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A sunbird
enjoying a wild dagga sundowner near the Heads, Knysna
In
this week’s MENU:
Under Milkwood Milkwood Bay luxury
Guest house Olive Tree Country
House Celebrations at
Alto Brandy and Tapas
pairing at the Mount Nelson KWV Mentors wines
at the Test Kitchen Shiraz SA Wine
Challenge Awards Lunch and tasting Kaapzicht –
Celebrating 30 years of Winemaking Franschhoek Wines for the Trade
To get the whole of our story, please
click on MORE... at the end of
each paragraph, which will lead you to the blog with pictures. At the end of each
blog, click on RETURN
TO MENU to come back.
This week’s Product menu – Winter is truly
with us – time for risottos, so come to us for the best Italian Carnaroli and Violone Nano rice.
And when you curl up in front of the fire, and feel winter lazy and want to
hibernate, why not relax with a delicious French paté, a bottle
of good wine and a special person. And you can get them from us........ See them here.
We had some more really busy
days as we continued our trip from Calitzdorp to Knysna, but we have enjoyed
them very much indeed, especially as we have been receiving more invitations to
stay at and to view more luxury accommodation in different areas, allowing us
to have short breaks away, so that we can write about them. We will be back in
Knysna for the Oyster Festival in July.
Under Milkwood Under Milkwood near the Knysna Heads is a
group of log cabins (called chalets) hidden amongst heritage milkwood trees
overlooking the lagoon. Lynne stayed there with friends about 20 years ago and
so we were very glad to be invited to revisit to see the changes they are busy
making. It is owned by Paul Van Zuydam, a South African who lives with his wife
in the UK and who owns Le Creuset and Screwpull, two internationally successful
companies. There are also two other properties attached to Milkwood that we were
able to view. It is a lovely place to stay and if any of these properties
interest you check out their website: www.milkwood.co.za. Contact General
Manager Clary Starbuck who was extremely helpful to us. MORE.....
Milkwood Bay is a luxury Guest
house near the Eastern Knysna Heads, which is part of the Milkwood Collection.
We were invited to view the house while we were staying at Under Milkwood which
is next door. It is a very beautiful house, luxurious, very well decorated in
classic modern sea and beach colours and comfortably and tastefully furnished.
It is full of original art and has magnificent views of the Knysna lagoon. Each of the 5 rooms has been individually decorated and offers
under-floor heating, television with satellite channels and a telephone. The
guest house has a covered swimming pool and sauna. An English breakfast is
served on the balcony overlooking the lagoon or in the dining room area. It
is possible to hire the whole house. We think it would be perfect for wedding
parties or special family occasions MORE.....
Olive Tree
Country House Next it was time to head back
towards Cape Town. On the way Annette Ashley had asked us to stay for the night
at Olive Tree Country House in Hermanus , which is owned by her family. This
large commodious house, available for hire, is on the banks of the Onrus river,
and is situated on Glen Fruin estate just behind the Hemel and Aarde Village on
the R43. This makes it perfectly situated for visits to the wine country of the
Hemel and Aarde valley behind it or to the seaside resorts all along the
coastline from Stamford to the Bot River estuary. MORE.....
Celebrations
at Alto How to hit the ground running? Leave
Hermanus at 10 am and drive through to Alto in Stellenbosch to celebrate their 90th
anniversary as South Africa’s oldest red wine estate. Many of the most worthy
media were present and most of us had to admit that this was our first visit to
this lovely farm. That needs to be remedied. We think it is because it is in an
area full of charismatic wine farms but it is so worth the effort. But who knew
this treasure was there, they have kept rather a low profile until now and
things are changing. Alto are famous for their good value Alto Rouge blend of
Shiraz, Cabernet Franc, Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon and now Petite Verdot (the
blend varies slightly each year). We got to taste a 1993, 2001 and 2004 and
these wines have lasted. But they also produce some really exiting and delicious
Shiraz and very classic Cabernets on this 193 hectare farm with 93 under vines.
MORE.....
Brandy and Tapas
pairing at the Mount Nelson And the day was not over for us yet. We
dashed home, unpacked the car and with five minutes to spare arrived at the
Mount Nelson hotel for a tasting of their new Winter Tapas and Brandy Menu
which will be served daily from 12h00 to 23h00. Does brandy go with food? You
can now find out for yourself. We assembled in the Planet bar and rather took
over the area in front of the fire on this chilly wet evening. This tasting was
organised by MW Dr Winnie Bowman, Executive Chef Rudi Liebenberg, Christelle
Reade-Jahn of the Brandy Foundation and Gabi Palmer Bolton, PRO for the hotel
group. MORE.....
KWV Mentors
wines at the Test Kitchen As if this
week could not get any better? Then it did. On Thursday we attended a tasting
of the newly released KWV Mentors wines at the Test Kitchen, where some of
their best wines were paired with the food of South Africa’s number one chef,
Luke Dale Roberts. It was a tour de force of wines which, to quote Johann
Fourie, Chief Winemaker at KWV, “started the renaissance of KWV”. This
renaissance was driven ably by Cellar Master Richard Rowe. MORE.....
Shiraz SA Wine
Challenge Awards Lunch and tasting Friday
saw us at the Vineyard hotel for this event now in its second year. First we
were able to do a tasting of some of the shirazes which had entered the
competition. The standard is amazingly high and we need to start taking bows
for the quality and range of styles we are able to produce now. Overseas wine
media and buyers are starting to see how well we can make this grape produce.
There were also several Shiraz blends to taste and the grape certainly brings a
lot to these blends, softening edges and making more complete wines that can
last or be enjoyed young and fruity. MORE.....
You too can taste these wines
at the Shiraz Showcase to be held at the Vineyard hotel on the 1st
of August. The Hotel will be running a very good special with the tasting,
dinner and a room afterwards with breakfast. Check out their web site www.vineyard.co.za.
Kaapzicht –
Celebrating 30 years of Winemaking Friday
was another of those days with two big events, luckily the timing didn’t clash
and we wouldn’t have missed the Kaapzicht Celebration in Bottelary for all the
tea in China. We got to know the friendly and welcoming Steytler family when we
were studying wine in the 1990’s and have loved their wine every since. We
thank them for letting us be part of this family celebration – the second we
have attended in the last month. We sold their wine in our shop and continue to
buy and drink it as often as we can. Major David Charles Steytler bought the
farm after the war, in 1946, when it was called Rosendal. There have been four
generations farming since then, at first mixed farming and then they changed to
grapes. Danie and his brother George bottled their first wine in 1984, when the
farm was renamed Kaapzicht (transl. Sight of the Cape). They have a beautiful
view of Table Mountain from the farm, hence the name. MORE.....
Franschhoek
Wines for the Trade Monday saw us driving to
Franschhoek for the Media and Trade tasting of Franschhoek wines held in the
L’Ormarins Motor Museum. 27 producers had stands and we tasted as many as we
could manage during the limited 2 hour tasting. We would have liked it to be
longer; it is a long way to drive for a short tasting of so many wines and it
seems not a great many of the trade or media did so. There is always a lot of
networking at these tastings. As there was no catalogue, Lynne decided to taste
varietals and wine that appealed to her so she tasted mainly Semillons,
Chardonnays and white blends. Then she managed to do a few of the red wines
from specific farms. John circulated and tasted a varied selection. MORE.....
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. Karen Glanfield has taken
over the UnWined
wine appreciation courses from Cathy. See the details here
Chez
Gourmet in Claremont has a
programme of cooking classes. A calendar of their classes can be seen here.
In addition to the
new Sense of
Taste Culinary Arts School, Chef Peter Ayub runs a six lesson course for keen home cooks at his Maitland complex. Details 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 Thursday evenings and she has decided to
introduce LCHF (Banting classes). The Kitchen Confidence classes, which focus
on essential cooking skills and methods, have been expanded and are now taught
over 2 evenings. She continues to host private dining and culinary team
building events at her home. She trained with Raymond Blanc, and has been a
professional chef for 25 years. More info
here
20th June 2014
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.
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