Friday, September 25, 2015

Tokara Wine Made Art

Every year in September Tokara holds an event called Wine Made Art to showcase the release of their new vintage wines and we were also celebrating 10 years of Tokara wines. The art exhibited is from the Marie Stander School of Art and is a selection of paintings done not with watercolours but with wine and very accomplished they were. The wine - donated by Tokara has to be boiled down to produce an ink like consistency and is then applied, often in many layers, to watercolour paper. Also showcased was the food of Executive chef Richard Carstens and his team who served brilliant canapés all evening . We were delighted to be invited . The exhibition this year was "Celebrating 10 Years of Wine Made Art…" All the pictures will remain on show in the Tokara gallery until January 2016.
Lynne chatting to Wilhelm Kühn, Restaurant manager, and Executive Chef Richard Carstens.
Some of the wonderful canapés Richard produced, These are scallops with mushrooms, topped with a herb mayonnaise
It looked and tasted like the best imported smoked salmon but in fact is excellent smoked trout from the Du Toitskloof area. Served on crisp Banting type seed crackers.
Crab paté topped with salmon caviar on crisp flaky pastry bases
Intense cheese biscuits topped with a creamy cheese sauce and grated parmesan cheese, a cheesy experience bar none
Oh-so-fresh oysters served with a dollop of lime sorbet
Lynne’s favourite, prawn tails on skewers with a garlic dipping sauce
Beautiful floral displays with the art exhibition
Tea and wine: A Celebration of Friends by Maroli van der Merwe
More stunning flowers. They all had a wonderful perfume that filled the gallery
Studying the pictures
The kitchen having a short rest between preparing and serving canapés
Vegetarian sushi rolls with something different - Richard put crisp and hot slices of radish in the rolls and then coated the outside in sesame seeds. Something to copy at home.
Rick and Marie Stander listening to the speeches
Aidan Morton, Tokara viticulturalist, spoke fluently about the exhibition
Owner of Tokara GT Ferreira
He talked about how quickly the last 10 years have gone since he bought the farm and the whole experience of planting vines and then seeing the results 10 years on. Those results were in our glasses and were extremely good
In the tasting room with the roaring fire
Tasting the new vintage releases of Tokara's premium Black label wines. We particularly enjoyed the crisp TOKARA 2014 Director’s Reserve White which is a Bordeaux-style white blend consisting of 69% Sauvignon Blanc and 31% Semillon. There is also a 2015 Sauvignon Blanc and a 2015 Chardonnay in the range, both excellent . The 2012 Director’s Reserve Red is a classic barrel matured Bordeaux blend made to last years and a 2012 Reserve Collection spicy perfumed Syrah, a lovely food wine
The Odobey turret clock in the tasting room, loudly ticking off each minute. Made in the 19th century, it was restored by clockmaker Jacques Arzul
It is very relaxed with good seating and the best works from the last 10 years were displayed in this room
Another amazing floral display and above it a very interesting lamp with a mountain relief moulded onto it and a star map inscribed onto the copper surface
Takuan and Christiane von Arnim with Ueli Schmidt and Andy Zimmermann from Kapweine in Switzerland who were attending Cape wine: 
The entrance way is rather like Alice in Wonderland with this huge well lit sculpture of a tree, all it needs is the Cheshire Cat
Looking through to the gallery
Our transport home down the N1. Tokara had laid on a bus for guests coming from Cape Town and we were very grateful for it
Nearly in town. This is where the motorway splits for people going to the Southern suburbs or into central Cape Town
© John & Lynne Ford, Adamastor & Bacchus 2015

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