Forget good food and wine, nougat and wine is so much better!

When you just happen to be in Cape Town, whether you live there or you’re just visiting, you absolutely have to take a drive to Stellenbosch and visit the House of J.C. Le Roux to indulge in their Nougat & Wine pairing.

I’ve been “wine tasting” before in Cape Town, but this was a completely different atmosphere. The set up is uber luxe and indulgent from the moment you walk in. Beautiful decor, a quick 5 minute tour through the winery (to see how it’s made without the boring tour guide shpiel) and then onto the wine tasting!

Bring on the bubbly!

You get your own table that’s set up with five fabulous wines and a guide (ours was the very knowledgeable Simon Dicks) who explains the different wines to you. It’s not so much a lesson, but rather of an interesting story behind the bottle and how it’s made.

With the Nougat & Wine pairing, you get to sample five wines, each one matched to compliment a type of Nougat.

First up; Pinoit Noir, Pinot Noir Rosé  and La Vallée Rosé. These three wines are Méthode Cap Classique wines, which means that they were made in the time-honored French way of making sparkling wine (Méthode Champenoise). These wines have an alcohol percentage of 11.5%, and because they are fermented with alcohol and not carbonated, they tend to be more expensive, but also have a better palette!

The other two wines were Le Fleurette and Le Domaine. Le Domaine is the J.C Le Roux you often see at weddings and celebrations, while Le Fleurette is the “pink sparkling wine” version. These sparkling wines have less alcohol (7%) and are carbonated, unlike the Méthode Cap Classique wines which are fermented! You can spot the non Méthode Cap Classique wines easily as they have a ribbon on the neck of the bottle.

While we were there, we also got to sample Scintilla, the flagship of the J.C Le Roux range on it’s own without nougat. Being the flagship wine, it’s their most expensive wine (R160 a bottle), but is really a great sparkling wine that tastes deelish! It’s a dry, sparkling Chardonnay Méthode Cap Classique premiere vintage wine, that takes up to at least eight years before you can enjoy it!

I’m not much of a wine connoisseur, so I really don’t know how to describe each of the different wines, other than they taste good! I did pick out three favourites (in order):

Scintilla, La Vallée Rose and Pinot Noir.

After our tasting, we decided to go up to the restaurant and enjoy a little lunch! This is an option that you should definitely consider to finish off the whole Bubbly Pairing experience!

Sound like fun? Make sure you book in advance so that you can enjoy your own Nougat and Wine Pairing.

Contact:
021 865 8200

Cost:
R75 per person

Individual Costs of the Six Wines We Sampled (R750ml bottle):
Pinot Noir (Vintage 2008) – R90/ bottle
Pinot Noir Rosé (Vintage 2008) – R115/ bottle
La Vallée Rosé – R85/ bottle
Le Fleurette – R53/ bottle
Le Domaine – R53/ bottle
Scintilla (Vintage 2003) – R160/ bottle