Supper at Chandani, Woodstock

Thali at Chandani

This was the second restaurant we booked for during Restaurant Week and, this time, we went with two friends who were also fans of the restaurant. We didn’t know what we would be eating before hand, as they didn’t publish their Restaurant Week Menu on line, which was a pity as it might have attracted more guests. The dinner cost R175 per person for 3 courses and what we got was not what we expected.  

The outside of Chandani in Roodebloom Road in Woodstock

We chat with joint owner Dina de Bruyn. Her partner, Jagdish Vanzara, also welcomed us. He has been in the restaurant business from the age of 7. We had some poppadoms, but we were not served any dips

We were served a Thali each – traditional Indian street food. There are two variations, meat for us and vegetarian for our friends.  They cost R175 each which is quite a steep increase on the price they used to charge at their other restaurant Namaste which has now closed. .Other than three dishes with meat, there is little difference between them. Starting at the bottom and going clockwise, there is a of tandoori chicken and tikka paneer with a chick pea patty. Then a cucumber raita, a tomato sambal, You had to be careful not to mix the next dish with the others as it was your dessert, a dish or rich cardamom flavoured creamy vermicelli. Then a lentil soup, a mixed vegetable curry, a lamb Rogan Josh and a Butter Chicken. A large pile of fluffy pilau rice and two naan slices complete the platter. The food was delicious and very filling. The two vegetarian options were a potato and a cauliflower curry. None of us could finish their individual thalis.

Some of the other customers in the restaurant

Tables awaiting customers in the other rooms

The waiter laying places

The bill. We opened three bottles of wine and paid corkage of R40 on each bottle. Some wine did go home!

© John & Lynne Ford, Adamastor & Bacchus 2014

http://www.adamastorphotos.com/our-rates.php

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Celebration of Chardonnay at DeWetshof, Robertson

A Generous Celebration of Chardonnay

Every two years, De Wetshof in Robertson holds this very prestigious tasting. It is, to quote Danie de Wet: “to pay homage to South African Wine producers whose passion for Chardonnay is displayed in the quality of their wines currently in the market ... we believe that as a wine nation South Africa can now be recognized as a global force in the production of site-specific wines expressing their place of origin to the degree of excellence this variety deserves”. Visiting wine journalist Andrew Jefford was the guest speaker and he made an impassioned plea for growers to look more closely at growing site specific wines. See his speech here

Two marquees were erected, one for the tasting of 3 Method Cap Classique wines and 16 Chardonnays , two each from different region of the Cape winelands selected by a panel lead by David Hughes, British Wine Master Richard Kershaw and winemaker Hannes Storm. The wines were tasted blind. And they were magnificent.

The other was for lunch prepared by Chef Garth Stroebel and his team. They have catered for this even since its inception in 2004. Lunch was five courses and we were served the wines that did not quite make it into the top 16 plus two Chardonnays from France and the Laborie Alambic Brandy. All of them were superb, as was lunch.

What impressed us most was the unstinting generosity of spirit shown by the De Wet family in promoting all South African Chardonnays in this way.

We caught the bus in town at 7 am. A very early start to a long but sensational day. We made a stop at Joostenberg to collect the media who live in the winelands

And our journey was improved by a glass or two of bubbly

On arrival we were served an innovative mini-breakfast-in-a-glass canapé: sausage, tomato and scrambled egg!

Anne Huchon of Morgenhof, WOSA CEO Siobhan Thompson, Arco Laarman of Glen Carlou and Gary Jordan

The Who’s Who of the South African wine industry gather outside De Wetshof

Host Danie de Wet at the badge table

Wine for the tasting chilling on ice. Impressively, It was all served at the perfect temperature, throughout the day

Judge Dave Hughes

The Twelve Apostles Director Horst Frehse and his wife, Barbara

Our brigade of pouring waiters who did their job with aplomb and efficiency

The full tasting marquee as the morning commences

Invited Guest speaker for the day was Andrew Jefford who is a contributing editor for Decanter and the World of Fine Wines. Since becoming a wine writer in 1988, he has written for many British newspapers, including the Evening Standard, The Financial Times, The Guardian and The Times. He writes a weekly blog called Jefford on Monday for www.decanter.com and has also broadcast extensively on wine and other subjects for BBC . Like Lynne, his original background was in book publishing in the UK.

Vines in the glasses

Table setting for the tasting

Listening with rapt attention to Andrew Jefford

The gears between the wheels: De Wetshof Marketing Manager Bennie Stipp and PRO Emile Joubert, who worked tirelessly with others to put this awesome event together

Johann de Wet introduces Dave Hughes

Johann de Wet tells us why the De Wet family hosts this event

Dave Hughes tells us how the judges reached the order of the top 16 wines

Bolla Gerber, Cellarmaster at Groot Constantia, introduces his 2013 Chardonnay, the first we tasted, which had a lovely rich lime marmalade nose and a long lean elegant Constantia citrus palate. Each winemaker presented his wine and gave us information about the site, the soil, the production and the climate

Nice pale colour on the first two chardonnays

Andre van Rensburg of Vergelegen introduces his wine, Chardonnay Reserve 2012, full of peachy smoke, ending with lemon and grapefruit

Jan Boland Coetzee’s Vriesenhof 2012 Chardonnay had whiffs of cooked loquats and apples with a clean lime and lemon minerality with some grains of paradise on the end. Long, long flavours. He told us his plant material was stolen 33 years ago from Beaune in Burgundy in the era when Chardonnay was not allowed to be planted in South Africa!

Newald Marais of Kranskop produced the best value chardonnay in the tasting which retails for R55. This 2012 wine has orange citrus deeply layered flavours with some stony minerality and a lovely spicy naartjie ending

Danie de Wet presented De Wetshof Bateleur 2012. It smells of golden delicious apples and is a huge wine that packs a punch. Citrus, spice and warmth with red apples and mineral lime ending

Johann Fourie of KWV presented the 2012 The Mentors chardonnay. Full of golden grapes, it has a rounded palate which is very satisfying with a dry finish of lemons, limes and Granny Smith apples

Randolph Christians of Rustenberg introduced the 2011 Five Soldiers. Smokey with grace notes of green melon and bacon, it is a lean complex and layered citrus panoply. The wood in in the background supporting the wine, but not interfering. He told us it is grown on the highest vineyards in the Cape

Gerry Wagner of Tokara presented their Reserve Collection Stellenbosch Chardonnay as Miles Mossop is away. It's a fruit forward wine with notes of yellow melon and butter. On the palate, yellow fruit, lemon, peaches, some chalk, with no wood visible and warm alcohol

Gottfried Mocke presented his award winning 2013 Reserve Chardonnay. He said there is “No terroir by truck” at Chamonix and raised a laugh from the audience. Floral and fruit, peaches and apricots on a very aromatic nose. Clean lean and mean crisp limes and green apples on the palate with minerality and elegance. A wine to last? Many of these are

Gary Baumgarten of Anthonij Rupert Wines presented the 2012 Cape of Good Hope Serruria Chardonnay. Brioche and butter with a whiff of smoke on nose. Lime juice, some sweetness and a little chalk, it has nice elegance and is a balanced food wine. It comes from a clone CY559 no one else has planted. And is from a very cool vineyard in Franschhoek, never warmer than 30°C and has had snow in the vineyard these last two winters

David Brice of The Wine Cellar asks a question

Carl Schultz of Hartenberg presenting The Eleanor 2013. This was one of our favourite wines of the day, but only by a small margin as the quality of the wines was extremely high overall, including the wines we had with lunch. It is bready with golden fruit on the nose, shy with some slight smoke. On the mouth vanilla wood and toast with crisp limes. Very complex and layered with chalky minerality and a lot of character and attitude. Food wine deluxe

Gary Jordan with 2013 Nine Yards which is full of apples and spice and warm linen on the rose, full of apples and white peaches with a lime finish, and terroir minerality. They have white quartz in the vineyards. Another wine to keep and mature

Kevin Grant presented our highest scoring wine of the day, his 2013 Ataraxia. Smells of spicy apples and pears and tastes of crisp limes lemons and chalky minerality. So French, so elegant. He grows on 7 different soils. He didn’t pull up his vines and grow vegetables, thankfully. He stuck to making good wine

Hannes Storm, who is moving from Hamilton Russell to make his own Storm wines

Bernhard and Fida Hess of Mimosa Lodge in Montagu

Taking a selfie is Ultra director Mark Norrish with Kevin Grant

Assembling for lunch

Johan Malan of Simonsig chatting to Carl Schultz of Hartenberg

Johann de Wet telling us about the wines we will be served with lunch. All the wine was served at 17°C, it was 20.5°C in the tent, thankfully on a very temperate cloudy day.

Richard Rowe of KWV with Johann Fourie

The lunch menu

The starter was a pillow of oak smoked river salmon trout filled with avocado and fromage blanc topped with a very fine red caviar and micro green salad. We could have Moreson, La Motte or Puligny Montrachet Chateau de Puligny Montrachet. The Puligny sadly run out as everyone wanted to taste it, but Peter de Wet generously went to get some more, so we did taste some. A very different style indeed from SA ‘s big Chardonnays, mostly.

Lunch underway

A few speeches

And the award of the Golden Vine went to Luke Dale Roberts of the Test Kitchen and The Pot Luck Club. It was presented by Lesca de Wet and Johann de Wet. It is awarded to a chef for his contribution to the food and wine culture

Luke accepting the award

Every farm involved has produced a sample of their soil

Jeanette Bruwer of Springfield

Lourens Jonker of Weltevrede

Johann Fourie, Michael Olivier and Morné Vrey, chatting

Mr & Mrs Carel Nel of Boplaas

Carel congratulating Luke Dale Roberts

The main course was half a small crayfish with black mussels serve with cured sweet beets, chardonnay jelly, sea grass and the first samphire we have had in South Africa. The crayfish was not familiar and we wondered where it came from. It had rather a tough red skin which peeled off but was inedible.

The two French wines available for tasting with lunch

Kevin Grant enjoying the day

Time to get back on the bus! Bennie Stipp making sure we have lots of supplies for the trip home. Some madman trying to get some NOW. Some of us had to leave without having had the cheese or dessert courses as other members of the media wanted to get back to town early. A pity. It was a very, very good event, one of the best this year

© John & Lynne Ford, Adamastor & Bacchus 2014

http://www.adamastorphotos.com/our-rates.php

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