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I Love Organic Wine – A South African Cabernet Sauvignon
The Sonop Wine Farm is located in Paarl, South Africa about sixty kilometers (less than forty miles) northeast of Capetown, wine country that produces some mighty fine red wines. This organic Cabernet Sauvignon wine also has the advantage of being Fair Trade which means that the producers and workers are paid a living wage. So you can drink this wine with a clear conscience knowing that both the environment and the people involved its production have been respected. As long as we’re on the subject, make sure to enjoy this wine in moderation so that nobody is harmed. What about the wine itself?
OUR WINE REVIEW POLICY All wines that we taste and review are purchased at the full retail price.
Wine Reviewed
Sonop Organic Cabernet Sauvignon 2007 13.5% alcohol about $ 12.50
Let’s start by quoting the marketing materials.
Description: An excellent value, this certified-organic Cab is also one of a growing number of wines that are certified as Fair Trade. Such a certification guarantees that producers and workers are paid a living wage and that grapes are grown using environmentally conscientious practices. This medium-bodied Cab delivers cassis and typical cigar box aromas, ripe fruit flavours and fairly soft tannins. Pair it with pasta in a meat sauce. Our Quality Assurance Laboratory has determined that this wine contains 22 mg/L of free sulphur. And now for my review.
The first sips revealed a wine that was mildly sweet with soft tannins. It had good length and light acidity. The initial food pairing consisted of slow-cooked beef stew and potatoes with a side of okra in a sauce of garlic, onions, and crushed tomatoes. The wine’s intensity and fruit stepped up to the meat. The okra dish brought out the darkness of the fruit. I added green jalapeno pepper sauce to the meat and got some chocolate and tobacco.
The second pairing involved chicken and potatoes baked in a commercial honey and garlic barbecue sauce. The Cab tasted of dark fruit. It was mouth-filling and yet light. There was a tiny bit of sweetness. The lingering acidity did a good job of cutting the grease.
The final food pairing was with whole-wheat lasagna noodles baked with ground beef, peas, and tomato salsa. This lasagna had no cheese. The wine was round. It tasted of dark cherries with soft tannins and a tobacco finish. I added extra salsa (mild, not spicy) and the tobacco finish intensified. The length was good.
Two cheese pairings marked the end of the bottle. In the presence of sheep’s milk feta cheese the Cab was long and chewy. But brick cheese managed to weaken the wine somewhat.
Final verdict. This wine was quite good and the price is right. I would buy this wine again. If you want an organic wine, this is a good deal. And it’s even better when you consider that it is Fair Trade as well. Even if you aren’t interested in these factors, this Cabernet Sauvignon offers a fine wine for the price.
A Wine Lover’s Weekly Guide To $10 Wines – A Pinot Noir From South Africa
We have reviewed several South African wines lately, and many of them have been quite successful. Pinot Noir can be a fine grape; I often am fond of it. I like its classic tastes of earth and mushrooms and the fact that it isn’t very tannic. And it’s considered food-friendly. The site where it’s made is fantastic, at the conjunction of the Pacific and the Indian ocean. It’s not only beautiful (what vineyard isn’t?) but it’s said to be a winemaker’s dream. On the down side, Pinot Noir is not usually at its best in South Africa.
OUR WINE REVIEW POLICY All wines that we taste and review are purchased at the full retail price.
Wine Reviewed Two Oceans Pinot Noir 2008 13.1% alcohol about $ 9.50 Let’s begin by quoting the marketing materials. Tasting Note : Pale ruby color with a slight hint of garnet; aromas of blueberry, cherry, and earth; dry, medium bodied, with flavors of toasty oak, and raspberry on the long smoky finish. Serving Suggestion : Serve with roast chicken or duck. And now for my review.
At the first sips the wine was almost mouth filling, with touches of earth. Its first pairing was with a ready-made chicken potpie. The wine was thick, earth tasting, and quite short but there was the taste of the underbrush. When I added zesty green jalapeno pepper sauce the Pinot Noir gained in roundness and perhaps length.
The next meal involved chicken meatballs and a barbecued chicken leg with a black bean, corn, chickpea, and pimento salad. This time the wine was almost hefty; it was fairly dark with lots of chocolate and good length.
My final meal was composed of hamburgers, green beans in a tomato sauce, and a salad described below. The wine was dark and had a slight aftertaste. There were dark cherries but no tannins. It was stronger with the green beans but the aftertaste remained. With the accompanying red, yellow, and orange plum and cherry tomatoes and basil leaves this Pinot Noir had a touch of harshness and not much flavor.
I ended the bottle with two local cheeses. With a virtually tasteless brick cheese the wine did not have much taste. So in a way, it was a balanced pairing. With a somewhat stronger yellow cheddar the wine perked up a bit and I tasted some oak.
Final verdict. I do not intend to buy this wine again. While it did manage some fairly good wine pairings it was far from consistent. And with all the inexpensive wines on the market that just isn’t good enough.
A White Wine Drenched Tour Along The Red Path of Paarl, South Africa
A Glass Of Wine Drenched Scenic Tour Along The Red Course of Paarl, South Africa
The white wine custom in Paarl is older than the origins of the aging Oak Trees that line its Cape Dutch roads. The very first European inhabitants showed up at the Cape of Good Hope in 1652, planting the seeds that strengthened the Cape’s credibility as a wine expanding heaven.
Since the work has actually currently been done, what else can you and also I do but indulge in the fragile fruits pressed with decades of wine making experience as well as travel the freshly formed courses leading us to the finest wines on the planet.
Neglect the greatness of the Drakensberg Mountains, attempt to overlook the historic monoliths perched loftily upon pearly hillsides, the type of white wine tasting to be done in Paarl will certainly call for every ounce of your concentration.
Since we recognize what we are going to be doing in Paarl, apart from taking pleasure in the landscapes, allow’s make a trip into the winelands, delving right into existing day wine making neighborhoods, revealing their intriguing characteristics and mapping those dynamic glass of wines to retreats so commonly missed out on by the multitude.
In the process, if we’re lucky, we might make the associate of a genuine Garagiste, a course of heretic garage wine makers steered clear of in France by the old school traditionalists as a result of the stir their individually crafted white wines develop. There may be a tip in the process regarding where we could find among those that make these “Vins de Garage”. The mixture of Paarl’s best climate as well as their special skills makes certain to be extremely gratifying.
We start our trip at the entrance of the Hugenot Passage, the breach to the longest white wine route in the world, also referred to as Course 62. But we go no better; what we are primarily concerned with is the well known Red Route … The Red Route The Red Path, as you can imagine, is called due to the huge quantity and also quality of merlots along its relaxing meander. It was developed by a cooperation of a glass of wine manufacturers known as the Paarl Vintners (A Glass Of Wine Vendors). The Vintners vigilantly plotted a wine route for an approximated 24 individuals, all found within the Paarl Valley. One or 2 of these consist of the De Zoete Inval Estate possessed by the Frater family, who have actually been making a glass of wine here for greater than 115 years. The Rhebokskloof Estate has actually additionally been producing white wine given that 1692. Regrettably, the red wine from that very early period has actually currently been consumed.
The Red Route is without inquiry a collection of the most popular red wine producers in the globe. Any effort made in locating them would not in any kind of method be an aggravation to your preference buds. The Red Path’s Cabernet Sauvignon as well as Shiraz are certainly the very best in the world.
Fairview
Not strictly a red wine course, the Red Course is additionally, by happy coincidence, a cheese course. Which brings us to our next stop along our journey – Fairview.
Fairview is South Africa’s biggest producer of speciality cheeses. For over 25 years, milk goats have actually provided milk for a variety of cheeses varying from Jacket Milk, Brie and also Camembert to a wide array of Italian and also French-style cheeses.
If nevertheless that is insufficient of a motivation to visit Fairview, a little historic run-through ought to offer to magnify your interest …
Fairview not just produces speciality cheeses, but likewise prize-winning red wines. In 1693, Simon van der Stel, the 2nd guv of the Cape of Excellent Hope, designated the original land at Fairview to Steven Vervey, a French Huguenot. The very first white wine was made on Fairview in 1699 and also a long custom has actually long considering that established. Fairview started its own bottling in 1974 and also auctioned its first bottled red wines at the really first white wine public auction ever before kept in the country, pre-dating the currently renowned Nederburg Public auction
The Nederburg Public auction.
The Auction is Paarl’s biggest wine festival and resembles the World Mug for winetasters. Held at the end of every summer, the public auction epitomises what fine wine is everything about. The really significance of the occasion exists in the tasting of 147 award winning wines, maybe also those of the Garagistes, yet you will have to wait and also see!
The public auction is a standard of high quality for South African Wines as well as offers as a display for African red wines to the global profession. Due to this, any tag proclaiming “cost the Nederburg Auction” is concerned as having an official stamp of approval, worldwide.
Too much talk about red wine is liable to make a person a little obsessed. It seeks all only fermented grape juice. Yet Paarl makes it well as well as the Red Path is the most effective place to find it.
Great a glass of wine naturally goes well with good food and Paarl supplies some of the most effective restaurants in the Cape, offering a variety of foods that mingle well with a bottle of your preferred tipple.
Paarl is likewise a place abundant in history with its building marvels. They seem to stand for the concrete and also rock variations of its fine red wines. Each a glass of wine estate has a special destination – a gable, an unique goat tower like the one at Fairview or even a gargoyle awaiting the flash of your camera.
Olive Sampling
Due to the fact that one-track mind restricts the mind, numerous things can be missed along the Red Path. Take olive sampling as an example. This is becoming a significant tourist attraction on some of the estates, a lot of whom currently expand Olive Trees for the export of olive oil.
The remainder is up to you. Whether you come down to the specifics and also better details of a glass of wine sampling or broaden your perspectives staring over the Paarl Valley from Paarl Rock relies on which side of the tunnel you get on. Take pleasure in Paarl!