Vineyards and
Mountains in the Helderberg Valley
In
this week’s MENU:
Wade Bales and the Constantia Fire Learn about wine
and cooking
We write about
our experiences in MENU, not only to entertain you, but to encourage you to
visit the places and events that we do. We know you will enjoy them and we try
to make each write up as graphic as we can, so you get a good picture of what
is on offer at each place, restaurant, wine farm, festival we visit.
To get the whole of our story, please click on
“READ
ON.....” at the end of each paragraph, which will
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We have had a frantically busy
two weeks filled with work, wine tours, a wedding, overseas visitors and
festivals. We have loved almost every minute of it, but are getting rather
tired of all the PR events being clumped towards the last weekend of each month.
This happened in January as well and it looks like it will happen again at the
end of March. We have been so frantic that we had absolutely no time to process
all of the photographs, write the text and put out MENU last week. We hope you
will understand that this is the first time this has happened since we started
MENU in 2003 and give us some leeway.
Our working week started with
John doing a wine tour for some US guests who
were here for a wedding and Lynne being invited to Anthonij Rupert – both were
in Franschhoek.
What’s on offer
at Anthonij Rupert? At some wine farms you just
get a tasting room experience; at others, like Anthonij Rupert, there is a
selection of great experiences. It is a very beautiful farm with almost as much
garden as vineyards. We started the morning with tea in the summer house,
accompanied, of course, by a glass or two of their MCC. Read on
Starlight
Concert Lots of strategic planning ensured that we
met up that evening at La Franschhoek, where John’s tour guests were staying,
and then it was off to one of our musical highlights of the year, the Starlight
Concert at Vergelegen. Read On
Feast of the
Grape in Durbanville John’s tour party was too
exhausted after the wedding at Cavalli, and cancelled their planned tour of the
Peninsula on Sunday, so he was able to come to the Feast of the Grape with us,
held this year at D’Aria farm. We were still standing as we had left the
wedding earlier than most. It was a very popular and good “one venue” festival,
with all the local farms showcasing their wines, lots and lots of different
food stalls and much else besides to amuse the visitors, including grape
stomping. Read On
Harvesting our
grapes at the Vineyard Hotel We were
summoned to the Vineyard at 7 am on Monday morning for a glass of fresh orange
juice, or some bubbly, and marshalled into helping harvest the rows of grapes
that grow in their small vineyard alongside the Liesbeek River. This was the
third harvest from this tiny young vineyard. Our vine had over 24 bunches this
year, smaller than last year and they had been sulphured to stave off the rot.
We await this year’s wine (being made at Meerlust) with great interest. Read On
Van Ryn Brandy
experience Another early rising for us
on Wednesday to get to Van Ryn by 8 am and then into a bus for the trip to
Opstal Winery in Slanghoek valley to see the brandy grapes being harvested,
taste the must and some of the rebate wine from the tank from an earlier
picking during the week. Then it was back on the bus for 2 superb brandy
tastings and lunch at Van Ryn. It’s a hard life... Read On
Wade Bales and
the Constantia Fire That evening we drove through
to Constantia to our wine club meeting, which was held at Wade Bales Wine Society,
where we did a very comprehensive tasting of Constantia wines. We were
horrified to see the results of the fires which had started on Sunday and we
could still see emergency vehicles in the surrounding vineyards and countryside
putting out flames until we left at 10h30. Thanks to the sterling work by the
local fire brigades and volunteers the fire is now out.
Opening of
L’Avenir’s Pinotage Lounge John had another wine tour in Durbanville on
Thursday and so Lynne caught the bus laid on by L’Avenir to get to this lovely
event which started on their lawn at sunset with their Pinotage MCC and some
canapés. L’Avenir produces some of the very best Pinotage in South Africa and
they have opened a lounge in the cellar with a vinoteque, where you can taste
the wines of the past and hold functions. Read on
Blaauwklippen
presents Zinfandel and launches a new MCC at Blues Remarkably, Blaauwklippen is celebrating
its 333rd anniversary and on Friday, to celebrate, they invited the media to
their annual vertical tasting of Zinfandels, paired very skilfully with food
prepared by Chef Lorenzo Magni of Blues. Read On
Taj Classic Wine
Trophy Awards This annual competition, in
which South African wines are judged by visiting and local French sommeliers
and wine people, is always an interesting occasion where one can see what the
French palate prefers. There were some very notable winners, some predictable,
some not at all. Perhaps, if more local farms entered, we might get a broader
spectrum of wines in the competition. Read on
Paarl Ommiberg
Festival We decided to give this festival another
chance and are delighted to report that, on the two farms we visited, it was a
huge success and great fun. We started at Landskroon on the Agter Paarl and
then went round “the Pearl” Paarl rock to Laborie in the centre of Paarl. Read on
This week’s
recipe We love cold meats in summer, but are
always horrified at how much they can cost. So why not make some yourself. We
are talking about roasting a gammon or doing salt beef. So easy as long as you
can find good meat. Today Lynne has made salt beef for a picnic we are having
tomorrow and there will be plenty for 8 people as part of a meal with
guacamole, humus, corn chips, salads, chicken, cheese and something wicked for
afterwards like brownies or small cup cakes.
Salt
Beef
1 piece of salt
beef 1 to 1.5 kilos approx – 1 large onion cut into 8 pieces – 2 celery sticks
– 2 carrots – 2 bay leaves – a sprig of thyme – 5 allspice berries – 1 clove –
8 whole peppercorns
Turn your oven to 150°C. Put
the beef into a large oven proof casserole with a lid. Roughly chop the
vegetables and add to the pot. Add the herbs and spices and cover with water.
Bring gently to a simmer and as soon as the water starts to shimmer, cover the
pot with a layer of foil and then put the lid on tightly and transfer to the
oven. Bake slowly for at least 1½ to 2 hours or until the meat is lovely and
tender, but not falling apart. If the joint is larger, you may need more time.
Check on it a couple of times to make sure the liquid is not evaporating. You
need to slice it when it is cold. Remove it from the heat, cover and slice when
needed. If you want to, you can serve this hot. It makes wonderful salt beef
sandwiches with mustard and pickles.
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
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.
13th March 2015
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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