Christian Eedes: January 2008
Tasting menus where the food is accompanied by any beverage other than wine tend to be at best academic and at worst contrived. I recall a meal where each whisky in the Johnny Walker range (Red, Black, Green, Gold and Blue label) was served with a different dish. It was intellectually interesting but not something one is inclined to repeat at home.
Major liquor company Distell recently assembled all its various potstill brandies under the portfolio of Alchemy of Gold, including the likes of Nederburg Solera Potstilled, Klipdrift Gold, Oude Meester Reserve 12 Year Old, the Flight of the Fish Eagle and the Van Ryn’s range.
Most are best suited to being drunk neat as a digestif. The challenge for Distell obviously becomes how to extend the usage occasion beyond the end of the meal. Cue a potentially fraught exercise to demonstrate how well potstill brandies pair with food. To Distell’s credit, however, the chef tasked with matching food to the brandies was Margot Janse of The Tasting Room at Le Quartier Francais in Franschhoek. Last year it was the only local establishment on the list of the world’s best 50 as generated by UK trade magazine Restaurant, placing 47th overall and being voted “Best in the Middle East & Africa”. Janse admits that even she was initially bemused at how to set about composing a menu to go with brandy, but later found it “amazing” what worked. “Brandy likes spice, salt and clearly smokiness.”
Hence the lighter style Nederburg Potstilled Solera Brandy (costing R120 a bottle) was served with salt cured foie gras and fruit salad broth, the brandy cutting the fattiness of the patè while its fruitiness was accentuated by the broth.
Next the Van Ryn’s 20 Year Old Collectors Reserve with salmon on a crab and red pepper bavarois with biltong vinaigrette. This brandy is at the pinnacle of the portfoli o (R830 a bottle) and because of extended time in oak is exceptionally nutty, rich and textured. Here the sweetness of the brandy contrasted with the saltiness and spice of the dish. What to match with Van Ryn’s 12 Year Old Distillers Reserve (R330 a bottle), judged Best Worldwide Brandy in 2004 and 2005 at the International Wine and Spirit Competiton held in London? This is a particularly powerful and complex brandy and a suitably rich dish was called for. Janse came up with 40 hour sous-vide lamb neck with spiced brinjal pomme purèe. Perhaps the best pairing overall.
Tomato sabayon with Parmesan sorbet and a sliver of Parma ham went well with the elegant Klipdrift Gold (R150 a bottle), the sweetness of the tomato complementing the brandy, the saltiness of the ham contrasting with it. And finally a honey roasted peach with apple and lemon verbena sorbet as well as hazelnut foam transformed the somewhat peculiar Oude Meester Reserve 12 Year Old (R250 a bottle). A brandy made from 100% Colombar, it is fruity and clean to a fault on its own but gained extra dimension with the food.
The whole exercise served to reinforce just how good South Africa’s topend brandies are, but once over, I still thought that I’d have liked wine with the same meal and the Van Ryn’s 12 Year Old after.
Call me traditionalist…
