Drunk!

Driving past the white wooden church on the way to Simonsig made me have yet another ‘Witness’ moment (see my Vin-atics post on Bon Cap) but I resisted the urge to go looking for Harrison and turned into the car park with its rather funky modern ‘sails’ instead.

Simonsig isn’t a winery I’ve had much to do with – I strongly disliked the female rep. they had a few years ago so never bought anything from them when we had the restaurant – but they just keep on winning those darned awards and are becoming impossible to ignore. So when I was invited to a vertical tasting of their top fizz, I finally saw an opportunity to dispel my prejudices once and for all.

Kaapse Vonkel was the first Cap Classique in South Africa (1971) and also the first one to use all three traditional Champagne varietals of Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier (1997). In fact, there is very little that has gone on in the MCC world in SA which hasn’t either been instigated, championed or won by Simonsig and considering that our Cap Classiques are fit to stand alongside the world’s best sparkling wines, this is quite a claim to fame.

We tasted a couple of the base wines – lovely pinkish tint on the 2010 Pinot Noir – and then moved on the recent vintages of the Kaapse Vonkel. Johan Malan, owner and winemaker, had thrown in a couple of curve balls in the shape of a Recently Disgorged wine – this means that the dead yeast cells were only removed from the wine very recently, so the yeasty/toasty flavours were much more intense (see How Sparkling Wine is Made for more information). Opinion amongst the various guests was divided as to which we preferred and we then had a similar discussion when we tasted two examples of the same vintage – one in bottle and one in a magnum.

Finally we ended up with some oldies, going back as far as 1987. To be honest, that one wasn’t great but the 1992 was still worth a try and the 1999 RD was really very good indeed. Outside on the terrace, they paired the pink fizz with some bizarre food combos – Belgian white chocolate ganache with poached oysters being the main culprit. I loved it, others were not keen at all. A delightful lunch (they are doing cool winter specials – click here) was paired with their outstanding red blend, Tiara – I love drinking this wine, it makes me feel like a princess – and then home clutching a bottle or two for the fridge.

Did the day change my mind about Simonsig? Oh absolutely. I don’t think anyone could spend time with Johan Malan without being won over by his passion, his eloquence, his charm and his genuine love for what he does. As Simonsig gears up for its 40^th anniversary of sparkling wine production (now THAT’S going to be a party and a half!!), I rather regretted that I had started drinking their wines only recently. Still, with the Malan family values firmly installed into yet another generation and no let-up in the constant striving for improvement and perfection,  I am sure there are plenty more great drinking years to come!