A Sommelier’s signature in Morningside
Signature restaurant held a media launch event for their newly released wine selections.
Morningside residents will be familiar with the novelty dining experiences tailored by the Signature Restaurant brand.
The restaurant invited the media to the brand’s launch of two of its blends of wine, both boasting sense-titillating aromas.
The chairman and founder of Signature Restaurants Desmond Mabuza hailed the launch as a milestone contributing to the brand’s 15-year legacy.
“This journey goes back a few years. We put it on hold in 2020 because of Covid,” Mabuza said. “We’ve partnered with a crowd out in the Swartland region. Some of the best wines in the country, in the world for that matter, come out of this region. Now, we’re here sitting with these two blends as a part of our 15th anniversary.”
Mabuza credited the group’s sommelier Mxolisi Mahatshia for playing an integral part in the process of making the wine.
Mahatshi joined the restaurant in Morningside in 2013 as a waiter. He graduated as a wine steward in 2017 and a sommelier in 2018.
“Signature has been a home for me; I’ve seen growth in both my personal and professional life, moving from where I’ve been, to where I am right now,” Mahatshi reflected. “All the studies that I’ve done and everything that I have achieved in terms of my sommelier life, Signature has been with me, helping all the way, to make sure that I got to where I am.”
Speaking about the wine on offer Mahatshei said, “We worked with the same wine farm because that’s where the chenin blanc grapes are doing well. We hold the understanding that the most common grape grown in South Africa is chenin blanc.”
The media were tasked to pair the offered variety of starters and main dishes with the wines.
“I’m leaving this one for customers to decide for themselves,” he said of the spicy chickpea curry. For the pairing with the mushroom tart, he said, “The white wine was enough to envelope the cheese in the mushroom tart, and the red, with peppery fruitiness to it, also balanced well and gelled with the mushroom tart.”
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