This Week’s MENU. Caroline's Red Wine Review 2018; Muratie Flavours of Winter Festival; A nostalgic visit to La Cuccina; Classic Caesar Salad; Newton Johnson Elgin Pinot Noir

A once in a Century event, Blood Moon. Lunar eclipse, Sea Point, Cape Town 22h27 27th July 2018. From our deck

We hear, quite frequently, that South Africa’s best wines are our whites – and we certainly make some stunners. But we have tasted some stunning red wines this week, first at Caroline’s Red Wine Review, then at Muratie and finally at a private tasting. One of the wines from the latter has always been a favourite and it is our Wine of the Week. We are so pleased that a few bottles of it still rest in our cellar. And then, tomorrow, we will be tasting top Pinotages as a prelude to the 2018 ABSA Top 10 Awards; a varietal which is not everyone’s favourite, but is going through a revolution in style and may change a few ideas. More about that, and a few other things next week…

Caroline's Red Wine Review 2018 at the Table Bay Hotel    

To be able to choose your favourite top red wines and put them on show for customers, wine buffs, trade and media to taste must be so satisfying. Caroline Rillema does this once a year and the tasting was held last Thursday at the Table Bay Hotel. We love these tastings because you know that the calibre of the wines is going to be high. The prices are too, but at least these wines are deservedly making money. Prices ranged from R167 to the lofty R1724 a bottle. Some are older vintages, some are new releases….

2018 Muratie Flavours of Winter Festival

We were invited to last Saturday's Muratie's Flavours of Winter Wine Festival in Stellenbosch. It was a good chilly, wintry day on which to go to the farm and enjoy some Ports and other wines made from Port varietals. The sun did break through and we even got to taste some older vintages which Rijk Melck brought out of his vinoteque. And we enjoyed a well made hamburger from the kitchen for lunch

In the beginning. A nostalgic visit to La Cuccina

We thought we had to deliver things to Kenilworth and, at the last minute, discovered that Hout Bay was where we needed to be. We phoned our good friends there and said, "we are going to be there at lunch time, can you join us for a quick bite" and they suggested La Cuccina. We hadn't been here since 2002. That visit made history for us and this one brought back floods of memories

What’s on the MENU this week. The Classic Caesar Salad

If, like us, you have been watching Rick Stein on TV as he tastes and loves Mexican food, you will have seen the episode where he visited the hotel in Tijuana where Caesar Salad is supposed to have been invented by Italian American chef, Cesare Cardini. It looked so simple, so Lynne decided to investigate…

MENU’S Wine of the Week. Newton Johnson Elgin Pinot Noir 2011

After a week of tasting exceptional reds, this one charmed us. Yes, we are Pinot Noir fans. We tasted it at our wine club this week, where the theme was West Coast vs East Coast. It is a wine that we love and have bought often and have cellared. The Newton Johnson Pinots Noir win awards and regularly score 5, 4.5 and 4 stars in every Platter Wine Guide. They are deservedly popular

2nd August 2018

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© John & Lynne Ford, Adamastor & Bacchus 2018

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Phones: +27 21 439 3169 / 083 229 1172 / 083 656 4169

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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