Uncover the Cape's Hidden Cheese and Wine Hotspots with Didier

Discover cheese and wine-making on a Cheese and Wine Tour with our passionate self-styled cheese affineur and wine sommelier

Are you tired of tacky curio shops and big flashy tour busses? Do you wish you had a good friend in Cape Town to take you by the hand and show you the real Western Cape? Meet Molo's friend, Didier Bertrand.

Charismatic Didier was born into a family of ardent cheese aficionados. Arriving in Africa as a member of the French Civilian Service, he travelled extensively before discovering and falling in love with Cape Town.

But except for the obvious, Apartheid South Africa proved to have another fatal flaw: The government only allowed for the production of pasteurized Gouda and Cheddar. And for a Frenchman with a passion for quality cheese, this was unbearable. Luckily history has been rewritten since, and he's happy to share his findings.

While teaching music at a French school in Cape Town, Didier took regular trips into the countryside, scouting for clues in the cows and the grass, to sniff out cheeseries where quality cheese was made in the traditional way.

And he found them. His friends started asking him to share his stash, so he began selling cheese at the school every Friday. The ex-pat wives emptied out his van every time. His friends than urged him to share his discoveries with the world. So Didier went to the tourism board and qualified as a guide.

He started small, with only one tour, but today he runs six different tours: The African Terroir tour, an organic tour, a well-being tour, a design-your-own tour, a biodiversity tour and a Hex River Valley tour. But every single tour is different. Taking a tour with Didier is an intimate, one-on-one experience where routes are customized depending on passengers' interests.

It is told that the Eskimos' intimate relationship with snow have resulted in their having hundreds of different words for it. But Didier Bertrand seems to have even more words to describe cheese. His ardour for cheese and the country he now calls home, pulses through every word he utters.

His future plans include starting up a BEE training programme that teaches disadvantaged youths to makes non-pasteurized cheese, a documentary series about South African cheese making, and teaching South Africans to support local produce and believe in their beautiful country.

And his fervour is infectious. So take a journey laced with passion, unearth South Africa's cultural and historical roots, and savour good food, and award winning cheese and wine with this fascinating Frenchman.

Read: 'For the Love of Cheese: A Cheese and Wine Tour to Remember' to learn more about one of the tours you could enjoy with Didier.