Discovering Vintage 2011

This time of the year is always one of discovery for me.  I discover on which of the long weekends I will catch a cold.  And which of them will have horrible weather.  Clearly these two will never coincide.  With all the public holidays, another discovery is on which day the municipality will collect the garbage.  Sorry, household garbage.  The municipal waste will continue to attend council meetings.  In 2011 the master stroke of the bin men was to actually collect on the designated day.  Never saw it coming.  Now I have two week’s worth in the overflowing bin.

Exciting as these discoveries are, the ones that I look forward to most are the releases of the new vintage.  From early in April I scour the wine sections of the supermarkets for the first bottling of autumn.  Which area will produce the first one?  What estate will serve as harbinger of the entire vintage?  First question less of a mystery than the second one.  The “cool” climates like Elim, Elgin and Durbanville won’t be first.  Usually it will be from the warmer parts of the Breedekloof or up the West Coast. 

It also have to be a fairly large operation, simply to get the logistics right to supply a supermarket in a holiday village.  Past winners include Van Loveren and Riebeek Cellars.  This year, the very yellow label of Arrabella’s Sauvignon Blanc beat Riebeek’s Chenin by 10 days.  Normally I am a big fan of young Sauvignons, but this one hardly left an impression on the palate on it’s way to my liver.  Not much on the nose either. 

The offering from “Shiraz country” ⁽¹⁾ smelled quite nice.  Promises of fruits, maybe green tropical fruits.  What a disappointment on the tongue!  A bit of acid up front and then....then...Exactly!  Nothing.  Yes, a tingle of alcohol, but no depth.  No after taste.  Yes, it was rushed to market.  Yes, the nearly colourless liquid should have tempered expectations, but still, the bouquet promised so much more than what the taste could deliver.  I normally like the vinous offerings from Riebeek Cellars.  They produce a wide range of wines, with their port ⁽²⁾ and A Few Good Men range exceptional value.  A visit to their cellar is always a good experience. 

Last year The Neighbour and I went to a food and wine pairing dinner at The Farmhouse.   The playgroup used to be regulars at these, but missed the last few years.  It was a five course meal, each course paired with a wine from Riebeek Cellars.  The food was good as usual and I won a bottle of port, so my latent thoughts of the cellar are good.  All this and the sub R30 price meant I really wanted to like this Chenin.  I can only hope that the disappointment created in the 60mm between snozzle and clapper is due to bottle shock.  So I will return to this one in a month or so.  Until then, like an Arthurian Knight ⁽³⁾, I will persevere in the search for the grail of 2011.


(1)    So says the sign when entering the Riebeek valley.
(2)    Yes I still call it that.
(3)    More about the myths of one of my literary heroes⁽⁴⁾ later. 
(4)    Some of the others include Robin Hood, The Saint, Spenser and Obelix.

Of pleasure and Sauvignon Blanc

Investing in one’s own education rarely does not pay dividends.  The payback period may be longer for some things than others.⁽¹⁾  A few years ago I went on a wine course after seeing how much I spend on wine.  I learned a lot.  I can now bore more people more often than before on the subject of wine, its growing and production.⁽²⁾

We also had practical sessions, and there my limits were exposed.  They would bring 5 or 6 different wines and we had to look at them, nose them (smell really) and describe what we see and smell.  Then you taste it and yet again you describe the tastes.  In the end you have to determine the cultivar, age and possible region of origin.  Sitting round a table with various vinous types, mostly women, I found out that I don’t smell so good.  I don’t taste well either.  They would stick their dainty noses into the tasting glass and pronounce “Fruits.”  

“Yes, stewed fruits. Possibly cassis and prunes.”

What is cassis?  Can you buy it in Vredenburg?  Is it even legal?  Discrete interrogation followed and I found out that they eat and drink these things.  Legally. Thus emboldened with this knowledge I delve into my own eating habits.  Struggling to fit the hereditary large snozzle into the glass (one nostril at time worked best in the end) I tried to match current reality with culinary memory.  You’d be surprised how few wines have a hint of Kentucky Fried Chicken in the bouquet.  Absolutely no bangers and mash notes at all.  There I was, confronted with the reality of not being good enough.  I simply could not identify any flavours except green peppers and oak and that only on white wines.⁽³⁾ So I had little chance of identifying the cultivar.  Yet, all was not wasted.  The reverse could still be done.  If I knew the cultivar I could expound on the different nuances of flavours wafting up from the glass.   Thus appearing to possess a skill which I don’t have.  And so my journey to the dark side of wine snobbery started, because the cultivar is readily readable on the label. 

Another outcome of the wine courses was the idea of food and wine pairing.  One afternoon I learned that my early schooling came at a discount.  When I was in primary school, humans were able to discern 4 types of flavours.  Sweetness on the front of the tongue, salt in the middle , bitter at the back and sour on the sides.  Apparently in the several kilograms since school I developed the ability to taste umami.  (Along with everyone else) Best described as savoury or marmite.  Pouring what used to be Bellingham Johannisberger and is now Legacy, still in the funny triangle bottle, into a tasting glass it was then paired it with apple, marmite, chocolate and something else.  Weird what worked and what did not.  But I am not telling, go try it yourself.

So I bought a book.  The Food and Wine pairing guide by Katinka van Niekerk and Brian Burke.  They start with weight, flavour and intensity and then go on about if complementary or contrasting flavours work best.  Short version: It depends.  Next is a section on matching generic wine with generic food and then go on to being quite specific about food and the wines that match.  Where possible they suggest a red and white wine to accompany each dish.  For those who maybe get gout or haemorrhoids from red wine.

In this book they say Sauvignon Blanc (SB) goes well with wasabi.  Yes, wasabi that Japanese horseradish that is the second best cleaning agent for sinuses.⁽⁴⁾  My local mall has a Sushi place with a buffet option.  Great value.  They make lovely Chinese food as well.  The crispy duck drives me close to ecstasy.  My local wine collection⁽⁵⁾ has several SB expressions in it.  Not for long though.  I try to eat wasabi once a week.  You could also read that as I try to drink SB at least once a week. 

Recent combinations that I tried:  Groote post 2010, Groote Post Reserve 2009, Arendsig 2010, Springfield Special Cuvee 2010, Villiera Bush Wine 2010, Fryer’s Cove Bay to Bay 2009 and 2010, Seidelberg 2010.  Of these the normal Groote Post and the Springfield worked best.  The Arendsig is evolving in the bottle and losing the guava flavours that initially attracted me.  The 2009 Fryer’s cove worked better than the 2010, which is a little bit sweeter.  Being a bit bland, the Seidelberg did not stand up to the green stuff.  The Springfield is one of my favourite wines of all time.  Finding that it matches my favourite food,⁽⁶⁾ is just a bonus.  One of these days I will encourage a bit of sibling rivalry when Life from Stone and Special Cuvee goes head to head (my head.  Both times.). 

Sipping Sauvignon Blanc after coating my tongue with wasabi, then stuffing it with crispy chicken California rolls edges me towards a Meg Ryan in When Harry met Sally type reaction.   

(1)    The R263 I spend on a copy of the unillustrated Karma Sutra for instance have not paid back anything yet. 

(2)    Viticulture and viniculture.  See what I mean about the bore bit?

(3)    Technically you don’t smell the oak.  You pick up vanilla, etc that the wine developed from the oak.

(4)    Try two hours of practical chemistry for the best one.

(5)    Actually I don’t have a wine collection.  I have stock.

(6)    Granted, my favourite food tends to be that which is in front of me, if prepared by someone else.