Leopard's Leap Family Vineyards

 - LOVE, LOVE, LOVE!

Leopard's Leap gave their whole tasting area, restaurant and wine experience a revamp earlier this year and it is looking superb! 

Absolutely love the "whisk" lamp shades in the dining area.  Also the individual cooking stations set up in the kitchen for their delicious cooking classes.  Even on the rainy day we visited, the high ceilings and structure made the whole place light and inviting.  We are definitely coming back for the buffet lunch, some chocolate brownies, to check out the newly opened store and to enjoy some wine on the lawn, now that summer has finally arrived!

We just tasted wine on this particular visit, and our TRH was great!  He knew all the answers to all my questions (which can sometimes be silly!) and was super friendly and efficient.  We sat up at the bar counter enjoying their really good and exceptionally well priced wines and landed up leaving with a few bottles... as you do!

Leopard's Leap itself actually doesn't grow any of its own grapes, so the ones you see on the drive in are either for decoration or belong to someone else.  Their spot in Franschhoek houses the restaurant, wine tasting and shop.  They buy in all their grapes, which actually allows them to pick and choose the very best available of each varietal.  Most of their grapes are sourced from Botrivier, Swartland and Robertson to name a few.   

The wines in the Classic Range are all great quality with nothing over R45.  Perfect to take to your next dinner.  We tasted the SAUVIGNON BLANC, which was lovely and easy drinking, hardly any acidic aftertaste.  The CHENIN BLANC, smells like "peaches and cream" and is loaded with smooth peach and apricot flavours, we took home two bottles of this one.  The CABERNET SAUVIGNON MERLOT is also another standard, easy drinking, well blended wine.

There was only one Family Collection available for tasting, the SHIRAZ MOURVEDRE VIOGNIER, which is actually made by Hein Koegelenberg himself.  Hein is currently the CEO of La Motte & Leopard's Leap (and director of Meridian Wine Distributors) and is largely responsible for their great successes over the past few years.  They also recently, together with a Chinese entity, bought the Val de Vie vineyards.  While Hein started his career at Spier Wine Farm, he moved onto to one of our other favourite wine cellars Windmeul Kelder where he moved through the ranks to CEO there, before moving to La Motte.  He is well known and respected in the wine industry and doing great things for South African wines.  Check out his blog he keeps on the side - heinkoegelenberg.typepad.com .
Okay, so back to the wine.  It has really rich berries and spice on the nose and is quite spicy on the palate, with a beautifully smooth finish.  Apparently they burn the insides of the barrels in which this wine is stored which adds to those smokey flavours.  Interesting!  Fantastic wine!
You'll see there is also an "RK" logo on this and some of the other wines which shows it is part of the family - R being Hein's wife's maiden name Rupert and K for Koegelenberg.

We actually started the tasting with some bubbles - because if bubbles are available for tasting, then they are always first on the list!  Their CULINARIA BRUT METHODÉ CAP CLASSIQUE is delicious, gentle citrus with a little caramel and a lovely balance.
The Culinaria Collection is the more sophisticated, heavier collection, with really smart labels and mostly blended wines. 

A few Culinaria notes below...

2012 CULINARIA CHENIN BLANC GRENACHE BLANC - 6 months in French oak smooths this wine out beautifully, full of fruit, but slightly drier on the palate.  Great with smoked foods.
2012 PINOT NOIR CHARDONNAY - Not a combination I have heard of before.  The wine has a beautiful golden pink hue from spending just 10hrs on the Pinot Noir skins.  It is quite a sweet wine with berry flavours coming from the 60% Pinot Noir, it is almost a little tart too.  Perfect with pork or even dessert.
2010 CULINARIA GRAND VIN - A very good Bordeaux blend, slightly more harsh and metallic than fruity.  Definite coffee beans and nutmeg.
2010 CULINARIA SHIRAZ GRENACHE - Excellent, great spice flavours and berries smoothed out by the Grenache.  Quite heavy but still versatile when pairing with anything from meat to pasta.  We took a bottle of this home.
2013 CULINARIA MUSCAT DE FRONTIGNAN - Hands down the best dessert wine we have tasted!  The nose is full of rose flavoured Turkish delights and blossoms.  It is deliciously sweet and yet still light, not nearly as syrupy or heavy as other dessert wines.  It actually only has 84g sugar vs some others that have up to 200g.  Delicious!  We took a bottle of this home too!

Did you know that here in South Africa we have Noble Late Harvest which is usually your dessert wines.  The name comes from the Noble rot (Botrytis fungus) which attaches to the grapes and drains them of their water leaving the sugary goodness behind.  Late Harvest obviously the fact that the grapes are harvested much later than other wines.  Places like Canada and Germany have Ice Wine dessert wines which also sees the grapes being drained of their water, but this is as a result of the grapes freezing in their sometimes below zero temperatures.  Random fact for the day!

Next time you go wine tasting, check out Leopard's Leap... or look out for their bottles in the stores!  We will definitely be back, they are a new favourite of ours!


LEOPARD'S LEAP FAMILY VINEYARDS
R45 Franschhoek Valley, Frasnchhoek
Latitude 33° 52’58.8″ Longitude 19°04’50″
Tel: +27 21 876 8002
Closed on Christian public holidays  

La Motte Wine Estate

 - ABSOLUTELY LOVELY FARM AND TASTING EXPERIENCE!

La Motte is situated just outside the town of Franschhoek.  It was a beautiful winter's day in the Cape, one of those rare sunshine filled but still a chill in the air days.  Perfect for a little wine tasting.  Unfortunately because it was a public holiday the renowned Pierneef a La Motte restaurant was closed along with the Farm shop and museum, but that just gives us a good reason to go back again.

So, through the garden and over the pond towards the wine tasting!  While I do prefer to be outdoors when the weather is fine, this tasting room is just lovely and I headed straight for the couches next to the fireplace.  A very stylish yet simple tasting room with glass windows looking into the cellar, the environment is relaxing and inviting.


 

You can choose to do the full tasting of 8 wines for R40 or simply taste a few of your choice.  Of course we opted for the full experience, which was fantastic.  A bread roll and glass of water for palette cleansers accompany the wine glasses on your personal tray.  The wine tasting is done very well allowing you to compare different wines next to each other to fully appreciate the effect that the different techniques have on the wines.
 

The La Motte winemaker is actually on the Shiraz board of South Africa, so there are a few Shiraz based blends.  All which were very impressive.

A great tasting experience and fantastic wines!  We will definitely be back here with friends and visitors and hopefully for lunch on the deck or dinner by the fireplace.

The only unfortunate thing about wine tasting in the winter is that the vines are all leaf-less, dry and brown, so you don't see the beautiful green blankets that cover the valleys and entrances to the wine farms.  Summer time is even more beautiful. 



A few wine notes below...

2012 LA MOTTE SAUVIGNON BLANC
As per our TRH, this wine is made up of eight different Sav Blanc grapes grown in eight different places.  This means the wine has influences from a range off different terriors, resulting in a smoother wine with softer smells on the nose.  It is not as piercing as a crisp, zesty Sav Blanc can sometimes be, but rather more fruity and softer on the palate.  Very enjoyable.  We much preferred this one to the Pierneef one below which was served alongside to taste and compare. 

2012 LA MOTTE PIERNEEF SAUVIGNON BLANC
According to our TRH, this is usually the preferred of the two Sav Bs when tasted in a food and wine pairing setting, suggesting perhaps that this wine might be better with food.  This Sav B is organically grown which means it has no pesticides and less sulphur (less of all the elements which usually improve the wine - no?! with perhaps less of a headache).  Nevertheless, you can certainly taste the difference between the two Sav Bs when tasted alongside each other.  This wine is quite acidic, not so refined and makes your tongue cluck just a little bit more.  Not a favourite, but we'll try it again with a food pairing and see if it is any smoother.

2010 LA MOTTE CHARDONNAY
This Chard was a little lighter in colour than most because only about one third has been in Oak.  It's got quite serious legs and yet the nose is surprisingly not so pungent, but rather a softer, pleasant oak smell.  It is very smooth and not too syrup or caramely, but rather vanilla and cashew nut flavours. 

2011 LA MOTTE MILLENNIUM TM
This red is a Bordeaux blend.  It has quite a sharp taste and could probably do with some time in the bottle.  It is 60% Merlot and therefore has all the berry influence, just a little less of that rich fruit flavour.  It does dry your mouth out a little and tickle the nose hairs, but it is a good 2nd tier blend which good use a little time to smooth out.  Good and reasonable, not amazing.

2010 LA MOTTE CABERNET SAUVIGNON
Delicious!  Quite purple and ruby in colour with a spicy nose, our TRH suggested that this wine can in fact keep for another 10-15 years but probably enjoyed best in the next 5-8 years.  2010 is well known as one of the best years for South African red wines.  Like the description notes mention, this wine as an intense varietal nose.  It is heavy bodied with a dry finish that will smooth even more as it ages.  
 
2010 LA MOTTE SHIRAZ
This Shiraz is quite berry flavoured for a Shiraz with a slight white pepperness to it, not a lot of the tobacco/cigar smokiness you would expect.  It is quite heavy, but smooth and has almost a dark feeling to it.  It is less spicy than usual, but having said that, when compared to the Cab Sav above, the Cab smells like caramel and berries.  The Shiraz is a bit more spicy and delicious.

NOTE: Pierneef was a South African artist and there are about 136 of his artworks on the La Motte property.  Each year the artwork on the label of the Pierneef bottles changes to a different Pierneef artwork thereby making them almost a collector's item.

2010 LA MOTTE PIERNEEF SHIRAZ VIOGNIER
This is a very easy drinking wine, it tastes like juice!  You can definitely taste the floral impact of the Viognier and how it softens some of the Shiraz spices.  We certainly agree with the 5 star John Platter rating, you can drink this wine everyday.  It's like the La Motte Shiraz above but you don't have to wait for it to smooth out.  A little harsh when compared to the Grenache blend below, but excellent in its own right!

2008 LA MOTTE PIERNEEF SHIRAZ GRENACHE
This wine tastes more like a blend and is definitely the smoothest of them all.  The blend was inspired by the Southern Rhone area in France and is absolutely delicious.  I am a big fan of Shiraz and this blend is quite superb.  If you choose to you can let it rest for longer.  But this is a fantastic wine and can be enjoyed now or kept for longer.

My other half has recently jumped on the Chardonnay wagon, declaring that it only applies to exceptional Chards made in the traditional wooded way and enjoyed in a large glass.  None of these new age, half wooded, easy drinking ones... they won't cut it.  

So we left La Motte with a bottle of the 2010 La Motte Chardonnay and a bottle of the 2008 La Motte Pierneef Shiraz Grenache.  Even though we thoroughly enjoyed the Cab, we would rather purchase a Shiraz from a farm where their speciality lies in the varietal and save a Cab purchase for a so inspired winemaker.

An absolutely lovely tasting experience and fantastic wines, especially the uniqueness of the Shiraz based wines and focus on the varietal at the farm.  We will definitely be back again!

La Motte Wine Farm
R45 Main Road, Franschhoek Valley
T +27 (0)21 876 8000
33º 53′ 0.91″ S 19º 4′ 21.57″ E

Mother's Day Food & Wine Pairing

 - WHAT A BRILLIANT IDEA AND AMAZING EVENING!!


In order to fit all the moms, grandmoms, mom-in-laws and their schedules in we ended up with one of the Mother's Day celebrations being on the Friday night.  My sister-in-law came up with the brilliant idea of having a food & wine pairing.  Brilliant, I thought, until I received the e-mail listing 11 different pairings highlighting 5 of which were my responsibility!!  Never to back down from a cooking and wine challenge I researched all the recipes I needed, sent my other half to get those wines that we couldn't find on our rack, donned my apron and got stuck in under masterchef time restrictions (after traffic and the shops, to be ready by 7pm)!

 

Everything turned out very impressive, we even had individual plates/tiles to serve each canape on, the table was beautifully decorated, the food was all delicious and quite gourmet if I do say, the wines were most appropriately paired and the time seemed to just disappear before we realised it was well past 1am and we should probably get some shut eye.



No wine notes tonight (that would be rude), but a snippet of the pairing menu below and a few photos of the canapes we were most proud of.




MOTHER'S DAY PAIRING MENU
 
1. Bruchetta with goats cheese and roasted aubergine paired with Windmeul Sauvignon Blanc.

 

2. Chicken Curry on a sweetcorn blini paired with Tulbagh Winery Colombard.



  3. Avocado Ritz on Choux Pastry paired with Creation Chardonnay.

4. Salmon roulade with potato crisps and apple mousse with Darling Reserve Chenin blanc.


5. Wild mushroom and pesto tart with Tulbagh Winery Pinotage/Shiraz.

6. Butternut soup with Barefoot Merlot.

  7. Thinly sliced beef with Balsamic reduction and beetrootmicroleaves with Windmeul Cabarnet Sauvignon


   8. Lamb Riblette with Tamato Chilli Jam and   Porcupine Ridge Syrah.

   9. Pear & Chocolate Cake dessert (Tart Belle Helene - http://tuis.co.za/nuus/bon-appetit/) with Windmeul white muscadel.



 

 10. Chocolate truffles and rose nougat with with Laborie Rose MCC.

11. and last but not least 15 year old KWV served with ginger nougat.





Honestly, the food was amazing and so well paired with each of the wines. It seemed like a bit of an effort, but what a fantastic idea and evening. We will definitely be doing this again,perhaps next time with not as many pairings.







Truffles and MCC



Chocolate and Pear Tart