Fleur du Cap Unfiltered Viognier 2009

Fleur du Cap is a well known local wine brand that year on year produces consistently excellent wines. Fleur du Cap is owned by South Africa’s largest wine company, Distell, who in turn own The Bergkelder which is where the wines of Fleur du Cap are made. Their Unfiltered Collection is a range of beautifully made wines often considered as benchmarks in the industry and the Fleur du Cap Range offers wines from premium level to excellent everyday drinking wines.

The wines from the Unfiltered Collection benefit from being paired along with food, and especially when the menu has been prepared by expert chef, Craig Cormack! Craig, who is a salt aficionado, is sort after for his exceptional menus using unrefined salts from around the world and has recently created oriental-inspired dishes for his pairing menu for the Unfiltered Collection of wines at The Bergkelder, the famous ‘cellar in the mountain’ in Stellenbosch.

Craig, who is currently chef patron at Sofia’s restaurant in Somerset West, has been pairing wine and salt for the last 4½ years and has an impressive collection of rare salts from around the globe. He used a selection of these salts at our lunch recently at The Bergkelder which inspired our taste buds through a 4-course salt and wine pairing menu. Craig throughout the meal gave us the background behind each dish and why he had chosen the particular wine to match. It was fascinating to experience the taste sensations using the different salts and incredible to see how compatible the wines were as well! The food was simple and uncomplicated as the idea was to show off the salts and I found the most compatible pairing was with the Unfiltered Viognier with a plate of salt crusted line fish and fresh green salad.

The Fleur du Cap Unfiltered Viognier 2009 displays youthful straw colour with concentrated aromas of dried peach and sweet flower perfume. The silky medium palate offer voluptuous succulent peach flavours leading to a silky dry finish. Delicious now but will intensify with a few years of bottle maturation.

Expect to Pay R107.00

P.S The 4-course Fleur du Cap Unfiltered Wine and Salt pairing dinner will be held on the 29th September 2011 and costs R400 per person including the tasting, food and wines and begin with canapés at 19h00. Booking is essential as seats are limited. Call Nadia Ferreira at Die Bergkelder on Tel: 021-809 8025 or email info@fleurducap.co.za.