Heritage Day Friendship Table at Avontuur

Avontuur in the Helderberg is one of South African premier racehorse studs, which also makes a little wine. Well, that’s what they told us on Heritage Day, on which we were invited to visit and taste their wines. It is hard to define “a little” when they tell us that they make 48 000 bottles of their best selling Estate red blend of Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot! They also make several other wines. The wines in the premium range are named after their prize winning race horses. The farm is owned by the Taberer family and the wines are made by Jan van Rooyen.

The entrance to Avontuur Restaurant and the new improved tasting room

We met a table of other media and bloggers

The restaurant was very busy and lively on the public holiday

Cobie van Oordt, PRO for Avontuur takes us through their wines. We particularly liked the Estate Sauvignon Blanc, good vale at R62 and the Estate Cabernet/Merlot. Many of the reds have very farmyard noses, is this influenced by the horses? John’s favourite was the Baccarat 2009, a Bordeaux blend, and Lynne’s was the Dominion Royale Shiraz from 32 year old vines

Lunch after the tasting was a shared platter of cheese, paté, droëwors and biltong with a few additions like fruit, nuts and preserved figs. These cost R120 for 2.

The restaurant menu for the day

Then we had a plate of dessert. One of the choices was a Cape classic, Melktert

We had the almond cake

A view of the paddocks at the front of the farm

The farm buildings

Spring vines breaking into bud as the weather gets warmer

A view from Avontuur of the R44 between Somerset West and Stellenbosch. We travel this road often and had no idea the hill was so steep. Of course, a long lens compresses the distance and makes it look much steeper than it is

Some of the dams with their very valuable new pedigreed foals

RETURN TO MENU

© John & Lynne Ford, Adamastor & Bacchus 2014

Ten year vertical tasting of Neil Ellis Grenache on International Grenache Day

Grenache is a grape grown throughout Mediterranean France and Spain to make wines which show sweet warm fruit with spicy notes. In the Rhône, it is one of the component grapes used in Chateauneuf du Pape. It is being grown more and more in South Africa where our climate and terroir suit it well and we are producing some very interesting and attractive wines from it. Neil Ellis have been growing this for many years and we were very intrigued to be invited to take part in a vertical tasting of their Piekenierskloof Grenache dating from 2004 held, appropriately, on International Grenache day. 

Currently, these wines are made by Warren Ellis, who took over winemaking from his father Neil in 2006. Warren is also the Viticulturist. We started with the current vintage 2012 and while these newer wines are fresh and fruity they show great future potential.  As we got further back to the older wines you could see the character of the wine maturing and getting more elegant and full with softening tannins. They do clearly show their terroir and reflect the climate of the year they were made.  We enjoyed tasting these wines very much. We also did a small tasting of their Rodanos red blend where the base wine is shiraz but the other wines may vary every year.  In 2010 and 2011 Grenache was the blending wine, in 2012 it was Cinsaut. Many of these wines are very food friendly.

The wines we tasted

Neil Ellis welcomes us to the farm

A good way to display wine in a tasting room

Sommeliers, trade and media assemble for the tasting

Neil tells us the history of the farm and the wines

Warren Ellis tells us about growing Grenache. Why does he make it? He loves the grape

The very friendly Boerbul who rules the farm

A rapt audience learns about making Grenache

A very necessary log fire as the day was rather dank. grim and wet

Two braais being prepared for lunch – in the rain, so under canvas

Lots of seasoning for the lamb chops cooking on the coals

Neil adds some more, while Winnie Bowman records the moment

The science of braaiing

Neil with Winnie and Mel Minnaar

A view from the farm under the rainy Jonkershoek mountain. The vines have only just started bud break

Tatiana Marcetteaux, Sommelier at The Taj hotel in Cape Town

Mmmm, lamb chops nearing completion

and being transferred onto the platters

Looking crisp, juicy and perfectly cooked

Don’t feed the hound! But he gets to lick the lamb juices off the grid and finds every last bit of flavour

The chops were served with a good mixed salad and roast potatoes

And were followed by a cheeseboard and panforte to be shared by couples

RETURN TO MENU

© John & Lynne Ford, Adamastor & Bacchus 2014

140925 Main Ingredient's MENU - MCC Challenge, Neil Ellis Grenache, Avontuur

MENU

Main Ingredient’s weekly E-Journal

Gourmet Foods & Ingredients

Eat In Guide’s Five time Outstanding Outlet Award Winner

www.mainingredient.biz - http://www.adamastorphotos.com/

Follow our blogs at http://www.adamastorbacchus.com/

+27 21 439 3169 / +27 83 229 1172

Click here to Subscribe to MENU or to contact us

Follow us on Twitter: @mainingmenu

Spring brings the dragonflies back to our pond

In this week’s MENU:

•  Amorim Cork Methode Cap Classique Challenge Awards
•  Tasting Grenache with Neil Ellis
•  Heritage Day, tasting wines at Avontuur
•  Calling Woolworths to task
•  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

Amorim Cork Methode Cap Classique Challenge Awards     Every year, in South Africa, Amorim Cork sponsors this competition for the best Methode Cape Classique wines, wines that are made in the French Champagne method. The Awards ceremony was held last Friday at the 12 Apostles Hotel and there were some surprises and also some of the more familiar top names who received awards. Read On

Tasting Grenache with Neil Ellis     Grenache is a grape grown throughout Mediterranean France and Spain to make wines of sweet warm fruit with spicy notes. In the Rhône, it is one of the component grapes used in Chateauneuf du Pape. It is being grown more and more in South Africa where our climate and terroir suit it well and we are producing some very interesting and attractive wines from it. Neil Ellis have been growing this for many years and we were very intrigued to be invited to take part in a vertical tasting of their Piekenierskloof Grenache dating from 2004 held, appropriately, on International Grenache day.

These wines are currently made by Warren Ellis, who joined his father Neil in 2006. Warren is also the Viticulturist. We started with the current vintage 2012 and, while these newer wines are fresh and fruity, they show great future potential. As we got further back to the older wines, you could see the character of the wine maturing and becoming more elegant and full with softening tannins. They do clearly show their terroir and reflect the climate of the year in which they were made. We enjoyed tasting these wines very much. We also did a small tasting of their Rodanos red blend, where the base wine is shiraz, but the other wines may vary every year. In 2010 and 2011 Grenache was the blending wine, in 2012 it was Cinsaut. Many of these wines are very food friendly. Read more

Heritage Day, tasting wines at Avontuur     Avontuur in the Helderberg is one of South African premier racehorse studs, which also makes a little wine. Well, that’s what they told us on Heritage Day, on which we were invited to come and taste their wines. It is hard to define “a little” when they tell us that they make 48 000 bottles of their best selling Estate red blend of Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot! They make several other wines. The wines in the premium range are named after their prize winning race horses. The farm is owned by the Taberer family and the wines are made by Jan van Rooyen. Read on

Calling Woolworths to task     Woolies has not yet entered into the spirit of Banting. We hear from staff in the stores that they are about to but, yesterday, we bought something for supper that was rather shaming. It was the only salad on the shelf that did not visibly contain any carbohydrates. No pasta, no beans, no potato etc. Called a Crunchy Summer Salad it contained carrot, cabbage, tomato, spinach, onion and watercress. There was a small envelope of pumpkin and sunflower seeds included and one of salad dressing. Sounds perfect, until you discover that the salad dressing includes Maple flavoured syrup, honey and Balsamic vinegar with caramel, and ‘starch’. What were you thinking? It was completely unnecessary. These small additions took a healthy 150g salad to 15.6 Glycaemic carbs, it was horribly sweet and cloying. Try harder please. Oil and vinegar work well enough.

This week’s recipe      As we are writing this in our lovely room at the Lodge in L’Avenir, there will be no recipe this week. And next week you will read about why we are here: a vertical tasting tonight of L’Avenir Pinotage with dinner prepared by Bertus Basson, one of our favourite chefs.

Amorim Cork Methode Cap Classique Challenge Awards     We gave you the results of the 14th annual Amorim Méthode Cap Classique Challenge last week, but did not have time to edit the photographs.  See the full story here

Wine Concepts Festival of Seductive Sauvignons      Come and join us at this superb festival celebrating Sauvignons Blanc and Rouge at the Vineyard Hotel tomorrow. 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.

Food and wine (and a few other) events for you to enjoy

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

25th 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 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.

This electronic journal has been sent to you because you have personally subscribed to it or because someone you know has asked us to send it to you or forwarded it to you themselves. Addresses given to us will not be divulged to any person or organisation. We collect them only for our own promotional purposes. We own our mailing software and keep our mailing list strictly confidential. If you wish to be added to our mailing list, please click here to send us a message and if you wish to be removed from our mailing list, please click here to send us a message.