DATE NIGHT - we headed to NOOP restaurant in Paarl Main Street, well known for a great atmosphere and excellent food.
I had the most delicious Slow roasted deboned lamb neck stuff with cranberries & feta, sweet potato risotto, Merlot jus & baby vegetables - is your mouth watering? It was amazing - I love lamb! And all the flavour combinations together... after watching too much Masterchef, I can say it was perfectly balanced, textured and DE-licious!
My husband's rib-eye was excellent as well, melt-in-your-mouth tender. So too was the West Coast Crayfish bisque we shared as a starter, silky seafood flavours - tastes like more!
All of our food choices worked superbly well with the bottle of Leopard's Leap Cabernet Sauvignon 2011 we took with us. My husband coaches a bit of school boy rugby on the side and their team managed to have a great season this year. So either for this reason, or a great group of parents to his team, he has received quite a few bottles of wine recently in thanks. This was one such bottle.
Given the quality of the wine, we were guessing the price to be around R100 - R120 and found out later it is in fact more in the region of R45. Impressive. A rich, dark red wine with your typical mocha cigar flavours but a smoothness I couldn't quite put my finger on until I read the tasting notes. Toffee undertones, perfectly describe the smoothness of this Cab Sav's palate, behind the dark berry and mocha flavours. A very enjoyable red wine at a very reasonable price. They say it can spend more time in the bottle, but being a 2011 vintage it has already, so anytime from now is a good time to enjoy it.
I know the farm revamped their tasting room and restaurant at the beginning of the year, but we are yet to get there. I here the restaurant is usually quite full, so book in advance. I also love their "leaping leopard" statue that hovers across the grass and over the entrance to the farm in Franschhoek. We will have to pay them a visit sometime and taste a few more of their wines.
LEOPARD'S LEAP FAMILY VINEYARDS
R45, Main Road Franschhoek
Tel: +27 21 876 8002
Latitude 33° 52’58.8″ Longitude 19°04’50″
NOOP
127 Main Road Paarl
Tel: +27 21 863 3925
Labels: Leopard's Leap, Wine with dinner
All of our food choices worked superbly well with the bottle of Leopard's Leap Cabernet Sauvignon 2011 we took with us. My husband coaches a bit of school boy rugby on the side and their team managed to have a great season this year. So either for this reason, or a great group of parents to his team, he has received quite a few bottles of wine recently in thanks. This was one such bottle.