The evening began with a delicious salad with a pastry-crusted Camembert crouton and a delicious honey mustard dressing. This was paired with a Overgaauw 2005 Cabernet Sauvignon. The wine was smoky with hints of cherries, and definitely had a bite and a long finish. I'm not a huge fan of Cabs, but it worked with the salad (which, really means it worked with the cheese.)
The next course was a plethora of roasted vegetables: onions, beets, carrots (which I am just starting to appreciate beets) and mini Caprese kabobs (anyone who knows me, knows that Caprese is my all-time-favorite thing in the world to eat. In the summer, we have Caprese salad practically every day.)
To drink, we had the Blue Cove 2007 Shiraz. Shiraz are often a little to much for me, but this was a very smooth, berry treat. I think that the robust flavor of the vegetables really helped mellow the flavors of the wine for me.
Our third wine was what I was really looking forward to: The Painted Wolf Pinotage. It was smokey, bright and fruity, with essence of plummy. The mild wine sparkled in my glass like an elegant ruby. This is one of those wines that I could open on a cool evening when I need to unwind and just savor the sips and let the day slip away. Like I mentioned before, a lot of folks don't enjoy this wine. They tend to think it is a rip-off of the Pinot Noir and only reflects the poorest qualities of that wine. I disagree.
To help enjoy this sip, we had a beef canape with mango and walnut and Gorgonzola on a polenta cake. I'm a fan of most of these ingredients, but was a little hesitant about the mango. Surprise, it tasted delicious and was an excellent pairing.
For dessert, we had a yummy, bready apple cobbler. I have to confess, I know I had more than I should, but my weakness is carbs, and perhaps for the new year, I'll figure out how to manage self-control, but buttery cobbler topping ... hard to resistance.
We had two different wines to try with dessert. The first was a Petit Stellenbosh Chenin Blanc 2008. It immediately hit my nose like a Chardonnay, but tasted much better. It was very light, crisp and apply. It's something you could serve and easily drink the whole bottle before you know it. Definitely something to put on my list for a hot summer evening. The second was The Sundowner Chenin Blanc 2009. This one smelled like a Riesling, but tasted like a Sauvignon Blanc, it had a nice crisp, grapefruity essence that played on your tongue.
Granted, we went down wine country in reverse, starting with robust reds and ending with crisp whites, but it was a nice journey that revealed a promising young wine country to continue to explore. Since it's January, we take this month to recuperate from our holiday festivities, but our next adventure will start with a Restaurant Tour in February.
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