Tulbagh Valley

What a beautiful weekend in the Mother City we just had... it seems Summer is finally here!

And with the Sharks taking home the Currie Cup, all is now well with rugby.  While we did get tickets offered to us for the game, we had already committed to a big family gathering / multiple birthday, Lamb-on-the-spit occasion in TULBAGH.  But there was still a big screen and a lot of rugby noise and festivity.

The Tulbagh valley produces excellent red and white wines as well as olive oil, peaches, pears and grains.  The valley is surrounded by mountains, with the Obiqua Mountains to the West, Winterhoek in the North and Witzenberg to the East.  The Southern slopes are open to the cool Summer South Eastly winds that blow through.  With such diverse conditions and terrior, the valley is a perfect place for winemakers to create diverse and distinctive wines. 

Drostdy Hof is one of the well known easy drinking wine labels of the valley with their winemaker's collection as well their range of light wines.  Krone (Twee Jonge Gezellen), was one of the first estates to introduce night harvesting in South Africa, which is now widely employed across the wine regions.  They are also very well known for their delicious MCCs.  Rijk's Private Cellar is the most awarded Pinotage producer over the last 10 years.  Theuniskraal Riesling is another well known South African wine from the valley.  
Just a few reasons why Tulbagh is recognised as a great wine producing valley.

We enjoyed some of Tulbagh Winery's easy drinking COLOMBARD / CHENIN BLANC which is a perfect fruity white on a warm summer's day!  Never mind the red meat lunch.

Have you been to Tulbagh lately?  Which are your favourite wineries from the Valley?


 

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