Event report: Aperitif with the South African Chamber of Commerce in Japan | The Netherlands Chamber of Commerce in Japan (NCCJ)

The NCCJ and the South African Chamber of Commerce in Japan held a joint wine and cheese event at the Oakwood Premier Residence at Tokyo Midtown on June 8 2012.

The Netherlands and South Africa have had a long and fruitful relationship, dating back to the 17th century. The Dutch East India Company established the first European settlement in the region, a small trading and provisioning station in 1652 at what is now Cape Town, to supply Dutch ships sailing to Eastern Africa, India and the Far East. The two countries’ relationship in wine dates to shortly after that, in 1659, when Dutch immigrants under Jan van Riebeeck, the founder and first governor of Cape Town, produced the first wine in South Africa.

So it was an appropriate pairing on June 8 as the NCCJ and the South African Chamber of Commerce in Japan (SACCJ) continued this relationship, holding a joint wine and cheese event at the Oakwood Premier Residence at Tokyo Midtown.

With several hundred people in attendance, Martin van der Linden took the stage to give a talk on the night’s lineup of fine Dutch cheeses. These included a lovely sharp boerenkaas farmer’s cheese, a rich Mimolette, a Leyden (spicy and tangy with cumin seeds), an intense, aged Roomano Pradela and a Ewephoria sheep milk gouda. The cheeses were all superb, and Martin, in his presentation, gave a rundown on them and suggested appropriate pairings with the South African wines. Deshima Co., Ltd., supplied the cheese, which all disappeared quickly after being served.

The wine was equally splendid, with some delicious examples from the West Cape region of South Africa. Most of the vintages were from the main regions of Schellerbosch, Constantia and Paarl in the Cape Town region, the main producing region of the country. Staff from the vendors who supplied the wines – Accolade Wines Japan KK, GSA Japan Ltd. and Table Mountain Inc. – supplied tasting samples, and Trond Varlid provided an introduction to the wines and the main wine producing regions in the Cape Town area.

The event also helped publicize and support Two Sisters, a charity based in northeast South Africa that supports orphans of the AIDS epidemic, which is still devastating much of the African continent. For more information on the important work of this group, please visit their website at http://www.twosisters.org.za/ .

For photo gallery of the event, please click here.