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Rivierzicht, near Robertson. Flooded accommodation in the Breede River
In this week’s MENU:
Products Our market activities Taste of Helderberg Sea Point’s Backyard Grill Wacky Wine Dewetshof chardonnays New Robertson Restaurant, Mo & Rose Cape Port Producers’ Awards Events and Restaurant specials Wine courses & cooking classes Products We have expanded the new range of tangy French mustards, which sold out last Saturday. For those and any other products you need, you can access our product list and see pictures in our website. If you can’t find what you need, let us know and we will try to find it for you. Until our online shop is ready, drop us an email and we will help you. We are very happy to see that traffic on our website is increasing and more orders are coming from it. We have a lot of fun putting MENU together each week and, of course, doing the things we write about, but making it possible for you to enjoy rare and wonderful gourmet foods is what drives our business. We stock a good range of ingredients and delicious ready-made gourmet foods. You can contact us by email or phone, or through our website. We can send your requirements to you anywhere in South Africa. Our market activities Come and visit us at the Old Biscuit Mill’s brilliant, exciting and atmospheric Neighbourgoods Market, as always, this Saturday and every Saturday between 09h00 and 14h00. Tip: Some visitors tell us how they struggle to find parking. Click here for a map. We will be back at Long Beach Mall on Friday 22nd June from 09h00 to 16h00. We look forward to seeing you there. Sometimes, when people see the sort of week we have had (and often have) they ask us “ How do you do it?”. We don’t know how, we just do. Except to say that we both have a great deal of energy (long may that last) and, it seems, less need for sleep than other people. And we absolutely LOVE what we do. There were two more events we were invited to yesterday and today that we simply don’t have time to write about, so you can read all about them in next week’s MENU.
Taste of Helderberg Festival This was held at the Lord Charles Hotel between 5 and 9 pm on Thursday. We always wonder why some areas put on such a short show without an immediate follow-up on their farms, but we enjoy tasting the wines together in one location and seeing if there is an area profile. We couldn’t detect anything particular on Thursday at the show, but had a lovely time. Annareth Bolton, CEO of the Stellenbosch Wine Routes, arranged a microbus for a few of us in the media and we are very grateful indeed - traffic was horrible at that time of the day; major accidents along the N2 caused the trip to take nearly 1½ hours instead of ¾ of an hour. And, because the weather was so ugly, we were very relieved that we didn’t have to drive back. There were several local restaurants showing their food, offering tasting portions for R25 to R30 and we had a lovely supper tasting some of these and matching them to the local wines which were associated with the restaurants. See the attached photos and blog. We loved Eikendal’s wines, Grangehurst is always top of our list for the area and we bought some of the very reasonably priced Sauvignon and Chardonnay from Stonewall. Backyard Grill Local friends introduced us to this newly opened restaurant in Regent Road in Sea Point, just opposite the Weitzman Centre and near New York Bagels. They do indeed have an outside grill, an inside kitchen and, besides the indoor restaurant, they have a separate relaxing room with a bar, sofas and big screen TV; a great place to chill and meet your friends before enjoying the food. The outside area will be lovely in summer but the restaurant is warm and comfortable in the current wintry weather. The food is quite simple, very well cooked and nicely presented. You choose your own meat or seafood from the display fridge and they cook it on the grill. Salads, starches and vegetables are optional. The enthusiastic and friendly owner, Jason Shaw, has moved from Durban where he had a restaurant called Fish and he is loving Sea Point.
We thought the squid was marvellous and will be back for more. Our friends are piscatarians and they had very good food, including a plate of 10 huge tiger prawns, mussels in a cream sauce and yellowtail, which was well-flavoured but slightly overcooked. We had steak and a half rack of barbeque ribs. The puddings are really delicious, and the coffee dark and strong, as we like it. Definitely a find for Sea Point and not overly expensive. We are very pleased to see quality moving in and attracting good custom. Their wine list is good and has a well-chosen range of wines at a range of prices. Click here for the photographs and descriptions. Wacky Wine Sunday We hauled ourselves out of bed enthusiastically at 6 am for the third day running in order to get to Dewetshof in Robertson for their very interesting guided tasting where they compared chardonnays grown in different terroirs. We made the 11am start by a hair’s breadth. Johan de Wet and winemaker Mervyn Williams presented the wines. First, we tasted the just bottled 2012 Bon Vallon, grown on rocky hillside soils and compared it to the Limestone Hill, which is grown on clay-based soils which add richness to the wine. This area has the highest free lime in South Africa and it so shows in the wines.
The Bon Vallon is currently fruity, almost jube-jube, tropical on the nose and full of citrus and stones at the moment. The sweet fruit nose belies the crisp dryness of the wine and there is saltiness on the end. When it settles a little more it will be superb. The Limestone Hill tank sample was still a little spritzy and had much more minerality and weight. Full of grapefruit flavours, it has more elegance and is less tropical. It also has salt on the end.
Then the Finesse 2010 Chardonnay from a slightly south facing hill site on stony soil with high lime content, compared to The Site 2011 single vineyard Chardonnay. The vineyard was established in 1986, Finesse has a smoky vanilla nose and, on the mouth, toasted oak - then long flavours of citrus including grapefruit and limes and then minerality. This is a wine that goes with everything and is Dewetshof’s biggest restaurant seller.
LOTS MORE LIFE FROM STONE .... Next, we rushed off to Springfield to taste the new vintages of their two Sauvignons Blanc: Life From Stone and Special Cuvee and some of their other wines. We liked them both so much that we bought a case of each. They are very different each year, the Special Cuvée is showing best now, we think, and the Life From Stone will be marvellous in a few months time. The Wild Yeast Chardonnay has always been a favourite and the Work of Time and Whole Berry red blends are also wonderfully fruity and deep. We had a lovely lunch of divinely fresh braaied yellowtail in a citrus grill sauce, caught and cooked by Abrie Bruwer, the owner winemaker, the previous day and a good Prego Roll with a nice mixed salad. We followed our usual procedure, ate half and then swopped plates, so we each got to eat both. We had a glass of the Special Cuvée with lunch, enjoyed the view of the dam, the music, the company and the warming sunshine before driving off to Zandvliet to taste a selection of their wines and chat to Dan De Wet, who was in charge of the salmon and steak braai. They have moved the tasting and food tent this year from the stables to the front of the manor house. We think this is a great move; the stables are a little hard to find in the dark when you go there for the food and wine events in the evening! The weather was getting colder and the light was fading, so it was time to go to our accommodation at Rivierzicht in the Goree River Valley, near Graham Beck. Our friends the Grobbelaars always insist that we stay with them and we are very grateful indeed. They run the very successful Rivierzicht camp site alongside the Breede River on their farm. However, they were devastated this year when the river came down in flood again last week, after the heavy rains in the Ceres mountains, and many people had to cancel because most of the site was underwater (See the pictures by clicking here). It was an extremely cold night and the temperature the next morning was below zero. ROBERTSON HAS A NEW AND EXCITING RESTAURANT We wanted to take our hosts out to dinner but, as the Wacky Wine Weekend finished at 4 on Sunday, we were doubtful that anyone would be open. Elizma Botha, manager of the Robertson Wine Valley publicity, who organises the whole Wacky Wine Weekend, came up with a solution which was to go to Mo & Rose on Soekershof, who were prepared to stay open that evening, and we managed to get a booking. See the food and details here. We had a marvellous evening and probably stayed much too late, but we so enjoyed the food and the hospitality that we couldn’t tear ourselves away. We look forward to having an outdoor lunch there the next time we are in the area. Marvellous Monday We love staying over on Monday when most people have gone home, as it give us a chance to see people who might have been rushed off their feet on Sunday; go to the butcher in Bonnievale, the cheese shop and other favourite venues. First we went to Arendsig in Bonnievale, where Lourens van der Westhuizen was so hospitable; he persuaded us to stay for over three hours while he generously ignored his lunch and took us through barrel and tank tastings in the cellar and at the tasting room. He makes wines for many other people in the two valleys and they are becoming widely recognised as great wines. The farm has wonderful views of the river and they can do lunches. We bought his chardonnay and cabernet and are looking forward to the release of his superb Sauvignon blanc later this year. We tasted a tank sample and loved it. CAPE PORT PRODUCERS AWARDS This was held on Tuesday at Muratie, that wonderful character filled wine farm in the Knorhoek valley in Stellenbosch which doesn’t seem to have changed in centuries. We met on the terrace, chatted to many of the port makers and discovered that, not only were they announcing the top ten ports, but a new award has been made and they announced the top ten wines made from port varieties. Then we proceeded through to the cellar where all the winning ports and wines were available to taste. We tasted a few and then sat down to lunch. Very traditional food was served and it was perfectly prepared. While the awards were presented by Dave Hughes, we started with good bread served with apricot jam and grated cheese, were then served a spicy tomato based soup and went on to eat a chicken pastei (Pie) which had marvellous flaky and buttery pastry and was served with sweet strips of carrot, which acted as a good relish for the pie, and a huge mixed salad. Dessert was crisp and dripping syrup koeksisters. We drank Muratie’s own Laurens Campher white wine, a blend of Chenin, Verdelho, Viognier and Sauvignon Blanc that went perfectly with the soup and chicken pie and then some of their excellent Shiraz, before we and other members of the media plundered the tasting table of wines and ports just to get a full understanding of the judges’ decisions. What is so interesting is that the wines smell exactly like port, but without any sweetness, and many are elegant and distinguished. Notable for us were Axe Hill’s smooth, soft and deep wine 2011 Machado (axe in Portuguese) made from Souzão, Touriga Nacional & Tinta Barocca with 33% Shiraz, and Vergenoegd’s Runner Duck red 2009. We expected the Boplaas Tinta Chocolat 2011 and the De Krans Tinta Mocha 2011 to be overly full of the chocolate and coffee mocha flavours and, thank heavens, they are not, just very subtly showing the characteristics mentioned. Of the ports, the Calitzdorp Cape Vintage 2009, the Boplaas Cape Tawny Show Reserve and the KWV Classic Tawny, which was also the overall Port winner, all impressed. The De Krans 2002 Cape Vintage Reserve Port is absolutely Christmas in a bottle. You taste the Christmas pudding, the nuts, the oranges from your stocking and the lovely smoky flavour of the fire all in one delicious glass. However, they were all great wines and ports; we would have loved to have done justice to more of them. See the pictures and details of the awards here. Regrettably, with all this activity, we have hardly spent any time at home, so there has been no time to work on a recipe this week.
There is a huge and rapidly growing variety of interesting things to occupy your leisure time here in the Western Cape. There are so many interesting things to do in our world of food and wine that we have made separate list for each month for which we have information. To help you choose an event to visit, click on our Events Calendar. All the events are listed in date order and we already have a large number of exciting events to entertain you right through the year. Click here to access the Calendar. You will need to be connected to the internet. Learn about wine and cooking We have had a lot of enquiries from people who want to learn more about wine. Cathy Marston and The Cape Wine Academy both run wine education courses, some very serious and others more geared to fun. You can see details here. Restaurant Special offers. Some more restaurants have responded to our request for an update of their special offers and we have, therefore, updated our list of restaurant special offers. Click here to access it. These Specials have been sent to us by the restaurants or their PR agencies. We have not personally tried all of them and their listing here should not always be taken as a recommendation from ourselves. If they don’t update us, we can’t be responsible for any inaccuracies in the list. When we have tried it, we’ve put in our observations. We have cut out the flowery adjectives etc. that so many have sent, to give you the essentials. Click on the name to access the relevant website. All communication should be with the individual restaurants.
14th June 2012
Phones: +27 21 439 3169 / 083 229 1172 / 083 656 4169
Postal address: 60 Arthurs Rd, Sea Point 8005
Our Adamastor & Bacchus© tailor-made Wine, Food and Photo tours take small groups (up to 6) to specialist wine producers who make the best of South Africa’s wines. Have fun while you learn more about wine and how it is made! Tours can be conducted in English, German, Norwegian or Dutch flavoured Afrikaans. Recommendations of products and outside events are not solicited or charged for, and are made at the authors’ pleasure. All photographs, recipes and text used in these newsletters are ©John & Lynne Ford, Adamastor & Bacchus. Our restaurant reviews are usually unsolicited. We prefer to pay for our meals and not be paid in any way by anyone. Whether we are invited or go independently, we don’t feel bad if we say we didn’t like it. Honesty is indeed our best policy. While every effort is made to avoid mistakes, we are human and they do creep in occasionally, for which we apologise. Our Avast! ® Anti-Virus software is updated at least daily and our system is scanned continually for viruses.
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Megaflash the tasting room cat, melting on a chic velvet chair that matches his fur, in front of his fire
The wonderful selection of bottles of wine and bubbly that Villiera produces, here and in France
Lynne making notes as she tastes the rose and the white wines
Staff are recycling newspaper to make the very attractive gift bags, a really great project. Villiera is a very "green" farm, recycling everything they can and producing their own electricity from photovoltaic panels on the farm's roofs.
