If you follow us on Instagram, you may have seen that we were more than mildly excited for this past Sunday’s Noble Vice Wine and Culinary Event in Cape Town. If you snoozed, you definitely loozed – but not to worry, we’re optimistic that this is only the first of a new wave of food and wine festivals in SA. So what makes festivals like Noble Vice any different to your average wine event? We think it comes down to two things – quality with a capital Q, and what can only be described as obsessive curation.
We’re still pinching ourselves that so many of our country’s top boutique winemakers (and we mean top of the pops, the big guns, this is the wine you should be drinking, etc) were gathered in one space alongside six of Cape Town’s most innovative chefs. We’re talking Sadie, Mullineux, A.A. Badenhorst, Savage, Craven, Testalonga. The list goes on. And unlike most wine festivals where you may find yourself jostling people out of the way to get to the good stuff, there was the perfect amount of room to sniff, swirl and chat about these beautiful wines with the very people who made them. As for the food, it was like being front row at a theatre performance. From pineapples swinging in the wind above fire-roasting lamb (Chef Juan Vais) to sustainable honey scraped right off the comb into a bed of waiting coconut cream and toasted organic pine nuts (Mark Farah), to the freshest fire-cooked mussels on a bed of ‘edible sand’ (Chef Philip Alcock)… it was truly a feast for the senses.
After a full day of sensory overload we left the event significantly enlightened and with our curiosity (at least partially) satisfied. If you missed it, shame. We suggest you follow @noblevicefest on Instagram and join us at the next one!
