Diamonds are for ever... the title of one of the most exciting and mystic Bond movies depicting the lavish lifestyle of 007 and his "enemies" in their futuristic world! A great story from creator Ian Fleming! Diamonds, however, have been the real life success story of Mr Laurence Graff, Chairperson of Graff Diamonds International, who in 2003 bought the beautiful Delaire Wine Estate outside Stellenbosch.

The location of the farm on the crest of the Helshoogte Mountain pass is unique and offers panoramic views of the valleys below with backdrops of the mountain ranges looking towards Franschhoek. The high altitude vineyards on the farm offer excellent soils for the vines which also benefit from the cool sea breezes.

Laurence Graff's ambition was to turn the Estate into a premium winery along with a top restaurant and boutique hotel and so in 2009 the Delaire Graff Estate, after a complete rebuild, was re-opened (the hotel and spa will be complete early in 2010). The restaurant, designed by London architect, David Collins, houses artworks by some of South Africa's finest contemporary artists. These works were chosen by Graff who is a major collector of contemporary art. The Mediterranean type cuisine created by executive chef, Christian Campbell, offers delicious fresh vibrant dishes using local produce and are suited to enjoy with the wines from Delaire.

Morne Vrey, Delaires passionate and energitic winemaker is producing excellent wines from his state of the art cellar which must be one of the most advanced cellars in the Southern Hemisphere. Morne's philosophy with wine making is "let the grapes do the talking, never stop trying new things and play the right cards at the right time during the winemaking process, to end up with something great". With both local and international experience there is no doubt that Morne will achieve this at Delaire.

I recently tasted the new release wines from Delaire and can vouch for Morne's success if he continues to produce the excellent quality of the wines tasted. The wine that stood out for me was the delicious Sauvignon Blanc 2009. This wine has a lovely pale straw colour with abundant aromas of tropical fruit, green fig and hints of fynbos. The palate displayed fresh clean acidity with intense flavours of fig and pineapple along with a hint of minerality on the long lasting finish. Morne received the coveted five stars for this wine at the 2009 Wine Magazines Sauvignon Blanc Top 10 awards.

We enjoyed the sauvignon with a delicious starter of Tuna tartar, pea salad and salmon terrine with asparagus prepared by Christain Campbell.

Expect to pay: R74.00

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