Cape Blend Wine Tasting At Idiom Winery

Cape Blend Wine Tasting

Dave and I headed up the mountain to Idiom Wines to do a Cape Blend Wine Tasting. Alberto Bottega’s vineyards are known as Da Capo and his style of wines mainly reflect his Northern Italian heritage. The Cape Blend is predominantly Cabernet Sauvignon or Pinotage, with Merlot, Petit Verdot and Cabernet Franc playing a supporting role. This wine tasting was accompanied by a canapé platter with rib eye prepared in 4 different ways served with wine powder and bucchu and beetroot purée.

Idiom Cape Blend 2005

Made up of 50% Cabernet Sauvignon, 40% Pinotage and 10% Merlot, raisin is most predominant on the nose. It is dry with a rich taste of black berries and black fruit and has a chocolate finish. This was served with the rib eye done sous-vide set on buttered baby leeks and served with a black cherry and raisin compote to emphasise the fruit in the wine. This wine is a good indication of the bottle ageing potential of the more recent vintages.

Idiom Cape Blend 2009

Here Cabernet Sauvignon and Pinotage play equal roles, with 40% each being blended together with 15% Merlot and 5% Petit Verdot. The vineyards experienced fires in the December and this really comes through in the wine. It is smokey on the nose, with a sweet finish. After eating the charcoal-grilled rib eye served with chargrilled sweet potato, cranberry jus and toasted pine nuts, the finish is leather.

Idiom Cape Blend 2011

In this blend Cabernet Sauvignon is predominant at 50%, and is blended with 30% Pinotage, 10% Merlot and 5% each of the Cabernet Franc and Petit Verdot. This reminds me of a Bordeaux style wine and has strawberries on the nose and palate. It has a great structure, tastes of a mellowed balsamic vinegar (in a good way) and has a soft finish. This was served with confit rib eye enhanced with a fresh strawberry salsa and braised fennel bulb.

Idiom Cape Blend 2012

The last of our tasting consisted of a blend made up of 43% Pinotage, 36% Cabernet Sauvignon, 14% Merlot and 7% Petit Verdot. Here I find red berries and the wine is dry with a slight acidic mouthfeel, but a smooth finish. This time the rib eye is pan fried and served with a vanilla potato purée, cinnamon and clove jus, topped with a raspberry. I found the vanilla far too predominant in the purée.

Idiom Wine Tasting

Johan was amazing, guiding us through a comprehensive wine tasting experience that started with the 2014 Viognier which has a floral nose, dried apricot on the palate and a buttery mouthfeel. We then sampled the Bianco Di Stellenbosch 2016 Pinot Grigio. It has a sweet nose and passion fruit on the palate. Our only mistake of the day was not buying a bottle of the Giusti Asolo Prosecco which was stunning. It has a floral nose with apple on the palate and is perfectly dry. It tastes like Italy and I hope they still have stock when next we visit. We completed our tasting with the limited release 900 Series Nebbiolo 2011. They do not usually have these wines open for tasting, but as there was one open we could savour this wine. The nose is full of red berries with liquorice on the palate, and is very smooth.

Contact:

Bookings for the wine and canapé pairing are recommended. If you find yourselves in the area without a booking, you will be able to do a wine tasting and have the option of enjoying an antipasto platter.

+27 21 858 1088

Inspiration published on Lavender and Lime August 30:

• 2013 – Food Addicted Bloggers
• 2012 – Slow Cooked Lamb
• 2011 – Marinated Feta Cheese
• 2010 – Macaron Challenge Round Up

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