Wednesday, March 16, 2016

Pairing biltong and Pinotage at L'Avenir

The Biltong and Pinotage Festival will take place at L'Avenir near Stellenbosch on the 16th and 17th of April this year and will be the best opportunity in the year to taste some of the most impressive SA Pinotages, all paired with Joubert and Monty's biltong. Get your tickets soon. The festival starts at 11h00 on both days. Tickets @ R150 pp includes a branded wine glass and a pairing card for the Pinotage and Biltong tastings. Bookings at www.plankton.mobi and selected Joubert and Monty outlets
We were invited, with other members of the industry, to taste a selection of these wonderful wines and pair them with the different flavours of biltong. 
This tasting was held in L'Avenir's brand new conference venue, The Single Block Rooftop. Each table was prepared with wine glasses and pots of all the different flavours of biltong, droëwors and salami: 1. Original Secret Recipe, 2. Droëwors, 3. Spicy BBQ, 4. Irresistible Chilli, 5. Sweet Red Pepper, 6. Smokey Sweet Chilli, 7. Lemon & Herb 8. Original Salami 9. Pepperoni Salami. We knew we would not need much supper that evening
Mr Pinotage, Beyers Truter, was there to guide us through the wine tasting. We were on our own with the pairings of the meat and had to fill our preferences onto a form
Ryan Bredenkamp, the new F & B manager at L’Avenir Wine Estate, telling us about the new venue we were in and about the coming festival
Our tasting table.
But first a glass of the Perdeberg Rosé bubble
Beyers nosing a Pinotage sparkling rosé
The Pinotages get poured and we start the hard task of pairing biltong et al with them. A very difficult exercise, as most of the wines were pretty special on their own and took some tasting
Maryke and Clifford Roberts busy concentrating and comparing notes. In the background Beyers and Cobie van Oordt, who organised the tasting
These are the wines we had to pair
Winery
Pairing Wine
Rijks
Rijk’s Touch of Oak Pinotage 2013
Kaapzicht Estate
Kaapzicht Pinotage 2012
Anura Vineyards
Anura Pinotage-Syrah 2013
Flagstone Wines
Flagstone Truth Tree Pinotage 2014
Altydgedacht
Altydgedacht Pinotage 2014
Remhoogte Wine Estate
Remhoogte Bushvine Pinotage 2013
Tulbagh Pinotage Rose 2015
Badsberg Wine Cellar
Badsberg Red Jerepigo 2014
L’Avenir Vineyards
L’Avenir Brut Rose MCC 2012
Chamonix
Greywacke Pinotage 2014
Boland Cellar
Cappupino Ccinotage 2014
Diemersfontein Wines
Diemersfontein Pinotage 2014
Beyerskloof Wines
Beyerskloof Chenin/Pinotage 2015
Rhebokskloof Wine Estate
Rhebokskloof Vineyard Selection Pinotage 2014
Diemersdal Wine Estate
Diemersdal Pinotage 2015
Lanzerac Wine Estate
Lanzerac Pinotage 2013
Mellasat Vineyards
Mellasat White Pinotage 2015
Perdeberg Winery
Perdeberg Sparkling Rosé 2015
The rewards afterwards were some cakes, pies, sandwiches and éclairs and, of course, the left over biltong
© John & Lynne Ford, Adamastor & Bacchus


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