This island lies about 800 m from the mainland, it is located at the northern entrance of Saldanha Bay in the Benguela upwelling system. It is a small island, about 8.3 ha, almost rectangular and fairly flat, with the highest point raising about 9 m above sea level. Parts of the island consist of smooth rock and big boulders, though there are patches of shallow soil, guano, sand and shell fragments. Most of the central areas of the island are occupied by nesting Cape Gannets, whereas other nesting seabirds are mostly confined to the periphery. One exception is the Kelp Gull Larus dominicanus that have managed to establish themselves in the very centre of the island, although in low numbers. The few rocky outcrops in the midst of the gannets' nesting ground are used both by Crowned and Cape Cormorants.
The breeding seabirds include: Bank Cormorants Phalacrocorax neglectus, Cape Cormorants P. capensis and Crowned Cormorants P. coronatus, Kelp Gulls and Hartlaub's Gulls L. hartlaubii, and African Penguins Spheniscus demersus.
The scarce vegetation consists mostly of low herbs that grow during winter but there is almost no vegetation during summer. There are no terrestrial mammals on Malgas Island.
The paucity of the flora and fauna found at Malgas Island can be traced to its history. Malgas, as well as all the other coastal islands of southern Africa are part of the continental plate, and during the Pleistocene glaciations (12 000 years ago) were part of the mainland. About 2000 years ago the sea level was at least 3 m higher than at present, during this time most islands, including Malgas, were either completely covered by water (appearing only at low tide) or were frequently awash by high seas during storms at spring tide. Clearly, most terrestrial flora and fauna was completely eradicated from the islands. The other factor that has a negative effect on the island's biodiversity are the seabirds themselves. The high density of gannets literally covers everything in guano, which, in spite of its famous fertilizing qualities, is in itself quite inert.

Vergelegen Wine Estate is situated in an exclusive upmarket Area of Somerset West, about 50 km East of Cape Town. The Area was named after Lord Charles Somerset in 1819, and in 1825 was named Somerset West to differentiate from Somerset East, a small Town in the Eastern Cape.

Vergelegen was known as the Country Residence of: Governor Willem Adriaan van der Stel, during the eighteenth Century. He named it ‘far away’, which is a direct translation of the name of the Estate from Dutch. This was due to the long distance from Cape Town to Somerset West. In 1987, Anglo-American Farms Limited (AmFarms) bought Vergelegen from Tom Barlow, who took over in 1966 from his father Charles ‘Punch’ Barlow. Their family had been in charge of the estate since 1941, a Year after the death of Lady Florence Phillips, whose husband Sir Lionel Phillips had owned Vergelegen between 1917 and 1941. Much of the reconstruction of the Estate took place during the time the Phillips Family owned it.