Earthly Bounds
Food and wine pairings are as much about the journey as the final destination, and often it’s the unexpected turns on the voyage that result in magical partnerships.
In search of a perfect food pairing, while looking for a wine that could meet our dish’s flavours head on and then mellow into a comfortable relationship, I found an unlikely yet perfect marriage of two worlds. At Restaurant Klein JAN, we are embraced by the intensity of the Kalahari, with its vibrant red soil and distinctive climate, and simultaneously we actively welcome the best of the Cape winelands, known for its unique terroir, wet winters and diverse grape yields.
For our pairing with a meat dish of Bonsmara dry-aged beef fillet, I knew we needed a wine with bold yet elegant characteristics and a diverse flavour profile that could confidently pair with the complexity of the plate components – and that brought me to Syrah, and in particular Stellenzicht Arenite Syrah.
Stellenzicht Arenite Syrah is crafted from the same original Syrah clone as its acclaimed predecessor and exudes its origin with richly concentrated layers of dark berry fruit, plums, black pepper and finely textured tannins. Our dish of Bonsmara dry-aged beef fillet with its zesty cauliflower pickle and a grapefruit salad needed a confident wine that could accompany these complexities – and the Arenite Syrah is certainly it.
Stellenzicht Arenite Syrah 2019
This ruby-coloured wine is born of the Arenite soil found at Stellenzicht. A sandy soil, Arenite is crucial to wine production since it allows for good drainage and is excellent for developing deep, concentrated flavours in the grapes it harbours. Much like the sands of the Kalahari, so the Arenite soil at Stellenzicht has yielded an unlikely yet very special offering that we are both privileged to celebrate while being mindful of how essential it is to safeguard.
