A (Black) Glassy Affair

Being the home of my First Great Wine Adventure, I was most pleased to return to Mulderbosch for what was sure to be another wine related life changing experience. The evening did not disappoint.

The occasion – a celebration of the first year of existence of a team of wine-loving cat lovers (or cat loving wine lovers, I am unsure as to which it is anymore). The event – a black glass tasting affair. The results – fairly dismal on the score sheet but record breaking in terms of experience.

The evening began, as all successful evenings do, with some marvellous wine and equally marvellous snacks ranging from pork wantons to fig & parma ham foccacia with delightful roasted vegetable wraps and deep-fried calamari in between.

Soon we gathered around the long table set with 12 seats but 24 black wine glasses.  I will by no means claim my mathematical skills to be of my strongest, but a simple calculation left me feeling this was “my kind of party” to put it rather plainly.

Upon being divided into teams of four, we were allocated marker cats on a board for keeping track of our rather dismal scoring. Owing to the rather delicate front paw of our said market, we charmingly dubbed ourselves The Gay Cat Team and hoped to do our feminine feline mascot proud.

Of all the criteria of this particular test, we were proud to correctly identify the colour of all of the wines on offer. In the remaining criteria, we were, however, mildly less proficient.

The test of our skills began with 2 white wines which in our minds were Tokara Sauvignon Blanc & Jordan Riesling. The first, tasting of pineapple & lurking guava, turned out to be Diemersdal’s Unwooded Chardonnay. Our second Mystery Thimbleful had an oily mouth feel and smelled rather like burnt rubber. This was revealed as Themela’s Riesling.

Mildly disheartened but still enthusiastic, we moved along to the next pair. Being zesty, buttery and slightly acidic yet smooth, we identified the first as Thelema’s Wooded Sauvignon Blanc, which was revealed to be Haute Cabriere’s Chardonnay Pinot Noir. The second was salty smelling of lentils and chickpeas with a lurking tannic feel which we incorrectly deemed Signal Hill’s uncommon offering of single varietal Grenache Blanc. While we were incorrect, we took heart in the knowledge that we had at least had the presence of mind to identify that a rare varietal was in our midst (and glasses). It was, in fact, Asara’s Cabernet Sauvignon Blanc.

Remaining confident, we sniffed and sipped, sipped and sniffed our next pair. A whiff of marshmallows and candyfloss turned to toasted marshmallows and butterscotch on the tongue, leading us to believe we were enjoying Boschendal’s Pinot Noir Rose, which in fact was First Sighting’s Shiraz Rose. I was more than happy to linger over the next, smelling honey & flowers buttered treacle and tasting of sweet asparagus with dissipating acidity. We correctly identified this lovely lass as a Wooded Chenin but were incorrect in our assumptions around her origin. We thought she’d been brought to us by Kanu but had in fact been delivered by Post House (unbeknownst until only a minute ago, did I realise I in fact enjoyed the wine so much at a later date that I can now see my bottle of it perched merrily on my wine rack. Perhaps it’s a sign to pop it in the fridge....).

By this point, lesser enthusiastic folk may have been discouraged by our performance but we remained hopeful (I in no way believe our confidence was in any way impacted by the ongoing consumption of The Wine). We moved on to a smokey sniff of floor & mushrooms, tasting of slightly vinegared yet creamy tannic biltong which we unanimously identified as a Pinot Noir from the Elgin region, perhaps Beaumont or Paul Cluver. The familiar fume was in fact that of our dear friend Netwon Johnson. Our next whiffer retained the biltong and the hint of vinegar but this time combined them with some berries to lead us to believe we had a blend of Shiraz & Merlot on our hands. Being rather wary of our wily Whiskers by this point, we made a team decision to go out on a limb. We named this limb Tassenberg. Unfortunately, the bough broke under the weight of our misdirected egos, spilling Kleine Zalze’s Gamay Noir.

Mildly mollified by our failed bet, we nonetheless approached the last 2 sips before supper with gusto. The first fling with the second last of our Mystery Thimblefuls brought to mind a dessert wine and prickly pear syrup laced with spice. On the palate I found ground, chalky tannins on a wisp of smoke. After much debate as to where our Whiskers had found this particular thimbleful (“KWV? Like hte Russian spies?”), we settled upon Laborie Cabernet Sauvignon/Merlot/Shiraz, which it was not. It was , in fact, Stellenzicht’s Shiraz/Pinotage. I have a sneaking suspicion, however, that my team mates were not especially concerned with noting that particular fact (“I’d rather drink water, Jesus can leave this.”

Our very last brought berries to mind, with a lurking slice of fresh ginger, leading us to believe we had in front of us Thelema’s Cabernet Sauvignon Blanc. In keeping with an apparent trend of betrayal, our senses failed us one last time, revealing Du Toitskloof’s Nebbiolo as the last truth for us of the evening.

Scores were counted, cat markers made their last move across the board, leaving our feminine feline one paw print behind a tie for first place. The leaders were challenged to a duel of the wine-world, a sip-off of a final Mystery Thimbleful. Unfortunately, my attention was diverted from the drama of the sip-to-the-death by the heavenly smells wafting from the pizza oven outside. Tie being broken, title being won, we were soon eagerly gathered around our chef  for the eve, who kindly created pizzas of our request, winding up a yet another Wonderful Wine Adventure at Marvellous Mulderbosch.