Last night, we visited the Vineyard Hotel for an evening of fun with friends at Wine Concepts' Burgundy Lovers' Festival. There are always far too many wines for one to taste in one evening. In the past, we tended to start with the Chardonnays and then missed out on the Pinots Noir. This time we took Peter Finlayson's advice and started with the Pinots. He told us that Burgundy producers taste the Pinot before Chardonnay because Chardonnay kills one's palate for Pinot.
We tasted most of the Pinots and there was time for only 3 Chardonnays at the end. There is a wide variety of styles and good Pinot is being produced in several different areas. Wines that stood out for us were Newton Johnson's Family Vineyards Pinot 2013, Cape Chamonix Reserve 2013, Crystallum Cuvée Cinema 2013, Edgebaston and Meerlust. All these wines should last very well and we'd love to taste them in about three years' time.
The Chardonnays we managed to taste were all beautiful: Kershaw, Oak Valley and Jordan Nine Yards.
We were, as always, delighted to catch up with so many of MENU's readers and even happier when we were told by some of you that our note about the Festival had brought you there.
Adam Mason of Yardstick Wines with Diana Prosser and David Wibberley
Lara Shargey and Christiaan Coetzee of Uva Mira
Sofie Gielen with Johan Kruger of Sterhuis
South Hill winemaker Shaun Skibbe
James and Stuart Downes of Shannon with Ndaba Dube, Vineyard Hotel sommelier
Jolene Burger with Maryna Strachan
and so we were out into the rainy Newlands night,
and now we're off to experience the sights, sounds and flavours of Turkey and Greece
© John & Lynne Ford, Adamastor & Bacchus 2015
