Friday, November 18, 2016

This Week's MENU. Doolhof’s new vintage, Nedbank Green tasting, Rosé Rocks, Capèritif Cacophony, Stellenbosch Hills, DeWetshof Chardonnay Celebration

Summer in the Swartland
The madness continues, but there are signs that it will soon slow down. Each week seems to bring more events that we cannot miss and this week has more stories than ever. It keeps us young and energetic, we still enjoy it and we hope that you do, so please read on... or click any of the following links to look at a story
Doolhof at Dash      Doolhof launched their new vintage wines at Dash restaurant at the Queen Victoria Hotel recently. Five were from their Signatures range, and one from their Legends of the Labyrinth portfolio. Doolhof is below the Bains Kloof pass in the newly proclaimed Limietberg ward of Wellington, there are fourteen wines in their wine portfolio
Green Wine Public tasting      This was held on the top floor of the Nedbank offices in the V&A Waterfront, which has wonderful views of Cape Town and our mountain. It was a chance for the public to taste the winners. Check them out here http://www.greenwineawards.com/
Rosé Rocks    Another annual awards ceremony, showcasing top Cape rosé wines, was held again at the Radisson Blue Hotel next to the V&A Waterfront. The wind was howling, so it had to be held inside, but some lovely rosés were awarded the Top Ten accolade
Caperitif Cacophony      This was a relaunch, not of a wine but of an historic aperitif: Caperitif, known since the early part of the 20th Century. It was held on Adi Badenhorst's Swartland farm Kalmoesfontein on Guy Fawkes day. Not a glass of wine in sight, we spent the day tasting first Rooibos Caperitea, listening to entertaining talks by Adi, Wim Tijmens, Dave Hughes and Lars-Erik Schmidt. Time then for a horizontal tasting of the five different batches released so far of this great aperitif and then five different expertly mixed cocktails. We just sipped, honestly. This was followed by a fun retro lunch prepared by Adi's rather well known mother, talented chef Judy Badenhorst, who used to run the River Cafe restaurant on Constantia Uitsig. What a celebration!
Stellenbosch Hills at Panama Jacks     We always look forward to this annual wine event, as we never know what Stellenbosch Hills will come up with each year. Whatever it is, it is always enjoyable, as are the wines. This is an award winning co-operative wine cellar established over 70 years ago, in 1945, and is now a collection of 16 successful members making the best of their Stellenbosch grown wines, on a very wide range of terroirs. The winery is in Vlottenberg and you can visit the tasting room to taste for yourself. The wines are very affordable
This year, we were invited to Panama Jack’s in the Cape Town Docks to taste the new wines and meet the new wine maker. Panama Jack’s has been there since 1989, and not much has changed. It is known for its good seafood and fish and atmosphere. It started as a small shack selling food and drinks to people working on their yachts and grew into a larger, quirky windblown shack near the container port. All the women at the event wanted to take down the flags lining the ceiling and put them in the washing machine. It’s an original, and it works. A great time was had, good wine was tasted and good fish was consumed
The Celebration of Chardonnay at De Wetshof     Now this event is really, really special. It is held once every two years on their farm by the de Wet family of De Wetshof in Robertson to showcase the best Chardonnays locally and internationally. Since 2010, chardonnays from Burgundy, America and Australia have been included. It is an extremely generous gesture to the wine industry. Anyone who has ever been invited hopes that they will be on the guest list again. This year was the sixth time it has been held and there were 200 guests. Every year they invite an important international speaker. The speaker this year was the acclaimed American novelist and wine writer Jay McInerney. And we tasted some phenomenal Chardonnays
Wine club bubbles      We had a tasting recently of Champagne and MCC at our wine club, presented by Matthew Krone. We did have Laurent Perrier NV, Mum Cordon Rouge (our favourite) and Veuve Clicquot yellow label, a Prosecco from Italy, a Freixinet Cava from Spain but we just wanted to mention how well the South African MCCs stood up to the foreign competition. Matthew Krone's own 2010 Alexandra earned loud applause. The favourite of the evening was the Steenberg Lady R, very closely followed by the Avondale Armilla. We drank the Kleine Zalze as our welcome drink and it really got the tasting going well
Two of the best annual Bubbly tastings will be happening soon. DO NOT MISS THESE: 
Wine Concepts’ "Finer Things in Life" Champagne Festival at the Vineyard Hotel on Friday 25th November features only good French Champagnes
The Franschhoek Cap Classique and Champagne Festival ‘The Magic of Bubbles’ will be held over the weekend of the 3rd and 4th of December. We hope to see you there, as we will be at both
MENU dish of the week     South African Feta & Peppadew Phyllo Borek
If you need a quick canapé, try this one. Lynne had to think on her feet last week as we were very busy, but she needed something to take to our wine club. We had some Phyllo pastry in the freezer, some feta and peppadew in the fridge and in the larder a tin of tuna. This is what she made
4 rounds of plain or herb feta cheese, about 400 gm - 8 to10 well drained peppadew peppers, roughly chopped - a tin of tuna in water, also well drained - 6 sheets of Phyllo pastry - 1/4 cup of melted butter - 2 T raw white sesame seeds
Turn your oven on to 200⁰C. Mix the first three ingredients together to form a good filling. Flavour with a little pepper or cayenne, depending on whether you are using hot or normal peppadews. Lay down some cling film and spread out a sheet of Phyllo. Using a pastry brush, paint it with melted butter then lay another sheet on top and butter that, until you have three layers. Cut into oblongs approximately 14 x 9 cm, place a heaped teaspoonful of the feta mixture 2 cm from the top of the oblong, cover with the Phyllo above it, fold in the sides well to prevent leakage and roll up till you have small parcels. Repeat till you have used all the pastry and filling. Seal the bottoms with melted butter and glaze the tops with more. Place the borek on baking paper on a baking tray, sprinkle over the sesame seeds and put into the oven until the borek are crisp and golden. Serve warm
MENU Wine of the week      There are two this week. We have tasted so many good wines that it was very hard to choose. The first is good value, a great wine with food and readily available, the second is a great wine, one to treasure and drink as often as you can afford to
Stellenbosch Hills White Blend - you will read about it in Stellenbosch Hills at Panama Jacks
and
Ataraxia Wooded Chardonnay 2015 -you will read about in the Celebration of Chardonnay at De Wetshof
In MENU next week: Lunch at Glenelly, Hemel en Aarde Chardonnay, Winemaker of the Year, Keermont and more





18th November 2016
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