.: October 2018

Wednesday, October 31, 2018

Launch of Roodeberg Rosé at Chart Farm

On a lovely summery day, we journeyed to the restaurant at Chart Farm in Wynberg for tea in the garden and the launch of KWV's new Roodeberg Rosé wine

Lots of beautiful roses from the farm surround a bowl of chilled bottles of Roodeberg Rosé

We sat under umbrellas and enjoyed the wine. It is made from Shiraz and Cabernet with a little Cinsault and Mourvedre added. It is made from free run juice and has brief skin contact, but not very much, as they need to keep the colour light pink. It is refreshing and is full of strawberry, raspberry and litchi notes on the nose and palate, with good fruit acidity

Lovely to just quaff, but a good food wine as well, especially for summer dishes. The alcohol is a low 12.5% and it retails for R85 a bottle. It was first made in 2014 when it was launched into the international market, where they sell 90% of the 100 000 litres they produce. Now, they are introducing it into the local market to grow the volumes. More and more of us, men and women, are enthusiastic about drinking good dry rosé wines

PRO Gudrun Clark dressed in the lovely rose colour

KWV Roodeberg Brand Manager Carli Jordaan told us about the wine

Next year, Roodeberg will celebrate its 70th birthday and they are planning celebrations

"This wine" she said "is a summer patio sharing wine"

Louwritz Louw of KWV is the wine maker

Nicely frosted bottle and a beautiful colour; we think that it will be very popular

Then it was time for tea and we could help ourselves to this amazing selection of cakes, quiches, tiny éclairs, scones, vol au vents, pasteis de nata, fruit kebabs and smoked salmon rolls. The quality of everything was superb. Well done Sandra Engelen, owner of the restaurant at Chart Farm, and her friendly staff. It was very hard to resist and not eat too much. The cakes, especially, were light as a feather and the quiches with their cheese pastry were really moreish

A savoury selection for those of us who do not have a very sweet tooth. Vol au vents at the top, smoked salmon rolls in the middle and egg mayonnaise rolls on the bottom layer. All went very well with the Rosé. We were allowed to pick a few of the beautiful roses to take home

Those fruit kebabs. Make time for a return visit to the Chart Farm restaurant now that summer is here. And thank you Roodeberg for a well matched and managed function

MENU’s Wine of the Week. KWV Roodeberg 2018 Rosé

It is made from Shiraz and Cabernet with a little Cinsault and Mourvedre added. It is made from free run juice and has brief skin contact, but not very much, as they need to keep the colour light pink. It is refreshing and is full of strawberry, raspberry and litchi notes on the nose and palate, with good fruit acidity

Lovely to just quaff, but a good food wine as well, especially for summer dishes. The alcohol is a low 12.5% and it retails for R85 a bottle. It was first made in 2014 and was launched into the international market where they sell 90% of the 100 000 litres they produce. Now they are introducing it into the local market to grow the volumes. More and more of us, men and women, are enthusiastic about drinking good dry rosé wines. Available in supermarkets and wine outlets

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Thursday, October 25, 2018

This Week’s MENU. Prescient Chardonnay Report, Malanot wines at Table Seven, Stellenbosch Cabernet, 95 at Parks lunch, Lemon Chicken in Paprika, Thelema Cabernet

Weltevrede vineyards and the Breede River as it flows through Bonnievale

Summer has hit us with a bang. Not much more than a week ago, we were still lighting a fire in the living room’s little cast iron stove. Now we are sweltering in 36º heat and the weather gurus tell us that we ain’t seen nuthin’ yet. We will be visiting Robertson on Sunday through Tuesday to visit Wine on the River and a few farms and we’ve been told to expect 44ºC there. In the Cape, every year, with the heat comes fire and this week has seen a devastating wildfire at Vermaaklikheid in the Southern Cape, a fire in Khayelitsha which made several thousand people homeless and a catastrophic wine warehouse fire. In the latter, Nativo Wines lost all their stock, Kleine Zalze and Stellenbosch Vineyards suffered significant losses and Spier is waiting for an assessment of damage to some of their valuable collection of older wines. We were invited to a tasting of the Spier vintage wines which has now been postponed; a disappointment, but nothing compared to the loss experienced by many others. If you'd like to help the people who lost their homes in Khayelitsha, money donations can be made to the Mayoral Relief Fund as follows: Nedbank Account: 1158667043 Branch code: 198765 Ref: A009

On a much happier note, the finalists for this year’s Diners Club Winemaker of the Year Awards have been announced. The finalists are Arco Laarman (Laarman Cellar Services at Avondale Wines), Ronell Wiid (Bartinney Private Cellar), Clayton Reabow (Môreson), Andries Burger (Paul Cluver Estate), Carl van der Merwe (DeMorgenzon) and Murray Barlow (Rustenberg Wines). The Young Winemaker of the Year finalists are Bobby Wallace (Iona Vineyards), Juandré Bruwer (Diemersdal Estate), Philip Viljoen (Bon Courage Estate), Rudger van Wyk (Stark-Condé Wines) and Philip Theron (Glen Carlou). The winners will be announced at a gala dinner at La Residence in Franschhoek on November 24th

Prescient Chardonnay Report

This year, the WineMag.co.za Prescient Chardonnay Awards presentation was held at the new Norval Art Gallery on Steenberg wine estate in Constantia. It was our first visit and we were very impressed and intend to visit again to see more of the gallery and eat in the restaurant which we hear is good. We gathered downstairs on the terrace with a glass of Steenberg MCC…

Malanot wines with lunch at Table Seven, Salt River

Cape Wine Master Marius Malan makes his Malanot Wines on Summerhill estate in Stellenbosch from bought in grapes (he also makes their wine). We were given an opportunity to meet him and taste his wines this week at a very good venue in Salt River. Table Seven is not a conventional restaurant…

Stellenbosch Cabernet - 2017 Vintage Preview at Lanzerac

An interesting invitation to this event, one we were keen to attend. The chance to taste and possibly future purchase En Primeur 2017 vintage Cabernet Sauvignons from 32 of the best producers in Stellenbosch. They group themselves under the title Stellenbosch Cabernet Collective. Wine Cellar was involved and you could place your orders with them. This is a varietal that Stellenbosch excels at and they produce wines that echo Bordeaux in style and weight even though our climates and terroir could not be more different….

Lunch at 95 at Parks, Wynberg

A memorable lunch at 95 at Parks restaurant this week brought back lots of memories. It was where we had our first official date, on Lynne’s birthday 19 years ago. And, sadly, this was the first time we had been back. It was then under the expert hand of Michael Olivier. Now, the restaurant is ably run by Giorgio Nava who also has 95 Keerom, 95 at Morgenster and Carne. It has an Italian theme and Lynne had spotted a voucher on Hyperli for their current special, which prompted our long delayed visit. We love proper Italian food (and we don't mean pasta and pizza) and the menu had Lynne’s favourite dish, Fegato (liver), which the Italians do so well. The house has a large vegetable garden and the produce is used in the dishes. Inside, some large murals from the past…

On the MENU this week. Lemon Chicken in Paprika with Haricot beans

A simple and very aromatic supper dish for two. This would be good with crusty rolls or ciabatta bread to soak up the juices. And delicious served with a good Chenin Blanc. We enjoyed it with the Ormonde Chip off the Old Block Chenin from Darling

MENU’s Wine of the Week. Thelema 2015 Cabernet Sauvignon

Tasted at the Cabernet Sauvignon Collective held at Lanzerac this week, we were so impressed with this wine. We were invited to a master class of some older wines paired with their current iterations. Put this wine into context: we tasted it with seven other wines, all of which were very noteworthy. The winemaker, Rudi Schultz, took us through the tasting…

25th October 2018

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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

Winemag Prescient Chardonnay Report 2018 Awards at the Norval Foundation Art Museum, Steenberg Estate

This year the Winemag.co.za Prescient Chardonnay Awards presentation was held at the new Norval Foundation Art Museum on Steenberg estate in Constantia. It was our first visit and we were very impressed and intend to visit again to see more of the gallery and eat in the restaurant, which we hear is good

We gathered downstairs on the terrace with a glass of Steenberg MCC

Johan and Sophie Kruger of Kruger Family Wines

JC and Carolyn Martin from Creation

Then we moved upstairs into one of the gallery spaces where the awards presentation took place

Jax Lahoud from WineMag.co.za was our MC for the event and she spoke about the changes (for the better) at WineMag

WineMag Editor Christian Eedes. The judges were Christian, Roland Peens and James Petersen

Craig Mockford of Prescient told us that this is the 8th year in which they have sponsored this important wine event. This year, there were 117 entries from 81 producers and these were tasted blind (labels out of sight) by the judges, scoring done according to the 100-point quality scale. The competition is open to all producers who are prepared to pay an entry fee and, while the line-up was previously capped at 60 wines, it no longer is

Chardonnay does respond well to all wine making techniques

The top scoring wines do bunch, but now it is time to identify the best Chardonnay vineyards

A slide with interesting information. Which areas were to the fore? Out of the top 24 wines (six rating 92, 13 rating 93 and five rating 94), 10 were from Stellenbosch, six were from Elgin, three were from the greater Hemel-en-Aarde area, two from Franschhoek, one from Constantia, one from Darling and one a multi-regional blend

This year’s results

The consistent farms and their wines

and those that get special mention

There were 30 wines that scored 90 points, showing how Chardonnay growers and winemakers are producing better and better wines To see the results in detail and read Christian's 2018 Chardonnay Report go to https://winemag.co.za/the-prescient-chardonnay-report-2018/ Christian also told us that they included and tasted blind two French ringers: both scored 93 points - the Henri Boillot Meursault 2016 and the Olivier Leflaive Puligny-Montrachet 2015

These two slides show the 90 point wines

These are the 91 pointers

The 13 wines pictured here scored 93 points. We were able to taste many of these and the 94 point scorers. The quality of these wines is superb and we know that the one point separation of these is minute and could change with another team of judges or on another day

And five deservedly got the top score of 94. The Paul Cluver Seven Flags 2017 was the overall top performer and has hints of smoky bacon on the wood influenced nose, crisp and long citrus flavours, lots of depth and complexity on this wine that deservedly wins many awards. The Le Riche 2017 has notes of Burgundy on the nose; so special, elegant and beautiful on the palate with crisp limes, citrus and light chalk with complex layers of flavour. The La Bri 2017 by Irene Waller has shy fruit on the nose; it hints at what's to come, it holds back then gently releases its fruit in layers, again crisp, with soft chalk, supported by almost invisible wood; so, so good. Morné Frey at Delaire Graff has produced a rich and classic unrestrained Chardonnay, his Terrace Block Reserve. Wood is present but not overwhelming, the wine is well balanced and made to last. Chris Williams has also produced a cracker with his Meerlust 2017. It has floral notes and rich golden fruit on the nose; on the palate citrus and quince, a nod or two to tropical fruit as well, with deep and satisfying flavours and texture

Wow another chef doing a rillette as a canapé. These were big and delicious to eat

Tiny bites of a tuna tartare with sesame

Chicken roulade topped with crisp leaves

and for our vegans, some asparagus

Small arancini balls

Battered prawns in a cone

More tuna tartare

Another vegetarian dish, a silky and light mousse, savoury not sweet, of butternut purée
If these canapés are an indication of the food at the restaurant, we cannot wait to try it

Birds taking flight in the gardens

The building was designed by renowned architect Derek Henstra
We loved this layered wood effect in the front reception desk

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Lunch at 95 at Parks, Wynberg

A memorable lunch at 95 at Parks restaurant this week brought back lots of memories. It was where we had our first official date, on Lynne’s birthday 19 years ago. And, sadly, this was the first time we had been back. It was then under the expert hand of Michael Olivier. Now, the restaurant is ably run by Giorgio Nava who also has 95 Keerom, 95 at Morgenster and Carne. It has an Italian theme and Lynne had spotted a voucher on Hyperli for their current special, which prompted our long delayed visit. We love proper Italian food (and we don't mean pasta and pizza) and the menu had Lynne’s favourite dish, Fegato (liver), which the Italians do so well. The house has a really impressive vegetable garden and the produce is used in the dishes

Inside, some impressive murals from the past. There is wood panelling, astro turf grass on the walls

The wood panelling and floral curtains do add a certain 'park' feel

We were impressed with the free bread offering, the good, fresh and slightly bitter green olive oil and balsamic vinegar and very good homemade tangy and crisp olives. You get brioche, good crisp ciabatta slices, superb parmesan crisps and some crunchy sesame sticks

We knew we were going to have meat for our main courses, so we stayed local and ordered one of our favourite Constantia wines, Buitenverwachting’s 2016 Meifort, a red blend of Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc and Merlot. Soft and full of dark fruit and elegance. We used to sell a lot of this wine at Main Ingredient. The Meifort 2014 won the Riedel Trophy for the best Bordeaux style red blend in the 2017 Old Mutual Trophy competition and it was awarded 4½ stars in Platter; wine does not have to cost the earth to be excellent

A Campari mural in another section of the restaurant

The special menu. The deal was two courses (starter and main, or starter and dessert) for two R299. Incredible value. Sadly, the offer runs out at the end of October. But go anyway, the food is good

Lynne’s starter of salmon tartare on a bed of avocado with capers, onions, parsley, sprouts and extra virgin olive oil . It needed a bit of seasoning, but was fresh and well made. Served with brioche, lemon and a dressed salad of rocket and spinach leaves. She knows that raw onion is a component on most tartares, but is not a fan and could do without it. It adds astringency and stays on the palate too long and can overwhelm such a delicate fish

John said the carpaccio of beef was one of the best he has had

topped with a well dressed salad of spinach and peppery rocket with grated parmesan

Nice to see sound baffles attached to the ceiling. It means that the ambient noise is low

and you can hear yourself speak. So many restaurants need these

There is also jazz background music, soft enough not to be too intrusive

John ordered the 300g sirloin steak. Giorgio Nava is famous for his meat and so this was a no brainer for steak loving John. It is a generous portion and the quality and flavour were much appreciated. John says it had the right char on the outside, was tender and juicy and perfectly pink inside. The dishes came with one free 'side' so we ordered another each. He had the Swiss chard spinach and matchstick potatoes. They were not crisp as requested, but had great flavour

Lynne’s Fegato (liver) was extremely well cooked. She asked for medium rare and got it. Soft as butter and nicely coated in a seasoned flour, it had great flavour too. It came with caramelised balsamic onions and a good sauce. Not sure if it was calf's or lamb's liver, but a joy to eat and a large portion. The Swiss chard was just OK, but we are spoiled by growing our own baby spinach. We asked who the chef was; his name is Jonas (our waitress did not know his surname) and is from Rwanda. He has worked for Chef Giorgio for over 10 years

Lynne’s side of creamy mashed potato. Somehow an essential accompaniment to liver,

especially if the sauce is good, and it was

About to begin our main courses. There were temptations on the dessert menu but, sadly, we were too full. The wine, side dishes and service cost us R270 extra, which we were very happy to pay