On arrival, this VIP treatment carries on through: all guests checking in are offered refreshments - a choice of water, tea, coffee or sparkling wine. The staff is supremely helpful and accommodating and you immediately feel you will be well taken care of.
We stayed in one of their mountain-facing rooms. As the name suggests this room looked out onto the Twelve Apostles mountain range and fynbos gardens and included a private patio area. Elegant and cosy, these rooms are perfect for couples wanting a sumptuous getaway option.
Our stay consciously coincided with one of The Twelve Apostles monthly food-and-wine-pairing evenings at Azure. This month, the honour went to Thelema Mountain Vineyards which in collaboration with talented executive chef Christo Pretorius, designed and perfected an exciting and beautifully balanced four-course menu. I loved every distinct mouthful and this dinner is definitely going into my happy food memory bank for life.
First up was an amuse-bouche of spiced lentil curry topped with scallop and micro herbs: a tiny taster that was packed with mouth-watering flavours, doing its job of exciting the senses for the following courses most excellently. The first course was trout done three ways: tartare, flame grilled, and smoked accompanied by compressed cucumber and pickled turnip. This was paired with my favourite wine of the evening: the creamy and vanilla-finishing Sutherland Viognier Roussanne 2011. Beautifully fresh and light, this dish impressed so that even the fish-phobic guests at our table left clean plates.
The second starter was the impeccably cooked blesbok loin, served with orange sweet potato, bulgar wheat salad, forest mushroom, smoked beetroot, cashew sour cream, juniper berry and strawberry gel. This dish had a wonderful depth and earthy berry appeal, which was perfectly complemented by the berry undertones in the elegant-and-smooth Sutherland Pinot Noir 2012. The main course, and quite possibly my favourite dish of the night, was the Chalmar beef fillet served with braised oxtail, parsnip puree, baby leeks, caramelised pearl onion, micro rocket, coffee crumbs and black cherry ale jus. This was paired with the robust Thelema Cabernet Sauvignon 2009, creating a true mouth explosion of exciting flavours and textures.
Dessert was a sticky roasted banana pudding cake served with salted caramel ice cream, bitter caramel sauce, petit beurre and granadilla, paired with the Thelema Riesling Late Harvest 2010. The dessert was the perfect sweet finale to a standing ovation-deserving culinary show. If a little room still existed, coffee and a trio of petit fours: chocolate macaroon, pistachio and fig would certainly fill any gaps. The monthly pairings follow a leisurely pattern: plus/minus five hours from start to finish, with explanations from the chef and wine maker, and with so many courses and wines to savour this is pretty much a necessity.
The price is R545 per person (including all drinks and gratuity) and when you take into consideration the different wine pairings and fine-dining-quality courses, this seems wonderfully reasonable. The Twelve Apostles next food-and-wine pairing is on the 27 June and features Guest Chef Kevin Joseph from The Oyster Box in Durban and Stellekaya Wines. Book a reservation - I promise you, you won't be disappointed.
What better way to end a taste bud-satisfying night and to avoid a stormy, dark drive back home (did I mention there was a lot of wine?) than to stumble a couple of steps to one of the lovely rooms at the hotel? I can't say how grateful I was for our king-sized bed, with just the right amount of plump pillows, into which we could immediately crawl, ready for a sweet sleep of happy-belly dreams.
To make a reservation at Azure for the food-and-wine pairings and/or a room at The Twelve Apostles Hotel and Spa, go to www.12apostleshotel.com
