Das Wine is good ja, in Daschbosch

Hi everyone,

Well, with Robertson behind us, Andre and I decided to move on to Worcester and the nearby farms around Rawsonville. The first farm we visited there was high on our list of must visits - simply because Andre had previously had a food pairing with one of their sweet wines that was simply inspired. The farm was Daschbosch, the wine was the Nectar de Provision White, and the food was a home-baked apple cake. Having had this pairing since then, I can attest to its greatness. Daschbosch came highly recommended to us as a wine farm that has excellent value-for-money wines.

With a large range of wines (from sparkling to dry whites and reds, roses, semi-sweets, dessert wines and fortified wines), any style of wine drinker is catered for. Instead of writing about all of them, I'll select a few that we truly enjoyed. The first was the Chardonnay, which had a buttered toast, citrusy lemon and a firm butterscotch finish - delightful at only R25 a bottle. Certainly an everyday drinker. The Groot Eiland Shiraz/Pinotage (R48) also stood out, mostly because it was a bit of a strange combination that they managed to get right, with a smell of banana medicine, caramel, vanilla, mocha and black pepper, the palate was surprisingly fruity, with a nice complement of berries on the palate.

There are two versions of the Nectar De Provision. The white, which is colombar fortified with brandy, is the one that matches very well with deserts, and with honey, apricots and saltanas on the palate, would you expect anything less of this wine. The Red is made from merlot fortified with brandy, and had the distinctive smell of damp, rotting earth, along with some pleasing smells of candyfloss and strawberries. Either of these goes for R29.50 for a 375ml bottle, so they are well worth buying and trying. Well, after having a heated debate between us on whether one of their wines was off, and just what was wrong with it, we decided to pick up the pace, and move onto the next farm...

...which will be the topic for the next blog.

Val