Beside
the events we are covering, we have been rather taken up this week by Lynne's
70th birthday celebrations. Despite having vowed after John's a couple of years
ago, that she was never doing this again, she did, but there was some help from
outside too. A dear friend baked a huge loaf and made a plate of humus. We ordered
a LOT of sushi from Dynasty, three chocolate cakes from Cassis (why they can't
make one for 24 people is a mystery) and a huge spinach and feta quiche from
Hartlief in the Gardens Centre. But cooking has been ongoing for a few weeks -
thank heavens for a freezer and then for the two days before our small party on
Sunday for family and very old
friends (some of whom are still substantially younger than Lynne). A great time
was had, we managed to squeeze everyone in, the weather behaved and remained
sunny and reasonably warm and she didn't collapse in a heap until Tuesday
Expectation and Delivery
A lot of information is sent to us about events, wines, restaurants and
accommodation by PR companies, asking us to publish their blurbs. If we are not invited to them, or sent
samples, we can't write about them; we have nothing to tell or show. Repeating is
not what we do, nor is it what you expect from us. It’s that simple. We will
never regurgitate press releases about wines we have not tasted, or places at
which we have not eaten, or stayed. We tell you first-hand and honestly about
what we have seen and tasted, as we only write about our experiences (which we
think you in turn might like to try). We pay for many of these - and we always
make it clear when we do. An invitation to a "free meal" invariably costs
us time, petrol and often overnight accommodation. We don’t like driving a long
way home after a dinner with wine, so it is never free. A recent “free” dinner
in Paarl cost us about R1000 in accommodation, transport etc. We are not paid
to publish any of the information we give you; we want our reports to be
authentic. We do accept invitations and, when we do, we will tell you if we are
sponsored; we will still be as objective as possible. Do check out our Events
Calendar and experience the listed events yourselves. We can't afford to get to
everything, but we try
So click on these headlines to see this week’s stories:
Bottling the vintage of the Vineyard Hotel’s own wine
This was a
very good year for grapes from the small vineyard at the Vineyard Hotel. The
three rows of Semillon and the five rows of Chardonnay produced 244 kilos of
grapes which have been turned into 168 litres of wine by this year's producer,
Simonsig. Klein Constantia, Meerlust Wine Estate, Simonsig Wine Estate, Warwick
Wine Estate and Waterford Wine Estate are the Vineyard Hotel’s five official
wine partners, and each takes a turn to craft the wines. The grapes were first harvested
in 2013 and this is the 5th year in which there have been enough grapes to
produce wine. We were invited to join in and help as we are custodians of one
of the vines which grow on the bank of the Liesbeek River
Simonsig's Annual Vintage Day Preview
It was a
complete coincidence that this followed The Vineyard's bottling day, enabling
us to visit Simonsig twice in two days. Once a year, Simonsig offers the public
a tasting of their vintage wines (held on Saturday, August 12th). We were
invited to the trade and media preview which was held the day before. The
tasting also included a master class of some of the winery's gems, to be
presented by Cellarmaster Johan Malan. How could we say no to such an offer?
Pruning day at the Vineyard
Having bottled this year's vintage on
Thursday this week, we headed back to the Vineyard Hotel on Saturday to help
prune the vines. This annual event means that the old wood which bore the fruit
this year has to be taken off the vine and pruned back to just two new buds at
its base. It is an expert job, so the winemakers and viticulturist involved
were there to assist. We had been taught previously how to do this and were allowed
to properly prune the vines but, this year, it was decided that the custodians
would prune the vines to the top of the second wire and the experts would take
over from there. We were a bit disappointed, but there have been some bad
mistakes made in the past which may have limited production, so we accept that it
may have been necessary
What’s on the Menu this week? Tarte à l’Oignon – Onion
tart from Alsace
Pastry:
110g Plain flour – 50g butter - 1 egg – salt – iced water
Rub
the butter into the flour with a pinch of salt, until it resembles large
breadcrumbs, stir in the egg and enough water to bind together into a firm dough.
Cover with cling film and refrigerate for 2 hours. Roll out thinly and cover
the base of a greased loose-bottomed 21 cm quiche/flan tin. rest in the fridge
while making the filling
800g
onions, peeled and finely sliced – 50g butter and 1 tablespoon of olive oil- a
grating or two of nutmeg – sea salt and pepper – 3 egg yolks – 125ml thick cream
- 30g gruyere cheese, grated
Turn
your Melt the butter with the oil in a large heavy bottomed pan. Add the onions
and a liberal pinch of salt. Gently cook the onions, covered, until they are
quite soft and golden brown, stirring occasionally to prevent them sticking –
do NOT fry them. They will caramelize in their own juices and be quite sweet
and begin to break up. This will take about half an hour. Taste and then season
with black pepper, nutmeg and more salt if necessary. Cool, then stir in the
egg yolks, cream and cheese. Pour into the pastry tin, place on a metal baking
sheet and bake in a hot oven at 200ºC for 30 minutes. Serve hot or cold with a
crisp green salad
Menu's Wine of the week. Simonsig Cape Winemakers Guild 2010
Heirloom Shiraz 
18th 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
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.
