Bosman Family's De Bos Wines with lunch at the Hotel School

We were invited to taste the De Bos range of wines from Bosman Family Vineyards at the Hotel School in Granger Bay

The students of the Cape Town Hotel School ready to serve us some rosé on a perfect summer's day. 

The long table, where we ate lunch and tasted the De Bos wines

Although the table was in the shade, it was rather a hot day

Alan Romberg, the Principal of the Hotel School, gives the welcoming speech and tells us about the school

Tony Jackman of The Weekend Argus and other publications taking photos of the food

Jerome Peters, the head chef instructor of the cookery section, joined us for lunch. He has lots of experience of top class restaurants and his teaching is raising the bar at the school

The day's two second year student "head chefs" explaining how they devised and cooked the menu. Apparently, they were responsible for the rather good sauces on both the starter and main course

Our starter of rather chewy seafood tortellini, a vanilla prawn (thank heavens the vanilla was not too noticeable - it is not one of our favourite combinations) anoki mushrooms and a very good seafood bisque. This was accompanied by De Bos Walker Bay Sauvignon Blanc 2012 - a wine we would very much like to buy.

The main course was rather fatty rolled breast of lamb on top of mustard mash, topped with asparagus and broccoli and again a rather good accomplished jus. They said it had mint in it, but we could not taste any, thankfully - we think that mint with lamb has become rather a cliché. This was served with De Bos Handpicked Cabernet Sauvignon 2011, which was a good match for the lamb.

Dessert was a vanilla panna cotta with a poached pear and a tuile biscuit. This was served with De Bos Sur Lie Chenin Blanc 2012 which, sadly, was far too acidic for the dessert, but was enjoyable on its own. It needed a dessert wine.

The very charming and urbane Aubrey Ngcungama, made famous by Come Dine With Me South Africa, sat between Lynne and Graham Howe at lunch. The goodie bags contained a Malay curry sauce, cooked rice, sambal, yogurt, coconut and some vegetables for a “do it yourself” veggie curry for when we got home. These had been prepared by the students. And a bottle of the De Bos Chenin Blanc to go with it. A very clever idea.

Our curry had to go into the freezer for another time - 

we had another appointment that night,

John’s birthday dinner.
© John & Lynne Ford, Adamastor & Bacchus cc, 2012