Undoubtedly the best place to stay in the Robertson Wine Valley is the Robertson Small Hotel, a sophisticated and stylish boutique hotel that has helped to put this lesser-known wine town on the tourist map in the last few years.

The hotel is housed on a quiet residential street in a gorgeous converted century-old Victorian manor house, complete with deep verandas (just the spot to drink tea in the afternoons and be transported to another era), delicate wrought iron work, and surrounded by tranquil gardens. Three of the guest rooms are in the manor house, while the old stables behind it have been converted into three larger suites. (The honeymoon suite upstairs with loft-style wooden exposed beams feels like a romantic hideaway.) In a separate newly-built building are the hotel’s most luxurious and spacious suites: four light and airy rooms with private patios from which you can dip your feet into the water of the adjacent lap pool.

Interiors are contemporary while still fitting in with the elegant style of the original building: an overall palette of white with touches of muted colors combined with minimalist furniture, clean lines and interesting art works on the walls. Rooms are a treat – expect gleaming bathrooms, flat-screen TVs, iPod docking stations, huge beds and a complimentary mini bar.

The highlight at the Robertson Small Hotel is celebrity chef Reuben Riffel’s restaurant, where there’s a well-priced seasonal Mediterranean menu. Dishes, made with locally sourced ingredients, are flavorful and unfussy: think goat’s cheese ravioli in a tomato, olive and spinach confit and vanilla panna cotta with thyme-poached peaches. Before dinner be sure to have a glass of wine and snack on the complimentary canapés in the small bar in the manor house. It’s not hard to understand why the Roberson Small has won the accolade of South Africa’s best luxury country hotel for the past three consecutive years.