handtomouth

Last night saw the first in this year’s series of wine and food evenings that I host at the wine bar Caveau in Cape Town. A worthwhile spot, if you haven’t been there yet, with great food and a decent wine list (yes, I did help with it, so I would think so). The theme was sparkling wines and we tasted a number of Cape stalwarts and one fine novelty. Of the wines tasted, one was from Constantia (Steenberg Brut), two from Franschhoek (Pierre Jourdan’s Brut and Blanc de Blancs 2004) and two from Robertson (Bon Courage Blanc de Blanc 2002 and Graham Beck Brut Rose 2004). I was again struck by how much more complexity the bubblies from Robertson displayed, something one must attribute to the lime-rich soils in these parts. The Franschhoek and Constantia wines were lovely and fresh, but did not give the impression of living a full and long life. Then the curiousity: another Franschhoek wine, Moreson Cuvee Cape (please excuse the lack of accents above, due to a lack of technical expertise on insertion). This is a sparkler made from pinotage and chenin blanc – the two “true” Cape grapes. It isn’t a blush, but it has a helluva lot of structure and considerably more sugar than the rest have, it also has abundant fruit and noteworthy tannins. A very surprising drink, good for later, when the palate needs some refreshing fun, or with something like carpacchio due to the sappy tannin that the pinotage bequeaths.