For the watching-the-sun-go-down with a-picnic-basket occasion...

You would need some sushi or smoked salmon rolls served with some bubbles.  Make it a French affair and serve Morgenhof Estate Brut Reserve - French as it is made in the traditional Champagne methode known in the Cape as Methode Cap Classique and the farm is owned by holder of the Legion d’Honneur, Anne Cointreau of the eponymous liqueur producing family.  

Made for romance this is with fine bubbles lazing their way up through the pale gold green edged wine.  You’ll find fresh-baked yeasty brioche, granny smith apples and spicy orange flowers on the nose and following through into the flavours of this crisp, fresh and pleasantly full bodied bubbly. 

For a sweet ending to the evening, maybe some heart shaped shortbread biscuits which you can spread with chocolate spread and serve with the sweetly delicious Groot Constantia Grande Constance.  This is the wine of romance written of by Jane Eyre, Dickens and Baudelaire when Constantia Wine was the rage of Europe at the turn of the 18th and 19th Centuries.  Small glasses well chilled, perhaps you could even slip the engagement ring into your partners glass?

And for dessert...

Lemon, Rosemary & Honey Posset with Sweet Basil Syrup

Originally an Elizabethan dessert, it is good to revisit posset. I hope it will make a comeback.  Good news as it is easy to make as well.  Herbs in desserts are very de rigueur. I love serving it also with a berry compote - particularly blueberries or strawberries as they tend to be sweeter than raspberries. In our restaurant we used to serve it with a sweet basil syrup, the recipe for which I offer here.

Have ready 6 of those pretty Moroccan tea glasses, wine glasses or demitasse coffee cups.

You’ll need: Strips of peel and juice of 3 lemons (great if you can find the rough skinned old Cape lemons), 500 ml thick cream, 1 large sprig fresh rosemary - well washed, 100 g castor sugar, 3 Tbs full flavoured honey, sweet basil syrup or a blueberry compote

Serves 6

Method: Remove the peel from the lemon with a sharp potato peeler being careful not to remove any of the bitter white pith.  In a non-stick saucepan bring the cream to the boil and remove from the heat. Add rosemary sprig and lemon peel, cover and allow to steep for one hour. Remove the flavourants and pour the cream back into the non- stick saucepan.  Bring slowly to the boil, reduce the heat and simmer for three minutes.  Stir in the honey and then the lemon juice. 

Working quickly as the dessert starts to set immediately pour the posset into the glasses, cool, cover with cling wrap and chill in the fridge. When ready to serve, top with the berry compote or the sweet basil syrup and garnish with a sprig of rosemary if you feel it necessary.

Sweet Basil Syrup:

You’ll need: 100 ml water, 100 g sugar, 50 g basil leaves.

Method: To make the basil syrup, put the water and sugar into a saucepan and bring to the boil, then let the syrup cool, adding the basil leaves when the syrup is just warm.  If the leaves are put into hot syrup they will turn dark green rather than remaining a lovely, bright colour. Liquidise the basil and syrup mixture, pass it through a fine sieve and allow to cool completely.

Serving suggestion:  Serve with Johnny Walker Whisky Gold Label, The Centenary Blend - 18 year old, chilled until really cold in the deep freezer.

Wine suggestion: Ridgeback Viognier.  I know it’s the end of a meal and maybe you don’t want a dry wine, this one offers so much in terms of flavour.  Bags of fruit, lovely ripe apricots and roasted pineapple, and smoky vanilla from the oak.  Ridgeback also do a sweet dessert Viognier which if you can lay your hands on a bottle would do as well here.  And by the way if you haven’t had a Ridgeback red, do give one a whirl, they’re available in specialist wine shops and I can't ever make up my mind whether I prefer the Cabernet Sauvignon or the  Shiraz or the Merlot Cabernet Franc!