Wednesday, April 12, 2017

This week’s MENU. Breakfast at South Hill, Bubbles at Charles Fox, Tasting Buitenverwachting wine, Saxenburg's impressive vintage wines, Spaghetti Marinara, King of the Hill Chardonnay

One of the joys of Autumn is enjoying the spectacular sunsets
Our felicitations to you all for Easter and Passover
A fairly quiet week ahead with the holiday weekend to look forward to. We hope you will all enjoy your celebrations and not be affected by any of the madness we usually see on the roads. Be safe and enjoy the time spent with your families and friends
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Please read on... or click any of the following links, to look at a complete story. When you reach the end of a story, click on RETURN TO MENU to come back to MENU

Breakfast at South Hill     
We needed to have a good breakfast in Elgin on Sunday morning and Nicky Wallace had recommended South Hill for breakfast the next morning and she was so right, it was superb. Owner Kevin King was on the farm that morning. He joined us for breakfast and gave us a tasting of some of their wines. See more....
A morning with Bubbles at Charles Fox     
We popped into Charles Fox on Sunday morning and were treated to a tasting of their MCCs. This collection of classic Mèthode Champenois always impresses. The wines all rate 4½ stars in Platter...
An evening tasting Buitenverwachting wine     
Last Wednesday saw us visit Buitenverwachting in Constantia with our wine club. It is one of our favourite farms, producing superb wine. It has a very good restaurant run by chef Edgar Osojnik, a successful coffee & deli shop, a family of owls in the oaks and the new tasting room Read on....
Saxenburg shows off some of their impressive vintage wines     
Cellar master Nico van der Merwe joined Saxenburg in 1990, just a year after the Swiss Bührer family bought the estate. Vines were first planted by the founder Joachim Sax in 1701. Winemaker Edwin Grace took over from Nico recently and is now the Cellar master. Nico made wines to last and this was a chance to taste quite a few of the older vintages with members of the family and Edwin, followed by lunch at the Cattle Baron restaurant on the farm....
This is an easy store cupboard and freezer supper. We keep a frozen seafood mix in our freezer for dishes like this. Will serve 3 to 4 people. Add a little more spaghetti if you like.
1 small onion, finely chopped - 1 t olive oil - 1 clove of garlic, crushed - 50 ml dry white wine - 350 ml tomato passata - 400 g defrosted frozen seafood mix - 200ml fish stock - 1 t fresh thyme leaves - 1/2 t oregano, chopped fine - salt and freshly ground black pepper - 200g spaghetti - garnish: 2 t chopped parsley.
Put a pot of well salted water on to boil. Fry the onion gently in the oil in a large deep saucepan and, when softened, add the garlic and fry for a minute. Put in the white wine and reduce it down to half. Add the tomato passata and the fish stock and the herbs. Simmer the sauce gently for 5 to 10 minutes to thicken and then taste and add seasoning. Leave to simmer while you cook the spaghetti. When the water comes to the boil, add the spaghetti. Cook for 8 minutes, until just before it has finished cooking. While the spaghetti is cooking, add the marinara mix to the sauce and let it cook through. When the spaghetti is ready, using tongs, drain it and add it to the sauce; stir and cook together for 2 to 3 minutes to allow the sauce to coat the spaghetti and finish cooking it. Serve sprinkled with the parsley
Wine of the Week. King of the Hill Chardonnay from South Hill     
The King of the Hill is a single barrel 2015 Chardonnay made for Kevin by winemaker Matthew van Heerden (previously of Uva Mira, now at Grande Provence). It is made from best terroir Elgin grapes
Vanilla and jasmine nose with cooked apple. Clean, zingy citrus flavours followed by apricot and more apple; it has a silky texture, with the wood showing full on the end with Seville marmalade. It can take time. Definitely a food wine, it matched the Seafood marinara so well








12th April 2017
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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. Our restaurant reviews are usually unsolicited. We prefer to pay for our meals and not be paid in any way by anyone. Whether we are invited or go independently, we don’t feel bad if we say we didn’t like it. Honesty is indeed our best policy. While every effort is made to avoid mistakes, we are human and they do creep in occasionally, for which we apologise. This electronic journal has been sent to you because you have personally subscribed to it or because someone you know has asked us to send it to you or forwarded it to you themselves. Addresses given to us will not be divulged to any person or organisation. We collect them only for our own promotional purposes. If you wish to be added to our mailing list, please click here to send us a message and if you wish to be removed from our mailing list, please click here to send us a message.


© John & Lynne Ford, Adamastor & Bacchus 2017

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