Calitzdorp became SA’s capital of fortified, port-style wines partly by accident, successfully so mostly due to its Klein Karoo soils, climate and terrain — those things that make up terroir — being remarkably similar to the traditional home of Port, the Douro Valley of Portugal.

The “accident” happened in the first planting of grapes in Calitzdorp in 1973 by the Nel brothers (whose offspring now own De Krans and Boplaas), thinking that Shiraz could do as well in their climate as it was similarly doing in the Swartland...