We decided to go to the Prawn
Festival last Saturday which was held at the Kenilworth Race Course. It turned
out to be a market with food and only one venue had prawns. You bought your
voucher for R99 per person ....
and stood in the longest
queue imaginable. John went to find a table and some cold beers and Lynne
stood, and stood and stood in the slowly moving queue for nearly an hour
The prawns were being braaied
on fires in the tent at the back and then served by very few staff to the huge crowd of
people. We arrived at about midday. Lynne saw the ticket numbers of the people
in front of her and they were 1225 - we reckon they served over 3,000 people
that day, just very slowly...
John was not delighted to
discover that AB InBev have the only beer concession
NOT his favourite beers of
choice, but the only port in a (hot) storm
Castle lager, with the
familiar persistent, astringent, bitter finish. First taste of it in several
years and the last for a few more
What you got for the R99 was
a generous portion (23 each in fact) of prawns in various states of undress and
doneness in a prego sauce, served on yellow rice with slap chips. So it was
hands to the shells and one became very messy. We saw many people taking their
prawns home. Elsewhere you could buy calamari and a few other ready prepared
foods
The races take place all
afternoon
and we watched the last race
Nice action shot! The number was well chosen. He came in 6th
Lynne looking for John! Who
was taking these photos
To get to the parking, you
have to cross the fairway. But not when the horses are out on the track
Next, we wanted to sit
somewhere cool and enjoy some good wine,
so we headed for chic Steenberg as,
later, we had an appointment at the Norval Foundation gallery next door
We couldn't find any seats on
the terrace, so we sat at the bar and had a really good tasting of some of the
wines. We began with the excellent 1682 Steenberg Blanc de Blanc MCC with
brioche on the nose, crisp, clean lean limes and lemons on the palate, and perfect
to cool down with on a hot summers day
Then the Black Swan 2018 Sauvignon
Blanc, grown on the hills above the farm. Fynbos on the nose herbal, figs,
green pepper as one would expect from a Constantia Sauvignon Blanc, a good
mouthfeel with some lees contact fullness, fresh lemon. gooseberry and some
grapefruit bitterness
The 2017 Semillon has a rich, grey grape nose with some
seaweed and a hint of wood. Round palate full, some initial honey sweetness
then crisp long flavours of citrus pear and grapefruit
The iconic 2017 Magna
Carta is a Bordeaux blend of Sauvignon Blanc 60% and Semillon 40% and is perfumed
with lemongrass, full of green pepper pyrazines and seaweed. Full crisp layers
of fruit, orange lemon, melon, lime. A blend of the two previous wines but
better. Lively and long and a food wine
Our enthusiastic hostess,
Zelda pouring the Steenberg MCC
That hanging 'bunch' of red
and white glass grapes over the bar makes a wonderful feature
Girls, it’s a little rude and
not a little selfish to occupy chairs with your handbags. People were desperate
to sit down and taste
Our favourite wine of the
tasting and so good it is our Wine of the Week, the Steenberg Nebbiolo. It’s a
wine with wildness from a grape that gives so much. Wild strawberries, rhubarb,
mulberries on the nose with some perfume and incense wood. Soft sweet cherry
berry on the palate, so deep and long with delicious fruit flavours, good fruit
acid balance and gentle chalky tannins on the end. A stupendous food wine,
especially with Italian or Mediterranean food.
WOW! The Steenberg Merlot is
back! This used to be Lynne’s favourite South African Merlot way back, but it was
overtaken by some tight tannins, mint and green flavours in the intervening
years, a style many like, but not preferred by us. But this vintage is superb.
So elegant and beautiful with a sophisticated nose, more French in style than
SA. Soft, velvety, sweet cherry berry fruit with a good zing from plums and
some richness from dark chocolate, with very soft tannins. Already winning
awards
We had a good chat to our
neighbours and this member of staff who was explaining the wines for us. We
also tasted the Catharina 2016 Merlot, Shiraz, Petit Verdot. Incense wood
elegance a classic French nose with hints of violets. Soft sweet cassis and
blackberry fruit, a little spice and long flavours, chalky tannins and warm
alcohol
and then it was nearly 5.30
and we went next door to the Norval Foundation
where we had booked to join a tour
of the new exhibitions, guided by curator Karel Nel
He explained that we would take a tour with him of the David Goldblatt photographic exhibition On the Mines,
then the Nudes in the Sanlam collection and a brief spell in the installation
Labour of Many by Ibrahim Mahama
He also gave us a briefing on
the Atrium Commission which is by courtesy of the Claire & Edoardo Villa
Will Trust who give One million Rand to support an artist. This is currently
the installation behind him by Serge Alain Nitegeka’s entitled Structural
Response III .To quote the Norval: "The theme of disrupted lives,
disrupted work and disrupted spaces is, through his intervention within the
Atrium, intended to enable a discussion about displacement. His use of simple
building materials such as pre-cut timber, references the aesthetics of
temporary structures that forced migrants often construct." When they
dismantle the installation, the timber will be donated to refugees and homeless
to use it in building their homes and his next project will be to document that
work
The Sanlam Collection Nudes
exhibition had some surprises
Some interesting bronzes and
other nude sculptures
Each of these surrealistic drawings was the work of three artists; one did the top, one the middle and the third the bottom
We were very surprised to see
this Pierneef nude, so different from his usual style of paintings
Very Art
Deco in influence and done in the 1930's
And a new sculpture in the
garden by Yinka Shonibare CBE, Wind Sculpture SG (III), 2018, which is a
reference to African fabrics
Karel Nel was so informative
about the works and it really does enhance one's experience of the gallery to
have explanations of the artists' work, their influences, their eras and some of
the meanings
You do need to visit and see
the exhibits for yourself. The Goldblatt On the Mines exhibition is very, very
powerful
They also have the book for sale in the shop with the words written
by his friend Nadine Gordimer
Hearing about the background
to this body of work by the photographer, recently deceased. Karel Nel worked
with David Goldblatt on this exhibition until just few days before his death in
2018. "Goldblatt is revealed as the great chronicler and documenter of
South Africa: the quiet observer of how the country, its peoples, its
institutions and landscape have been inscribed by politics and power"
Standing inside the
monumental installation Labour of Many
by Ibrahim Mahama. "Mahama’s rigorous, socially engaged and process based
practice, brings to the fore Africa’s role in the global exchange of
commodities while considering the movement of its people and how labour is
valued." It is quite moving, you can see the humble cocoa sacks he
collected and their many uses and reuses over the years are visible. They have
been painstakingly sewn together. You get a sense of the labour that has
carried these and the places they have been and the people who were involved in
the different trades that used and carried them. Our large group was dwarfed in
this marvellous gallery space
After the hour long tour, we
were offered a glass of one of the Skotnes wines, which are sold in the shop and the restaurant, and had a
chance to chat to other visitors and to Karel Nel
before heading home after a
rather long day
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