A €105 000 truffle sends market atwitter

A giant (900g) white truffle was sold off on Sunday to a Hong Kong-based wine critic for €105,000 (R1 000,000) at a lavish auction near the town of Alba in northern Italy.

The prized giant truffle aka the hunchback of fungi

Gourmets in Italy and beyond are licking their lips in anticipation of a bumper crop this year of the most prized culinary delicacy of all, the white truffle. The Piemonte region in northern Italy is reputed to grow the world's best white truffles – which connoisseurs describe as having aromas of garlic, hay, wet earth, honey, mushroom and spices - and aromas similar to pheromones that trigger a mating reflex in female pigs.

Earlier in the season the climatic conditions had been described as “textbook," according  to Giacomo Oddero, president of the National Centre for Truffle Studies in Alba, the centre of the truffle trade. “The first indications are excellent and suggest that we'll remember this year for a long time to come."

Asiago e Adoro - Capeche?

Cheese and wine maybe as old as the Flintstones but not – it seems - always a match made in heaven. Usually matched with fortified or sweet wines, cheese also serves to make more disagreeable dry wines ‘makliker om in jou lyf te kry’ (easier to get into your body) as my viticulture lecturer used to say.

The problems include the diversity of cheese, the coating of dairy fat that dulls your palate, and too many tight entertainment budgets marrying Chateaux de Cardboard with gaudy yellow Gouda.

The classics include Port and Stilton, Champagne and Chevre (goats), Sauternes (noble late harvest) and Gorgonzola, where alcohol, acidity and sweetness respectively compete - but not always respectfully - with dairy's richness for a share of palate. 

Adoro winemaker Ian Naudé has crafted the ideal compromise, a natural sweet Mourvèdre that’s neither too sweet nor alcoholic with a frisky acidity and light framework of tannin which showed remarkable versatility with a range of cheeses last night at Cape Town’s L’Aperitivo restaurant.

Adoro Mourvedre natural sweet red

the good, not so bad and the beautiful

Its unofficial, the recession is over but dipstick research does not always give an accurate picture. My once favourite quick and easy check on how the economy is doing was to look at new car sales figures. My new favourite check – attend Cape Legend’s Night of a Thousand Glasses (or a Thousand Knives as one of the hacks said – that economy is really bad).

Simple enough – well simpler than building a new car – assemble 100 guests in a spectacular setting (the Roundhouse in Camps Bay in this instance), commission an outstanding chef (PJ Vadas) and his team to assemble 10 delicious courses matched with 10 Cape Legends wines  - all to the music of  the sexiest classical music quartet on the planet. (there is nothing outside the Cape right?)

Elderflower discovered in Oak Valley

If there is any doubt Cape Sauvignons age well it was dispelled by a vertical tasting of Oak Valley’s striking Sauvignon Blancs. Another growing school of thought is that – in cooler regions anyway – they can benefit from at least a year or two of bottle maturation before revealing all their beauty.

Oak Valley Mountain Vineyards

All the wines displayed seamless palate integration that generally occurs best with natural acidity and balanced fruit. Another cool climate marker was the Elderflower aroma I found on the 06 although wind had reduced this vintage’s yield to a mere 1t/hectar. The common threads throughout were citrus – including grapefruit and lime – and steeliness or mineral character.