Tim Atkin in the Cape

It was one of those days when the Cape feels like the most beautiful place on earth. The sky was a cloudless aquamarine, the outline of the Simonsberg jagged and imposing, but reassuringly familiar. Kristopher Tillery of Noble Hill, a producer whose wines are increasingly impressive and individual, poured me a glass of his wine. Its name? Sic Transit Glora Mundi. Latin for “thus passes the glory of the world.”

Kristopher doesn’t make this stylish Rhône blend every year. The last one was the 2020; the 2021 and 2022 were never bottled. His wine, he told me, is a tribute to evanescence: “Nothing exists in a state of permanence. Everything disappears.” His words reminded me of Shelley’s poem Ozymandias and its famous commentary on the impermanence of power. Even dictators have a sell-by date. 

The geopolitical realm has never seemed so out of joint. But it’s important to remember that, as the old Persian adage would have it, “this too shall pass”. Better times are around the corner. Well, let’s hope so. 

Meanwhile, wine encourages us to live in the moment, to enjoy and appreciate what’s in our glass. We will never experience this bottle at this point in its development again. The bird is on the wing. The wine awaits our focus, our commitment and our attention. In return, it offers us a transitory but very real instant of pleasure.

Cheers,