Calitzdorp Port Wine

Calitzdorp is a small village on Route 62 in the Klein Karoo, hot and dry, with shale soils that turned out to resemble the Douro closely enough that growers planted touriga nacional, tinta barocca and souzão and made fortified wines from them. Those wines have consistently outclassed the rest of the country's, and the village calls itself the port capital of South Africa. The name is the complication: under a trade agreement with the European Union, South African producers gave up the word port, and the wines are now labelled Cape Ruby, Cape Tawny, Cape Vintage and Cape Late Bottled Vintage - the same styles under different names. A handful of cellars are within walking distance of each other in the village, tasting fees are low, and the surrounding Klein Karoo has the Swartberg and Groenfontein passes on either side. A port festival is held each winter.

What you actually see

• Douro grapes - touriga nacional, tinta barocca and souzão in Karoo shale.
• The renaming - Cape Ruby, Tawny and Vintage instead of port, by trade agreement.
• Cellars in walking distance - a handful of producers within the small village.
• Route 62 passes - Swartberg and Groenfontein on either side of the village.

When to go

Autumn and spring; the port festival is in winter. A day.

Honest expectations

Summer heat here regularly exceeds forty degrees. The village is tiny with limited food and accommodation. Fortified wine is a narrow interest and tastings are strong. Some cellars close over lunch and on Sundays.

Nearby

Oudtshoorn is east; the Swartberg Pass climbs north from Prince Albert Road.