“South Africa’s premier wine Festival”

RMB sponsor an annual wine festival every year. It’s held at the Sandton Convention Centre and Philip and I are lucky enough to have been invited as guests with our dear friends Paul and Marteen (Marteen works for RMB). This is an annual event and one that P and I look forward to every year! There are local as well as international winemakers ready to share their special wines and teach about new trends in winemaking.

Because it started at 5, and there really wasn’t time to go home and come all the way back to Sandton, P and I met at Maraschino's and had a snack before meeting Paul and Marteen at the convention centre. There were over 1500 wines to see and taste. Of course we always have our favorites – me heading straight for the dry whites, P preferring the reds. My favorite this year had to be Schalk Burger's Meerkat Sauvignon Blanc! We bought a case! The other good wines I tried were Mountain Ridge Chenin Blanc - very good, and the Glen Carlou Chardonnay - ok! I have gone off the Chardonnays a bit - very buttery and rather too wooded I have found. P bought a couple of cases of red, and we bought a case of some Rose for Stacey - I cannot remember what is was called, but I do remember that it tasted pretty good!

Of course one of the absolute highlights of the festival, were the olive farms represented there. We bought some stunning olive oils, an olive and fig jam (very good with cheese) and some Egyptian Dukkah - my BEST! Their black olives in blackberry juice were also divine - so I bought some of those too!


As guests of RMB we were invited to the exclusive lounge and were given cheese baskets to enjoy while we tasted our wine. Once again, it was a divine evening! Good company, good food and LOTS of wonderful wine ... what more could we ask for?

One more thing! You have to try this cocktail - I tasted one and it was FABULOUS! It came from the Leopard's Leap vineyard and it's called Strawberry Rosette:

A half fresh kiwifruit skinned and muddled
Squeeze of strawberry puree
1 shot of gomme syrup and sour mix
75 ml of Lookout Pinot Rose (but I am sure you could use any Rose wine)

All of the above is shaken and double strained into a Martini glass. Garnish with a kiwifruit wheel!

Delish!