SA Cheese Festival 2013
We have begun to establish, through my ramblings
heretoforth, that I am an avid fan of The Wine. The Wine, I feel, is a suitable
habit to engage in at near any & all occasions – most especially when one
is enjoying The Wine along with The Cheese. Therefore it is safe to say that I
was rather enthusiastic to attend The Festival of The Cheese (where I was
promised there would also be The Wine).
So enthusiastic, in fact, that there were actually plans put
in place in advance to attend scheduled demonstrations involving cooking with
The Cheese, eating The Cheese & tasting The Wine. Which we did – most of.
The call of The Cheese did get too strong as the afternoon wore on & we
were simply forced to skip a planned demo or two.
The day was a happy cloud of goodness in the form of wine,
cheese & other treats (mostly in that order). Below, I shall recount some
of the most memorable events of the day of The Cheese & the Wine:
·
A wonderful display of splendidly sunny weather
– thank you Mother Nature for smiling upon your most beauteous child, The Cape.
·
Blind cheese tasting with Simonsberg:
o
Including cheddar & caramelised onion
marmalade, mature gouda & oven-roasted tomato tart, brie & mushroom
gnocci served cold (a rather interesting thing to hold in one’s hand with your
eyes closed), pork crackling & ham cream cheese, feta & quince jam
& last (and certainly the general favourite for the day) – Simonzola &
Malva pudding.
·
Fleur du Cap’s Pinotage & “salt” pairing:
o
I expected us to receive little ramekins of exotic
salts to dab on our tongues & then taste The Wine but was most pleasantly
surprised to find out we were instead being treated to actual food – small bits
of very delicious food at that – and learned some grains of wisdom around salt as
well (I was mostly too enthralled by my wine & tiny food to take notes of
this). The notes I did take include the following review of The Food & The
Wine – regarding The Salt – there were a bunch of cool ones, The Food & The
Wine were far more remarkable:
o
’05 Pinotage + Steak tartar with poached quails egg
& a garlic cream: I like people who feed me poached eggs, especially tiny
ones. With wine. I liked this pairing + the Pinot was rather lovely (I may have
been too distracted by the tiny poached egg to notice more about the wine).
o
’09 Pinotage + Braised beef samoosa with hummus
& a sea vygie jam: The food was, again, most enjoyable. But I did take a
few notes on the wine this time – meaty, venison, silky beef stew, salty,
cheddar on a burger, banana yoghurt. French & American oak.
o
’11 Pinotage + Venison, beetroot puree, mustard
cream & rocket: Such a pretty teensy dish with so many colours. I also
remembered to take notes on the wine (*Note to self – don’t pretend to taste
wine in the vicinity of tiny poached eggs): Smokey nose, game meat, smoked
coconut, green peppercorn, stronger tannins. French & American oak.
·
Nina Timm’s Cooking Demo:
o
There was cooking of an incredible sounding
& smelling pork fillet with creamy mushroom sauce.
o
Much of The Cheese was given away.
o
It smelled of pork & berry pudding in the
theatre.
o
I was mildly tempted to hug Nina & take her
home with me to be my spare mom & cook her array of tasty foods for me.
o
She let us taste the tasty food – by far my
favourite part!
·
Jennie Morris’ Cooking Demo:
o
This proved rather impressive show involving singing,
dancing, wine & even cooking.
o
We were served The Wine by suited menfolk.
o
We got to sample The Cooking, which by that
point, I was grateful did not include The Cheese.
o
It was short & sweet – perfect end to a long
day of The Cheese & The Wine.
·
The Exhibitors:
o
There were simply too many exhibitors to make
our way through them all & keep track thereof – although I assure you, very
best attempts were made to do so. The most notable (and therefore incredible)
of those sampled include:
o
Cheese:
§
Simonsberg: Simonzola, Gouda, Camembert
§
Karoo Goats Milk Products: Halloumi, Halloumi,
Halloumi – have I mentioned Halloumi?
§
Puglia Cheese: I have been a fan & regular
patron of these magical Mozzarella making folk since I first meandered casually
into the V&A Wharf Market. Their
smoked Mozzarella simply must be eaten by every true cheese lover in the world.
§
Portabello: The Melange which is a rather mysteriously
named blend of camembert & brie. Mysteries aside, it tasted of heaven.
Another noteworthy offering was the truffle butter Franschoek White which is obviously miraculous as it’s cheese with fancy mushroom
ingrained.
§
De Bocke Goat Dairy: Parsley & Coriander
goat’s cream cheese. A display of my
favourite herbs on soft goats cheese which results in a very happy mouth
§
Kasselshoop: Very tasty flavoured Goudas – the
favourite of the day being the smoked Gouda (apparently I’m partial to smoked
cheeses) – to add to its merit, it’s recommended to pair with Rhebokskloof’s
MCC – which is a standing favourite.
This cheese has class. And it now lives in my fridge. Next to the MCC.
§
La Petite France: A guaranteed source of good cheeses as a standard.
§
Madame Fromage: I have been an avid taster &
occasional purchaser from their stall at the City Bowl Market. I love them most
because of their wonderous goat’s cheese
camembert.
§
Olyvenbosch: I acknowledge, this is cheese-related, but it is more relevant to The Food than The Wine,
so shall therefore be classified under The Cheese – mostly because I’d also
like to eat their balsamic glaze on The Cheese, as well as a variety of other
things.
§
Anysbos: Most lovely cheeses & olive oil
made by most lovely folks.
o
Wines:
§
Green Shebeen: I admired the colourful labels,
the organicness (being the vegetarianism
of wine) & the Chirps for Slurps offering which allowed one to tweet for a
full tasting glass of The Wine versus the usual sniff of wine allocated. This
was a good choice of place to start the day, I feel.
·
2012 Chardonnay: Very light, brie, peach pips,
savoury
§
Org De Rac:
·
Chardonnay: Fruity, peachy, jasmine lurking,
asparagus & hollandaise, lightly wooded.
§
Arumdale’s Robin Hood Legendary Wine Series: I
was most enchanted by the concept as well as the very lovely labels. I very
much enjoyed the wines as well.
·
Maid Marion Rose – a little cheesey but lovely
& light
·
Friar Tuck Sweet Shiraz – cinnamon sherry
·
Robin Hood Red Blend – spicy fruits, very tasty
& light (**)
§
Rhebokskloof: MCC, MCC, MCC, MCC. This most
magnificent creature was spotted from across the room & the love forged
upon our first encounter was again reinforced due to the magic of this bottle
of bubbles. One came home with us. Just one – applaud the willpower.
§
Excelsior
·
Viognier – a favourite of the day tasting of
buttered apricots
§
Alvi’s Drift: A magnificent discovery of a farm
offering single cultivars of most of my favourites including The Chardonnay,
The Viognier, The Chenin – and various blends thereof as an added bonus.
·
CVC: Chenin, Viognier, Chardonnay blend. Three
forms of happiness in one glass (**)
·
Chardonnay Viognier – a little less blowing of
the mind than expected, but very quaffable either way
·
Chardonnay – honeyed caramelised melon (***)
·
Viognier – kiwi (*)
·
You may note that by this time my note-taking
had begun to dwindle as my immersion into the event increased.
·
I take this as a sign that the ramblings here
should end.
The day, as mentioned above, was surely a success – mostly due
to it ending with a bag o’ The Cheese & The Wine to take home. I shall
return annually.
Fleur Du Cap Pinotage & Salt Pairing
Nina Timm's Treats
