Sunday, March 07, 2021

First MENU of 2021 - Special wines, Greek inspired dinner

The nearly tame hadeda ibis who has been a frequent visitor to our garden

MENU has, until about a year ago been a weekly publication. But these are, as we all know, very different times and we expect them to remain like this for the foreseeable future, a depressing thought, but, until we can all be vaccinated and until people learn to behave sensibly, there can be no other way

So here is a collection of stories we have published in the past few weeks. We will be going to Franschhoek for most of the coming week, so there will be stories coming out of that. After that, who knows. Please enjoy them. Stay safe and please keep out of trouble

In case you have missed any stories we have written in the past year, please look at the Blog Archive to the right of this. Click on a year to open all the stories of that year, all the way back to when we first published

John Loubser has made an interesting new Cap Classique on his and Karen’s Silverthorn property near Bonnievale. When we visited them in 2019, John said that he wanted to make a bubbly from a 37 year old Colombard vineyard on the farm which is on the bank of the Breede River

South Hill Sauvignon blanc 2015

Another delightful mature wine. This one served with an artichoke pasta. We first saw South Hill Vineyards sauvignon blanc when winemaker Sean Skibbe, moonlighting as sales rep brought his wines to our shop in Sea Point in 2006. We loved it then and we love it now. This is the 2015. It still has vibrant acidity with flavours of nectarine and granadilla and a hint of cassis right at the finish.

Meerlust Red 2019

Meerlust Rubicon is one of this country's truly iconic red blends. Occasionally, very occasionally, after the requisite time in barrel and bottle in the Meerlust cellar, it is deemed by its makers to be less superb than it should be. It is then downgraded and simply called Meerlust Red. Experience has shown that, kept for a few years, this is still a wonderful wine. We were given a sample of the latest Meerlust Red, the 2019. On the nose and palate, it has rich berry fruit; we tasted raspberrry and blueberry as well as cassis. Assertive acidity, as one would expect from a young wine, and the fruit is not overpowered by the wood, which makes a subtle statement on the finish. It will be interesting to taste it again in five years, after which time we'd expect it to have matured very well. 18/20

A Shirley Valentine's dinner from Dish Food and Social - with Greek wines

We don't usually celebrate Valentine's day; it's normally a total commercial scam. But this year was different. Because of Covid, Lynne had something up her sleeve.  She wanted to support the hospitality industry in some way, as they will not be making lots of dosh this year.  Our friend Andrea Foulkes has been suppying wonderful meals to be consumed at home from her business, Dish Food and Social, for several years and she has been working with another friend, Chef Craig Cormack who has Salt Restaurant on Paul Cluver and his caterering company, Goose Roasters with his business partner Beau du Toit. They came up with a stunning offer, called the Shirley Valentine Valentine's Dinner, which was delivered on Saturday 13th

Lynne loves Calamari and has not had any for months, so we decided to go and find some at a favourite place of ours on Hout Bay beach, Dunes, which is a pub with food. We picked up a local friend and off we went for lunch.  If the wind is blowing you can sit downstairs behind the see-through blinds, or if it is calm, upstairs on the terrace admiring the view and watching for whales

Ken Forrester Vineyards in Stellenbosch sent us a sample of the Silver Rose, a rosé made from one of Ken's favourite grapes, Grenache. The wine comes in luxurious packaging

Two ancient Sauvignons

Friends who came to supper last week brought with them two 1998 Sauvignons blanc, both from Stellenbosch. Most people think old South African white wines are not worth drinking, and we have found that that includes wines that are only a couple of years old! We do not hold with this belief, really enjoying wines with maturity and we have in the past had some notable and enjoyable older white wines.  However it is quite a long time since we had any wine with this age, so we proceeded with caution and a little anticipation, not sure of what we might find
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