Six of Cape Town’s best wine bars bring winelands to the city

“Classy girls don’t kiss at bars like this,” sing The Lumineers. They couldn’t have been referring to Culture Wine Bar, where a few dreamy couples feel expressively at home on a late afternoon.

It’s a romantic setting, with gorgeous décor and a sense of luxury and relaxation. Wine fundis come here to spoil themselves — and they’re spoilt for choice. Besides interesting SA selections, a separate, leather-bound carte — the Wanderlist — presents myriad New World wines and even a few from England, a very recent wine-producing country. Logically, though, most are from France. Sommelier Tadiswa Chikwanha tells me that a guest recently enjoyed a bottle of Jacques Prieur Musigny Grand Cru 2020 priced at a cool R24,500.

Whereas Culture oozes sophistication and opens a portal into worldwide wines — 40% of orders are off the Wanderlist — two nearby wine bars focus on accessibility and the punting of lesser-known, even obscure labels by SA’s artisanal, garagiste winemakers.

Publik is so down to earth it doesn’t even have a phone, because, Luyanda Peter advises “we’d rather be talking to guests about wine”. She’s known as Publik’s hospitality princess, but that’s where elitism and pretentiousness ends: appropriate to its egalitarian name, Publik is bar counter service only. Go early in the evening if a three-deep queue isn’t to your taste.

It’s a joy just reading the wine list at Publik — printed on brown paper because it changes constantly — with inclusions such as Scions of Sinai, Testalonga and Vulpes. How do patrons choose from the proliferation of evocative names? Peter says that The Sleeping Co-Pilot rosé from Intellego has been a recent hit. It seems a logical choice, adequately off-beam to make one feel bravely experimental, but intelligent enough to appear in the know.

Open Wine doesn’t even have a wine list. Choose from the shelves or opt for one of eight featured local offerings, changed weekly; wall-mounted with prices chalked alongside. Marginally more spacious than Publik, it’s similar in many aspects: vibey, crowds spilling onto the pavement when busy. Live music is married with wine on Sundays. After the drawcard musician’s gig, “anyone can get up and play”, says co-manager Eli Hamuri.

Marvin Gaye’s falsetto electrifies the atmosphere while I enjoy Daschbosch’s pinotage-based The Gift and my wife savours Ataraxia’s 2022 sauvignon blanc. “Got to give it up,” Gaye warbles. Sorry, King of Soul — there’s much more to taste as we settle in for the evening.      

Entering Bouchon transports me to Madrid’s upmarket bodegas. Cavernous but cosy, warmly lit, tables interspersed between wine barrels, it’s a hybrid restaurant-wine bar, a sister operation to next door’s inner-city producer, Dorrance. Winemaker Christoff Durandt’s creations are showcased in an elegant cellar and tasting room at the back of the restaurant.

Chef Guy Clark’s extensive menu tantalises. Appropriately, it’s tapas in style, and includes Spanish classics like paella and gambas al ajilo. The Dorrance White Blend is delicious; the 2022 chardonnay stunning. So is the venue a restaurant or a wine bar? Brilliantly, Bouchon is both.   

On the fringes of the City Bowl, proximate to Table Mountain’s lowers slopes, is Judd’s Local. Glancing at the wine list and accompanying menu while sipping on Catherine Marshall’s gently gingery, ever-so-slightly sweet 2023 riesling, it’s evident why the phone rings regularly for table reservations. Judd’s is homely, welcoming and tolerant of idiosyncrasy. A customer enters with two German tourists in tow, and a cooler bag with five of his own, open bottles. I raise an eyebrow at the manager, Armandt Rossouw. “He’s a local,” he explains, unfazed.

On a weekend, take a drive over scenic Chapman’s Peak to Noordhoek. A stroll on one of the Cape’s longest, whitest beaches, and a bracing swim, will sharpen the senses for wine tasting. Find Furny’s tucked in a shady milkwood oasis on the road to the beach. Its space merges with other worthy epicurean outlets, creating carefree ambience and conviviality.

The intimate interior has just two tables, surrounded by jam-packed shelves of bottles from boutique producers like Thorne & Daughters, Blankbottle Winery, Mother Rock — with exotic, fringe brand names to match: Rocking Horse, Orbitofrontal Cortex, Liquid Skin. Outside there are a handful more tables, but people mill about chatting like old friends. Many winemakers apparently live in the Cape’s Deep South: Furness rattles off his regulars, a veritable who’s-who of industry celebrities. A Cape Wine Master has clearly been enjoying Furny’s offerings for a few hours. “I taught him everything he knows about wine,” he says of Furness. “It’s the other way around,” Furness grins in retort.

The most enjoyable wine we try was produced around the corner by garagiste Bruce Fyfe and a handful of collaborators, including Furness. The unlabelled bottle of a light and gentle cabernet goes by the name of Split the Fare. “Or, if you don’t like it, spit the fare,” he jokes.

Furny’s is that kind of characterful place — a wine bar that doesn’t take itself too seriously.

After all, with a nod to Jean Brillat-Savarin, 18th-century author of The Physiology of Taste, a day without wine is like one without sunshine.

Bouchon-Dorrance, 95 Hout Street, 021 422 0695

Culture Wine Bar, 103 Bree Street, Cape Town, 087 153 5246

Furny’s, 67 Beach Road, Noordhoek, 072 455 0184

Judd’s Local, 141 Kloof Street, Gardens, 064 527 1272

Open Wine, 72 Wale Street, 021 422 0800

Publik, 11D Kloof Nek Road, Gardens