Right, so today I enjoyed the luxury of sipping on fermented grapes and indulging in the overflowing masses of bottomless cheese, cheese and more cheese at The Fairview Wine Estate in Paarl, Western Cape.

When we arrived, we were welcomed by beautiful scenery and the very distinctive smell of pure goat. Glorious, I know, but the fact that wine was a promise of the near future helped to settle our ever so offended nostrils!

We opted for the “CLASSIC TASTING” experience which allowed 6 different tastings of wines and unlimited face stuffing of cheese. Jolly good start to the day at 11am, if you ask me!

My first tasting was the Fairview Darling Riesling and oh my heavens, was that a delightful choice! This was an off-dry palate with superbly well balanced acidity and had boisterous bursts of sweet melon, litchi and rose water followed by white pepper. I mean honestly now, does the sound of that not make you want to exploit and violate a bottle of such content? This glorious little invention scored a well deserved 9/10 on my winedometer.

The second tasting was the average Fairview Darling Sauvignon Blanc. This wine had limited personality and was a bit dull and boring in comparison to the above 9/10 creation. Apparently this wine carried tropical notes of delectably ripe summer melon and is considered to be youthful and more refreshing as it was relaunched as a member of “The New Vintage” collection of wines. This one got a measly 6/10, but basically just scraped through on my winedometer. So it’s practically a 5, but I sympathetically donated an extra point to the scoreboard just because it was wine. Incredibly generous, I know!

The third tasting was the Fairview Chardonnay which was beautiful and well mannered. This little gem had hints of delicate oak and blossoms which ultimately lead to an elegantly textured palate. A gentle squeeze of citrus made an unexpected appearance too with its one and only partner in crime, soft spices. What a good combo, successfully robbing taste buds of any potentially uninvited flavours experienced beforehand. None the less this glass of magic scored a well-deserved 8/10.

While enjoying the third tasting, we were allowed to evacuate the tasting bar with our glasses, only to make our way down to the cheesiest section of the room.  Goodness me, did this room spoil us or what? Being invited to circulate around such perfection of a selection of cheeses honestly made my heart jolly. First was the classic Feta cheese, then my absolute favourite Brie and Camembert. The next choice was Goats cheese which was surprisingly polite enough not to offend my nostrils, only my taste buds. SLIGHT improvement! Roquefort was next on the list with its mighty little friend, Blue Cheese. After those two we had 3 choices of White Rock Cheese with granadilla, caramel and mango and ginger. The last three were such a privilege.

After being a complete oinker at the cheese bar, we made our way back to our lovely lady Tessa who poured us our fourth tasting, This one was La Capra Rose which was quite a surprise, considering I wasn’t expecting to experience goat in my mouth. Previous flavours of  Goats Cheese had been ignited from the Rose, unfortunately. To say the least, I genuinely questioned life at this point in time as I am not a fan of the goaty flavourings. This one got an offensive 5/10, but I am sure my partly over exposed taste buds were to blame for this one, and not the actual Rose itself.

After recovering, I went in as confident as ever with my fifth tasting which was the Fairview Viognier. What a beautiful and delightfully non traumatic choice that was! A dominant nose of pear drops and jasmine blossom create mounts of fresh flavours while a rich creamy palate and gentle oaking sure was delectable, scoring a 7/10.

My sixth choice was none other than a replay of my first one, Fairview Darling Riesling. Why would one not want to relive a few mouthfuls of perfection?

All in all, it was an incredibly fun day. Wine tasting is always set to provide good vibes and lots of fun and laughter. I’ll be sure to make another appearance at The Fairview Wine Estate.

Mycaila – Jade

xxx