Wednesday, December 14, 2016

Elgin Festive Tweet-Up at The Pool Room at Oak Valley

We join a merry band of media and bloggers regularly through the year to taste and tweet about different Elgin wines. We are always impressed, it is such a great area for South African wine. Recently the Elgin Valley invited us all to a thank you lunch in Elgin and a tasting of some of the best wines we have tweeted about this year. To follow us on Twitter and learn more about Elgin wines in the new year: @MAININGMENU & @Lynnemenu
The restaurant at the Pool Room is run by chef Gordon Manuel and his wife. It has an absolutely idyllic setting
Some of the wines we tasted
First, inside for the tweet up tasting 
Four excellent Shirazes: the Richard Kershaw 2014, Iona's 2014 Solace, Highlands Road 2014 and Almenkerk 2013. We also tasted three Sauvignon Blancs, three Chardonnays, Paul Cluver Pinot Noir and the Mount Bullet Merlot, one of our absolutely favourite Cape Merlots. Look to Elgin for future merlots. All these wines impress
Chef Gordon Manuel and Brad Gold CWM, Marketing Manager of Oak Valley
Two toothsome rosés for summer: Thelema Sutherland Grenache Rosé 2014 and the just released Elgin Vintners Merlot Rosé 2016
The Menu
Shaun McVey from Paul Cluver

The starter: a smooth brandied duck liver parfait with an apple crisp (Elgin is the apple centre of SA) and a Cognac & cherry compôte with ciabatta crisps
The lunch table was next to the pool and rather festive
The main course was slow, slow roasted acorn-fed pork belly (grown on the farm), good crackling, with pommes purée, baby veg and a golden raisin and sage jus. Just scrumptious
Yes, thank you James Downes (of Shannon), we would like to try the Paul Cluver Seven Flags Chardonnay with the pork
Dessert was a decadent summer berry trifle topped with mascarpone cream and Valrhona chocolate and a dollop of pistachio ice-cream and basil jelly. Served amongst the holly and the apples
Thank you Elgin, very much appreciated, as are your wines
© John & Lynne Ford, Adamastor & Bacchus 2016

No comments: