Groote Post MCC Brut
The Groote Post Wine Estate is in the Darling Hills, north of Cape Town. Close to the Atlantic Ocean where the cooling breezes from the Benguela Current ameliorate Summer heat in the vineyards. This allows for slower ripening of the grapes and the resulting increased flavours.
The blend composition is 60% Chardonnay and 40% Pinot Noir and the grapes for the Groote Post Brut are whole bunch pressed and the first juice, called the Cuvée, is run off and used to make the base wine. The two varieties ripen at different times, so blending takes place after three months on the lees. Wines from previous vintages are used to make up the final blend. The second fermentation takes place en bouteille and the wine lies for anything from 14 to 20 months on the yeast lees closed with a crown cork. It is then disgorged, and the cork and wire muzzle applied.
Groote Post Owner, Nic Pentz with Lukas Wentzel, the Estate’s Winemaker
Pour
From a classical Champagne shaped bottle, closed with natural cork and a wire muzzle. The label is simple and elegant. In the glass, the tiniest of bubbles rush headlong to the surface though the golden straw coloured wine. The aromas are of crisp green apples, and pears and a fresh baked almond brioche. The palate is vibrant, silken creamy with the structure of the Chardonnay and the fruit notes of the Pinot Noir. Long slowly waning aftertaste.
Prawn Starter In A Cocktail Glass
Pair
While the Groote Post MCC Brut is a great glass on its own, down keep it only for celebration, drink it at any time for any number of reasons. Debbie McLaughlin, this Elizabeth David of Darling, offers the most sublime food to visitors in the Hilda’s Kitchen Restaurant. The legendary food writer Hildagonda Duckitt lived on the Estate. Debbie created a retro Prawn and Avocado Cocktail which is its previous incarnation in the 1960s was known as Avocado Ritz in South Africa. I have a suspicion that it was a dish on the menu of the Ritz Carlton Hotel in New York. Debbie has made it her own, and excitingly so.
Debbie McLaughlin
Debbie McLaughlin’s Retro Prawn Starter In A Cocktail Glass
Ingredients
1½ Tbs.Fish Sauce
2 Tbs Sweet Chilli Sauce
80ml of Greek Yoghurt
Finely grated zest and juice of a Lime
2 Tbs homemade mayonnaise
1 tsp caster sugar
¼ Iceberg Lettuce – finely sliced
1 Avo, peeled and thinly sliced
600gr cooked prawns, tails & head intact) – deveined
Method
Place in a bowl the fish sauce and sweet chili sauces, yoghurt, lime zest, mayonnaise and caster sugar and whisk until the mixture is smooth. Divide lettuce among glasses and add avocado and prawns. Drizzle with sauce and garnish with lime wedges.
Enjoy with a glass of Groote Post MCC Brut
Do make your reservations for Hilda’s Kitchen. call +27 22 492 2825 or email [email protected]
