Blaauwklippen is, remarkably, in its 333rd year and on
Friday, to celebrate, they invited the media to their annual vertical tasting
of Zinfandels at Blues Restaurant in Camps Bay, paired very skilfully with food
prepared by Chef Lorenzo Magni
Beautiful day, beautiful view, lovely Diva
Zinfandel MCC to welcome us
Mushrooms and Chicken liver pate with
sweet chilli jam, both on mini bruschetta, were the canapés
General Manager Rolf Zeitvogel, Sales
representative Fanie Fourie and winemaker Albert Basson
The Diva! It has a fine mousse, bready
on the nose with apples and citrus perfume and its criap and ticklish on the
palate with lots of green apple and finishes crisp and dry
Chef Lorenzo Magni in his kitchen
The menu with
pairings
Blaauwklippen
had produced beautiful booklets for tasting notes, always appreciated by the
media who have to make copious wine notes
First starter
of Ceviche of yellowtail and West Coast Mussels with the Diva Zinfandel
Lovely
with the ceviche which tasted of the sea
Second starter
was fresh tuna, just gently seared with prawns two ways – we preferred the
tempura, covered in a nice salty jus and accompanied by sliced apple and
sultana slaw. It paired so well with the 2007 White Zinfandel, which still has
leesy perfumed apple, gentle age on the nose and apple and quince with
gentle acidity on the palate. It also went well with the Diva
Main Course
was grilled springbok loin coated in smoked mushroom and herb dust, served on
more mushrooms and vegetables with a berry red wine jus. The 1990 BVS Zinfandel
was aged, with incense wood still there with stewed prunes and herbs on the
nose. It still had chalk and tannins. The 2011 was full of violet, cassis,
vanilla, cola and wood on the nose and had the classic Zinfandel cola and
geraniums on the palate and then deepened into rich layered red berries with
nice satisfying depth and juiciness. It was superb with the lean springbok and
the sauce.
And the
springbok was perfectly cooked. Lynne sliced hers across and it was nicely pink
The restaurant
has a nice beachy feel
With dessert
we were served two Zinfandel Noble Late Harvests, the 2007 had a note of cooked
rhubarb with vanilla, green herbs, tomato and geranium. It was full of sweet
complex raisiney fruit but had less NLH characteristics. The 2011 had almost
the same nose but is full on sweet honey & grape sugars on the palate with
a good kick of acid to take care of those sugars on the end. We were also
served the Marc de Zinfandel and the Marc de Zinfandel NLH Both intensely
spirity with warm alcohols in the best way and great with the dessert and the
chocolates
Dessert was an
oozy gooey chocolate fondant served with a white chocolate mousse and a berry
compote. Also on the plate were two chocolates a Lemon Drop Truffle – so creamy
and so full of lemon oils and a Rum treasure chest dark chocolate. We need to
know where these come from, they were made by a chocolate genius
A lovely meal,
some great wines and a very good pairing by the Blaauwklippen experts and the
chef
© John & Lynne Ford, Adamastor
& Bacchus 2015
