Fire
on Signal Hill, above our house. 10.04pm, Sunday, 27th January 2019
Another late publication. Sometimes, we are privileged to attend one of the most important wine events of the year; last weekend’s Hemel en Aarde Pinot Noir Celebration was one of them. So much was happening that we pressed the Nikon trigger about 1300 times in the two days, which is all very well, but it all has to be edited down to a usable number and that is what takes time. So we have five separate stories to tell about the event
It’s mostly about wine, of course, but there was also a lot of interesting food and some beautiful places to show you. JC and Carolyn Martin of Creation invited us as their guests and we thank them profusely. It was a wonderful event and we hope you’ll like our story and, perhaps, think about buying tickets for next year, or even visiting this beautiful valley and its wine farms at any time during the year. As always, enjoy the show…
Last week, we were invited to the launch of the new Wild Yeast Syrah in the Survivor range from Overhex winery in Worcester. It is always appreciated when a wine launch is held in a good restaurant and this time it was at Giorgio Nava's Carne in Upper Kloof Street. We knew we were in for a good event. The restaurant is in a 19th Century house with a small covered stoep. We were warmly welcomed...
Trevor Gray of Golden Cape tours invited us to join him on a Full Moon Special event, to be held right on top of the Bloemendal Hill in Durbanville, where they have use of a special viewing deck. He works in conjunction with Cape Town Wine Safaris. We would see the sun set over the city and then experience the full moon rising over the Hottentots Holland Mountains…
Once a year, just before harvest, many of the vineyards in the Hemel and Aarde valley get together and hold their Pinot Noir Celebration. This year, we were thrilled and delighted to be invited by Creation Wines to attend the Celebration. We booked accommodation in the area and arrived for registration…
We arrived back on Nidderdale Farm for a tasting of older vintage wines from the valley, presented by their winemakers. Guests Jan “Boland” Coetzee, Remington Norman and Roland Peens joined us for the tasting, which was accompanied by a two course meal cooked by Chef Craig Cormack of Goose Roasters. Craig is a very good chef and he had paired the food with the wines we would taste, some older Hemel and Aarde Chardonnays and Pinot Noirs. This was a very exciting tasting and lunch…
Saturday was Day Two of the Pinot Noir Celebration, and we were all directed to different farms for their showcases of International Pinot Noirs as well as tasting some of their own wines. We were invited by our sponsors, Creation, to their Pinot Poetry tasting…
All geared for the next tasting, which was titled "Taking Flight". We explored the new 2017 vintage from the three wards. The wines would be presented by Remington Norman, Jan “Boland” Coetzee and Roland Peens…
Day 2 of the Pinot Noir Celebration. Saturday Evening. We were all instructed to get back to Nidderdale at 6 in the evening. Many more people were arriving, because you could buy a ticket for just the evening for R795 which included a barrel tasting of the wines of the area with the winemakers, the Charity Auction and then the Open Fire dinner with four celebrity chefs…
This salad was inspired by two things: we bought recently: beautiful fresh apricots with a blush on them and fresh Burrata mozzarella. If you don’t know Burrata, it is a soft mozzarella into which they put cream as they fold it up into a nice neat ball. When you tear it apart the cream becomes part of your dish with the cheese. This mozzarella bears absolutely no relation to that commercial rendition sold in supermarkets that is used on pizzas. It is not easy to find, good deli’s and cheese shops have it. We buy ours from Puglia in Table View and Lynne did buy one at the Oranjezicht market at the Waterfront recently for R45
It has golden fruit on the nose with white peach, golden oak, some citrus and is very, very elegant. It has a lovely texture, clean citrus and more white peach on the palate, with white Bing cherry; long flavours with the perfume of peach remaining. Superb and priced at R265 from the farm
2nd February 2019
© John & Lynne Ford, Adamastor & Bacchus 2019
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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 our website and ancillary works are © John & Lynne Ford, Adamastor & Bacchus. Our restaurant reviews are often 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, pleaseclick here to send us a message and if you wish to be removed from our mailing list
