Fine wine, fine olives and fine company on a beautiful day in the Stellenbosch.

On a gloomy weekend in Virginia, it is nice to take a moment and reflect on a wonderful wine tasting experience.  On the train back from New York last Friday, I happened upon Dan Campbell the Eastern Regional Manager for B.R. Cohn Winery in Glen Ellen, California.  He invited me to taste at his winery, both wine and olive oil and I was immediately reminded of and inspired to write about Morgenster.

We arrived at Morgenster exactly at 1000 only to find the power was out.  So we were seated outside on a strikingly brilliant West Cape spring morning, Kelly our hostess offered us an olive tasting, explaining that the same conditions that make for world class wines, also make for world class olives and olive oil.

We started with brief “how to class” and then moved on to an olive tasting. We tasted Kalamata, Nocilara del Beliche, Black Olives and Mission Olives.  I will spare you my tasting notes as I have no palate for olives (yet) but I will say these were not the little black olives we kids would put on our fingers at Thanksgiving.  I savored each and every one.  We enjoyed tapenade with crackers, that proved wonderful examples of the olives they originated from.

The olive oil tasting was an even more exotic experience.  Fine small batch olives with wonderful finish.  Slurped up like fine wines.  And fresh mown grass without the allergies.  These olives and oils were like nothing I have ever experienced.  After a bit, Kelly brought out fresh bread and the character of the tasting shifted yet again.  Truly a feast for the palate, and we had not even begun the wines!

Somewhere in this process, wonderful balsamic vinegar snuck in.  The ingredients are imported from Modena and the vinegar made in South Africa on the Morgenster Estate.

I sampled three Morgenster wines, the Lourens River Valley ’05, the Morgenster ’05 and the Tosca ’06

The Tosca is a super Tuscan, Sangiovese, Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon.  Keeping with the Italian styling it had nice fruit on the nose, cherry and berries and very gentle on the palete again with  more cherries, but not over done.  The tannic structure was balanced and not overbearing.  The Lourens River Valley turned out to be another very pleasant offering, a Bordeaux blend of 70 percent Merlot and 10 each of Cabernet Franc, Cabernet Sauvignon and Petit Verdot.  This one was pleasantly spicy, nice black and green peppers - I had really deep mellow fruits, figs and prunes.  The finis was very long with notes of leather and tobacco.

We finished out the morning with the ’05 Morgenster, one of which made the trip home and is in my cellar.  70% Merlot, 30% Cabernet Sauvignon.  Mellow nose with just a hint of gentle oak.  Layers of fruits, dark rum-soaked cherries, prunes, more tobacco and another splendidly long finish.  Absolutely wonderful now, I can’t image how good it will be in another 5 years.

So that is Morgenstern.  Dan the bar is set when I get out to D. R. Cohn for a tasting.

Wine Ramble

Doyle