilsrivier, the extended Cape Flats, and, ultimately, Table Mountain in the distance, looked, well, like a typical farm.

Somewhat sun-baked on a mid-summer morning, there were farm animals, a lush farmhouse garden and friendly, unassuming people. And a quiet, dark, old-fashioned wine production cellar where the last of the harvest was quietly fermenting in the open fermenters. (There is not a square inch of stainless steel anywhere.)

Jacobsdal has been home to the Dumas family for generations. As a wine estate, it is pretty much a stand-alone: the pinotage and cabernet sauvignon wines are the only wines under the estate label, bottled and marketed by Distell, through the Cape Legends portfolio.