This year's festival will be held on the
weekend of the 14th and 15th of April at Perdeberg Wine Cellar in Voor
Paardeberg, easy to get to: down the N1 and turn off at the R44 towards Wellington, then left at
Windmeul winery. Tickets are available in advance from www.plankton.mobi or
www.computicket.com at R200 (and R230 on the gate depending on availability). You
will get a wine glass to keep, and can taste 18 Pinotages that have been paired
with 18 biltong flavours, which will be marked off the card as you taste them.
The wine farms involved will also be bringing other wines and you can taste
these as well at no charge. There will be live music, food trucks, craft beers,
cheese platters and a play area for children. Sounds like a wonderful day. Dress
code is purple and white. Saves having to wash out any Pinotage splashes!
First we had a briefing then a
taste of some Perdeberg wines. Participating Wineries are: Badsberg Winery, Beyerskloof,
Boland Cellar, Bonnievale Wines, Delheim Wines, Flagstone Winery , Grande
Provence Heritage Wine Estate , Idiom Collection, Knorhoek Wines, Lanzerac
Wines, Mellasat Vineyards, Overhex Wines International, Perdeberg Cellar ,
Rhebokskloof Wine Estate, Simonsvlei Winery, Stellenbosch Hills Wines, Van
Loveren Vineyards, Wellington Wines
And then a taste of the five
different biltongs from Afrifoods & Butcher. All set out on the table to see how we liked
the pairings. We liked the smoked biltong very much, they have plain beef, beef
with some fat, chilli, Kudu and droë wors. These will be paired with the 18 Pinotages.
They are moist and flavourful
There is also droewors (dried
sausage)
Pairing time in the tasting centre, eating
lots of biltong
Perdeberg’s range of wines. Many are multiple award winners, especially their Barrel Fermented Dryland
Chenin, one of our all time favourites and a 2017 Platter 5 star wine
Cobie van Oort of CVO
Marketing, the organiser of the festival with Johan
van Dyk, who is Perdeberg's marketing manager
Etienne Louw, Head of the
Pinotage Association, with a bottle of his own Pinotage based Cape blend, "42"
Next we were ushered into the
formal tasting room where they had some fun for us. We were given four wines: Vineyard
Collection Shiraz, Pinotage, Malbec and the Rooted Merlot. We were asked to
make a blend using the wines the only stipulation being that we must use 30 to
70% of the Pinotage
On the table were some of the
ripe grapes and two Vleis (meat) croquettes made with biltong and potato and
topped with peppadews, just in case we got peckish while working. Nice touch
The blending wines. The Malbec was our Wine of the Week on 7th March
We had a lot of fun. First you
taste the component wines and then you start to blend using a small measure. We
all made about four different blends. John and I tasted each other's and we didn’t
make the same blend. When you have found one you really like, you make the
blend in the large measure and pour it into one of the empty bottles they supplied,
together with labels on which we entered our names. These were then corked and
were ours to take home. (We put our two in the cellar to mature!) You also put
a glass in the front of your station for the winemaker to taste. She was the
judge. The winner was Elmarie Berry. Her winning blend had 30% Pinotage, 50%
Merlot and 20% Malbec
Then it was time for some
lunch
Each couple was served this tray of food called the Perdeberg Tapas
Picnic. This will be available on the day of the festival and costs R300; it serves 2 generously. Sticky chicken wings, breaded pork belly topped with
mayonnaise, Greek salads with lots of garlic, tiny chicken tacos, potato wedges
(they needed a bit more cooking) and, for dessert, pannacotta topped with berry
compote. A good deal
The handsome young man who runs
the tasting room could easily be an understudy for Denzel Washington
© John & Lynne Ford, Adamastor & Bacchus 2018
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