Friday, November 29, 2013

Lunch with Genevieve MCC



A wet ride in 2 buses up the N2 to Bot River 
Full of happy smiling media
Warm welcome with a glass of Genevieve Method Cap Classique
Innovative canapés: Mushroom and lemon thyme mousse with humus, served as one journo commented, condom style in a leek
Oyster cream inside a shell of potato crisps dusted with celery salt. But where was the spherical pearl?
In front of a beautiful old house,
a huge marquee was set up for the large party
Cathryn Henderson accepts a top up of Genevieve
while Graham Howe and Yegas Naidoo await theirs
Melissa Nelsen tells us all about the history of Genevieve,
named after the patron Saint of Paris.
The beautiful table decorations echo the flavours and aromas in Genevieve
Lunch is served

First course is a Bouche of really excellent Goats' cheese with yellow beetroot, tarragon pickled almonds and grilled lettuce and topped with crisp noodles
A great selection of bread
Corlien Morris raises a toast
Genevieve 2010 is poured
Chef David Higgs flew down from the Saxon Hotel  in Johannesburg especially to cook for the function.  He is an old friend of Melissa’s
He tells us about the food pairings
Summer lemons
Genevieve 2009 is poured for the main course
Melissa's partner, viticulturalist Leon Engelke
Waiting for the next course
Quite a few bottles were consumed
Main Course was a Confit of Pork, meltingly tender served with honeyed well baked sweet potatoes, baby carrots of varied colours, a savoury jus and an excellent ginger beer gel.  It was topped with pork skin popcorn, a bridge too far for those of us who don’t want our crackling subjected to molecular gastronomy, it had little flavour
Mike Bampfield Duggan of Wine Concepts
Melissa did get to sit down and eat
Now let me tell you...
Dessert was a Macadamia and Halva parfait with pear mousse and a lemon verbena custard and was very rich and sweet . It was topped with thin slices of poached apples and pears and was the best matched dish of the day as it went perfectly with the Genevieve 2008
Genevieve 2008 still has lots of flavours and elegance but is now more suited to pairing with dessert or patés

A duck pond at the back of the house
Some of the makeshift arrangements for the chefs
Christmas goose?
Darling duck
The rear of the old house
The vines and the Bot River hills

© John & Lynne Ford, Adamastor & Bacchus 2013

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