Explore South African Wine with #winePW

Get ready to explore South African Wine with the next Wine Pairing Weekend, coming August 13th!

If you're regular readers of Curious Cuisiniere, you'll know that we recently returned form an amazing trip to South Africa. We learned so much about the South African wine culture while there, that we were inspired to bring our new-found love for South African wines to the Wine Pairing Weekend (#winePW) group!

South African Wines

Only in the last 10 years have South African wines started to gain global notice, even though their wine-making history dates back to the mid-1600s.

Production of South African wine centers around Cape Town, on the western South African coast. The regions of Paarl, Stellenbosch and Worcester are some of the most well-known wine producing regions.

The Stellenbosch region is well known for its red wine production, particularly Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Pinotage, and Shiraz. South African white wines of popularity are Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc, and Chenin Blanc.

We talk more about South African wine and, in particular, Pinotage in our South African grilled kebab pairing post.

South Africa also has a long history of fortified wine, made in the style of Port.  Since the term "Port" is protected to only refer to wines from the Douro region of Portugal, these fortified wines are locally known as "Cape Port".

The Influence of Climate

Terroir, the land and other environmental factors that affect a crop's growing habits, plays a huge role in South African wine.

The climate of this region is influenced by the  meeting of the Atlantic and Indian Oceans. The two oceans create a great diversity of climates and topography in the region, which plays out in a beautiful and unique way in the wines.

South African Wine Pairing Weekend

For August, we are challenging food and wine lovers to discover (or re-discover) how much there is to love about South African wines! While South African wine is great for sipping on a warm (or cool) day, it is just as good when paired with a good meal, appetizer, or dessert.

If you love wine and food, we're inviting you to show off your South African wine and your pairing skills by pairing your wine with some tasty bites!

How to join us

• Send an email to tell us you're in: Include your blog url, Twitter handle, link to your Pinterest profile, and any other social media details. If you know your blog post title, include that...but you can also send that a bit closer to the event. We'd just like to get a sense of who's participating and give some shout-outs and links as we go. The email is sarah (at) curiouscuisiniere.com.
• Prepare some tasty food and pair it with some South African Wine. Get cookin' and sippin'!
• Send your post title to us by Tuesday, August 9 to be included in the preview post. We will do a preview post shortly after getting the titles, linking to your blogs. Your title should include "#winePW." If you want to get involved after Tuesday, August 9, just drop us an email letting us know you plan to post so we can add you to the link list.
• Publish your post between 12:01 a.m-8:00 a.m. EDT on Saturday, August 13. You can always schedule your post in advance if you will be tied up that morning.
• Include links to the other #winePW participants in your post, and a description of what the event is about. We'll provide the HTML code that you can easily put in your initial post -- which will link to people's general blog url -- then the updated code for the permanent links to everyone's #winePW posts.
• Get social! After the posts go live, please visit your fellow bloggers posts' to comment and share. We have a Facebook group for participating bloggers to connect and share, too.
• Sponsored posts are OK if clearly disclosed. Please be sure to disclose if your post is sponsored or if you are describing wine or other products for which you have received a free sample.

For more of the back-story on Wine Pairing Weekend, check out David's original post introducing the idea. Please let us know your thoughts and questions in the comments, or you can email us at sarah (at) curiouscuisiniere.com.

Sarah - Curious Cuisiniere

Sarah founded Curious in 2010 as a way to save her recipe creations and share culinary experiences. Her love for cultural cuisines was instilled early by her French Canadian Grandmother. Her experience in the kitchen and in recipe development comes from over 10 years working in professional kitchens. She has traveled extensively and enjoys bringing the flavors of her travels back to create easy-to-make recipes.

www.curiouscuisiniere.com/about/