This tasting for the public will take place on Friday, 22nd August between 17h00 and 21h00 and Saturday, 23rd August between
12h00- and 18h00. See details here. Today, we joined
other members of the fourth estate at a media prequel of the festival, which
included a tasting of some of SA’s best Pinotages, matched with a selection of biltong
and dried
wors (sausage). A light lunch which followed was a
biltong quiche from Joubert & Monty’s cook book . You can taste these wines
and more, together with Joubert & Monty’s range of biltongs and droë wors as
well as delicacies from other sources, at the festival. Pebbles Project will be the
beneficiary of the festival and their representatives will be present to spread
their message and raise funds and awareness. Today’s tasting was held in the
tasting room at L’Avenir in Stellenbosch
Warmly welcomed by Cobie
van Oort of CVO Marketing and Francois Naude, who has a long association with
L’Avenir as the previous winemaker and, now, as a consultant
On the edge of the dam
close to us, a grey heron poses for the camera
A welcome glass of some
L’Avenir Brut Rosé for everyone
The table inside the
tasting room, set for the tasting, was also covered in biltong and wors
Cobie tells us how the
tasting will go. Each wine will be paired with one flavour of biltong or wors.
We can decide whether they work or not, or if the wine would be better with
another flavour
No vegetarians were
invited and no vegetables were harmed at this tasting
Kyle Kristal, sales manager at Joubert and Monty, tells us how the company has grown and about the products
Dirk Coetzee, L’Avenir’s
winemaker, tells us about his wine
These were the pairings we
were asked to make. All the farms gave us two pinotages from their cellars apart from Raka, who only had one. All of the pinotages were enjoyable and drinkable - and that
is from Lynne, who is not usually a big fan of this grape varietal, unless the wine is
over 10 years old
Both delicious pinotages
from L’Avenir went very well with the secret recipe biltong
Lemon and herb is not a
flavour many of us associate with biltong, but it did match nicely with the
Rhebokskloof. The Pearlstone is sweet and smoky with a herbal tangy nose. The
very, very good 2012 Estate wine is full of licorice and smoky whiffs, with
delicious red and black cherries. It is soft and approachable with warm
alcohol. It was Lynne’s favourite of the tasting. Frankly, it would go with
anything. Except perhaps the chilli, which might overwhelm the elegance
Sweet red pepper biltong
was also a new one for us and was not unattractive, as the sweet pimento
flavours did meld nicely with the two vintages of the 21 Gables top end
pinotage. The 2011 is herbal and spicy on the nose with turmeric, lovely soft
fruit and some nice warm chilli spice on the end. So it could stand up to the chilli
biltongs. We were very interested to hear about their new optical grape sorter and
would love to see it in operation next harvest. An expensive rarity that can
make a huge difference to wines.
Raka was paired with the
spicy BBQ and and its black pepper earthiness on the nose and good structure
with sweet fruit and chalky spiciness was a conundrum with this biltong.
Perhaps better with a milder flavour
Lanzerac pinotages were
paired with the smoky sweet chilli and the Irresistible chilli and were a little
overwhelmed by the chilli. The Pionier 2011 is a great wine, with sweet and
sour fruit and good chalky tannins to make it last. The chilli gave it too much
of a blast and the 2012 from the premium range was flattened by the chilli.
This would have been better with the red pepper flavour
Some happy attendees:
blogger Anel Grobler, Yolanda Martins from Spier and Adinda Booysen, Marketing Manager from Lanzerac
We hear about the wines
Adinda Booysen tells us about Lanzerac
wines
Girls having fun while
working
and enjoying being with L'Avenir's handsome winemaker Dirk Coetzee
Time to go through to
lunch on the terrace
Lots of jollity and more
wine to taste
Two slices of biltong and
mushroom quiche with a leaf and crouton salad ‘dressed’ with grated cheese and biltong.
We didn’t see any oil and vinegar
Old friends catching up
Dirk and
Francois, L'Avenir's winemaker and his predecessor
© John & Lynne Ford,
Adamastor & Bacchus 2014
