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
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…
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…
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….
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…
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
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
© John & Lynne Ford, Adamastor & Bacchus 2018
PS If a word or name is in bold type and underlined, click on it for more information
Phones: +27 21 439 3169 / 083 229 1172 / 083 656 4169
Postal address: 60 Arthurs Rd, Sea Point 8005
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
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