.: Franschhoek Media and Trade day at the L'Ormarins Motor Museum

Thursday, June 26, 2014

Franschhoek Media and Trade day at the L'Ormarins Motor Museum

Monday saw us drive to Franschhoek for the Media and Trade tasting of Franschhoek wines, held in the L’Ormarins Motor Museum

The entrance to the tasting room and the Motor Museum

27 producers had stands, with about 6 wines each, and we tasted as many wines as we could manage during the very limited 2 hour tasting. We would have liked it to be longer; it is a long way to drive for a short tasting of so many wines and it seems not a great many of the trade or media did so. There is always a lot of networking at these tastings. As there was no catalogue, Lynne decided to taste random varietals and wines that appealed to her, so she tasted mainly Semillons, Chardonnays and white blends. Then she managed to taste a few of the red wines from specific farms. La Couronnne have a good 2012 Malbec which is a food wine. Holden Manz Cabernet 2010 is a cassis bomb, followed by cherries and spice. She liked the Babylonstoren 2012 Chardonnay with butterscotch and vanilla and citrus. Rickety Bridge The Foundation Stone White 2013 could become a favourite. Black Elephant have an interesting Sauvignon Blanc called Two Dogs, a Peacock and a Horse. Grande Provence Shiraz is a wine to go well with game. John circulated and tasted a varied selection, while taking photos and chatting.

Winemaker Dawie Botha and a colleague on the Anthonij Rupert table. They have a really great elegant Laing 2012 Semillon under the Cape of Good Hope label, we also like the Serruria Chardonnay, and the good, crisp L’Ormarins Brut Classique MCC

The tasting hall mid-afternoon. The tasting was from 3 to 5

A singer set among vintage cars, well protected from the wine trade. Most of the cars from this hall had been moved into the other three halls of the museum. Heaven forfend that anyone should try to climb into a beautiful 1927 Cadillac Phaeton with a glass of wine in hand

So good to see Irene Waller looking so well behind the La Bri table. This is definitely a farm to watch. The wines we tasted are all reaching their peak. A very friendly and elegant chardonnay, full of lemon-limes with a hint of almond, and a lovely crisp, lightly wooded apricot and apple 2013 Viognier. The Merlot 2012 has great fruit expression and Lynne’s comment is BUY!. The Shiraz 2012 is full of coffee chocolate and cherries and the Affinity Bordeaux blend 2012 has perfume, wood and fruit with long, long flavours of superbness. The Petit Verdot in it adds such elegance