We've been told that this is the first ever competition for rosé wines in South
Africa and it is hoped that it will raise the profile of the rosé wines that we can produce so well. Rosé wines have
(sadly) been viewed in the past as wines only suitable for giving to your
girlfriend or mother on Valentine’s Day or Mother’s Day. And, usually, they are
seen as sweet and characterless. We think they are worth much more than that.
Overseas, especially in the South of France, these easy drinking, fruity wines are enormously popular with food,
especially at lunches, often in the summer. They are normally lower in alcohol
and you can share a meal of fish, seafood and meat without having to order more
than one bottle of wine, as most rosés pair excellently with all dishes. A few
years ago, many farms upped their game and produced some really good rosé wines
- we used to sell lots - but many have now disappeared. The supermarkets are
selling too many characterless wines, with one or two excellent exceptions. Do we blame their buyers or the uninformed public for excluding those dryer, more
elegant rosés from their shelves? Perhaps this competition will bring the good
rosés to the fore again.
What
is a rosé wine? Officially it is made from the first free run juice of a red
wine, bled off to increase the concentration of the juice used to make the red wine. To quote Wikipedia, rosé is "wine
that incorporates some of the colour from the grape skins, but not enough to
qualify it as a red wine". Very pale pink wines can be known as Blanc de Noir
(white from red). It has all the nuances and flavours of its red grape, just
few tannins and no wood. It can be made from a blend of white and red wines,
illegal in France but not in South Africa. You might like to know that in the
UK, they spend ₤1.8 million on rosé wines
each year, so this could be a great market for our Rosés.
We
were invited to lunch at Equus restaurant at Cavalli wine estate on Thursday to
hear about the competition.
Judging
will take place on Wednesday, 9th September, and the results will be announced
within 2 weeks of the competition. The Judges are: Chairman, Alan Mullins, CWM
and Woolworths wine buyer; Journalist Neil Pendock; Marthelize Tredoux,
Journalist and wine exporter; Tinashe Nyamudoka Head Sommelier at The Test
Kitchen;, Tatiana Marcetteau, Sommelier at Cellars Hohenhort ; Praisy Dlamini,
winemaker; and food and wine Journalist Malu Lambert.
Chef Hilton Espey produced a great
lunch menu which paired very well with the wines we drank. He told us he was
waiting for the delivery of the main course fish, so we knew it was going to be
very fresh
Chair of the judges Alan Mullins with Leah
van Deventer of Good Housekeeping, on the terrace with a good glass of pink MCC
from Villiera
Chef Hilton Espey explains the lunch
menu while Lynne takes notes on her phone
On the other side of the table, Terri
Dunbar Cohen of Independent Newspapers and Shante Hutton of Wine.co.za
Sommelier Farai Magwada telling us
about the wine to be served with the first course
The Morgenzon Garden Vineyards 2014 Rosé
from Shiraz, Grenache, Mourvedre. Crisp and dry with notes of summer fruits
Gentle citrus cured gravadlax of local
trout with pear slices poached in red wine, a num num gastrique and flaked
almonds, topped with spring pea shoots. Num Nums are the sour red fruit of an
indigenous variety of jasmine. We had never had pears with trout and this works
very well. The puree added the acidity and the almonds a good texture crunch.
Lots of tweeting happening. We did
trend for a while
Fresh glasses
The main course was served with
Cavalli's Pink Pony rosé made from Grenache, was well seared and just delivered
fresh Hake fillets on a bed of truffle mash with a saffron seafood sauce
Sommelier Farai tells us about the
next wine, the Vondeling 2015 bright and lively Rosé, made from Merlot, which was
served with dessert. This is a marvellous lunchtime wine, dry with soft cherry
& strawberry fruit and a hint of nuts
Dessert was a deconstructed white
chocolate cheesecake, ginger biscuit crumbs and lemon ice cream and a shard of
cardamom blond caramel, which added unusual hints of cucumber. Rich and
unctuous
All attending finished off the lunch
with a toast to rosé and the competition
For those who see journos as over-thirsty, the table at the end of lunch
