CAMPHORS
* * * * *
Pushing culinary boundaries; tantalising taste buds
Lourensford Rd, Somerset West.
Lunch Wed-Sun 12-3pm; dinner Fri @ Saturday 6.30pm to 9pm
Booking recommended
Not child-friendly
www.vergelegen.co.za
GPS –34° 00´33 S; 18° 24´16 E
Jos Baker
YOU can tell it’s holiday time by the inescapable Jingle Bells in supermarkets and the pallid Swallows among us, making the most of our sun and exchange rate.
But because there’s more to holiday eating than festive feasting on just two days, I’ve set aside the following weeks to highlight places offering something unique: both new venues and personal favourites. Pick those that appeal – and book now!
Topping the list is Camphors at Vergelegen, my ultimate green and tranquil destination. And the menu will have you singing hymns.
Prime spot for relaxation is the terrace overlooking the manicured lawn, flanked by trees. (The majestic 300-year-old camphor trees that gave the restaurant its name, stand sentinel at the superbly maintained homestead). Soak up the soothing ambience, reflecting the farm’s long history of traditional Cape hospitality. From the time you stop at the entrance boom, to the time you stagger home replete, you’re cosseted and cared for.
And even better, when you sit down at the table, you abrogate responsibility. When such effort has gone into the menu and wine-pairing, it’s wise to put yourself into the hands of the dedicated partnership of winemaker, sommelier and executive chef.
As the estate’s flagship chef, Michel Cooke is deeply conscious of his responsibility to match his food to the standard of winemaker André van Rensburg’s award-winning wines. He’s backed by experienced sommelier Christo Deyzel, who has the knowledge to extend customers’ wine appreciation – and the highly-honed skill to tailor his information to their interest levels and knowledge.
The menu is a delicious, multi-sensory adventure. My advice is to take the tasting option, which not only introduces you to a variety of edgy, picture-perfect dishes but offers innovative, stimulating wine-pairing, matching both the taste and weight of the wines. For Mike, the fun lies in exploring this aspect of wine-pairing, aimed at making the food and wine more approachable, while converting the rule-bound.
Just as André’s terroir-specific wines play with sites and cultivars, so Mike looks to ingredients grown on the farm for inspiration: right now, enjoy just-picked globe artichokes with free-range pork, carrot and unexpected guava.
He worries about guests depleting the 300-year-old mulberry tree at the corner of the restaurant, for menu musts include exotic mushrooms. Each of the five varieties is given a separate cooking technique, then plated with mulberries, malt and oil distilled from the farm’s pine trees. When I think of the amount of work involved, I quail. But cheerful Mike says with a shrug, “That’s how I am.”
Mushroom wine-pairing offers a treat – a taste of the aromatic single vineyard Schaapenberg Reserve Sauvignon Blanc 2015. Making history as the earliest of Andre’s 18 vintages at Vergelegen, it’s billed as a future winner.
Describing his innovative, flavour-focused food as “globally influenced but locally sourced”, Mike pays tribute to his mentor, Peter Tempelhoff of The Greenhouse. His background includes stints as head chef at both La Colombe and The Greenhouse, with experience at barrier-breaking The Fat Duck in Bray.
It shows. Menus, with today’s obligatory playfulness and lighter touch, entice from the addictive butters to the quirky desserts. Take trout. Sourced from neighbouring Lourensford estate, it’s slightly blackened for a smoky barbeque note, freshened with parsnip yoghurt and lavender. To Mike the combo was obvious, sparked off by the fact that “trout and lavender go well together”. So does the full, richly ripe pairing of Sémillon Reserve 2014.
You’re even given a choice of wines. Duck from Joostenberg-vlakte and the imaginative ingredient combo of umiboschi plum, beetroot and butternut, can be paired with two concentrated, berry-rich reds from the 2013 vintage: the Gauntlet Grenache (an innovative blend of Swartland and home-grown grapes that throws down the gauntlet to other wine farmers to emulate) or the Shiraz Reserve. Beg a soupçon of both. Compare the effect of the different pairings on the flavours.
As for dessert, who’s for stonefruit, black sesame, elderflower and brittle paired with the gleaming gold, hedonistic Sémillon Straw Wine 2011?
* A la carte (without wine and beverages) 2 courses R295; 3 courses R375; “tour menu” R585 (excluding wine) R795 with selected wine pairings.