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Sunrise on Walker
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In
this week’s MENU:
Klink Awards go to
Constantia on the Red Wine Bus Memorial lunch for
a friend - No sad goodbyes Down an Allée Bleue Off to the seaside Riedel Glass at
Creation Winery Hermanus & the
importance of Advertising Lunch at Bientang’s
Cave Du Toitskloof vs
Muratie annual Cookoff DOC Lamb for the
Karoo Amorim Cork Methode
Cap Classique Challenge Awards Wine Concepts
Festival of Seductive Sauvignons Food and wine (and
a few other) events for you to enjoy Learn about wine
and cooking
To get the whole of our story, please
click on “READ ON.....” at the end of each paragraph, which will
lead you to the related blog, with pictures and more words. At the end of each
blog, click on RETURN
TO MENU to come back to the blog version of MENU.
This week’s Product menu One of the sweet tooth delights we enjoy is Italian Amaretti biscuits,
delicious little almond macaroons which can be enjoyed with a cup of coffee or
as an ingredient in desserts, especially when drenched with Amaretto liqueur See them here
Another week of contrasts,
great experiences and some chilling out of town
Klink Awards go
to Constantia on the Red Wine Bus Friday's
event was a ride on City Sightseeing’s Red Bus tour to Constantia. We started
from outside the Aquarium with some of Klink’s staff, other media and Klink
fans. www.winetourismsouthafrica.co.za/klinkawards/
After a late start, we headed
off on the bus through the southern suburbs to Constantia Nek where we were
served a lovely cold glass of Steenberg’s MCC (this is NOT part of the normal
tour!) before boarding the Wine Bus, which ambles through this leafy suburb and
takes you to visit several wine farms. We ended up at Groot Constantia, where a
special event had been set up for us. You, too, can enjoy this tour; it is a
great way to see our city if you don’t want to drive – http://www.citysightseeing.co.za/tour-timetables.php Read More
No sad goodbyes We lost another good friend to cancer
recently and we so love the way he wanted to go out. He didn’t want a sad
funeral, he left money to take a large group of his friends, here and
simultaneously in Durban, out for a slap up lunch. As Richard was a huge bon
viveur, this was such a happy way to give him a send off. The Cape Town
celebration of his life was held together with members of his family at The
Food Barn in Noordhoek which was booked out for lunch on Saturday and Chef
Franck Dangereux did Richard proud. We know he would like you to see the
pictures of what we ate and drank Read On
Down an Allée
Bleue On Sunday we packed up our overnight bags
and headed first to Allée Bleue wine farm in Franschhoek, to which we had been
invited to sample Craig Cormack’s pop-up month of Pizza and Pasta for
September. It was the most beautiful day and we were given a lovely table on a
small balcony apart from the main restaurant, with a view of the vineyards. Read on
Off to the
seaside We left Franschhoek late afternoon and
headed over the magnificently heady Franschhoek pass to Hermanus via the very
full Theewaterskloof Dam. We had been lent a lovely spacious and modern flat on
the coast in Hermanus and were amazed to see that we were right on the rocks
overlooking the bay and we could see many whales cavorting from the large glass
windows. This was to be our home for the next two nights
We meet Georg
Riedel of Riedel Glass at Creation Winery This was the main reason for our visit to
Hermanus. A lunch had been arranged at Creation winery by Michael Fridjhon and
Michael Crossley of Reciprocal Trading, who are the distributors of this
glassware in South Africa and they had invited lots of media and restaurateurs
to meet him. Over lunch, we would sample Creation wines in Riedel glasses – the
one designed specifically for that varietal and also in another. This does make
it easy to see how well the correct glass showcases both the aroma, the taste
and the enjoyment of each wine. We learned much more about Riedel Glass and how
they formulate these special glasses for specific wines, based on very
scientific methods. Read on
Hermanus. The
importance of Advertising Honestly,
some people have absolutely no idea about how to promote themselves. We
decided, on Tuesday, to go and see some of the wine farms in Stanford that we
have never visited before. Almost there, we saw an impressive set of gates with
a very small dilapidated sign saying wine tasting. But there was no name on the
gate. It turns out it was Misty Cliffs who had their signage stolen a while
ago. We were welcomed by Angela Kies in the tasting room, who gave us a tasting
of their three wines, two Shirazes and one Pinotage, made by consultant
winemaker Philip Costandius, who is now at Oldenburg in Banhoek. “No, they have
not been busy” she said. With no signage outside, we are not surprised that
everyone is driving right past.
It got worse. We could not
find a tasting room on the Robert Stanford farm despite driving all over the
estate looking for one and any signage and nearly took a road over a very
rickety wooden footbridge that would not have held our car. There is building
going on, so perhaps they are closed for a while. We left and then proceeded to
Stanford Hills next door. You turn off the main road onto a smaller road and
drive at least a kilometre to the small winery. It was lunch time and we were
spurred on by the thought of the memorable pork pie they serve, mentioned by
Christian Eedes in the Platter guide. When we reached it, we discovered that
they are only open Thursdays to Mondays. It was Tuesday. We really would have
appreciated this information at the turning from the main road. So it was not a
successful trip to taste Stanford wines.
Lunch at
Bientang’s Cave We headed back into Hermanus
to find some lunch. Lynne had met the owner of Bientang’s Cave the previous day
at Creation so we decided to give it a try. And we were very pleasantly
surprised READ ON
Du Toitskloof vs
Muratie annual Cookoff It was Du
Toitskloof’s turn to host this competition this year and we were taken there in
one of their small buses. It is in Rawsonville, just through the DuToitskloof
tunnel, and they had set up a huge marquee and cooks from both farms were all
busy cooking the lamb. This year they were to showcase Karoo Lamb and they had
to cook some chops on a braai and larger cuts like the shoulder or leg in a
pot. It was not great weather but we had a very jolly crowd of supporters and
media and lots of wine from both farms flowed. Muratie were quite clever in
producing a starter – they put an entire Brie on a tray on the braai till it
got lovely and warm and gooey and you could scoop up warm cheese which was then
topped with slices of fresh strawberry – unusual but it works. It certainly
kept the wolf from the door while we waited for the lamb to cook. Read on
DOC Lamb for the
Karoo During the day Professor Johann Kirsten
Head of the Department of Agricultural Economics, Extension and Rural
Development at the University of Pretoria told us about how South Africa is
trying to value, promote and protect our special regional foods,starting with
Karoo lamb, as products of origin and quality, as we already do with our wines.
It is rather like the European Commission has done with Welsh Lamb, Gorgonzola
Cheese, Parma Ham etc. It means that identified foods are ethically produced,
marked, numbered and this means their origins can be checked and authenticated.
To explain this further we quote Wikipedia entry for DOC:
Denominazione di
origine controllata ("Controlled
designation of origin") is a quality assurance label for Italian food products, especially wines and various cheeses (Denominazione di Origine Protetta).
It is modelled after the French AOC. It was
instituted in 1963 and overhauled in 1992 for compliance with the equivalent EU law on Protected Designation of Origin, which came into effect that year.
The South African
project will differ but basically it will be similar. We think this is a
wonderful initiative and hope to see lots more of our special regional foods
joining this programme. To learn more look at www.karoomeatoforigin.com
Amorim Cork Methode Cap
Classique Challenge Awards The results
of the 14th annual Amorim Méthode Cap Classique Challenge were announced today
at a lunch held at the 12 Apostles Hotel. Domaine des Dieux Claudia Brut MCC 2009, from the
boutique wine producer in the Hemel en Aarde Valley near Hermanus, was crowned
as South Africa’s best Cap Classique. The results are as follows:
Best Vintage
Brut and Overall Winner: Domaines des Dieux Claudia Brut MCC 2009
Best Brut
Non-Vintage: Lords Non-Vintage Blended Brut
Best Rosé
Non-Vintage: Graham Beck Brut Rosé
Best Rosé
Vintage: Graham Beck Brut Rosé 2009
Best Blanc
de Blancs Non-Vintage: Colmant Brut Chardonnay
Best Blanc
de Blancs Vintage: Laborie 2010
Best Museum Class:
Simonsig Kaapse Vonkel Brut 2004
Congratulations to all
the winners. We will be writing in much more detail about these awards, the
wines and the food served with them next week, as we have only just got back
from them.
Wine Concepts
Festival of Seductive Sauvignons Come and join us at this superb festival
celebrating Sauvignons Blanc and Rouge at the Vineyard Hotel next Friday, 26th
September. Always a glittering event, you can taste some of the best
Sauvignons this country produces from 50 top farms. Bookings: Tickets cost R170
each and can conveniently be purchased via www.webtickets.co.za at Wine
Concepts in Newlands or Kloof St or at the door on the evening, subject to
availability. Telephone Newlands at 021 671 9030 or Kloof Street at
021 426 4401. And you could book yourself dinner at the Vineyard
afterwards.
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 type of
event 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 list of wine and food
pairing dinners, list
of Special events with wine and/or food connections,
list of Wine Shows and Tastings and list of special dinner events.
All the events are listed in date order and we 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
The Hurst Campus, an accredited school for people who want to become
professional chefs, has a variety of courses. 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
four module course for keen home cooks at his Maitland complex. Details
here
Nadège Lepoittevin-Dasse has French cooking classes in Noordhoek
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.
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
18th September 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.
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
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