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Thursday, June 21, 2018

Tasting the wines of the 2018 Old Mutual Trophy Wine Show at the CTICC

Photographer Shawn Benjamin and Allan Mullins

There were all the Trophy wines to taste, then the Gold Medals, and the Silvers. But there is never enough time to taste that many wines. Where do you start? Well, after lots of hellos and hugs and congratulations, with the Trophy wines of course. The wines are laid out alphabetically around the room, so this entails a lot of dotting about. And we started with the 2011 Laborie Blanc de Blanc which won the Trophy for the best Méthode Cap Classique and has always been right at the top of our list of favourite Blancs de Blanc

Lynne having fun with Fundraising Manager Charmaine Gola on the Pebbles Project stand, tasting a Rosé MCC

This magnificent 2015 Constantia 1769 Noble Late Harvest from Buitenverwachting, made by Cellarmaster Brad Paton, deservedly won the Trophy for the best dessert wine. We overheard a taster say "Sheer Bliss"

Brad Paton

also won Gold for his 2012 Christine Bordeaux Blend, another excellent wine

Tielman Roos, Mooiplaas viticulturist was showing their NV Duel MCC and their rose-perfumed and complex Bordeaux blend Rosalind, where the savoury Cab Franc shines through; both these wines won Silver medals

Jeremy Borg, owner/winemaker at Painted Wolf Wines won a Silver for his Painted Wolf The Den Chenin Blanc

Great labels and Jeremy and his family are passionate about the preservation of our African wild dogs

Paul Wallace and his friend Chris Davidson

Paul won a Silver medal for his Reflection 2017 Chardonnay

Philip Engelen and Michael Pownall with an English friend

David Kretzmar, owner of Broad Valley and marketer Ross Sleet. The Broad Valley 2015 Pinot Noir won a Silver Medal

The DGB team, Premium Wine Account Executive Kris Snyman, Sommelier Germain Lehodey and Premium Brand Manager James Gower

DGB Sommelier Germain Lehodey and Regional Sommelier for Southern Sun, Georgio Meletio

The Boschendal Elgin 2017 Sauvignon Blanc was a Gold Medal Winner

And this will be our wine of the week this week, The Bernard Series Whole Bunch Roussanne. It had many people in the room talking about it

Cape Point Vineyards winemaker Riandrie Visser and some of her wines

Stuart Botha now at Tokara - he won a Trophy for his Eagles Nest 2014 Merlot, Tokara was awarded one for their Stellenbosch Reserve Chardonnay 2016 (made by Miles Mossop) with James Gower

Stanley Zimbizi showing Steenberg. They won a Silver for the Steenberg Lady R 2012 MCC

They also had their 2011 Sauvignon Blanc Reserve for tasting which won the museum class Trophy and showed how rewarding it can be to keep quality white wines for a few years. It was complex and delicious

Wildekrans General manager Braam Gericke and the tasting room manager Leen Joncker

In case you were hungry...

The first Chenin blanc from Durbanville Hills called The Cape Garden 2017, which won a Silver

Theo and Berinda Basson of Ormonde

Michael and Rene Bampfield Duggan of Wine Concepts with Theo and Berinda Basson of Ormonde

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Menu’s Wine of the Week is from Bellingham. The Bernard Series 2017 Whole Bunch Roussanne

Made by Niel Groenewald before he left to become the Head Winemaker at Distell

Roussanne is certainly capturing our attention at the moment. This white wine was much discussed and enjoyed at the Old Mutual Trophy wine tasting last week by other wine makers and trade. Suddenly the SA plantings are becoming noticed. It certainly captivated Lynne with its floral notes and hints of herbs and tea. Its depth and length with hints of tropical fruit, peach and a little honey on this dry wine made it something to explore and enjoy now, as it has the freshness of youth. It has the legs to indicate that it will reward being kept for a few years. A white wine that should be on restaurant menus as it is very versatile.

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MENU's Iberian Exploit 12. Valdepeñas

John wanted us to stop in Valdepeñas in Spain to taste some of their wines, this being one of the largest wine growing areas in the country. It was an adventure, but we were not successful in tasting any wine. They have not yet discovered wine tourism; you can buy wine at the wineries (well priced) but not taste any before you buy. There was no AirBnB or Booking.com accommodation available for the night we needed, but Lynne did find a roadside motel in Santa Cruz de Modela on Hotels.com (we like them because you rack up a free night for every 10 bookings you make). We had stopped there for petrol and then discovered that it was where we would be spending the night. However, this place did not initially look very salubrious. And it was right on the side of the busy motorway. You enter through the truckers' American style diner, as there is no m/hotel reception and you have to wait while the dismissive manageress serves the customers

Finally, one of the cooks took us to our room, which was fine. They are redeveloping the place and the clean and clinical rooms are well at the back with sound proofing, clean linen, and a bathroom

Breakfast was included, so we had it in the dining room adjoining the Diner. Lynne got her Green tea. As they say in France, breakfast is Café Complète. A small croissant, butter, jam and a beverage. John had an espresso. We think they could do better. But it was fine for just the one night

We set out to explore the area and find out what the wine was like. And had no success at all, despite driving many kilometers and stopping at two commercial wine plants

Lunch was necessary after that small breakfast, so we drove into Valdepeñas. It was raining and extremely cold; everything was closed for lunch

Pedestrian streets as we searched for a restaurant. We asked a local and were given directions to the central square - Plaza de España

with its huge church

And these historic buildings which house two separate (owned by the same people) restaurants. It was Monday and they were very busy, as most of the smaller places were closed

Bar Penalty was the one we saw first, we would probably have enjoyed the Enoteca more

Its a pub with food, and the owner has a passion for football, as does all of Spain and Portugal

Choices! in English and very reasonably priced

Our house white wine, which was a local 100% Verdejo from the Bodega Corcovo was assertive, grapey, perfumed and made from unnamed local grapes. It resembled Pinot gris, with a touch of muscat on the nose. Lively on the palate with fresh acidity, but just on the safe side. Vanilla on the nose so possibly American oak, but no wood ascertainable on the palate

Our starters of huge fat green beans with slivers of well flavoured ham - a bit overcooked but flavourful and Tiznao, a cold mix of tomatoes and fried onions, bacalao flakes (minute). Sweet peppers were supposed to be in this, as were pine nuts, but none were detected. It was very fishy in the worst way possible. Not enjoyable. Fresh bread

A main course of Swordfish on the grill (Espada). Very fresh swordfish, well cooked and well seasoned, if a little thinly cut; impressive given the distance we were from the sea. Served with a fresh salad and lemon

Oh, huge mistake. This is what they have done to Patatas Bravas. So shocking, so sad. Slap (under-cooked) chips, coated with a bottled sauce. It was like a hot, hot tomato ketchup with extra cayenne pepper. The two sausages were good but were they chorizo?!

The pudding that John rejected after one spoonful. He said it was like fermented yak milk (not that he has ever tasted yak milk!). Lynne tasted it and it was junket (boarding school horror!) made with tinned milk

Not at all sweet which is why they give you honey to pour on it. We left it.

Lynne had Pudding which is normally a flan with crème caramel sauce. This was topped with cream squirted from a can. Not too bad but with a very solid (bread?) base, perhaps there to support the custard and make it easier to cut into slices?

A good espresso

This memorial is in the Plaza

with an explanation - María Josefa Ruiz López (1960-2017) The first deputy mayor of Valdepeñas City Council and deputy for the province of Ciudad Real in the Cortes of Castilla-La Mancha from 2011 to 2014. She died of cancer at age 57.

We resumed our drive through the ancient vineyards of Valdepeñas and took photos of these old bush vines. We've always thought of this type of viticulture as particularly South African, so this was an interesting find

So carefully planted in this stony clay soil, in precise rows

When we looked to the north, behind this olive grove, we saw this weather front heading towards us and we were going directly into it

It was the beginning of poppy season

The road before us

Lynne taking photos with her Kindle Fire

And then the storm hit us. As we went through this small village it was snowing and had laid down a couple of inches of snow in a couple of minutes. On the exit to the town, there was no snow and the road was dry, so localised and so fierce were these storms. We were off to Toledo

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