Food & Wine News South Africa

Awaken your senses with the unique Creation Sensation wine pairing

Award-winning Creation Wine Farm in the beautiful Hemel 'n Aarde Valley has always offered unique and exciting wine and food pairings, however, the latest pairing, The Sensation Pairing, might be the most thoughtful and unique yet.

Inspired by the five senses – sight, sound, touch, smell and taste – the Sensation Pairing allows one to meditatively explore the outstanding wines.

Awaken your senses with the unique Creation Sensation wine pairing
Awaken your senses with the unique Creation Sensation wine pairing
Co-owner Carolyn Martin, who joined us for the tasting describes the new pairing as:
…a mindful activity, raising awareness of, and pleasure in the here and now by engaging your senses to the full.”.
Co-owners Jean-Claude and Carolyn Martin
Co-owners Jean-Claude and Carolyn Martin

Sophisticated non-alcoholic pairings

For the growing low- and no-alcohol trend, non-alcoholic pairings are offered and can be catered to all the pairings including the Sensation. I tested out the non-alcoholic pairing and was impressed by the sophistication in the range of non-alcoholic drinks as well as the consideration that had gone into pairing certain drinks with the canapés on offer.

Awaken your senses with the unique Creation Sensation wine pairing

Forget sparkling water and rock-shandies, Creation offers complex tonics, fresh home-made cordials and TWG loose-leaf teas to best compliment the tasty canapés.

And what of the pairings?

An eye test and a custom perfume

Well, you will be treated to an eye and colourblind test while sampling the Creation Chardonnays or one of the rooibos tonics with a canapé of fresh gazpacho soup, and a shaved Bonito fish salad with fine green beans, a tasty twist on the classic Niçoise. Did you know that eating off different coloured plates changes the perception of the food, for example, black plates bring out the savoury notes of food while white, the sweeter.

Awaken your senses with the unique Creation Sensation wine pairing
Awaken your senses with the unique Creation Sensation wine pairing

In the same vein, listening to higher-pitched sounds bring out the sweeter notes in food and drink as was illustrated in the sound pairing. Our lovely waiter demonstrated this by creating differently pitched ringing sounds on a range of wine glasses.

A unique custom made perfume has been developed by Carolyn herself (who fun fact planned to study perfumery before deciding on wine) in collaboration with Just Pure. The scent is inspired by the popular Creation Pinot Noir and captures the sweet and earthy tones associated with the wine and is even available for sale at the establishment.

Awaken your senses with the unique Creation Sensation wine pairing
Awaken your senses with the unique Creation Sensation wine pairing

For touch, a brush of a Guinea fowl feather across the cheek and some popping candy added to a fresh berry granita brought out the flirty and fun nature of the Creation Rose.

Other delicious delicacies you can expect to taste include wagyu beef, Japanese inspired trout or jackfruit, earthy mushrooms with black sesame crackers and a delightful macaron/macaroon hybrid of coconut, white chocolate and apricot.

Awaken your senses with the unique Creation Sensation wine pairing
Awaken your senses with the unique Creation Sensation wine pairing

Innovation recognition

Forever innovating, the passionate and enthusiastic team at Creation – not only content with winning a host of prestigious international wine awards recently (most notably, the 2021 GWC Global Award for Innovative Wine Tourism Experiences) – has used the lockdown to launch their Tasting Together, Apart ‘virtual’ tasting kits to enjoy at home. They’ve also developed their own gin range. All while initiating a variety of CSI efforts, to help support their community during the challenges that arose from the Covid-19 pandemic and subsequent lockdowns and alcohol bans.

Martin ascribes their great international achievement to the exemplary way her team had pivoted during the Covid-19 lockdown and the ban on alcohol sales. “Sometimes innovation is born out of adversity. Our team went to extraordinary lengths to mitigate the challenges and this happened on many levels; from sourcing materials and upskilling to the development of new products and delivery systems.”

The Creation Sensation Tasting Experience is R450 pp. For more info go to www.creationwines.com

*Ruth Cooper was a guest of Creation Wines

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