Pearlie and Thespian drink Jack's Red and Sangiovese

In keeping with the literary theme, this time in realms of the imaginary, Patricia also told us that she has been so taken with both Fynbos Estate and Dragonridge wines, that both have featured in her latest book Banquet at Brabazan. She sent us the following extract.

On the third day they drove out to Fynbos Estate, near Malmesbury, and stayed in a quaint cottage on the hill, overlooking a vineyard and grove of olive trees, away from the farmhouse. There they enjoyed the tranquillity of the countryside, having their meals brought to them so they didn’t have to bother with cooking. They drank bottles of the estate’s choice wines – Jack’s Red and Cosmos Rosé – pronouncing these the best they’d ever had. The farmer, Johan, was the son of the Communist Party members and trade union activists Jack Simons and Ray Alexander. He’d spent his youth in Zambia, in exile with them, and only returned when apartheid reached its end. Jack’s Red was named after his dad.

As Thespian and Pearlie were leaving, the farmer’s wife, Diana, asked whether they’d like a cat and handed them a black kitten, which Thespian named Tarquinus Superbus, after the Roman king, and which Pearlie changed to Sparkey. He would be fed pink salmon trickled with olive oil and finely chopped parsley for the rest of his life, cultivating a burnished and beautiful coat, and far exceeding the nine lives generally allotted to cats.