Finding Wining: The Festival of The Cheese - strongly supported by The Wine

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.