I welcomed the New Year in the Western Cape and KwaZulu-Natal. I fell in love with the slower pace of life there. I call it “SA Time”. South Africans have an elastic concept of time. Take their version of the word “now”: it means eventually, it means maybe, it means later. When used in iteration, it means soon. It almost never means now.

During my trip, my partner and I explored Stellenbosch in the Cape Winelands. With its undulating lowlands and granite-mountain slopes, Stellenbosch is South Africa’s answer to Napa Valley and home to many of the country’s best-known wines.

Back home in Monaco, I have decided to devote my first column of 2017 to a South African wine odyssey in honour of Princess Charlene whose birthday is today.

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