A Successful Fine Dining Dinner with RAKA Wine Pairing

The pairing of food and wine is one of De Oude Kraal’s most inspiring commitments

The build up for the food and wine pairing: De Oude Kraal’s chef/owner Marie Lombard provided a symphony for the senses with an eight course dinner and Piet Dreyer owner of RAKA wines provided the 7 wines for the pairing.
The challenge of the game of food-wine pairing is to define formulae and equations that will help us find the meeting point between food and wine on the complex playing field of our palates.

In preparation for the evening Marie and team pre-tasted all the wines and gave a score out of a hundred with categories for sweet, sour, bitter, salt and savoury. That laid the foundation for building the menu in order to have each course harmonize with the selected wine.

The Actual Event:   On the 1st of November, a  select group of guests were greeted on arrival by De Oude Kraal owner Gerhard Lombard and Piet Dreyer with a nicely chilled glass of Chenin Blanc. Piet gave a short speech about the history of Raka his life and wine estate. He was actively involved in calamari fishing for 36 years and named the estate after his favourite fishing vessel – RAKA.

The eight course dinner started with a corn & shrimp mousse served with scallop and salami, goats’ milk cheese and watermelon paired with a Sauvignon Blanc. Next was a home-made Norwegian Salmon gravlax with radish, cucumber, peaches and dill to compliment the Shannonea.

The first red wine Pinotage worked really well with the smoked warthog loin, apple, beetroot and Molé-berry sauce, followed by the Quinary and lamb with thyme – a favourite with the guests. Next was fallow deer with mulberry, soya and tarragon accents for the Cabernet Franc.

The Biography Shiraz was well worth the wait accompanied by aged beef fillet served with a pepper-cream reduction with wild mushroom and seared foie gras.  A trio of strawberry desserts was followed by a ripe camembert, nuts and glazed fruits to enjoy with the coffee to conclude the evening.

Comments from the guests showed that each course was unique and delicious in its own right, with the lamb and fillet as the favourites.

The Food and Wine pairing evenings are available as part of our yearly calendar, visit our upcoming events page, or subscribe to receive our latest news via e-mail on our home page. Private fine dining and wine pairings can be booked by appointment, contact us for more information.

* In the picture from the left Gerhard Zulch-distributor of RAKA wines, Gerhard Lombard-owner De Oude Kraal and Piet Dreyer-owner RAKA.