Cycling for Chenin
Fancy getting to know South Africa’s most prolific white a little better, while keeping active? You’ll find the world’s largest number of Chenin Blanc vines in South Africa, rooted in almost 19,000ha of Cape soil. But while some winemakers (notably Ken Forrester) have ushered in a new respect for South Africa’s ‘work horse’ cultivar, it’s still a work in progress due to the unpredictability of its flavour profile. According to research, Chenin’s very versatility confuses otherwise loyal local wine lovers in South Africa.
In an attempt to address this, the local Chenin Blanc Association has created the Chenin Safari, an annual six-week mountain-biking event that encourages riders to tour Stellenbosch, Franschhoek, Paarl, Bot River and Robertson (sadly not Swartland or Elim) to coincide with #DrinkChenin Day, celebrated globally on the third weekend of June. (The date has been in place since 2014, when a group of American sommeliers and winemakers first raised a communal toast to the variety.)
The challenge is to see how many Chenin Safari stops you can visit over six weeks. Bearing in mind the #drinkchenin website advice – ‘We realise you cannot taste all the Chenins at all the stops and still ride’ – you need to stop at a minimum of six of the 17 participating wine farms in the time period to win yourself a free cycling shirt. The idea is to create a social media storm of posts and tags as you go. But unless you’re hoping to win a prize, it’s okay to just focus on the ride: a series of gorgeous loops on slopes braided with vineyards and fynbos (South Africa’s unique heathland), before stopping at a winery for a tasting to see how each Chenin expresses that specific terroir.
Tip If the idea of touring vineyards on two wheels appeals to you, then Franschhoek Cycles, conveniently located on the Franschhoek high street, provides e-bikes, maps and advice for those who like to lead, and guides for those who like to follow.
Challenging your perceptions
Apparently it was a Roman called Apicius in the 1st century AD who first coined the phrase ‘we eat with our eyes’. Clever chap. Millennia later, neuroscientists recognise that the brain processes visual cues faster than it does taste and smell – so inevitably looks do affect taste. Wine lovers are not immune: in 2001, PhD psychologist and winegrower Frédéric Brochet conducted an experiment at the University of Bordeaux where 54 oenology students were presented with a white wine stained red with an odourless dye and asked to describe the flavour. All 54 used typical red wine adjectives. But what about sound? Can music or white noise influence taste?
Nederburg’s Five Senses Food & Wine Experience explores how the various senses are linked by depriving you of two of them. After a welcome glass of Nederburg Cap Classique, you are seated at a table in the 19th-century Cape Dutch manor house, then blindfolded. A pair of wireless headphones is placed over your ears, filling your brain with selected sounds. The first of three mini-canapé courses, each one matched with a Nederburg wine, is then brought to the table. For each match, guided by hand, your server will help you to find your wine glass and fork, to smell, then taste. The table is cleared, and the blindfold and headphones are removed. The exact same combination of bite-sized dish and paired wine is then brought to the table for you to experience with all senses on board. Does depriving certain senses enhance or detract from taste perception? If so, how much? Book and find out!
Tip: Come with an open mind
Address: Sonstraal Road, Dal Josafat, Paarl 7646
Tel 021 862 3104. Available twice a day (at 11.00 and 15.00) every day apart from Tuesdays. Booking essential
Cost R550pp (£27), minimum four people
Enjoying rare vintages
A memorable wine pairing is always a pleasure, but at Salsify there is added poignancy. Located in one of Cape Town’s oldest surviving buildings – an 18th-century guardhouse tucked into Camps Bay’s wooded glen – the restaurant’s tree- fringed ocean views are lure enough, but the real focus is what’s on the table: a superlative tasting menu, each edible artwork served with some of the Cape’s rarest wines. Aptly named the Gem Series pairing, these are either seriously limited editions or the last bottles of a given vintage truffle-hunted from top winemakers’ cellars.
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