Wine Tasting with Leeuwenkuil Family Vineyards at The Indaba Hotel

The Indaba Hotel invited me to a wine pairing they hosted in partnership with Leeuwenkuil Family Vineyards to experience a taste of the Swartland.

Firstly, they served the food in poitjies – so it was literally #DinePotjieStyle!

Our first course was a combination of two different potjies: a creamy mushroom pasta and a spicy seafood tomato-based pasta.

I’m just assuming that we were allowed to have a helping of each potjie because sometimes you never know if you’re only allowed or restricted to one dish, but I’m #DineJoziStyle so I had to have a taste of everything.

I had a helping of the creamy mushroom pasta and a helping of the spicy seafood pasta- and, because I’m very adept at mixing and matching, I created a spicy creamy seafood pasta. The creamy mushroom pasta boasted strong umami flavours while the seafood pasta was spicy and bright. I’m the first person to put my hands up if you’ve got a creamy pasta but I love seafood, so mixing the two was a winning combination.

I thought it was a very clever idea to serve two very different dishes together with the Leeuwenkuil Reserve White because it demonstrated how effortlessly versatile their wines are paired with very contrasting flavours.

The Leeuwenkuil Reserve 2022 is a Chenin Blanc blend that is reminiscent of green apples and just a hint of pepper. It’s fresh and bracing with this underlying chalky minerality that lingers on your tongue after the finish. It verges on tropical flavours with pineapple and peach which is why I thought it paired so well because those tropical fruits just bloomed against the flavours of the creamy pasta. That hint of pepper just brought out the spiciness of the spicy seafood potjie.

I prefer subtle flavours over spicy foods but I enjoyed mixing the seafood potjie with the creamy mushroom potjie because the cream balanced the heat for me. It really was almost like mix and match. I could mix and match the different flavour profiles with each individual bite on my fork and then pair it against the Leeuwenkuil Reserve White. It was almost like an element of playtime- and, I love playing with my food.

I’m not even going to go into how much bread I had to eat at The Indaba Hotel- suffice to say it was literally as if I’d never seen bread before.

Our second course was the most divine lamb shank cooked in red wine. Obviously, you needed a really strong red wine to support all those strong flavours and the richness of the lamb potjie. So they brought out the Leeuwenkuil Reserve Red. It was such a magnificent and unpretentious wine that was really easy to drink but strong enough to hold its own against really rich and hearty dishes.

I know the weather is chopping and changing itself at the moment, but if you’re looking for a good bottle of red, why not find yourself a bottle of the Leeuwenkuil Reserve Red, which boasts all those wonderful flavours that are so suitable for a decadent, rich lamb shank poitjie.

The 2021 Reserve Red has a really distinctive perfume on the nose that is backed by the aroma of caramelised apples. The palate literally is an abundance of deep red, rich fruits. Any sort of red fruit that you can think of from cherries, cranberries, plums. And it’s got a savoury finish, almost reminiscent of peppers. Again, peppers!

This makes it the perfect wine for pairing with rich dishes. I wouldn’t be surprised if it would pair equally well with a really decadent chocolate dessert. I really do enjoy the idea of pairing red wines with rich chocolate creamy desserts.

It creates this juxtaposition of different flavours because you get the sweetness from the chocolate mousse tempered by the bitter undertones of red wine. I know bitter is not the best word for wine, but it’s the best way to describe it right now. And jumping into uncharted territories, talking about desserts…

Instead of having a traditional sweet dessert with the Leeuwenkuil wine pairings, The Indaba Hotel served a selection of different cheeses. I always think that is the height of sophistication when you forgo the pleasures of sugary desserts and replace them with the pleasures of a cheese platter.

I’m not going to go into too much detail, but I recommend a visit to The Indaba Hotel.

Visit www.indabahotel.co.za.