The Jokes on Jonkheer

Hey,

Well, the next farm had us completely lost at least 3 times, and we were about to give up our search when I managed to spot a sign at the corner of my eye (and in the far off distance) for Jonkheer. As the range of wines was rather pitiful, and the wines long past any chance of being drinkable by anyone trying to achieve anything more than getting drunk, we moved onto the single port they had available for tasting which was simply labeled Old Port. As I didn't even manage to get a tasting list for the place I can't even give you an exact price on the port, other than to say it was cheap. Still, it did manage to surprise both me and Andre in it's quality, which was well above it's price tag, and a great port to buy to go alongside a heavy cheese - as it had that familiar nuttiness to it, with a bit of banana and vanilla to it as well. Well worth purchasing.

From there we went to the easier-to-find Bonnievale Wine Cellar. We decided not to waste any time here and stick with their reserve Vertex range, which consisted of 3 wines. The first was the Chardonnay (R45) which had a good balance of fruit and wood, with that pleasing taste of butterscotch, vanilla and peach, this is a textbook dream for any chardonnay lover. The Cab Sauv (R60) was equally well balanced, with black currant and juicy red berries coming through on the nose, along with some cedar, cigar box and mocha. It was a slightly softer style of Cab Sauv that would be more well suited to your everyday hunk o' meat than a finely roasted steak. The final wine here was the Shiraz (R60) which, in my opinion, was quite a find, as it was quite a complex package, and I would expect to pay at least R20 more for this wine. It was everything I look for in a Shiraz and more, with fresh meat smells as well as black pepper and cloves to give it that great braai wine quality. Along with this was mocha, vanilla and a slight candy floss (maybe turkish delight?) to really give it that little something extra, and to make it a well-rounded wine.

Well, it's a bit of a short one today, it being Easter weekend and all, but I do wish everyone a super holiday, and I hope you enjoy all that chocolate that this season brings round.

Enjoy!

Val