Wine of The Week

Have you ever gone to a wine shop or bar but you do not know which wine to purchase? If you are an oenophile, you should have encountered that moment on more than one occasion. The wine aisles never run out of options, and that’s why most people find it a daunting task to decide which wine to pick.

Though the taste may be similar in most wines, folks tend to buy wine for different reasons besides taste.

The region where the wine was made, its age, the brand and the cost of the wine are some of the extrinsic features that play a vital role in attracting wine oenophiles.

The intrinsic features cannot be known without buying the bottle, and it can be costly to be buying a bottle and not liking it.

The Windhoek Wine Club has come to the rescue.

Through biweekly sessions, the club will be trying out different wines, and recommending the one that is above notch, yet within budget.

For this week’s issue, the club recommends Kloovenburg’s Merlot 2018.

Located in the Western Cape, South Africa, the Kloovenburg wine farm is not new in the arena of wine making.

A winery with no history is like an unnamed child; there is just no identity to it.

One of their quality wines to date is the Merlot 2018. First sips are important and this one did not disappoint.

Very impressive Merlot!! Dark red in colour, really lovely nose filled with black fruit, sweet oaky spices and aroma of sweet berry, fruitcake, plum and blackcurrant flavours rounded off with some oak spice in it. It’s a medium to full-bodied red wine, fairly smooth on the palate and has wellstructured tannins.

Though you can simply have a lone glass shortly after a long day or with a friend catching up after a time apart, you can also pair it with some of the dishes that complement the perfect after taste of red wine.

Merlot is an excellent food wine due to its soft tannins, medium high acidity, and enjoyable fruit flavours.

This Kloovenburg Merlot can be matched well with grilled chicken, pork, ham and can as well be paired with finger food such as olives, cheese, meat or mushrooms.