Is the Tablecloth On?

South Africa’s premier wine region—the Coastal Region—includes one of the most impressive sights to be found in wine country anywhere—the 3,563-foot-high, flat-topped, granite-based mountain known as Table Mountain. Singular and dramatic, with a plateau more than 2 miles long, Table Mountain forms an amphitheater around the bustling sea-side city of Cape Town. The mountain was formed approximately 250 million years ago as a result of massive geologic eruptions that resulted in plutons, domelike protrusions of hot lava that rose from deep within the earth to penetrate its crust. After cooling, the plutons of the Western Cape eroded into unusual, flat-topped mountains like Table Mountain. Fascinatingly, the top of Table Mountain is often covered by clouds, forming what the locals call the “tablecloth.”