I discovered this wine at Cafe Fleur, the popup French restaurant at Vergelegen . The Somelier Christo Deyzel recommended this to go with the variety of mains ordered, but I think mainly for me to go with my Duck a La Orange (shew, almost misspelled that, TG for autocorrect). It was truly divine, so tonight I opened a bottle of this Chardonnay.
Without the ambiance of the 5-star restaurant, I found it weirdly difficult to place this wine. It’s nice, don’t get me wrong, but it doesn’t hit me with the same bang as my favorite Chardonnays.
It has a strong aroma, but with notes like nothing in my spice drawer vocabulary beyond maybe a little hint of vanilla maybe. It’s more on the sharp side on the palette. This wine seems to have robbed my tastebuds of descriptive words. It was magnificent with my Duck a la Orange at the restaurant.
I think this wine is best when paired, so I went and raised the fridge to find the prefect accompaniment, which was very risky given that I’m still on a diet. (Wait, what?? A food and wine blogger on a diet?) It needs to be paired with something rich – that I learned from Christo, so I tried it with some cremenzola, but the cheese was too strong – went better with the Rust & Vrede Estate Syrah which I still have open on my counter. Then I tried it with a bit of garlic & ginger rice left over from my famous Singapore Chicken, but alas, not quite. Perhaps with some good ol’ woolies Smoked Snoek pate. Nope. I’ll keep trying.
Now, slightly pickled, I settle in front of the British Masterchef finals week. No spoilers please, I’ve still got 3 episodes to go …
Part II (8th July 2022)
Giving this wine another chance tonight, because, ask Mozambik, I’m all about second chances, breasts and legs.
I think tastebuds change direction like a sunflower following the direction of the sun. Sometimes a wine can taste acidic, sometimes it tastes like a little liquid slice of heaven.
Tonight this wine I couldn’t place yesterday tasted wonderfully sweet and delicious. Go figure. I had the same number of cups of coffee, I woke up on the same side of the bed. So I know you’re thinking now, can I ever trust this guy? Yesterday he said it was crap, today he loves it. Sounds like one of those excerpts from actual insurance claims: “the guy was all over the road. I had to swerve a number of times before I hit him.” (Sadly amazing how much useless information your mind retains – that one was from 30 years ago, and I can’t remember where I was two weeks ago).
Anyway, I’ve divided my own tasting panel of one on this wine. Tonight I love it. It has that distinctive Chardonnay taste, slightly sweet, and tonight it goes with anything, especially Chutney Triggs.
