.: Vertical Dombeya chardonnay and shiraz tasting & lunch at Haskell

Wednesday, February 18, 2015

Vertical Dombeya chardonnay and shiraz tasting & lunch at Haskell

An invitation last week to Dombeya vineyards to do a blending competition with members of the other media was quite a draw card so we were rather disappointed to discover on arrival that this had been cancelled. It seems it was difficult to organise in the middle of harvest, which is understandable. So instead we had a vertical tasting of five of the Dombeya Chardonnays and then five Dombeya Shirazes. This was followed by lunch at their Long Table

Superb grapes just moments away from harvest

The entrance to the Dombeya cellar and tasting room: This was our first visit to the farm. It is owned by Preston Haskell (the majority shareholder) and it is where they make the Haskell wines

An amusing bit of history: The Dombeya Story*. Cape Town, October, 2005.

Grant “What’s this Dombeya thing?” Preston “That was the original name of the wine farm”. “ Grant “Reckon we should can the name. Run with Haskell. Easier. Less complicated for consumers”. Preston “I like the name”. Grant “But the label has a tree with sheep under it”. Preston “ Dombeya is a tree, and the place has been run as a wool shop for years. And I paid Anthony Lane the GDP of a small African nation for that label”. Grant “ Still reckon we should can it”. Preston “No”. Grant “ Sure you don’t want to think about that?” Preston “ Yes” *Abbreviated for dramatic effect

Welcomed by a New Zealand Craggy Range Martinborough Sauvignon Blanc, which is imported into SA by Haskell CEO and partner Grant Dodd, who is originally from Australia. It has nice restraint with peas and green pepper, with notes of honey and golden apples and a kick of hot spice on the end

Elbie Booysens in the tasting room

Some canapés to stave off any hunger

Winemaker Rianie Strydom with Samarie Smith

Gathering in the tasting room

We take our places to start the tasting

and begin

Grant Dodd tells us about the five Chardonnays we are about to taste: 2006, 2008, 2009, 2012, 2013. This is the first vertical tasting they have done. The 2006 was very different from the rest, much more approachable due to its age, with a full mouth of smooth silk, limes, warm vanilla and plums with minerality on the end. These wines are built to last. We found that Rianie has developed the Chardonnays to have a steely, quite austere French style; they are crisp and dry with citrus notes, wood & loads of minerality, they need time and go well with food. The current one selling is the 2013 at R95 on the farm.

The five tasting samples

Rianie telling us how she makes the wine

Then it was time for the five Shirazes

Alan Mullins CWM, Cathy van Zyl MW, Winnie Bowman CWM and Melvin Minnaar

Question time

Grant tells us about the Shiraz. We found them spicy, full of warm fruit layers with nice depth and balance. The 2008 especially enchanted us with its plum pudding Christmas notes. It is a full on fruit driven wine with layers of different fruit, but still elegant rather than fully ripe, and has nice notes of oak on the end. We found salty licorice on nearly all and the younger ones do need some time. They decide in the vineyards which grapes are going to the Haskell or the Dombeya. The Dombeya Boulder Road Shiraz is currently selling on the farm for R96