By Sarah Taylor
The Creation Tasting Room has just launched its Spring 2025 menu: an immersive journey of sensory adventure entitled The Power of Flowers.
We set aside a few hours on a Sunday recently to explore this season’s wine and food pairing menu (including the Art of Creation) at the Hemel en Aarde Estate, and we were not disappointed. Chef Eleanor Coetzee and her extremely capable team had us spellbound from one course to the next.
We were welcomed with ‘Rain in a herb garden’ – a herb-and-flower consommé served with Creation’s Roussanne Grenache Blanc Viognier 2023, a light and fruity accompaniment. The consommé was magnificent. Chef Eleanor explains that 17 different plant-based ingredients were used to create the depth of flavours in this wonderful starter. The addition of nori makes it surprisingly hearty for a plant-based dish.
Chapter 1 was next with ‘Ocean’s Gift’ – Creation Sauvignon Blanc Semillon 2024 and Umfino Wild Greens Taco. The umfino (maize) balls were a delicious and rather unexpected take on the traditional South African maize-meal-and-leafy-greens dish. Using wild dune spinach harvested locally, these balls exploded with flavour and were beautifully presented with edible leaves and petals of the nasturtium. The lettuce-leaf was a cheeky approach to a taco, with the maize inside as umfino balls rather than outside as the ‘wrapper’!
Chapter 2 heralded in the Absolutely Brilliant Chardonnay – a course comprising Creation’s Reserve Chardonnay with B’Bos Trout, Peas, Potato. In keeping with Creation’s focus on locally sourced produce, 80% of the ingredients used in dishes at the Tasting Room coming from within an 80km radius, including this delicate rainbow trout from the Baardskeerdersbos area near Gansbaai. The fish was absolutely sublime and paired well with two wines: Creation’s Reserve Chardonnay 2023 and the estate’s Art of Chardonnay. I found the Reserve Chardonnay to be lighter than the woodier Art of Chardonnay, but both were wonderful accompaniments to this pescatarian course.
Chapter 3 brought us to the main course, simply titled Red Velvet. Lamb, Broccoli and Waterblommetjie Maize with two wines: Creation’s Reserve Pinot Noir 2023 and The Art of Pinot Noir 2023. The lamb was cooked to pink perfection, and the maize was now presented with the addition of the star ingredient: waterblommetjies (Cape Hawthorn ‘water flowers’), which are endemic to the Western Cape. Their fresh earthiness in the maize plus the broccoli gremolata offset the fattiness of the lamb and shook up the concept of the traditional waterblommetjiebredie – a stew usually made with lamb and these water flowers. Both Pinot Noirs, matured for 12 months, were magnificently matched with this red-meat dish. The Creation Art of Pinot Noir is a limited release, with just 6,200 bottles produced of the spicy, perfumed ‘Prince of Reds’.
By the time we got to this stage of the meal, my 15-year-old son was literally stunned by all the flavours and textures presented to him, declaring it to be the best food he had ever eaten! I will now have to up my game considerably to compete with the extremely competent and creative team in the Creation kitchen…
Chapter 4 presented us with the Sophisticated Syrah course – Creation Reserve Syrah 2021 harmoniously united with what sounded like a humble ‘braaibroodjie’. Well, of course there is nothing humble about the very well-considered and extremely creative offerings at the Creation Tasting Room, and this was no exception: the grilled sandwich made with local cheeses on a seed bread base was absolutely scrumptious paired with the rich and fruity ripe plum and black peppercorn notes of the full-bodied Reserve Syrah.
Chapter 5, titled Jasmine Neroli Elixir, unites the dessert wine Creation Cape White 2024 with one of South Africa’s most popular deserts – the sweet, caramelised malva pudding. Amazingly we had some space left to indulge in the light plant-based desert option as well, a fragrant plant-based milk tart. The Cape White is an enchanting elixir indeed, with the perfume of jasmine and neroli, and it worked beautifully with the desserts.
What a glorious time we spent at Creation! We departed, extremely satisfied and with a new appreciation of our local produce and a greater understanding of the distinctive and impressive wines from the Hemel-en-Aarde Ridge.
- Note: each of the dishes on Creation’s wine and food pairing menu can be ordered individually off the restaurant’s à la carte menu. Creation also has a 100% plant-based pairing menu.