A beer pairing AND a wine pairing… all in a night’s work

Last week I joined the Come Wine With Us team at the beautiful Laborie Wine Farm in Paarl for their Tour de Laborie & Bar di Bar.

The evening consisted of lots of flowing MCC (they do a brut, a brut rose & a blanc de blancs – all 3 winners), a beer pairing at Bar di Bar (Laborie’s own little craft beer bar) and a wine pairing at their Taste tapas terrace.

Yes yes I know… that’s a whole lotta drinking for one small person… but luckily they organised a complimentary bus service to take you safely from town and back.  #High5ToThat

On the beer pairing side, the menu looked like this:

• Bar di Bar’s very own APA paired with Hot Smoked Salmon (provided by the guys from Three-Streams Smokehouse) flaked onto a crostini with cream cheese & lime mayonnaise
• Stellenbrau Lager paired with a galantine of chicken & quail with a peach & onion chutney
• Long Beach Brewery Deep Water Porter paired with slow cooked pork belly with Asian green stirfry veg & a master stock glaze

Then on the wine pairing side, we were treated to the following:

• Laborie 2015 Sauvignon Blanc paired with cold smoked trout on toasted herb ciabatta with an apple and celeriac Waldorf salad, trout caviar, microgreens & a herb oil
• Laborie 2014 Merlot with confit duck, vegetable spring rolls and an Asian dipping sauce
• Laborie 2013 Jean Taillefert Shiraz with springbok fillet, a sour vygie jus & fondant potato

My phone was dying at that point and I forgot to charge my power bank (seriously though – do you guys also have that problem?  They’re awesome, but I feel like it’s just one more thing for me to forget to charge… anyways…) Luckily they had a photographer on hand who took some great pics, so I’ve stolen a few of those:

CWWU events are also known for their great wine specials and on the night I walked away with a “Genot Boks” of 4 wines & 2 beers for only R160… Say what??  The other awesome thing was that I was completely flying solo, but everyone at my table was so bloody friendly, I didn’t even notice.

Get in on the action people…  They don’t have any events planned for April, but in May they’re hosting the Roodeberg’s “Rediscover a classic” vintage evening at the Roodeberg room at KWV (but don’t stress about the driving, because they’re organising a bus again).  For more details on this event, keep an eye out on www.comewinewithus.co.za.

Also next time you’re in the Paarl area and you’re looking for a great spot to eat & do a bit of a wine tasting – Laborie’s where it’s at.  I always recommend them because I love their wines and the setting there is just absolutely beautiful.  They also have a more formal restaurant called Harvest that does some amazing food.

xxx