Winter rain brings green to the landscape
After a fairly slow period in the middle of winter, the pace
of events is accelerating and we are having to juggle the pages of the diary to
fit in the things we want to do, in addition to the invitations we receive. This
week we tell the story of several wine events in different environments, all of
them enjoyable and interesting in their different ways
An invitation this week to attend a tasting
of Vriesenhof wines at Auslese, with the wines paired with food prepared in
Chef Harald Bresselschmidt's kitchen sounded really exciting. He is rather good at this
We had an invitation from Rhebokskloof to
join them for a tasting of their new releases, followed by dinner. The event
was an opportunity to thank their loyal customers, who are the highest
purchasing members of their Loyalty Club
We don't drive home in the dark after events like this, so
we booked an AirBnB room in Paarl on what must have been one of the coldest
nights of the year! Cellar tasting and dinner....
We have not visited Bellevue wine farm in
Bottelary for a while. John does take wine tours there to taste the superb
Pinotages; it was where the original commercial plantings of Professor A. I.
Perold's Pinotage were made in the early 1950s. The first Pinotage, made and
bottled by P K Morkel was grown on Bellevue. Pinotage is a cross of Cinsaut and
Pinot Noir and is a truly South African grape. Dirkie Morkel saw our write up
of Kaapzicht and invited us to come to the farm to taste some wine. So, as we
were in the area after our dinner at Rhebokskloof, we made a date for 11 am the next day...
These annual awards of places in the coveted
Sommeliers Wine list are now in their 3rd year. The ceremony, attended by
representatives of many wine farms and the media, were held in the beautiful
Hofmeyr Hall in Stellenbosch. The sommeliers, who chose the wines, do not categorise wines by cultivar
on the list, rather grouping them into flavour and economical categories....
When we are invited to something at Muratie,
we go. They are authentic; they really know how to arrange a good day of
tasting wine and great food, very good company and feeling relaxed. And there
is some good music. They want you to have a great time and you do. This time it
was their winter festival which incorporated a mini Port festival....
This once popular grape, used in a blend in many older South African wines, is
now being credited with their longevity. On its own, it is getting a lot of
attention as old vineyards are being found and exploited at last by many of the
younger winemakers who are producing such interesting wines. So the grape is
now rather fashionable
Bellevue has using it in blends for a long time, but has
been making it as a single varietal wine for just a couple of years. It is
dusty on the nose, but shows lovely raspberry and strawberry flavours and is
long and soft, not harsh and tannic as some we have experienced. We think this
wine has a potential to age too. R70 a bottle on the farm is great value. We
bought a case
This is an Indonesian dish, often seen as part of a Rijsttafel.
But it is easy to make and tastes delicious. It uses pork, which is cheaper
than most other meats at the moment. I don't know if you can use beef, but I
don't see why not
2 onions, finely
chopped -3 t coconut oil or peanut oil - 600g lean pork (steak, chops or leg
meat) - 1 t ground coriander - 1 t ground cumin - 1/2 t chilli, fresh or
powdered - 1 t fresh grated ginger - 2 cloves of garlic, chopped - 2 t tamarind
paste - 3/400 ml chicken stock - 5 T Ketjap Manis (sweetened soy sauce from
Indonesia) - 1 t rice wine vinegar - Salt & pepper
Finely chop the onions. Cut the meat into bite sized pieces.
In a casserole with a lid, fry the onions in the oil. Add the meat and brown on
all sides. Add the spices and the tamarind, ginger and garlic. Stir in the stock,
Ketjap Manis, and vinegar
Cover with enough stock to cover the meat and bring to the
boil. Turn down and simmer for 2 to 3 hours on a low heat. Do check and give it
a stir regularly, the sauce will thicken considerably to a nice dark syrupy
consistency. Taste, and season with salt and pepper. Serve on simple boiled
rice, with a salad, and sprinkle with roasted peanuts and coconut flakes
2nd August 2017
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2nd August 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
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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.
