Flat Roof Manor Shiraz Mourvèdre Viognier 2008

South Africa, here we come. I have a friend who always tries and finds a wine from South Africa that I haven't had. Today was another surprise from a well known wine farm in South Africa called Uitkyk, called Flat Roof Manor. The wine is named after one the Cape's three surviving, two storied, flat roofed 18th Century houses near Stellenbosch.

I wrote a month ago about a wine from the Darling district North of Cape Town that was a blend of Shiraz and Mourvèdre. This wine however is a blend of three well known grapes in the red grapes Shiraz and Mourvèdre, along with the white grape Viognier. Estelle Lourens, the winemaker, did a fantastic job. Those three grapes work really well together, the peppery, dry Shiraz mixed with earthy, fruity Mourvèdre and a dash of floral Viognier. It's smooth and very round in your mouth, with a long after taste of flowers and pepper.

To match this wine tonight, we thought we'd make a very traditional South African dish called Bobotie. It arrived with the Indonesian, malay slaves in the 1700s along with a host of new spices. This dish is excellent with yellow rise and raisins. The spices mixed very well with this wine, however, I'd like to try some more meatier dishes with the wine in the future.

Another bargain at 89kr, have a look atSystemBolaget.se

Babylon's Peak Shiraz/Mourvédre/Grenache 2008

It's that grape again. Mourvédre. This time in a wine, I've never had, from South Africa. It's called Babylon's Peak. Lots of cinnamon, and fynbos characters, spicy and some dark fruit. Lots of spicy Shiraz on the nose. It's got a bit of strong taste in the beginning with real red wine taste in the end. You know the one where you look at the glass and say, geepers, this is really good red wine. Which this is.

Babylon's Peak is a boutique private cellar, tucked away in the highest weathered granite slopes of the Paardeberg Mountain, north-east of Cape Town. The Basson family produces this wine on the Nooitgedacht farm.

Darling Cellars Shiraz Mourvedre

Don't ask me why, but lately I've been delving back into some South African wines, especially those I haven't had before. This one from Darling Cellars falls into that category, especially with a blend of Shiraz and Mourvedre. An unusual blend, as Mourvedre is not a popular or well know grape
 variety in South Africa. It is usually used to make strong and dark red wines, as well as the odd Rosé. The grape originates from France.

This wine however has a typical South African smell or nose to it. The spicyness of the Shiraz, blended with the pepperiness of the Mourvedre. An elegant wine with soft, ripe fruit flavours and a subtle hint of oak on the aftertaste. I had it together with a Sirloin steak dipped in course salt and ground pepper, cut up into a salad of baby spinach, mixed with Avocado, sweet peppers and cucumber. It was delicious together. The wine is really soft and well worth a try.

Darling Cellar is an hours drive north of Cape Town on the cool West coast of South Africa. The soild in the area are granite based and bush vines are used to grow the grapes. See the wine online on systembolaget's website.

Chateau Pech-Latt Corbieres (2007)

Wine tasting 2

I'm not sure why, but there's a lot of really terrible ecological wines on the market. This one is one of them. There's a lot of hoops you have to jump through to be able to call your wine ecological. I don't know why anyone would jump through all of them just to put a wine like this on the market.

There's a lot of good ecological wines on the market, and cheaper than 70kr.

Panel's rating: 2,1 out of 5

Price: 70SEK

Country: France

Grapes: Carignan, Grenache, Syrah and Mourvèdre

Colour: Purplish tones, Scarlett with purple tones, Blue red, Purple red, Ruby, Purple.

Nose: Warm and simple, Very strong with warmish tones and a bit mettal, Warm iron with alcohol and raisins, Soft, A little metallic.

Taste: Sweet berries, Very strong alchohol, Bitter, Strawberries, Rasberries with light acidicy and liquirice, Smooth and resberries, Sweet and smooth with a light taste of rasberries.