With 60 minutes to spare this morning, we stopped by Vaughan Johnson’s waterfront wine emporium for a realism injection. Vaughan was not happy. “July was our quietest month in 20 years. We’re in the depths of a serious recession.” Portuguese winemaker Aníbal Coutinho attempted to cheer him up with two bottles of Swartland wine he’d made, the Astronaut Chenin Blanc and Pinotage, both 2010 vintages.

Vaughan cast a suspicious eye at the labels through his Lady Gaga spectacles before taking us on a tour of the labels displayed in his shop. His conclusion? “Nothing is good.” Stopping at the shelf labeled hopefully “The Cape’s Best” he commented “You’d expect some decent labels here, but there’s nothing. The best packaging is Johann Rupert’s Cape of Good Hope Pinotage – it comes in a box which the tourists love – but that’s R200 a bottle.” “I thought you don’t like Pinotage,” I offered. “I don’t” he replied.

Vaughan Johnson and Hanneli Rupert-Koegelenberg last year

On the subject of Portugal, Vaughan was equally pessimistic. “SA used to be the largest market for Portuguese wines and now we can’t get them. I don’t even have Port in the store although I did have a bottle of Madeira last night – a German tourist gave it to me. It’s incredible that one in six white South Africans speaks the language of Camões but there’s no decent Portuguese wine available. That said, the only people who bought wine during the World Cup last year were Brazilians – you mistake them for Portuguese from the language – everyone else, the Brits and Germans, bought beer. As for Americans, they do buy wine but only if it’s recommended in Wine Spectator or Platter.”