A
yellow-billed duck takes off from a pond
The
“gurus” of food and wine marketing appear to believe that everything should be
crammed into the couple of months before Christmas. We are turning down invitations
because we have already accepted others for the same time and date; and we
sometimes have more than one event on the same day. Great fun, but huge
pressure when we have to write, edit and put it all together when we come home.
Thank goodness we love what we do! This week, we’ve capped the stories to those
you see below and have held some over till next week; we already have seven
stories in the pipeline for next week
See
all this week’s MENU stories at www.mainingredient.biz
or click on these links:
Another competition from WineMag.co.za. This
time with sponsors Prescient and some great local Chardonnays achieved very
high marks. There were 11 wines scoring 93 to 95 this year and we tasted them
at The Stack in the Gardens. During the disastrous ABC (Anything But
Chardonnay) years Chardonnay became popular worldwide and our winemakers,
embracing the challenge, planted it. Sadly many, who had not worked with this
noble grape before, gave it far too much new wood contact and put many South
Africans off drinking it; it was a tough ride for the industry. But times have
changed, much more experience has been gained and we now have much success with
different styles appearing. Sales are growing and the wine is being enjoyed. It
is also winning many accolades from top judges here and worldwide. We can and
do grow and make superb Chardonnay
For many years many of the Cape’s highly
awarded wines, especially Sauvignons Blanc, contained wine from this prolific
Durbanville farm owned by André and Ronelle Brink. They recently rebranded
themselves Groot Phesantekraal and released their own 2016/7 wines with new
branding,. We were invited to go and sample them over lunch in their restaurant
on the farm. (They were previously known as Phizante Kraal). You can do so
yourself this coming weekend at the Season of Sauvignon in Durbanville
Sadly, we had to miss the Veritas Wine Awards
this month as we were away with our Wine Club in Bot River, so we were very
keen to go and taste some of the top medal winners at this year’s open tasting
at the CTICC. KWV did not enter any of their really vintage wines this year, so
there was no rare wine to taste but there were many great current vintages and
some older ones from the farms that entered. It is always a very sociable
evening. There were 638 entries this year, and there were 71 Double Golds, 193
Gold, 654 Silver and 554 bronze medals. If you want to see this year's results
in full click on the link: http://veritas.co.za/awards_brochure/files/assets/basic-html/page-1.html#
We are always delighted if we are invited to
Caroline's wine reviews; her selection of wines is usually very much to our
taste. This year her White Wine Review was held again at the Table Bay hotel
and was a great event, with lots of newly released wines from familiar farms to
taste and new wines we have not heard of before as well as some older gems. The
many MCCs and other bubbles were arranged in a row in the first room; what a
lovely way to start a tasting. The wines of the evening that really impressed
us were the Richard Kershaw Elgin 2016 Clonal Selection Chardonnay, the
Anthonij Rupert Cape of Good Hope Caroline wine blend, a superb food wine,
Almenkerk Chardonnay, Cape Chamonix Chardonnay, Life from Stone Sauvignon Blanc
from Springfield and Nick van Aarde's White Lady Chardonnay. Obviously the
Chardonnays were really hitting the spot! We try but we cannot taste all the
wines
This year we were invited to this, one of our
favourite festivals, for just one day which was a pity, as we really wanted to
go for longer - there is so much to do at the festival, but we were told that
there was no accommodation available; it is very popular. We were transported
by minibus from the V&A Waterfront with an early start planned for 8am (it
is a 2½ hour plus drive). We had taken an Uber to get there as parking at the
V&A all day would cost rather a lot. We actually left an hour late because
we waited for late-comers, which compromised our limited time in Robertson. We
arrived back in town at 7.45 pm. And, because we were delayed waiting for
someone to collect something from us which they had left on the bus, we finally
arrived at home at 9h20. It was an interesting and fun but very, very long day
Asparagus
is in season; it is short, but a good one. We had some tonight, just lightly
steamed for a couple of minutes, dusted with parmesan cheese and a squeeze of
lemon. Or try melted butter and some fresh lemon zest. Lynne steams hers in the
microwave for just 2 minutes. Other ideas are to brush the asparagus with olive
oil and flaked salt and quickly cook them on the braai for a few minutes until
charred a little; they will be slightly smoky and delicious
Or
blanch the spears, drain well and cover with a rich thick cheese sauce to which
you have added 2 egg yolks, a teaspoon of mustard and a dash of Worcester
sauce. Cover with the sauce and brown under the grill for a few minutes. Arrange
some freshly blanched spears on top of a quiche near the end of baking, or put
them into a frittata. Or wrap each steamed spear in Parma ham and serve as a
canapé. Enjoy
This,
for us, is the top of the range as Chardonnays go. Full of limestone minerality
on the nose and palate, with hints of green limes as well and perfumed with
William pears, lemon drops and gentle incense wood. Full on the palate, with
apples, limes and some good chalky tannins; nicely crisp and crying out for
some delicate meat, seafood or fish dish with a rich sauce. Just released this
week and R417 a bottle. Very good value is the magnum at R545 (prices are from
the farm)
26th October 2017
© John & Lynne Ford, Adamastor & Bacchus 2017
Phones: +27 21 439 3169 / 083 229 1172 / 083 656 4169
Postal address: 60 Arthurs Rd, Sea Point 8005
If you like the photographs you see in our publications, please look at our Adamastor Photo website for our rate card and samples from our portfolio
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.
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