What do you know about South African wine? What about South African cuisine? Have you ever tasted either?

If you are typical Americans like Que Syrah Sue and I, you may never have had wine or food from the region! While I had tasted wine in Egypt when I went there January 2011 just before the revolution, I don’t think I’ve had wine from that continent.

But this is changing rapidly as more wine is produced for export. You can even find tasty, inexpensive South African wine at Trader Joes like the one below.

When I heard that Wine Pairing Weekend was focusing on South African wine and food to pair with it, Sue and I got very excited: we had recently tasted and wrote about South African Sauvignon blanc wines for Sauvignon Blanc day, and we were eager to try more!

Sue in particular was engaged by the jalapeño jelly notes in the wines and we were curious how that herbal spiciness might play itself out in other wines from the region.

Right away I contacted the media agency who had sent me the first wines asking if they could send me any others –and they said yes!

Sue got right on to researching the foods and what she found Continue reading →