It was quite by chance that we came to visit Waterkloof Wine Estates located above Somerset West, an hour’s drive east of Cape Town. I had not heard of the wine farm until several years ago when we received a comment on one of our blog posts about South African wines.
I can’t believe another month has flown by and that it is time once again for Wine Pairing Weekend. Our March pairing is co-joined with Open That Bottle Night, which happens every year on the last Saturday in February. Basically OTBN is an “excuse” to open that special bottle of wine you’ve been holding, or to try a wine you’ve been curious about. It’s up to you to make your own fun.
In 1999 Michel Chapoutier turned his interest to Roussillon with the purchase of Domaine de Bila-Haut in Latour de France. The Roussillon portion of the enormous south of France Languedoc-Roussillon region is the portion closest to Spain. The climate here is truly Mediterranean with cold winters and very warm summers that provide a long, sunny growing season.
Borra Vineyards does not bottle Barbera as a varietal wine every year, but clearly the variety is special to Steve Borra. It was the first wine Borra bottled when he established his winery in 1975. Back then Borra was the first boutique winery established in Lodi.
We recently had the opportunity to taste six wines from four wineries located in the Boise area. One of the regular tasters at the Thursday night wine tastings we attend at a local wineshop regularly visits the Boise area; her brother and sister-in-law live there. During a recent trip they did a bit of wine tasting and brought back the selection of wines we tasted. It was a great introduction to the wines of the area.
We continued talking wine education with PROTOCOL wine studio, and several of their guests, while sipping two delicious HALL Wines on a recent Tuesday evening. PROTOCOL wine studio provides wine education via Twitter on Tuesday evenings (search #WineStudio on Twitter) and in their classroom in San Diego. It was fun and instructive.
The theme for the February Wine Pairing Weekend (#winePW), naturally enough, is “It’s All About Romance – Food + Wine Pairings.” So, how do we define a romantic food and wine pairing? For us, it’s something indulgent, rich and spicy. It wasn’t too difficult for us to decide on the food pairing actually. The inspiration for this pairing came from a wine tasting we enjoyed back in June.
An artistically wrapped present can be two gifts in one. The first gift is a visual one, the beauty of the wrapping and the enjoyment of opening it; the second, of course – the contents of the package. This is how I think of a bottle of Champagne.
Research pays off. It’s what brought us to visit the Swartland wine region in South Africa. In addition to visiting the better known region of Stellenbosch and the very scenic Franschhoek, we wanted to visit an out of the way wine region.
We were recently introduced to the wines of The Steven Kent Winery located in the Livermore Valley via an online tasting with Protocol Wine Studio. During an online discussion, we talked wine education and tasted two Steven Kent wines.
We enjoy wine, food and travel. Pull That Cork is a chronicle of our wine adventures, the food and wine pairings we create and our travels which are increasingly organized around wine.
