A Mad Hatter evening at A Touch of Madness, Observatory

You can't say we are not game for a fun event. We got dressed up in eccentric garb on Friday night as we were invited to the 'relaunch' of this pub/restaurant in Observatory. Walking through those rather dodgy streets in weird clothing needs bravado. It is now under the ownership of locals Richard Andrew and Olivia Andrews

Our first meeting with Olivia and Jean du Toit, the manager, both of whom may well be a little mad dressed like this! Behind them is Leah van Deventer, the White Rabbit to John's Mad Hatter?

The front garden area, where they poured us a glass of Bubbly

The front room of the restaurant, where we enjoyed our glass of Bubbly

Fashionistas NOT! And yes, you have noticed that not one other person in the room has dressed up as instructed. Clash

At the bar. A mask? A stetson, really? the best you could do? Some other silly hats seemed to be most people's idea of a touch of madness. Co-owner Richard (turquoise shirt) looking after a customer

Serving John two craft beers

The inner room filled with, mostly, locals

Just chilling on a Friday evening

On the back terrace outside

The restaurant menu

The wine list has a couple more pages

The outside of A Touch of Madness in Nuttall Street

Locals enjoying themselves

RETURN TO MENU

© John & Lynne Ford, Adamastor & Bacchus

Subscribe to MENU

A dinner at the Cullinan with Veritas wines

Top Veritas wines are hard to come by, unless you are determined and buy them immediately after the awards (which are held in September each year), when 1600 bottles of each must be available to the public. Veritas is the oldest wine competition in South Africa. Last week we were invited by Veritas vice-chairperson and Cape Wine Master, Bennie Howard to taste some of these wines, perfectly aged, at a dinner where they were paired with food produced by Executive Chef Henrico Grobbelaar, who has moved to the Cullinan from the 12 Apostles Hotel. It was an excellent dinner. If this is an example of the food that Chef Henrico is going to produce here, future customers are going to be excited and well fed. The Peach Tree restaurant, where the dinner took place, is about to receive a makeover. We think it is overdue as the restaurant is rather gloomy and dark and needs modernising

Bennie Howard meeting and greeting the guests at our table

We started the dinner with a glass of JC Le Roux Scintilla Vintage Reserve MCC 2009

The menu

The first course of black mussels, prawn, tofu, corn, sesame oil and wakame seaweed ...

... was then enhanced by a warm broth of smoked snoek Dashi which transformed the dish into a taste of the ocean. Quite beautiful. The wine served with this dish was one of our favourites, the always popular De Wetshof Limestone Hill 2013 Chardonnay, a perfect match

The second course was inspired and Lynne wants to copy this at home soon. A parmesan panna cotta, custard, soft cheesy cream topped with a thin roll of shaved courgette filled with charred broccoli, dressed with a lemon oil and Anchoïade - an umami sauce made of anchovies, garlic, olive oil, black pepper and vinegar. All these flavours went so well with the Darling Cellars Premium 2015 Sauvignon Blanc

Benny Howard having fun at the dinner

Time for a palate cleanser, which was called Cider Waldorf. A grainy and quite sweet apple sorbet on a fresh apple slice, sprinkled with walnut and celery pieces, topped off with a crisp slice of dehydrated apple. Also on the plate were a couple of semi-dehydrated grapes with a flavour somewhere between air dried olive and balsamic vinegar - very good

Regional Sommelier for Southern Sun, Georgio Meletio, really looked after us

On to the main course:

Bennie Howard CWM making his speech, telling us about the wine and food pairings

Pouring the red wine that was paired with the main course, Anura's LB 2014 Cape Cuvée, a blend of Pinotage, Merlot, Cabernet Franc, Shiraz. It was full of mulberries and spice

One of the guests (and one of our friends), insurance guru Dion Oliver with a guest at our table

The main course of very tender, perfectly cooked Springbok loin on a porcini velouté, buckwheat, tahini and vanilla butternut puree, with a pear gastrique. Loved the pear with the springbok. We don't like vanilla with meat. The other wine served with this course was Simonsig Merindol 2012 Syrah. Soft and silky, this is a cassis fruit bomb with long flavours and lots of warm spice, we loved it

The red wine line up

Waiting in its bath, the most coveted wine of the evening, Nederburg's Private Bin Edelkeur 2013 Chenin Blanc NLH and wow, did this go with the sweet and sticky dessert

Executive Chef Henrico Grobbelaar

Guests enjoying the dinner

Georgio and Benny catching up

It may look and sound a bit simple but it was one of the best desserts we have had in the last year. Essentially a deconstructed banana split (and who doesn't have wonderful childhood memories of them?) Caramelised fresh banana, a banana milk foam made, the chef told us, with the ripe banana skins as aroma, a creamy and delicious salted toffee ice cream, dots of sticky caramel, sprinkles of macadamia nuts for texture and richness and TA DA! topped with a slice of crisp dried banana "bacon". YUM

The entire staff came out for thanks and applause. We thought they were excellent. The serving staff were responsive, happy and smiling and so well trained. And this is not a regular experience for us

RETURN TO MENU

© John & Lynne Ford, Adamastor & Bacchus

Subscribe to MENU

Tasting Lismore wines at Kyoto Garden Sushi

Did you know that wine is grown in Greyton on the slopes of the Riviersonderend mountains and that it may turn into another wine area if more winemakers and farm owners move there and plant some grapes? There are now 3 cellars growing and making wine in Greyton: Lismore, Andy Mitchell Wines & Swallow Hill. Certainly tasting some of Samantha O'Keefe's Lismore wines (launched in 2003) for the first time, point to it being a good terroir for complex layered white wines. We met her last week at a tasting of four of her wines at Kyoto Gardens Sushi restaurant in Kloof Nek Road and were very impressed

The restaurant

Lismore 2014 Syrah

It was a small intimate tasting

Pouring of the wine begins

Besides the Syrah, we tasted  the 2014 Barrel Fermented Sauvignon Blanc. She makes this in an oxidative style rather than reductive.  Tropical  on the nose, it is full of Pears and buttery flavours, very rich and weighty for a sauvignon, with crisp acidity and a long end. The 2013 Chardonnay does not go through malolactic fermentation and is 100% barrel fermented, it's leesy, creamy with apples and pears.  Winemakers Kevin Grant, Peter Finlayson and now Peter Allan Finlayson have assisted her in making this style. The 2014 Viognier impressed us the most. When it opened up there were notes of loquats, musk and white peaches. It has a lovely silky mouth feel with intense fruit flavours and good acid buzz.  It is in the Condrieu style and grows on very steep shale

Samantha O'Keefe introducing her wines.  She came to South Africa with her husband 16 years ago from California, fell in love with the country and stayed.  Both her children were born here. She decided to make wine. She acknowledges and is very grateful for the help she has had from many of the wine farmers in the Overberg. Lismore has 12 hectares of grapes which she farms on her own. She says that the wines are doing very well here and overseas

One of the dishes paired with the wines. Sadly we had to rush to another function, so only had time to sample these two. We are invited back to write about Kyoto Gardens new pairing menu for two in a few weeks time. This was a yellowtail sashimi

Tuna tartare. Both dishes were perfect for the white wines

RETURN TO MENU

© John & Lynne Ford, Adamastor & Bacchus

Subscribe to MENU