November 25, 2010
Last night I had the rare privilege of tasting South African wines dating from 1948 to 1975.
That’s a date range spanning 27 years which is almost as long as I have been alive. The oldest wine was 62 years old - more than double my age. The youngest wine was 35 years old - which alone is 7 years older than I am. What the hell!
The thought of the above overwhelms me somewhat and it’s hard to comprehend or fully appreciate their place in time - especially given that I didn’t even exist when they were created.
Remarkably - all the wines showed beautifully and possessed characteristics a modern day fruit bomb could only dream of.
If I were to create a ‘tag cloud’ of all the flavours I experienced in the wines it would look something like this:
toffee, butterscotch, biscuit, mint, salty, sweet, brown sugar, burnt sugar, coffee, mocha, hay, liqorice, banana, tabacco, leather, shoe polish, medicinal, smokey, ham, bitter, soaked prunes, dried fruit, apricots, honey, maple syrup, boiled sweets, caramel, rusty, orange, brown, smooth, light, textured, secondary flavours, menacing, sensual, velvety, gentle tannins
Here is a full list of the wines we tasted:
Meerendal Shiraz 1975
Groot Constantia Shiraz 1973
Overgaauw Cabernet 1974
Backsberg Cabernet 1974
Nederburg Cabernet Barrel Select 1974
Chateau Libertas 1968
Zonnebloem Pinotage 1974
Simonsig Pinotage 1974
Lanzarac Pinotage 1966
Nederburg Edelkeur 1974
KWV Muscadel 1953
KWV Rubi Port 1949
Monis Vintage Port 1948
All these wines represent a particular time in our history - they capture, like a photograph does, the culture, the climate, the people and the politics at their time of creation. They have also lived and developed through a great deal - and survived with a small spring in their step.
To fully appreciate their place in time - lets have a quick peek at what they have collectively lived through:
1948 - Apartheid begins.
1955 - Vietnam War
1957 - Sputnik 1 - the first earth-orbiting satellite is launched
1960 - The Sharpeville Massacre
1962 - Madiba arrested and sentenced to life in prison
1963 - JFK is assassinated
1968 - Martin Luther King is assassinated
1969 - Neil Armstrong walks on the moon.
1976 - Television introduced to South Africa
1981 - AIDS/HIV officially recognised as a disease
1982 - I was born
1980 - John Lennon is assassinated
1985 - Scarlett Johansson is born
1990 - Madiba released from prison
1994 - Apartheid ends.
1994 - Madiba becomes South Africa’s president
1995 - South Africa wins the Rugby World Cup
1997 - Princess Diana dies.
2001 - September 11 terrorist attacks
2008 - Barack Obama becomes the USA’s first black president
So while all of this was going on in the world (and this is just a select timeline) - these wines lay silently and patiently evolving and achieving their own mini milestones in taste and texture.
So I drank a piece of history, culture and climate last night and my wine journey is immensely enriched by the experience.
Thanks to Roland and the Wine Cellar team and to my drinking partners Cuz and Harry - the experience will not be forgotten in a hurry.
[Special mention must be made of the aged Pinotage's - sensational stuff - they would convert any Pinotage hater.]
Posted in Iconic Wines of South Africa, Old Wines, Rare Wines 
5 Comments »
November 22, 2010
This last weekend saw some really good friends get married at Olivello Restaurant on Marianne Wine Estate.
It was a truly great wedding - great venue, great food, great wine and great people.
Congrats again to Megan and Jason (I’m learning that you always place the brides name first).
Along with all the celebrations came some cool discoveries:
Accommodation:
We stayed at Banghoek Place which is a really nice backpackers on the inner outskirts of Stellenbosch. It has modern, clean and comfortable rooms and great general facilities. I wouldn’t hesitate to stay here again - it’s cheap too.
Some of our friends stayed at Oakleaf Lodge which is on the R44 and is a really great accommodation option. The rooms looked fantastic, over delivered in relation to price and the breakfast was superb apparently . The pool is great too.
Wine:
The table wine at the wedding was Villiera Down to Earth Red 2009 and it was superb. That it only costs R40 a bottle makes it even more superb. It’s an unusual blend of Touriga Nacional and Shiraz - and as the name suggests, it is an earthy and rustic wine. It has splendid dark fruit and spicy aroma’s, mocha and mulled spice on the palate and a velvet finish. Magic stuff indeed.
Taxi Service:
We eventually found a taxi service to get us to and from the wedding and Herman (tel: 082 494 8000) was our man. The mini bus was clean, comfortable and prompt and even picked us up at 2am in the morning out at the estate.
It was a great weekend with great people and great services - I hope the above helps you have a great weekend out in Stellenbosch the next time you are there.
Posted in Accommodation, Estates, Red Wine, Restaurants 2 Comments »
November 4, 2010
I attended the Whisky Live Festival in Cape Town last night and fell in love with a 16yr old … whisky.
Her name is Lagavulin and she has a very special place in my heart and cupboard now.
I was going to write a review of my new found love myself but then I found what has to be one of the coolest spirit reviews I’ve ever read - here’s an extract:
Finish: the piano reverberation at the end of “A Day In The Life” by The Beatles - the first time you ever heard it, with the girl who took your virginity deftly, wonderfully, and with impeccable musical timing.
[Read the rest of Benjamin De Vries' awesome review here.]
I couldn’t have put it better myself - it’s a great whisky and it was a great evening - I recommend a trip to the festival.
Posted in Whisky 2 Comments »
October 29, 2010
Last night I went to watch End of the Line - which is a documentary about how we are raping and pillaging our oceans.
It really is worth watching and the cause it promotes is more important than ever.
Here are some facts to consider:
An international group of ecologists and economists warned that the world will run out of seafood by 2048 - Washington Post
As many as 90 per cent of all the ocean’s large fish have been fished out. - WWF
Only 0.6 per cent of the world’s oceans are designated as protected.- WWF
Japan has caught $6 billion worth of illegal Southern Blue-fin tuna over the past 20 years. - Australian Broadcasting Corporation
In 2000 tuna long liners set 1.2 billion hooks catching untold number of turtles, seabirds and sharks. - WWF
Atlantic Bluefin Tuna could be extinct by 2012 unless we stop fishing them now.
Fifty two per cent of fish stocks are fully exploited. - Marine Stewardship Council
[More facts here]
The bottom line is that we all need to make some changes - otherwise we are going to have no fish.
So what can we do?
Well we can all contribute in some way or another and there really is no excuse for not doing so. If 1 million people sat back, as individuals, and said ‘ag whats the point I cant make a difference on my own” then that would mean 1 million less people trying to make a difference.
So get involved and start embracing one or two of the following:
- Ask where the fish you’re eating came from and how it was caught.
- Refuse to eat over-fished and endangered fish - you can download a handy list that fits in your wallet here.
- Report establishments selling endangered fish by smsing 079 499 8795 (South Africa only)
- Eat only sustainable seafood and make sure the retailer you are buying from has ensured the fish they are selling is sustainable.
- Put pressure on your local government to decrease and improve the policing of fishing quotas.
- Put pressure on your local government to create vast marine protected areas with no fishing allowed.
- Boycott eating Blue-fin Tuna and single out establishments selling it.
Do at least one or two of the above and you will be helping the cause a great deal. If you are more serious about it you can actually reclaim a piece of the ocean and pledge to help preserve it for future generations.
Click Here to Claim your Piece of the Ocean
and
Learn more about SASSI - The Southern African Sustainable Seafood Initiative
“Every person on the planet can claim 2 hectares of ocean - that’s what you get if you divide the surface area of ocean by the number of people on Earth. If the biological diversity of the oceans is to be maintained or restored, large areas must be protected altogether from the commercial fishing industry and responsible fishing must prevail outside those areas. ”
Get involved - otherwise our oceans and drinking white wine with seafood is never going to be the same.
Posted in Causes 3 Comments »
October 26, 2010
This last weekend I went away to Tulbagh with some good friends. We stayed at the awesome Wild Olive Farm and had a great time.
Naturally that great time included great food and great wine.
On the Saturday morning, with a bit of teamwork, we (as in the girls) made Justin Bonello’s Breakfast Cups and they were nothing short of frieken amazing.
You can make these bad boys in about three really easy steps and the results are really tasty and impressive.
Stuff some puff pastry in a muffin tray like so and bake blind for about 10mins:
Crack an egg into each tray, return to the oven and bake until they have just set - like so:
Next - add the topping of your choice and if need be, return to oven to grill (if you are adding things like salmon and cream cheese then obviously you don’t need to grill again).
And finally - enjoy:
For the full recipe click here.
Posted in Food, Recipes, Uncategorized 2 Comments »
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