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Devon Valley vineyards,
Stellenbosch
In
this week’s MENU:
Picnic at Grande Provence Oneiric
Pop-up Lunch with Bertus Basson Doolhof Malbecs at Belthazar Tasting new rosé Bubbly at Clos Malverne Best Barbecue Sauce Wine Concepts Champagne Festival
Follow
this link to see our Main Ingredient blogs, because to tell our whole
story here would take too much space. Click on Bold words in the text of this edition to open links to pictures, blogs,
pertinent websites or more information.
Follow
this link to see our Main Ingredient blogs, because to tell our whole
story here would take too much space. Click on Bold words in the text of this edition to open links to pictures, blogs,
pertinent websites or more information.
This week’s Product menu: We have heard from our supplier
that the French Puy lentil crop has failed for the second year running. Stock
on the way here will be the last we will see for at least a year. We will still
have the green lentils which are similar and less expensive. White Alba
truffles and black French truffles are available to special order. Please
contact us for a quote. We will invoice you and place the order on receipt of
payment. Delivery will be approximately one week from confirmation of payment.
Our market activities Come and visit us at the Old Biscuit
Mill’s wonderfully exciting, 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. It’s quite easy if you
know how. Click here for a map which shows where we park.
As usual, we have a link at the bottom to our calendar of wine and food related events which should interest all
lovers of great food and wine and events which promote them. We have always had
a few from centres outside the Western Cape, but we now have enough to justify
a separate list, so, if you live in one of the other splendid places in our
lovely country, have a look. If you are promoting an event in any of
these places, please let us know and we’ll add it to the list.
Picnic at Grande Provence Many farms are doing
picnics this summer and we hope to get around and sample lots of them, so that we
can tell you where to find the best. Grande Provence invited us to come and
sample theirs but, unfortunately, the weather in the Cape does not always play
fair and the only day we could make it, turned out to be the day another of our
famous Cape storms arrived. Instead of cancelling, they cleverly laid out the
picnic in their beautiful, newly restored Jonkershuis private dining room, in
front of a roaring fire. Sadly, no other people had been invited so it was a
little “tout seul”. Click here to see the pictures of the picnic food.
It costs R420 for two with a bottle of wine. We enjoyed the food, although we
felt it needed the addition of something fresh and/or green added to it. We
made it back to Cape Town before the full force of the storm hit. It brought
severe flooding in parts of Franschhoek and other areas of the Cape. This
year’s weather has been rather extreme.
Oneiric Pop-up Lunch with Bertus Basson We have tasted some of Oneiric’s excellent wines when we
have taken part in the Elgin wine Tweet Ups recently and they were kind enough
to invite us to this lunch last Sunday. John has been fortunate to eat Bertus
Basson’s food at his restaurant, Overture,
in Stellenbosch several times when doing wine tours; sadly, Lynne has not, so
it was a treat to see what this top-rated chef cooks and, certainly, he does
not disappoint. What we found is that Bertus prepares quite simple and fresh
ingredients in absolutely the best way possible for each ingredient and he adds
such flair and perfection to each dish that they cannot help but grab your
attention and delight your taste buds. Very pretty and appealing presentations
too.
The
exceptionally moreish canapé of pulled pork sliders was a case in point. Not
only was the pork in a barbeque sauce perfectly done, but he made his own bread
rolls and cooked the dish in his Big Green Egg (www.biggreenegg.co.za/about/) - no mean feat from the back of a van at a completely new venue for him.
Course after terrific course was well matched with Oneiric’s good wines and we
had a really great experience on this hill-top farm, with amazing views of the
whole Elgin Valley. For our starter, he cooked catfish from the Theewaterskloof
area. Everyone’s perception was that this would be a muddy fish. We could not
have been more wrong. It was meaty, fresh and delicious, cooked, as Bertus
explained, in the Kentucky Fried Catfish style in an extremely crisp batter on
a bed of some of the best creamy polenta ever eaten, with the addition of young
sweetcorn kernels. Why doesn’t everyone cook polenta this way instead of the
stodgy solid block you usually get?
Oneiric
and Bertus plan to do more of these Pop-ups in the future so do investigate
their website and visit the farm to sample the wines. Click here to see the pictures. Jen
Pascall is a talented ceramicist and her Button Mad
tiles, jewellery and buttons are all available for sale in the tasting room
alongside their entire wine collection.
Doolhof, the Wellington farm, invited us to do a very
interesting vertical tasting of their Malbecs on Wednesday, hosted by owner
Dennis Kerrison. They have been producing Malbecs since 2007. This flight of
five Doolhof Malbecs was then followed
by a tasting of four Argentinian and one French Malbec; such an interesting way
to see what the grape can produce. This was held at Belthazar
restaurant in the Waterfront on a perfect summer’s day.
We sampled four French Champagnes, imported by Doolhof, and ate wild oysters –
feeling thoroughly indulged - before sitting down to the tasting.
Why
Malbec? Dennis Kerrison told us that, when he bought the farm in 2003, his
ambition was to make a wine like Chateau Lafite and Malbec is one of his
favorite grapes. Three winemakers have been involved in the making of these Malbecs:
Teresa de Beer, Rianie Strydom, who now acts as a consultant to the farm, and
current winemaker Friedrich Kühne and it has become a very successful export
wine. Farmed on the highest, stoniest parts of the farm, on well drained terroir,
with wind and baboons and some millerandage
all help to keep the yields low. Each of these wines has a different character
and there is certainly a progression of flavour and quality in the newer wines.
Words like intriguing, slow to reveal, richness and depth appear in our notes.
Malbec is a heady grape, giving firm meaty flavours with lots of body, full of
rich dark fruits and often chocolate and licorice and some nice chalky tannins.
Doolhof’s wines have all of these and more. The Argentinean wines were a lot
sweeter and more herbaceous, but not in the same class and came from different
clones. The French wine, Chateau de Chambert from Cahors, was very different
indeed and we are not sure that this was a good example of what the French can
produce. It had good fruit, was juicy with long sour berry flavours, but some
medicinal and eucalypts on the nose.
The
lunch that followed was a good example of what Belthazar can produce for a
large group of people. With two choices for starter and main courses and a
cheesecake dessert we had a very good lunch paired with some other Doolhof
wines. Click here to see the photographs.
Tasting new rosé Bubbly at Clos Malverne We were invited to taste the new Shiraz
MCC today. It is called Ellie, after Sophia Pritchard’s beloved mother, and we
were honoured to have a glass of the second bottle ever opened on our arrival.
It is a beautiful pale pink, has a fine mousse and with 8
degrees of sugar and 2 years on the lees, the spicy shiraz makes itself known
in this good MCC. Not many of us recognized it as Shiraz, there were lots of
wrong guesses before winemaker Suzanne Genis told us how she had made it. They
have one small block of Shiraz on the farm and it is now dedicated to the MCC.
We were served some superb pink canapés, all matched to the flavours in the
Ellie, and then proceeded to the restaurant for a good lunch, matched with
three of the Clos Malverne wines. Click here for the photos and descriptions of the food.
Thank you to all on the farm for a wonderful day, and especially for organizing
a bus to get us there, it make such a difference to us.
This week’s recipe It
is braai time again and you might need a good sauce. Lynne has been using this
recipe since the 70’s and has never found one to beat it.
BEST BARBECUE SAUCE
4 level tablespoons clear honey - 3
tablespoons soy sauce - 3 tablespoons tomato ketchup – dash of Tabasco sauce -
2 cloves garlic – 1 t English Mustard powder – 1 t Paprika - Juice of a small
orange- 4 tablespoons Wine vinegar -Salt and black pepper
Put the honey, soy sauce, tomato ketchup and a
few drops of Tabasco sauce into a bowl, peel and crush the garlic and add it.
Season to taste with the mustard powder, paprika, salt and freshly ground
pepper, then add the orange juice and wine vinegar.
Mix and pour over the meat. Allow to marinade
in the fridge for as long as possible. Cook on a barbeque or in the oven, using
the rest of the sauce for basting. This is suitable for a rack of spare ribs,
or some chicken pieces or anything you like to put into a barbeque sauce. Any residue is
wonderful on baked potatoes, but do not reuse it.
Wine Concepts Champagne Festival is the place to be in Cape Town tomorrow, Friday, at the Vineyard
Hotel, from 6 to 9. Where else can
you taste wonderful French champagnes for the price of less than one bottle? All are imported
from France. We hope to see many of you at this smart and elegant event
next Friday, November 22nd. They would like us to dress up for it – feathers
and stylish modes of the Moulin Rouge era. Prizes will be given for the best
dressed. Or just come and celebrate life with bubbles.
Buying from us On Line 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 on line shop. We can send your requirements
to you anywhere in South Africa. Please do not pay until we have confirmed availability and
invoiced you, then you pay and then we deliver or post. When you make an eft payment,
make sure that it says who you are. Use the form on the website to email us
your order. Click here to see our OnLine Shop.
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 see what’s happening in our world of
food and wine (and a few other cultural events), visit
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. Events outside the Western Cape are listed here.
Learn about wine and cooking We receive 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 of Cathy’s WSET and other courses here
and here and the CWA courses here.
Chez Gourmet in Claremont has a programme of cooking classes. A calendar of their classes can be seen here. Pete Ayub, who made our very popular Prego
sauce, runs evening cooking classes at Sense of
Taste, his catering company in Maitland. We can recommend them very
highly, having enjoyed his seafood course. Check
his programme here. Nadège Lepoittevin-Dasse has cooking
classes in Fish Hoek and conducts cooking tours to Normandy. You can see more details here. Emma Freddi runs the Enrica Rocca cooking courses at her
home in Constantia. Brett Nussey’s Stir
Crazy courses are now being run from Dish Food and
Social’s premises in Main Road Observatory (opposite Groote Schuur hospital).
Lynn Angel runs the Kitchen Angel
cooking school and does private dinners at her home. She holds hands-on cooking
classes for small groups on Monday and Wednesday evenings. She trained with
Raymond Blanc, and has been a professional chef for 25 years. More info here
21st November 2013
Remember - if you can’t find something, we’ll do our best
to get it for you, and, if you’re in Cape Town or elsewhere in the country, we
can send it to you! Check our online shop for details and prices.
PS If a word or name is in bold type and underlined,
click on it for more information
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 and standard 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 and our
blogs 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! ®
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