This small and rather classy Pop Up tasting of the products of some of Morvino's smaller clients was "to take away the noise" of the big farms and let the trade see how good these smaller brands are. It certainly worked for us. We were very impressed with some of these brands
The wines that Ginny Povall of Botanica produces just become more impressive with each vintage. She is now getting overseas attention and awards. Lynne loved her Cabernet Franc Bubble, it so reminded her of good Beaujolais Nouveau with lively, fresh berry fruit; a good food wine too. Her Chenin is intense with great fruit and future. It has 5 stars in Platter and a score of 96 from Tim Atkin. This also will be good with food. Her classic Semillon has lots of oak but that will soften with time
Beautiful new labels, these paintings are by Mary Delany, a botanical artist who painted these in the late 1700's. We particularly liked her Merlot, which has a lovely nose and is soft, fruity, complex and layered. The 2016 Pinot Noir from Hemel and Aarde grapes is floral, rich and sumptuous on the nose, silky and lush with red berry fruit on the palate. The Cabernet has classic cassis and is perfumed, rich with dark berries on the nose, more rich cassis berries and leaves on the palate. Dry chalky tannins, and dark toasted oak suggest a long life. The Cabernet Franc is spicy, herbaceous and meaty; smooth, silky, rich and full of fruit. A knockout wine, our favourite of the evening
A happy winemaker
The Cab Franc has yet to be labelled
The tasting was in the 'garden' area of Villa 47 in Bree Street and they supplied good platters of meats and cheeses, huge green olives and some pickles
Those giant green olives had lots of 'meat' on them
Rianie Strydom was showing her own Strydom wines. Her Rex Cabernet Sauvignon has great potential; an intense nose with expensive oak, white pepper and cassis, on the palate soft berry fruit, spice & balsam. We will be interested to see how this matures. Her Retro blend of Merlot, Cabernet and Shiraz was impressive; perfume of violets and herbs, lovely soft and savoury on the palate. An exciting food wine. Her Rock Star Shiraz is spicy, meaty with dark fruit on the nose; hot and spicy on the palate with a long, tarry licorice end
Her Daniele 2017 Chenin is dusty on the nose, hot, spicy and full on the palate with wood on the end
Callan Williams with her Garajeest wines, which we tasted last week
Clark Truter of Morvino with some trade customers
Christelle Grobler with Eikendal winemaker Nico Grobler's own The Valley and La Brune Pinots Noir - which we tasted at Wine Concepts' event at the Vineyard last week
Made from Elgin fruit, The Valley is light and easy drinking with lovely fresh fruit. La Brune is more serious, a classic Pinot made to mature, although it is drinking well now
And then two interesting Gins. Called A Mari (of the sea) they are named for the two oceans that reach the Cape, the Indian and the Atlantic. Only Lynne drinks gin in our house, so she tasted them and was very impressed. They are made with sea water and there is a definite note of the sea from both of them. The Indian Ocean is warm and spicy & fragrant, with spice and cardamom and long flavours with salt and minerality on the end. Herbs appeared with the addition of ice. The Atlantic is more herbal with cardamom and cumin spice and citrus peel. Gentle as a kelp sea breeze at the end of the day, it has a lovely full mouthfeel, slightly sweet with herbs appearing on the end. The one to buy for her birthday, hint to John
Jess Henrich and Niel du Toit of A Mari
© John & Lynne Ford, Adamastor & Bacchus 2018
