I attend a lot of wine tastings where the interest lies in comparing different styles or varieties and the challenge to find wines that offer value. But time allowing, my preferred situation is when talented chefs are challenged to partner specific wines. Often these pairings are systematic and quite academic. Red wines need red meat, sort of thing. The ones that get it right usually combine an ingredient I wouldn’t have considered with a wine I would have.
Chef George Jardine did exactly that at Jordan restaurant this week, using Jordan’s wines made specially for Woolworths, with three courses cleverly combining winter and spring ingredients. And as is so often the case, the dishes completely changed perceptions of the wines served alongside. Solo, the Jordan Woolworths Lightly Wooded Chardonnay 2012 (current release) offered freshness with citrus zing at R109.99. Yet with food, its oakier predecessor, the 2004 Chardonnay vintage (hauled out of the cellar for interest) had no contenders.
The incredible plate in question: heated buffalo mozzarella with burnt butter with the season’s pureed orange and curly-chewy grilled fennel, alongside joyous spring broad beans and wild edible flowers. The oak complemented these delicious salty-savoury-sour and citrus notes. Bowl-me-over stuff.
East coast hake was given red-meat treatment, creating a sensation of richness and smoky depth. Wrapped in pancetta, the braised fish partnered an intense, sauce heavy with wintry braised octopus and smoked marrow, on spinach. Tasted solo, the Jordan Woolworths Exclusive Selection Merlot 2010 (R99.99) was the standout wine with riper red-berry fruit. The Jordan Woolworths No-Added Sulphur Merlot 2012 (R59.99) was a less complex contender, with sharper edges. But then we sipped the sulphur-free Merlot with the pancetta-wrapped fish. Kapow. Instantly superior with the smokiness of the dish.
The confit duck leg with porcini, softly disintegrating potato, and poached turnip? I’d class this as comforting, classic winter food, not trailblazing. The dish formed a tasty background prop, showing off Jordan Cobblers Hill 2010 (their own label sold at Woolworths) with its clean, beautifully ripe cassis and dark chocolate elegance. Three Bordeaux varieties, planted in a two-hectare single vineyard. The 2004 Cobblers Hill should’ve been the better wine. It wasn’t.
Proving that the chef isn’t the only promising taste-shaper at Jordan in Stellenbosch. Cobblers Hill 2010 shows a winemaking shift in a very smart direction.
HOT TIP: George Jardine is consulting on a new restaurant concept at Newton Johnson Estate in Hermanus’s Hemel-en-Aarde Valley, from the beginning of October 2013. Chef Eric Bulpitt will be running the show (George mentored Eric at Jardine when the restaurant operated in Cape Town CBD). Sounds like a tasty duo.
At Jordan in Stellenbosch, the end of November 2013 will see the opening of a deli adjacent to the wine-tasting area. An on-site bakery, quality coffee and a ‘field to fork’ concept of simple daytime eating is planned. George Jardine will be a busy man during the next few months.
JORDAN WINERY & JORDAN RESTAURANT WITH GEORGE JARDINE, Jordan Winery, Stellenbosch. Tel 021 881 3612.