La Motte: Next Level Food and Wine

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la motte food wine experience sonia cabano blog eatdrinkcapetown
La Motte Wine Ambassador Lilian Jonker ready to present the Friday Food and Wine Experience
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Waiter Kobus with the Food and Wine Experience tasters
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The great and good of La Motte wines. LTR: Sauvignon Blanc, Chardonnay, Millenium red blend, Cabernet Cauvignon, Syrah
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La Motte Food and Wine Experience with estate wines
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A savoury lemon thyme blancmange with goat’s cheese, grenadilla and apple softens the La Motte Sauvignon Blanc, bringing out more floral notes.
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Spiced pumpkin tart with nutmeg and cashew highlights tropical fruit in La Motte estate-produced Chardonnay
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Duck terrine lollipop, black cherry with La Motte Millenium red blend picks up raspberry, mulberry, cinnamon, subtle mint notes
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Marvellous MIllenium at Pierneef à la Motte
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Sensational smoky Karoo lamb with cacao nib on rosemary biscuit, perfect with La Motte Cabernet Sauvignon
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Almond meringue, spiced blackberry jam & liquorice, a genius pairing with La Motte Syrah

The Food and Wine Experience at La Motte is an epicurean dream come true. Presented each Friday at 10 am by skilled and knowledgeable La Motte Wine Ambassadors, it offers a leisurely guided exploration of 5 estate wines, matched with chef Michelle Theron’s superb Winelands Cuisine.

Who doesn’t want to drink fine wine and eat great food early on a Friday morning? Of course you do, Princess.

Priced at a mere R130 and lasting well over 90 minutes, the La Motte Food and Wine Experience is a perfect introduction to the many gems the cellar holds, as well as chef Michelle’s nuanced, layered cooking. This is one food and wine pairing that certainly won’t leave you hungry, although I highly recommend you follow it up with lunch in Pierneef à la Motte restaurant. It IS the weekend, after all!  Or you can amble over to the Tasting Room to extend the tasting fun with choices from the cellar.

Whatever you do, make a day of it. La Motte offers a wealth of sensory experiences, including the exquisite landscaped gardens and interior design by Christo Barnard. It is, quite simply, next level food and wine in a heavenly setting. The place is awash in shades of green both inside and out; a babbling brook adding to the sense of calm. Tall trees shade several long tables on the lawn, and it’s not unusual to see little children darting about like nature sprites, splashing barefoot in the watervoortjies. Definitely family-friendly, La Motte.

Nature is writ large: especially on and in the menus. Botanic detail is evident everywhere in the decor and table settings, with indigenous fynbos and proteas in vases adding fresh floral notes.

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Gardens at La Motte restaurant, seen from the Tasting Room
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Crockery chandelier by Jacques Erasmus, Pierneef à la Motte restaurant interior
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The pass at Pierneef à la Motte’s kitchen with Pierneef inspired lampshades
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Botanic decor detail, Pierneef à la Motte
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Pincushion protea, Pierneef à la Motte
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Lunch with a view: my favourite table at Pierneef à la Motte restaurant

La Motte’s wines are astonishingly well priced for the quality, as are the dishes on chef Michelle’s seasonal menus. It seems to be policy for owners Hein Koegelenberg and Hanli Rupert to make all their estates as accessible as possible to everyone, offering reasonably priced food and wines in beautiful surroundings – at nearby Leopard’s Leap as well as Anthonij Rupert Wyne. All three are flagship Franschhoek wine estates, where the customer experience has been designed with great attention and the utmost care. These people are pros at their game, delivering a slick and sleek experience with a warm, homely, human touch. Service is never less than exceptional.

This is serious cooking, presented in a fresh and easy manner. It always strikes me just what sheer fun it is to eat at Pierneef à la Motte, with unexpected thrills arriving on each plate: puddings named ‘Science Fiction’ and ‘It’s Vegan!’; a bean and bokkom salad served in a pastry horn of plenty; subtly flavoured butters and multi-coloured breads. Each mouthful, every morsel at La Motte has been carefully thought out and forms part of a bigger whole, and that whole is the reinvention of historic Winelands cuisine into a modern context. Like I said, it’s next level food and wine.

Chef Michelle Theron has a strong visual approach in her plating and her playful sense of humour is seen especially in the desserts. Our lunch from the new Spring Menu was a riot of textures and flavours in vivid colours, celebrating abundance with the fresh new seasonal produce Michelle loves to cook with. Innovative vegetable cookery is one of her strengths, but then so is meat, be that poultry, game, pork, beef or lamb. The pastry chefs hold up their side with ever-inventive desserts and cheese platters. As a rule I never order dessert; as I rule I always have dessert at La Motte.

Below are some visual highlights from our recent food and wine experience and lunch at La Motte.

Thank you to La Motte who hosted us, and to Mareli Roux and Lilian Jonker for making it a day to remember.

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Chefs in the kitchen at Pierneef à la Motte
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Bread, butter, wine at Pierneef à la Motte
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Shiraz butter, Pierneef à la Motte
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Flavoured butters, Pierneef à la Motte
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Home-baked breads, Pierneef à la Motte
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Roast chicken pilaf. wild rice salad with garden herbs, toasted peanuts, green sauce Pierneef à la Motte
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Horn of Plenty: bread and bean salad, whipped apricot butter, bokkoms, poached quail eggs Pierneef à la Motte
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Smoked Franschhoek trout, cheese-and-dill tart, carrot, ginger, fermented white bean broth Pierneef à la Motte
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Grass-fed beef short rib, mushroom chutney, marinated cherry tomato, charred onion and smoked potato cream Pierneef à la Motte
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‘Science Fiction’ dessert, before the smash Pierneef à la Motte: seasonal verrine with layers of complimentary textures
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‘Science Fiction’ dessert, after the smash Pierneef à la Motte
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“It’s Vegan!” dessert at Pierneef à la Motte: popcorn and peanut blancmange, caramel popcorn, banana caramel and chocolate sponge
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Capturing the moment: tweeting and eating at La Motte

 

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eatdrinkcapetown
eatdrinkcapetownhttp://www.eatdrinkcapetown.co.za
Celebrating life with food, wine, friends & happiness! Writer, cook and blogger. Author of four cookbooks. Passionately South African, proudly Capetonian.