The wines of Bot River have all gone wild by pairing up with natural food straight from nature. The quaint town on the edge of the Overberg’s rolling hills makes a bold statement by pairing the wines of the region with wild foods from the area in a marathon dinner titled The Best of Botrivier Wines on Friday, 1 September 2017 at Forage Restaurant at the Wildekrans Wine Estate.
Celebrating Mother Nature’s deliciousness, this evening marks the start of Bot River’s annual Over the Rainbow Spring Weekend (1–3 September), when the town will explode with a dazzling kaleidoscope of exciting wine, food and genuine, country-style fun activities that showcase the best of the region. During the weekend all the participating wine farms will throw open their doors for visitors to taste their cellar gems and unique local produce through convivial farm hopping and pantry shopping.
Organised by the Bot River Wine Association (BWA), the exclusive Best of Botrivier Wines Dinner is set to be four-and-a-half hours long. Taking part in the feast will be Wildekrans, Villon Wines, Luddite, Genevieve, Gabrielskloof, Beaumont, Barton and Arcangeli, and patrons can taste their wines paired with exceptional dishes created for the festival.
The wines, to be revealed at the dinner, were selected and paired by sommeliers Higgo Jacobs and Ewan MacKenzie and Chef Gregory Henderson.
The wines will be served alongside dishes such as askoek with smoked goats cheese curd and kapokbos; white mussels with rose geranium, lime leaf oil, sea spinach and bokkoms; razor clam with rock samphire, kelp spaghetti and kerrie safflower spume; perlemoen with pork jowl, trout roe and wild black garlic; guinea fowl with bietou gel, watsonia bulb spread and veldkool pickle.
To source food from nature or foraging, thought to be first made popular by Danish two star Michelin chef René Redzepi, has hit South Africa and found a foothold in the Overberg.
Chef Henderson a local master forager and the man in charge of the restaurant at Wildekrans aptly named Forage, every day roams the pastures of the Overberg looking for natural and healthy foraged ingredients.
“When man was still close to his animalistic nature he had to acquire food through foraging the earth he walked on by hunting wild animals, fishing creatures from the sea or rivers, and collecting nutritious wild fruits, flowers, leafs and roots.
But as modern people, going back to our culinary roots – no pun intended – is greatly beneficial as game meat and free ranging fish are generally free from man-made contaminants, while the veld is a source of food rich in vitamins, minerals and Omega 3,” says Henderson.
“Good wine is all about provenance and terroir, and thus not much different from what Mother Nature intends for the natural plants of her earth and the animals that roam or swim here,” says BWA chairperson Kobie Viljoen.
“It just made sense to explore the wild side of Bot River with our wines, while we showcase the best of the best in the region’,” he says.
The Best of Botrivier Wines dinner costs R850 per person which includes a Bot River Spring Weekend pass. The evening starts at 19h00 and limited tickets are available at www.quicket.co.za https://www.quicket.co.za/events/21276-bot-river-spring-weekend/#/
For information contact Ewan MacKenzie at ewan@winethief.co.za.
Tickets for the 2017 Bot River Over the Rainbow Spring Weekend cost R100 per person and can be purchased, along with tickets to individual events, at www.quicket.co.za. The weekend pass includes an armband and wine glass, which you may collect at the Bot River tourism office. Quicket stations will also be at Beaumont, Gabriëlskloof, and Wildekrans on the weekend. Youngsters under 18 years may enter for free.
For accommodation options in the area visit: www.botriverwines.com.
For more information on the Bot River Over the Rainbow Spring Weekend 2017 contact Melissa Nelsen at cell: 083 302 6562 or email Melissa@genevievemcc.co.za.