Match of the week
Blesbok loin with root vegetables, num num and 2010 Delaire Graff Botmaskop
Another week of brilliant pairings, another tough decision to make but I’m going for this combination at Delaire restaurant in Stellenbosch because it was such a great dish.
South Africans are rightly proud of their raw ingredients and this combined perfectly a colourful dish of blesbok - an indigenous antelope - with winter root vegetables, poached num num (hard to track down on Google without getting waylaid by references to the National Union of Mineworkers or alternative spellings to nom nom but a fruit belonging to the Apocynaceae family and eugenia berry pickle (a tropical plant belonging to the myrtle family). So, meaty and fruity but not oversweet.
It would have worked well, I think, with a number of reds but was perfect with the vividly, fruity 2010 Delaire Botmaskop, a blend of Cabernet Sauvignon and Cabernet Franc with dashes of Merlot, Petit Verdot, Shiraz and Malbec (more so than the much more expensive Lawrence Graff Reserve (which, unusually, showed better with the cheese).
The Shiraz and Malbec played their part in making the wine less austere than a classic Bordeaux blend despite the wine's comparative youth. Rhone varietals like Grenache, Syrah and Mourvedre would work well too with these kind of flavours
The 2010 isn’t available in the UK yet but the 2009 is available in bond from Justerini & Brooks for £70 for a six bottle case.
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