CHILLING AT CAPE POINT VINEYARDS

It has been a busy week for us and it didn’t let up. We love this time of year because it is when friends visit from all over the world and March has brought us friends from Holland, Germany, Australia and England, so there is a lot to fit in and a lot of entertaining to do. However, we spent our 9th wedding anniversary working at the market in Long Beach and then, as we had been invited by Duncan Savage, Cape Point Vineyards winemaker, we went to have a romantic sundowner on their lawn.

They really do these picnics properly. You get groundsheets, huge cushions to laze on and really friendly staff bring you your wine, with good glasses, and, if you want supper, your picnic basket.

We bought a bottle of Splattered Toad Sauvignon blanc and spent two stolen hours watching the sun go down; definitely the best place to chill after a heavy week’s work.

They do have a tented marquee with tables and chairs should you not be a lawn lizard.

We will definitely return for the picnic with some of our friends. Lovely birdlife there and a splendid view

FOOD AT THE BARN

We have been promising ourselves a return visit to the Food Barn in Noordhoek Farm Village, because we love Franck’s food.

We started the celebration with a glass of Môreson’s Miss Molly MCC, 100% Chardonnay, at R40 a glass and we were each presented with a delicious appetiser of deep fried haloumi in one Chinese spoon and a prawn in an Asian sauce in the other.

We opted for the Summer Bistro Menu, priced at R220 for three courses and some of the courses were delicious.

We ordered a carafe of Newton Johnson Felicité Pinot Noir (R42),

which was the wine matched to the starter we both could not resist: Fresh figs, sweet cured San Daniele Ham and deep fried Taleggio balls, mesclun leaves dressed with a sweet balsamic reduction, fresh, gooey, sweet and salty – the dish of the evening.

John had rather firm and very salty gnocchi with home-smoked salmon for his main

and Lynne very pink (as it should be) rack of Karoo lamb.

John’s dessert was, predictably, the Chocolate marquise.

Special mention goes to the wonderful dessert Lynne had. A rich, hot almond sabayon ‘soup’ with hot strawberries and raspberries, breathtakingly good.

Floating on top is an almond tuille bearing a fig scented ice cream; definitely one to try to make at home for a special occasion. We would have liked to have tried the Nitida special menu but it is a little bit more expensive than we can afford right now at R480 pp with wine.

We had excellent service from Matthew, who earned a generous tip