Salty Salivations - SA Cheese Fest 2014

Dear Friends,


As we approach the first repeat of an event to be documented upon my dear little blog, it seems fitting to encourage my fellow enthusiasts of The Good Wine supported by The Good Food to visit the 2014 SA Cheese & Wine Fest over a pending weekend.


Below, I have revisited my favourite experience of the day (which I am led to believe will be recreated at this year's festival):


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


For those detail-oriented enthusiasts of The Wine, one can enjoy an experience similar to the above as follows this current year:

"Salt Aficionado Chef Craig Cormack will treat festival goers to exciting tastings with three Fleur du Cap Pinotage vintages paired with delicious nibbles, dusted lightly in exotic salts from around the world. This Fleur du Cap experience in the Food Theatre is a collaboration with the Pinotage Association.

 

The Fleur du Cap Pinotage and Salt experience in the Food Theatre is presented daily during the following time slots:

·         Saturday, 26 April: 11h00 to 12h00

·         Sunday, 27 April: 15h00 to 16h00

·         Monday, 28 April: 12h00 to 13h00

·         Tuesday, 29 April: 12h00 to 13h00"




Revisit the rest of my 2013 experience here:


http://findingwining.blogspot.com/2013/04/the-festival-of-cheese-strongly.html