September: Our recommendations on the menu this month

What we’ve been eating: Île flottante, elderflower, wild blueberry sorbet

Our talented team has designed this beautiful Île Flottante (or 'floating island') dessert, a fluffy cloud of meringue floating on a silky pool of crème anglaise, with flavours of elderflower that's brought to life with a vivid wild blueberry sorbet.
 
The history of this frothy egg dessert goes back centuries to the French 17th century recipe for oeufs a la neige or ‘eggs in snow’, where egg whites were piled with egg yolks, sprinkled with sugar and baked. The egg yolks eventually became custard and the dessert has a multitude of global interpretations, including farofias in Portugal and madartej or ‘bird’s milk’ in Hungary.

What we’ve been drinking: Little William, Blank Bottle Winery, Western Cape

“Judge our wines on what’s in the bottle,” says Pieter Walser of Blank Bottle Winery, which doesn’t list varieties on its labels to avoid people bringing preconceived ideas of what they think they like to the wine experience. He doesn’t own any vines, but scours South Africa’s winelands for top-quality fruit that has somehow slipped under the radar.
 
Little William has flavours of blackberry and apple, and even a meaty hint generously sprinkled with pepper, as well as a fine tannin backbone. There's a touch more grip too, with a refreshing finish and fine acidity.