Madame Bucket

It's pronounced Boo-kay

[madamebucket]

#WineSquad

Welcome to WineSquad!

The concept is super simple, once a month I’ll get together a bunch of awesome people in Joburg around a wine centered event and I’ll write about it here. Updating you on all the good good we find and drinking copious amounts of wine so that you don’t have to.

Whether it’s going to a wine show or pairing champagne and chicken wings WineSquad will be about sharing the goodness of wine with good people.

Our first WineSquad for the year was a blind tasting of supermarket white wines for less than R50. Everyone brought a bottle, they were labeled in the back and served in an unmarked decanter. The wines were scored out of 5.

Two non-supermarket wines were mixed in, one a reference point and the other as a  treat from  Canada.

Somewhat surprisingly the top two performing wines were our non-supermarket wines the Backsberg  John Martin Reserve 2016 Sauvignon Blanc, our reference wine  with an average score of  3.01. This was closely followed by our WineSquad treat wine, a Canadian Ice Wine from the NC Teaching  Winery in Ontario with a score of 2.8.

The other wines weren’t all that far behind and the Spier Chardonnay was the top supermarket wine with 2.7, followed by the 2016 Spier Peachy Chenin Blanc at 2.6 narrowly beating out the Graca White Wine at 2.5.

The best-represented winery at the event was Spier with 3 bottles up for tasting. In fact, two people actually brought the same wine so we only opened 2 of the Spier bottles.

The blind tasting removed a lot of the prejudices we would have otherwise had. And I was really surprised by the complexity of nose on the Graca because my standards were very low. The abundance of Spier showed the power of branding and just how well the vineyard has cornered the “wine that’s affordable but that you’re not embarrassed to bring to dinner” market. It was also interesting to see that doubling the price of the wine didn’t really change the enjoyment factor all that much.

Here are rankings and detail about the wine:

#1 Backsberg  John Martin Reserve Sauvignon Blanc

Vintage: 2016

Price: R96.00

Appearance: Straw, delicate pine, an opaque yellow, cloudy runoff

Nose: Toasty, lightly wooded, cheese in your pocket that you find two days later, fruity and floral, unimpressive,  subtle pithiness, wet cotton, gunpowder, rocky

Taste:  A balanced flavour with minerality and high acidity, that holds floral notes and a touch of white and green fruits.

Finish: Creamy, crisp, and dry

Sounds Like : Florence+ the machine at Diwali listening to Stimela

Total Score: 3.01

WS COMMENT : It’s good and fancy, and you can take it to dinner with your boss but if the people drinking aren’t wine people it won’t be all that impressive.

#2 NC Teaching Winery Ice Wine

Vintage: 2012

Price: unknown

Appearance: Rooibos red,  tea, rosey substance, burnt orange

Nose: sweet oak, rubbing alcohol, toffee apple, chutney, jamy, cognac, apricot

Taste: Sweet syrupy perfumed alcohol, sickly sweet, maple syrup, cough syrupy

Finish: syrupy, slow fireworks , happy feeling, toffee, overwhelming

Sounds Like: A party , Spice Girls- If you wanna be my lover

Total Score: 2.8

WS COMMENT : Some people really liked it and some people hated it. If you like sweet dessert wines/ ports this will be delicious. If you don’t it won’t convince you. (Two people left blank score sheets and that may have biased the wine’s final ranking towards the people who were all about it).

#3 Spier Chardonnay

Vintage: 2016

Price:  R54.00

Appearance: Golden, white as heaven, golden sunset, golden straw

Nose: Asparagus, green pepper, slightly burnt leafy greens, bold and herbaceous,

Taste: Crisp, fruity, spiced wood, sour, soft syrup

Finish: Sparkle, smooth, full-bodied

Sounds Like: Waves crashing, Girl put your records on- Corrine Bailey Rae, old people listening to music late in the afternoon

Total Score:2.7

WS COMMENT : It’s really pleasant it’s easy, a very good starter Chardonnay for people who don’t like that butterscotch beehive vibe, take it with you on a picnic.

#3 Spier Peachy Chenin Blanc

Vintage: 2016

Price: R42.95

Appearance: Gold with a hint of green, weak apple juice, light Canola oil, delicate straw

Nose: Unripe mango, green pepper, gooseberries, grass, petrol, perfume, sharp, woody, acidic, fruity and floral

Taste: Tropical fruit, silky, a bit harsh, fruity, the first year of working, light caramel, bitter

Finish: spicy vinegar, smooth, citrus, alcohol, dry, fresh, bitter

Sounds Like:  A blonde in heels, a bar at 2am, chilled listening to some blues, Annie are you ok, pop music, a pop song I don’t like but dance to anyway

Total Score: 2.6

WS COMMENT: The idea that it tastes like the first year of working is pretty accurate. It’s a wine you buy when you’ve graduated from Four Cousins and want nice things but you’re not quite sure what those nice things are yet.

#5 Graca White NV

Vintage: 2015

Price: R39.50

Appearance: Potholder straw, soft yellow, pale gold, pale blonde

Nose: Fruity, sweet tropical, citrus, gooseberries, fresh, grassy , cucumber, slate, lemongrass

Taste: Sour, prickles the tongue with high acidity, guava, monkey fruit, smooth, prickly pear, clerical

Finish: Sour, soft , almost crisp, slightly fruity , tart

Sounds Like: Kirstenbosch Sunset concert, Oliver Mutukuzi ( a bit rough but really good), a lazy war

Total Score: 2.5

WS COMMENT: Some people really really like it. Some really really hate it. If people don’t know it’s Graca the same people will still love it and the rest will still hate it.

                                       *******The END******

  ***If you scroll a little further down  the page you’ll see that I  stopped writing about wine a few years ago. The reason I stopped was because the industry just didn’t seem like a nice place. A lot of the people I met weren’t any fun and focused on promoting wine as an exclusionary enjoyment practice. Which is definitely not the reason I drink. So, I had to spend a while figuring out how to share my love of wine with people in a way that makes sense to me. And that’s the WineSquad origin story.

[madamebucket]

So I know I haven’t said anything in ages. I’m sorry and I promise I haven’t stopped drinking wine. I’ll be back, soon even. But as I’m trying to get my act together here is a  wonderful video by Sibongile Mafu  @sboshmafu on the basics of Red vs White ( don’t be shy we all need it). As an addendum to the video, since summer temperatures out here in Africa  are generally way above 14-18 C it’s really not a bad idea to pop that red in the fridge on sunny afternoon.

[madamebucket]

Madame Bucket turned 1 today! I can't believe it's my blog Birthday. The internet told me. Yay! Thank you to everyone who reads this ever. This blog makes me sound so much cooler than I really am. Thank you thank you thank you Universe :)

[madamebucket]

Wine Wednesday : Winery of Good Hope

It's quick , it's dirty, it's that sneaky ode to drinking a fair bit of wine on a school night. Last night I was lucky enough to head back to where it all started, a Wednesday wine tasting at Tjing Tjing. 

 We tasted wines  from The Winery of Good Hope, an Unoaked Chardonnay and a  Pinot Noir 

The Chardonnay

So I'm not really team Chardonnay because it's just too surprising as a varietal. I never quite know what'll be inside the bottle, will it be green and fresh, soft and buttery? Is that wholey dependant on the oak or lack therof ? I don't know !  And that's why I don't normallly like Chardonnay but this was delicious.

Vintage:2012

Nose: Not overly bold, light summer fruits ( with the stems attached) , kind of peachy

Taste: A gentle fizz with some sweetness. , its got a good body and structure but without the creaminess. It warms the throat in a very very pleasant way. It's yummmy

Half of the grapes for this wine are from Durbanville which gives it the greenness and the other half are from Stellenbosch which gives it the sweetness. There were three different pickings to ensure an all round balanced ripeness

The Pinot Noir

Vintage : Forgot to ask 

Nose: Some crazy cheesy warmth. My first hits were all about that french oak which is  a little weird because it's all  2nd fill with no new oak. But my nose don't lie, so I'll go with it.

Taste: So apparently they have a really linear approach to making this wine. I'm not quite sure what that means  but what it taste like is a well structured wine that's light but still has a sort of taste integrity, with a good flow and finish. It's a really pleasant wine to drink and has way more character than the average watery pinot.

Half of the grapes are from Elgin and the other half are from Stellenbosch.

Overall my tasting from Winery of Good Hope  was decidedly pleasant experience. I'm not quite in love but I'd definitely be happy to try some of their other stuff.

[madamebucket]

Thank you so much to everyone who came out for #WarmWednesday, with all your support we were able to raise R2682  also known as 17.52 sleeping bags. Thank you to everyone who made this winter a little warmer for Cape Town's homeless community. If you weren't able to make the event, it's still possible for you to #giftabag by going onto the streetsleeper.org website. 

[madamebucket]

#WarmWednesday

This blog was started on the basis of my love for drinking wine on Wednesday, #WineWednesday. I spent most of last year going to incredibly informative tastings, learning all about how wonderful wine is. It was pretty much the highlight of my week, week after week.

But , now that I'm a grown-up and have lived just that little bit more, I realise that there could be better things to do on Wednesday  than drink wine. And those better things are drinking wine AND helping people.

That's why together with StreetSleeper we're hosting what will be our first #WarmWednesday on the  25 June 2014.

#WarmWednesday is pretty much jazz in a kitchen with good friends and gluhwein. Bringing together the things that make me feel warm and fuzzy to help make winter a little warmer for some of Cape Town's less privileged residents.

StreetSleeper is an awesome organisation that upcycles billboards into sleeping bags (http://streetsleeper.org/billboard-to-bag/ ).  Each bag costs R150 to make from billoard to delivery and  is this really cool intersection  where helping the environment and helping people are the same thing.  We're asking you to get involved in all that awesome by heating things up at our #WarmWednesday #WarmWednesday is your chance to see the Abraham Mennon Trio tear it up with some serious groove on the Sax, Keys and Double Bass. 

Date: 25 June

Time: 20:00-22:30

Venue: 91 Station Road Observatory 

The suggested donation at the door is R50 which let's you in to an amazing musical experience and is one third of the way to a sleeping bag. OR you can gift a whole sleeping bag for R150 The event is BYOB but there will be Gluhwein and Soup on sale inside. Please bring blankets and pillows to make your seating experience that much more comfortable.

  If you are unable to attend the event but would still like to contribute to the cause, you can donate a full sleeping bag at this link: http://streetsleeper.org/product/giftbags/ 

  OR contact [email protected] for further details 

[madamebucket]

What Good Brandy Tastes Like

In my previous post, I mentioned something about how the Fine Brandy Fusion was a life changing experience but I never got quite to explaining why. So here's the why.

We started the night with the food on offer which is always a good idea when you plan to be drinking a lot. Line that stomach! We were treated to delightfully fancy things at the festival restaurant. Mine was an oxtail something or other and Jeremy  had the  duck. It was pretty darn delicious.

The festival kitchen was a bit of a mismatch, with amazing food served in an almost cafeteria style .So, that was weird, but we were there for the brandy so who cared.

Our first tasting of the night was the Oude Meester 18 year old Sovereign and my oh my was that a way to start. The Oude Meester stall had special timed tastings of their favourite 18 year old and the host Z, was the person who gave us most of the brandy knowledge that I shared a while back.

 Oude Meester 18 year Old Sovereign 

Nose : Cigar box woody, with some dark chocolate and over ripe apricots

Taste: Suprisingly fresh, delicately sweet and as can be expected after 18 years in oak  and decidely velvety.

The next distillery we got involved with was Oude Molen  we tasted their Solera, V.O.V and their Rene Single Cask.

                                             Oude Molen

Solera

Nose: Lightly floral

Taste: Sweet-ish and smooth 

V.OV

Nose: Fresh,  citrussy( kind of like the leaves of  citrus fruit trees), cigar box , chocolate.

Taste: Soft and sweet

Rene Single Cask

Nose: Caramel, toffee, butterscotch

Taste:  Fuller,  Sweeter and  Rougher, a lot more body

Quote from the tasting was : " A hot lady a bite"

And then we got to the moment that changed my life, my tasting from Van Ryn's. All evening I'd been going to the stall but the lady helping said it would be best to wait for the Master Distiller, Marlene Bester and boy was she right. Ms Bester, has the distinction of being one of the few female Master Distiller's, in a predominantly male dominated industry. Talking to her was such an inspiration.

Van Ryn's is something of a gem in the South African Brandy crown, their 12 year old brandy has won the award as the world's best brandy 9 times since 2004 and remains one of the world's most awarded brandies.

                                                Van Ryn's

12 Year Old Brandy 

Nose: Fresh berries, hay , clean laundry , pot pouri.

Taste: Smooth but bodied and definitely improved with a dash of water that just opened it up and added a lightness to the tongue.

And now for the 20 year old. Nearly as old as I am, the Van Ryn's 20 year old was a beauty to behold. As I was about to taste it one of the tasters from a  well regarded Cape Town restaurant, mentioned that industry insiders often referred to it as a , "Panty dropper". And man are they right. 

20 Year Old Brandy 

Nose: Plummy with a light fruit tree blossom, a hint of vanilla and basically, just a confluence of smell. It has the balance of the ideal perfume, soft, delicate with surprising notes of freshness. It was pretty much the best thing I've smelt in my life, ever.

Taste: It's so smooth, so much body and so much flavour, holding the lightness of water whilst maintaing depth, character and a velvety smoothness. There's  also this seamless meeting of rich indulgence and refined simplicity. It was , "just-so," nothing could be added or taken away, a taste that holds all flavours in perfect harmony and balance. In short it was life changing.

Now the real honest truth is that you're probably not going to find these brandies at your average corner store but if you do happen to come across them , your life will be just a little bit better.

[madamebucket]

Fine Brandy Fusion & The Brandy Basics

Ok before I even start this I have a confession to make. Alright not one, maybe two confessions; I may have potentially taken more than my allocated one glass home and my ticket for the event was free. So there you have it. I am a cheapskate who likes festival glasses.

On Friday the 23 May, I had the privilege of attending the Fine Brandy Fusion event hosted by the South African Brandy Foundation and I'm not going to lie it was kind of amazing. I went to the festival with my friend Jeremy Bingham (he’s the guy responsible for all the pictures you'll see from the event), and had a pretty life-changing experience. I admit it sounds a little far fetched, but I feel that being introduced to a whole new world of excellence totally counts as a life changing experience.

Until this event, I'd never really considered brandy as a real thing to get involved in. My sister spent a year living on the same road as one of the best brandy distilleries in the country and I never so much as batted an eyelid. I was all about wine, all the time and maybe some gin if I was feeling festive. But I was wrong and wrong in a big way because there is something uniquely beautiful about brandy. I learnt way too much to put into one post so we’re gonna take this step by step.

Before we get to the nitty gritty's here are a few brandy basics to help understand what brandy's about.

Brandy is made from  grapes. The harvest for brandy grapes starts a little earlier in the season than for wine grapes because the grapes need to have a lower sugar content and higher levels of acidity, allowing more flavours to withstand the distillation process.

In South Africa, brandy is predominantly made from Colombar and Chenin Blanc  grapes .

I may be wrong here but what I was able to gather was that distillation for brandy is basically cooking the fermented grape juice, to separate the  good alcohol from the bad and increasing the alcohol content.

When you use barrels to age brandy just a bit of it evaporates and that is what's called the angel's share .

  Now for the Tasting Part:

Look at the colour.  The longer the time spent in oak barrels, the richer and deeper the colour. New oak barrels give a darker colour but because brandy ages for such a long time, housing it in new wood for that entire period would leave you with a  Coca Cola looking substance. So whilst the first few years may be in new wood, brandies often move house at least once as they get a little older .

Never twirl your glass.  In wine tasting, you normally have to do that thing where you like all fancy and swirl the wine in your glass to aerate the wine a little. This is not how it works for brandy. Whilst swirling the glass, does open up the  brandy the high alcohol content  means that most of what you're "opening up" is the smell of liquor. Don't do it, I looked like a complete fool swirling 20 year old Brandies.

Bring the rim of the glass to your bottom lip and slowly work your way up until it's just below your nose. It's that high alcohol content again, diving your nose into a glass of brandy could very well burn your little nostrils, so be classy and take it slow.

If you still can't smell anything then suck the air up through your mouth before taking a sip and that should help you identify the flavours.

Now for the tasting, if it's good it should be quite velvety and smooth. Concentrate on  where it tingles as you swallow.

Water works with brandy  but remember to not go past 1 part water to 3 parts brandy

  * Extra fun: If you want to improve the smoothness of the brandy in your mouth, try smoking a cigar or cigarillo and blowing the smoke into your glass. It unlocks all kinds of delicious flavours and from personal experience, can make a 5 year old brandy taste as smooth as one that's 15 years old

                                          Being a Mix Master

Brandy is often known as Karate Juice because of its alleged propensity to  start bar fights. But it's not the brandy talking it's the brandy and coke talking. Whilst brandy and Coke is a super popular South African drink, it doesn't really work that well with your body because as the alcohol is trying to bring you down, the caffeine and sugar in the coke are pumping you full of energy leading to feeling that can only inspire Karate chops.

This doesn't mean you shouldn't mix brandy because brandy is an excellent base, you should just try and mix it with things that have less sugar, like tonic, soda water, lemonade or some ginger beer.

Less sugar means you get so much more of that delicious brandy flavour.

That is pretty much all that I can fit in one blog post but this weekend I'll be filling you in  on all the brandies we tasted...

[madamebucket]

How Tasty was the Taste of Cape Town?

 A month later here's that review:

I went to the Taste of Cape Town as one of those last minute, spur of the moment things. My aunt was in town for a few days and it seemed like the perfect way to  show her some of Cape Town’s culture . But to tell you the truth for the most part I was distinctly underwhelmed.

Cape Town has this weird exhibition/ food festival culture where they tell you it's an amazing food and wine experience. You pay a serious ticket price for a food and wine experience only for you to go to a glorified market where people try to sell you things. Admittedly really nice things but I always walk away feeling a bit swindled and the Taste of Cape Town was no different.

There was some beautiful food displayed  but my cheapskate body rebelled against having to pay R50 for a mini-meal after paying R100 to get in.  The wine however, was "free"  to taste with a per glass cost to buy. . 

The festival had a really interesting series of talks that were free and my aunt and I got ourselves into the Beer vs Wine food pairing. Where a selection of appetizers were paired with a  beer and a wine and the audience had to vote on which was better. As a wine drinker some of the results were surprising but it was a really fun way to talk about things that can often get too serious and too stuffy.

But on to the wine, here is what I tasted on the evening

Iona- Elgin

Savignon Blanc

Vintage: 2013 

Nose :  Peachy sweet with a deep intensity 

Taste: Bubbly Bodied and Dry

Comment :Yummy and not too serious 

One Man Band , Red Blend

Vintage: 2009

Blend:  69% Shiraz 31% Merlot and a blend of  Cabernet, Petit Verdoux, Mouvedre & Voigner

Nose: White Chocolate & Coffee

Taste: Good texture to start but a little bit astringent towards the end 

Hermanuspietersfontein- Hermanus

Really great people at the stall , super interesting and super interested, really took the time to explain where they were coming from 

Bloos - Bourdeax Blend Blanc de Noir (almost like a rosé but better)

Vintage :2013

Blend : Merlot, Mahlbec, Petit Verdot, Cab Franc

Nose : Candyfloss, Watermelon*, Rose *  & a hint of Vanilla *

 wooded (* means what they told me it should smell like)

 No 7 Sauvigogn Blanc

Vintage : 2013

Nose: Fruity

Taste:  Sweet ( but not in a gross way) & delicious at the top of the palate with a hint of creaminess in the texture as you take it down

Comments: It's not an easy hot day white wine, it's got a but more body than was expected but all in a very very good way.They told me that it's a Sancerre style , terroir based wine.

Sounds Like : Get me Bodied- Beyonce

Previously I had heard only good things about Idiom wines but what I tasted was just not at all delicious to me.

Idiom- Stellenbosch

Shiraz

Vintage : 2008

Nose:Laundry , maybe old socks,  a but musty

Taste: So harsh  ( too old to be this harsh) maybe even a bit bitter

Feeling distinctly dissapointed I asked to taste something else they'd reccomend and that was even worse.

Cape Blend

Vintage: 2008

Nose: Sour milk and fruit that's just a bit off with a hint of green pepper.

Taste: I think I sort of left at that point and didn't record what it tasted like 

They had a stall with a chocolate pairing for each of the wines on offer but in the aide of responsible drinking, I only had one:

Kevin Arnold - Stellenbosch

Shiraz

Vintage : 2010

Blend: 90% Shiraz with a 10% Mouvedre

Nose: Sour-ish fruit in the sun with a hint of dust, in the heat of the sun. So basically  a lot of sunshine I guess

Taste : Full and heavy, was paired with a Masala chai chocolate that took off a bit of the edge but made it taste more ordinary

Sounds Like: One of the stall keepers said it sounded like Avicii - Hey Brother and I was a bit scared by the artist but he may not be that far off

 All in all it was ok, I had a lovely time with my aunt and got to walk around tasting wine. Would I do it again? Yes , probably if I can get the Pick n Pay Smartshopper tickets, those  tickets are not available at the door but using your smartshopper card online you get to pay R40 as opposed to R100  and it's definitely worth R40.

[madamebucket]

Whiskey/ Whisky 101

As I write this I'm drinking a glass of red wine and listening to some Billie Holiday, chock full of remorse for all the time we haven't spent together over the last six months. I'm sorry. But like an ever-cheating boyfriend, I come bearing gifts that I hope will soothe the pain. The first of which is a concise lesson in Whiskey Tasting and the second to follow shortly is a review of the Taste of Cape Town , Food & Wine Festival that happened from the 3 - 6 of April .

First things first, I am much too poor to drink whiskey and have no shame in admitting that, there's a reason why whisky drinking conjours up images of really fat old men with cigars. To add to that I also know very very little about whisky except that  Scotch is to whisky what Champagne is to sparkling wine (you're welcome).  However,whilst at the Taste of Cape Town I had the decided pleasure of running into Paul la Cock distributor at Aficionados (Online Premium Liquor Store) and here are his tips.

Whisky 101

1. When tasting whisky the first thing to look for is the colour. In whisky production you are allowed to add colouring but in the traditional process, the colour comes from the wood.

2. Smell it.

2.5 Add Water, this is a personal preference thing and some people add water to help unlock some of the flavours of the whisky and get you past that , " Oh my gosh, it's burning in my mouth feeling." If you are adding water it should be at least 10%- 20% of the diluted mixture and not more than 50% 

3. Get your drink on.

Naturally in order to test that these methods were accurate, I needed to taste some for myself. 

There were many brands on show for the day but we got into a really interesting and new entry into the South African Market called Ka Va Lan, a  single malt Taiwanese Whiskey.  Ka Va Lan is a whiskey that's been designed for the Chinese market so it's not quite the average whisky.  According to Paul its quite a bit sweeter than what you would normally expect from a whiskey but in a really good way, here are my notes:

Nose: honey , vanilla with a hint of florals 

Tastes: Like a beverage that is 59.4% alcohol but still incredibly delicate and beautiful.

Sounds like : The intro music to Grey's Anatomy, delicate but defined

And that's all folks! But I hope to back soon with the Wines from the Taste of Cape Town

P.S. There is some debate as to whether to spell it whiskey or whisky  that  can settled by looking at the preference of the particular Whiskey/Whisky's country of origin

P.P.S Nosing whisky normally reminds me of the smell of Brandy and Coke, thoroughly uncultured I know but there's something about the way you first smell something that makes it stick.

P.P.P.S Since learning all these fun facts, more people have offered me whiskey than ever before.

[madamebucket]

Wine Wednesday- Cape Point Vineyards

The Wine for this week’s wine Wednesday were some super wonderful whites from Cape Point Vineyards. Now, I’m a crazy seasonal drinker  with Whites for Spring and Summer and Reds for the rest. The problem with living in Cape Town though, is that you never really know what weather you’re going to get regardless of what season we’re technically supposed to be in. Something that makes this seasonality thing a bit tricky but I think it’s safe to say that it is officially White season, regardless of what the Red October enthusiasts would have you believe. And the Whites from Cape Point definitely taste like summer.

  It started off with a 2012 Sauvignon Blanc sold exclusively to Woolworths.  This wine bears the contradiction of being classy but easy. Its got a very aromatic fruity nose with a subtle flavor on the pallet. It doesn’t taste like what you’re expecting with all that mixed fruit kind of tropical nose but it’s not disappointing either. I like .

Sounds like :  Norah Jones easy but super classy

Their homebrand 2012 Sauvignon Blanc is a completely different taste experience. It's sweet and yummy on the nose.Tastes kinda sparkly, but in a good way. Fresh and scrubby with a hint of fynbos. Very enjoyable.

Sounds like: For the life of me, I cannot remember 

Ok I really just have to accept it Chardonnay’s no longer only taste like a lady with pearls and a beehive and that’s not such a bad thing because I really like what I’m tasting. South African winemakers are really  experimenting with what Chardonnay tastes like and that’s really good. The only problem is that I’m not sure what I’m going to get when I buy a bottle of South African Chardonnay. This means that as a consumer I have to have a lot more knowledge about terroir, climate and region to choose a bottle I know I’ll like . I’d be really interested to find out what that’s doing for the export market.

Geeky bits aside, the 2012 Chardonnay is really soft and romantic but clean and fresh at the same time. On first sips a fellow taster was all , no no no but with the 2nd and the 3rd this wine really shows itself off.  It has a delicate mineral nose from the ocean air  but also a really light almost buttery, creamy texture .

Sounds like : Samba de Mon Couer  Qui Bat- Coralie Clement light but with body and depth.

We got a special treat and were able to taste their unreleased  2012 Sauvignon Blanc  and this was my favourite of the night . it was a  sexy fresh nose all kinds of paw paw and pithy notes but with all this hidden depth. The wine was really subtle , it was subtley complex. It had a bit of spiceyness and a fullness that cam  from using old barrels . It’s  the kind of white I would think about drinking in winter because whilst it’s refreshing it just has the kind of depth and body that makes me feel I  can drink it all year round.

Sounds like :   A cross between Words – John  Mayer and Joss Stone’s Unwritten

Their flagship wine is the Isliedh and I think it’s pronounced Eye-lah, it’s  a white blend of 75% Sauvignon Blanc and 25% Semillion. It’s got a very heavy nose, super romantic and sensual, kind of like pot pourri. There are very few white wines I think would be appropriate on a romantic evening in. This is one of them . It’s got a really soft texture in your mouth, an almost velvet  that’s  thoroughly appropriate for a white wine . It tastes almost meaty with a very herby , savoury characteristic and apparently  that’s because of the  wind and the fynbos that grows near by.  That being said it also has a sort of  salted caramel element and like I’ve said of most of these wines incredibly subtle. Interestingly enough this is also one of those rare Whites that will age well  built to make it to the 10 year mark . 

All in all it was the perfect entry into the white wine drinking season.Can't wait.

P.s. It's really hard to spell Sauvignon

[madamebucket]

#WineWasted

So this past Wine Wednesday was a  pretty special one , the wine was fabulous , the company delightful and the lack of proper planning meant I kind of got a bit Wine Wasted . So since this is a blog about super cool  classy things I thought it was only appropriate to  add a section on how to drink like grown up .

Eat  Something, I know summer is coming and we’re looking to get the bodies Camps Bay ready but if you’re going to drink more than a glass of anything make sure you’ve had a substantial meal before .

Drink Something other than Alcohol e.g Water. The whole point of  drinking as a grown up is to enjoy that  happy place before you get sick or do something silly and alternating drinks with water means you get to maintain that balance for longer and take the edge off of tomorrow’s hangover.

When  drinking on a week night set a cut off time with your friends and make sure to stick to it. Even if you have a super  fun round of post –work drinks,  ending the drinks by 9pm means you should be able to cope reasonably well the next day

 Say no to free drinks ( Sometimes). I know that when I go out and I’m paying I’m a lot more conscious of the amount of alcohol I consume but when you don’t have to take out that cash or swipey swipey it’s harder to keep track. So, if you don’t want to end up wine wasted , pay for yourself and maybe others, at least that way you’ll be a bit more conscious  of your intake.

Have good friends. Good friends are the key to a good night out and having an awesome set of buddies with similar drinking goals ( staying moderately tipsy) will help you achieve them . Drinking with others can make you more accountable and  bottle of wine between 4 is much more responsibly split than a bottle for 1.  And if that doesn’t work  at least they’ll be there to take care of the mess afterwards.

 And with those wise words I implore you and myself to go forth and drink like adults . Though to be  fully honest, these are my last 3 months of being a student so I think I might try to get the uni vibes out of my system before I officially have to be a grown up .

[madamebucket]

Wine Wednesday Report Back

Ok , it's official , I'm really not the world's most consistent  blogger. This happens to me every time I start a new blog and I always get surprised. But on the plus side, my being a bad blogger means I'm that much more discerning about the wines we talk about and today we're talking about Chardonnay. 

So recently , I've been tasting a lot of Chardonnay's that don't taste like Chardonnay's and I'm not sure that's a good thing. In my mouth, Chardonnay's taste all kinds of buttery , textured and maybe kind of  nutty. They're the serious white wine, the kind that require pearls and an up-do . And whilst I'm more of a Sav Blanc girl myself, I feel like Chardonnay should taste like Chardonnay and not a sort of  baby  Sav Blanc unless you're doing the unwooded thing which I'm not sure I support.

That being said, I did have the fortune of tasting a skillfully crafted  2012 Chardonnay from La Bri in Franschoek and whilst it tastes nothing like a typical wooded Chardonnay it does take like something that took a lot of care to make.

Tastes like: an Unwooded Chardonnay that tastes like a young fresh Sauvignon Blanc but with more complexity and depth. Super fruity and Green, kinda viney .

Sounds Like :  A song you think is one song but is actually something completely different

  The 2011 Merlot

I don't really like Merlots so I'm not sure how involved I can get in this. But even for someone who doesn't like Merlots this tastes well crafted. Thehit you in the front of the tongue as opposed to at the back which show it's quality and also the fact that this wine is a baby.

Tastes like: A young, fruity sexy wine that has a bit of growing up to do

Sounds like : Miley Cyrus : Party in the USA ( fun, catchy but will get so much better with age).

2011 Affinity

My tasting notes on this are absolutely shocking, maybe it's because I was enjoying it so much. All I can remember about this wine is that its yummy. It's a deliciously well balanced blend that I feel could suit very many situations . It's a Bordeaux blend with 34% Cabernet Sauvignon 34% Merlot, 14 % Petit  Verdot and  14% Cabernet Franc. I can't remember for the life of me what it sounds like but I promise to be more fastidious in my next set of notes.

Exciting news, I got my hands on the Platters Wine Guide for 2012 so maybe I'll start sounding a lot more edumacated in my upcoming blogs. Keen! Also a heads up to a super awesome sounding event happening in Cape Town next week, The Wine and Malt Whiskey Affair  from the 19th-20th October. Check it out here:  http://winetimes.co/2013/10/03/matchmaker-wade-bales-presents-the-wine-and-malt-whisky-affair/

 (waves bye)

[madamebucket]

The Wine- Elgin Ridge 282

Can't go to a Wine Wednesday without drinking Wine so here's the review:

DISCLAIMER:  I had a cold when I tasted this so my notes may be off.

 At the Tjing Tjing tasting we had very cool, very organic white wines from Elgin Ridge 282. Ok so first things first, I need to tell you that I'm crazy partial to wines from Elgin . The most amazing wine I've ever tasted comes from there .So whenever I hear Elgin my heart gets crazy hopeful.

First off was the 2011 Unoaked Chardonnay . Another disclaimer here, if I'm drinking Chardonnay , I like it to taste like Chardonnay super buttery and heavy. So this was a little but too light for me but definitely had some nutty, buttery flavours with a smooth finish.

Sounds like : Scandanavian-pop , like summer in the woods with dapples of sunshine. 

Recommended listening : Kings of Convenience 

Another thing about me and white wine is that I like my Savignon Blancs young, like super young  almost jumping out the barrel young. I like them like this because I feel it has a prettier nose and smells a lot like summer. Tasted the 2012 Savignon Blanc  and it was yummy but unremarkable. Like a good white for drinking with friends but not all that special. It is however, super fruity and peachy with low tannins. It has a high alcohol content but doesn't taste that way. Both these wines had really yummy easy drinking texture. 

 Sounds like : Call Me Maybe- Carly Rae Jeppeson

Recommended Listening: Whatever you like to jam to with your friends on a sunny afternoon

[madamebucket]

Wine Wednesday Wine Off

So last week I had the pleasure of discovering a new wine Wednesday hang out. 

So I'm sure you guys know that I'm a Tjing Tjing loyalist when it comes to Wine Wednesday's but on my way home from Haas ( the best coffee shop in the world - it feels like home). I stumbled upon I Love my Laundry. A Laundromat come wine bar that has a weekly wine party on Wednesday. So let me give you the break down of how these two events compare.

Both  events are #free and for my student budget that's super amazing.

 You don't need any reservations for Tjing Tjing but if you want a sitting table at  l <3 My Laundry, you need to make a reservation.

 TjingTjing tastings are crazy classy where you get to meet the wine maker discuss the terroir, and do all kinds of palate gymnastics. But getting that second glass can be kind of awkward.

At I Love my Laundry, it's a wine party. So that means it's a party. Got there kind of late so didn't get to meet any wine makers but I did get to drink a lot of free wine and could buy a bottle afterwards for R40 . So in my books that's kind of a yes.

I think it depends what vibe you're going for on a Wednesday and to be honest I can actually see myself trying to do both in one night. But I'll keep you guys posted.

You can check out what wines will be at the respective events by following them on twitter at : @tjingtjingbar or @ilovemylaundry

[madamebucket]

Stellenbosch Sunday

 So I feel like this is going to turn into a mostly wine blog and I'm ok with that because like I said, I love wine.

This weekend, my housemates and I made a trip to the wine country to do some discount wine shopping and delicious tasting. Our first stop was the Route 44 Market which is a charmingly cute market in  Stellenbosch with a super Afrikaans flair and just a general sense of awesome. The food is good, the crafts are good and I managed to score a bargain at a shop selling lace dresses for R10.00 that is correct, for less than a 2L  Coke.

Afterwards we moved across to Mooiberge, my most favourite wine shop ever because you can buy pretty decent bottles of wine for about R20 and get  R20-R50 off some of the more fancier wines. In a group of  6 we left with 40 bottles of wine, but to be fair wine in the city is just so much more expensive.

 We then headed to  Vergelegen  Wine Estate which  I have to say  has one of the most beautiful tasting rooms I've ever encountered. I had super awesome tasting notes on the wine that I managed to misplace but  I'll try give you the important stuff from memory. 

I feel that their terroir leads to an earthy nose that I would describe as the smell of village dust and sunshine. Their wines were all characterized by a sense of warmth  when you first smell them.Their 2013 Savignon Blanc Reserve is really pretty with a tropical nose that smells like summer. The taste doesn't quite live up to expectations but its not bad. The other wine to stand out from the tasting was their 2007 DNA , it's horrible. It smells like rotting green pepper or old veggies in the fridge that are starting to go slimey. And it tasted like that too. First sip is not too bad but when it hit my upper pallet, it was just horrible, I couldn't even finish the tasting glass and the rest of the party felt the same.  I discussed the smell with out server because we were all sure that something had gone wrong but apparently its supposed to taste like that and would go well with game meat. No thank you.

 We then went on to Lourensford where some of the team had a chocolate and wine pairing that they really enjoyed. I stuck with the standard and this is what I tasted

 2011 Voigner- This smelt  fresh fruity and kind of floral with an apricot tinge that reminded us of St Yves apricot body scrub

 2012 Chardonnay-It was pretty good with a sort of nutty , buttery flavour

2011 Shiraz /Mourverdre/ Voigner blend- Very well textured with a velvety feel  and just yummy 

Last but certainly not least the best in house was the  2009 Syrah ( 22 months in French Oak baby)-  So the first thing that popped into my mind when I tasted it was sexy but astringent.  The comments coming from the table were , "Dark and Handsome," " Body like a banger" a very serious take me home wine . It was really really good.

I need to make the disclaimer here that I love Syrah. I always thought I hated Shiraz but loved Syrah only to find out they were the same grape. But what I do find is that wines labelled Syrah are normally kept in French oak which completely changes that crazy peppery flavour I feel comes from American oaked Shiraz. 

I really like what they did with that Syrah and considered taking it home but my grad student budget said no . Definitely the best in show for the day.

 Til next time :)

[madamebucket]

Cool People Things- An Exhibit

Because I'm so cool and in the know, I thought it would be my duty as a citizen of Coolandia to share the cool things we do. There's a really interesting exhibit on in Woodstock at the moment called, Look at My Dicky Bird. The Exhibit is a collection of photos taken by amateurs on mobile cameras, it's an online thing and a real -world thing but what makes it super cool is that it makes real life art and that's pretty amazing. Check it out online  Twitter: @adickybird #lookatmydickybird Instagram: #lookatmydb. Or you can see it in real life at the Curlture Urban + Contemporary Gallery at  The Woodstock Exchange