After
a lovely, relaxing long weekend, we’re back with our noses to the grindstone.
We visited one of our favourite places in all the world, more about which below.
We’ll tell you more about it next week, along with stories about a black tie
awards affair, SA’s best wine auction, a biodynamic wine farm and more, so read
this week’s stories and come back next week...
- The Tonnellerie Saint Martin Pinot Noir Report 2017
- Six new Signature Wines Launched by Woolworths
- Heritage Weekend in the Hemel en Aarde Valley. Escape to Heaven!
- MENU's Wine of the Week. Ataraxia Serenity 2015
- On the MENU this week: Asparagus Soup
The Tonnellerie Saint Martin Pinot Noir Report 2017
What does the future of Pinot Noir in
South Africa look like? Very bright, given the results of this competition. This
difficult grape to grow is the fragile diva of the wine world; she refuses to
be tamed and keeps changing her clothes. If correctly handled she can be
superb. The judges in this competition termed it "The most romantic grape".
We do have to take into account that Pinot generally needs a cooler climate;
she is thirsty and we have a drought. But we were so impressed when we tasted
the top wines in this competition this week. More here....
Six new Signature Wines Launched by Woolworths
We have some good news. We were
invited to join renowned Cape Wine Master and wine buyer for Woolworths Allan
Mullins and the rest of the team at the launch of the six all new Signature wines
- selected and blended by Allan in conjunction with six of our best wine
makers/wine farms. They are all superb and will be available in Woolworths in
mid October. The whites will be R129.99 and the reds R159.99. We were very
impressed and will be in the long line on the day they are released. Read on....
Heritage Weekend in the Hemel en Aarde Valley. Escape to
Heaven!
We took off four days last weekend. It was Heritage Day on Sunday and
thence a long weekend, so we escaped to the Hemel and Aarde valley with good
friends to relax, eat good food, try out some fine wineries and just kuier. Oh, and catch up on some sleep. Kind
friends who are travelling abroad had lent us their cottage. The weather was
not good, it was mostly bitterly cold with a little sunshine on Sunday; we
burnt a lot of wood on the open fireplace but came home very ready to get back
into the mad media season. See it all...
MENU's Wine of the Week. Ataraxia Serenity 2015
Kevin
Grant at Ataraxia makes this interesting red blend which he calls Serenity. We
have been fans for many years and bought many bottles, some still in our
cellar. But until now Kevin kept us all guessing as to what was in the blend....
On the MENU this week: Asparagus Soup
Winter seems to be lingering this year, so soup is
not off our menu yet. When we have fresh asparagus, Lynne snaps off the harder
stalks and saves them in a box in our freezer. When we have enough, she makes
this soup. It is easy and quick and delicious. If you want to make this much
richer, cook it in milk rather than stock and add a stock cube
1 large onion, finely chopped - 1 stick
of celery, finely chopped – 1 T butter - 1 T olive oil - 1 T flour or corn
flour - 1.5 to 2 cups asparagus stalks, defrosted - 1 litre of vegetable or
chicken stock - salt and freshly ground pepper - a dash or two of cream - Flat parsley
or chervil to decorate
Fry the onion and celery in the butter and oil
till soft and transparent, do not brown. Add the garlic for the last minute. Add
the flour and stir well to incorporate it. Then slowly add the stock and stir
well. Then finally, add the asparagus stalks. Simmer for 10 minutes, covered. Allow
to cool slightly then liquidise or blend with a stick blender till smooth and
creamy. Taste and adjust the seasoning. Sometimes the stalks are a bit woody, so you need to put the soup through a sieve. Serve hot with a swirl of cream in
each bowl and top with a sprig of flat parsley or chervil. Lovely with a good
chilled Sauvignon Blanc
22nd September 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.
