We were invited to the Chenin Blanc Association’s Conference at the One&Only

Frans Smit (Spier), Bruwer Raats Raats Family Wines), Niel Groenewald (DGB) and Richard Kershaw MW presented their views on the effect the origin (terroir) of the vines has on the grapes, as well as the effect that differences in vineyard and cellar techniques have on the wine

We saw a succession of maps showing the huge differences in terrain between different areas of our winelands

Lots of different opinions, but, to quote Bruwer, 

"Style, rather than terroir, drives the wine"

a break for tea, coffee (indifferent, from a flask) and biscuits (excellent) and a chat

was followed by a detailed statistical analysis by Dr Hélène Nieuwoudt  of Stellenbosch University’s Institute for Wine Technology of consumer buying patterns and preferences

then a tasting of two flights of chenins

(Ken Forrester, Geoff Grier and Wendy Appelbaum seen through the glasses)

We tasted

1^st Flight (Fresh & Fruity): Perdeberg 2012  (R29.90), Slanghoek 2012 (R27), Simonsig 2012 (R38) - all unwooded - and Lutzville Diamond Collection 2011 (R55), Radford Dale Renaissance 2010 (R200), Mulderbosch Small Change 2009 (R199) – all wooded

2^nd Flight (Rich & Ripe): Spier 21 Gables 2010 (R118), Rudera Robusto 2009 (R120), Rijk’s Reserve 2008 (R170), Remhoogte Honeybunch 2011 (R 120), Graham Beck Bowed Head 2010 (R110) and Ken Forrester FMC 2010 (R325)

Our favourites were the Perdeberg, Mulderbosch, Spier, Rudera, Rijk’s and Ken Forrester. The Perdeberg is exceptionally good quality and value and we will definitely be buying some

Then a wonderful lunch at Nobu,

served with all the wines from the tasting

Whitefish sashimi

A delicious baby spinach salad with lobster, made more special because the spinach was drenched in truffle oil and layered with grated parmesan

Photographs © John Ford, Adamastor & Bacchus 2012

13 September 2012 Main Ingredient's MENU - Cape Chenins, Top 10 Sauvignons, Societi’s Cookhouse at Josephine Mill, Groote Post & Hilda’s Kitchen, Okamai, Tomato chicken masala, Events, Restaurant specials

MENU

Main Ingredient’s weekly E-Journal

Gourmet Foods, Ingredients & Fine Wines

Eat In Guide’s Outstanding Outlet Award Winner from 2006 to 2010

www.mainingredient.biz - http://www.adamastorbacchus.com/

+27 21 439 3169 / +27 83 656 4169

Click here to Subscribe to MENU or to contact us

A riot of Spring flowers at Groote Post, Darling

In this week’s MENU:

     Products

     Our market activities

     Cape Chenins

     Top 10 Sauvignons

     Societi’s Cookhouse at Josephine Mill

     Groote Post and Hilda’s Kitchen

     Okamai at Glenwood

     Tomato chicken masala

     Events and Restaurant specials

     Wine courses & cooking classes

To tell the whole story here would take too much space, so click on underlined and Bold words in the text to open links to pictures, blogs, websites or more information

This week’s Product menu   We are frequently asked for olive oil at the market. Other market traders specialise in them and the supermarkets stock a very good range, so you won’t find them when you come to us. You will find a good range of nut oils on our list and our table: walnut, hazelnut, pistachio and argan oils, as well as different sizes of black and white truffle oils. To see what else we have available for you, you can access our product list and see pictures in our website. If you can’t find what you need, let us know and we will try to find it for you. Until our online shop is ready, drop us an email and we will help you. We are very happy to see that traffic on our website is increasing and more orders are coming from it.

We have a lot of fun putting MENU together each week and, of course, doing the things we write about, but making it possible for you to enjoy rare and wonderful gourmet foods is what drives our business. We stock a good range of ingredients and delicious ready-made gourmet foods. You can contact us by email or phone, or through our website. We can send your requirements to you anywhere in South Africa.

Our market activities  Come and visit us at the Old Biscuit Mill’s wonderfully exciting, atmospheric Neighbourgoods Market, as always, this Saturday and every Saturday between 09h00 and 14h00. Tip: Some visitors tell us how they struggle to find parking. It’s quite easy if you know how. Click here for a map which shows where we park.

We will be back at Long Beach Mall tomorrow, Friday 14th September from 09h00 to 16h00. We look forward to seeing you there.

CAPE CHENIN UNVEILED     The Chenin Blanc Association of South Africa will hold a half day conference on Monday 24th September at The One&Only, V&A Waterfront. The Chenin Blanc Association has entered into collaboration with Stellenbosch University’s Institute of Wine Biotechnology to investigate the sensory, chemical and consumer preference profiling of South African Chenin Blanc wines, and feedback will be given at the conference. I have attached the detailed program for your perusal. A panel will also discuss the important aspects: Do Cape Chenins express regionality? - How does this manifest itself? - What are the regional styles? Registration time is from 08h30 to 09h00. The conference will be limited to 120 people, and registration closes on 17th September 2012. Registration fee CBA Members R500.00, non CBA Members R650.00. To secure your booking, kindly contact Ina Smith on ina.smlth@iafrica.com or on 082 467 4331.

Erratum     Last week, we identified Liam Gallagher with the Chef’s Warehouse at Leopard’s Leap in Franschhoek. We did, of course, mean Liam Tomlin and we apologise for any embarrassment caused. We got it right in our blog, but made the error in the MENU body copy.

Top 10 Sauvignon awards     We have just returned from the Top 10 Sauvignon awards held at Cassia Restaurant on Nitida farm in Durbanville today. A huge function with many wine makers, lots and lots of wine media and some of the sponsors from FNB; it was a very enjoyable and fun function. We tasted through four flights of wines, the top 20, and they ran a small competition to see if we could pick the top 10 before they announced them. The person who came closest to the final verdict will win an IPad. We don’t think it will be us, although we did enjoy several of the wines very much. It was very interesting to see who had entered, who had not and who had managed to get to the top 20. Some notable farms who produce good Sauvignon Blanc were missing. The judges were Christian Eedes, Miguel Chan, Mark Norrish, Richard Kershaw and Erika Obermeyer.

Cassia Chef Proprietor Warren Swaffield prepared a different dish for each flight of wines and they matched the food extremely well. The four flights were divided into:

1.    Those tasting of tropical and yellow fruit. This was served with a tender rolled chicken fillet filled with olives and feta and served with an avocado salsa. Winners in this category were: Simonsig Sunbird 2012; Neethlingshof Single Vineyard 2012; Clos Malvern2011 and Du Toit’s Kloof 2012

2.    Flinty and Mineral. Served with Prosciutto parcel with goats cheese and fresh asparagus drizzled with fresh tomato dressing. One Winner in this category: Lomond Pincushion 2011

3.    Blackcurrant leaf, Elderberry and Oak influence served with grilled Norwegian salmon on a petit pois risotto. Winners in this category were: De Morgenzon DMZ 2012 and Diemersdal MM Louw 2011

4.     Spicy and Herbaceous served with Thai marinated fish cakes with a minted lime sorbet. Winners in this category were: Driehoek 2012; Virgin Earth Pepper Tree 2012 and Groote Post 2012. Pictures of the food, some of the wines and some of the people here.

New experiences     We have eaten at three new (to us) restaurants this week and each one was a completely different experience.

The Cookhouse     Caveau at Josephine Mill closed fairly recently and The Cookhouse, part of the Societi group, has opened in the space. Some new fittings, some recycled. Sometimes you really want to like a restaurant but, sadly, the experience doesn’t quite come up to one’s expectations. Such was the Cookhouse. Our Waiter Juan was a gem. A recently qualified cabinet maker, he works here to supplement his income. The restaurant will be lovely in summer, because the glass doors pull back and you can enjoy the view of the Liesbeek River and smell the brewery next door. Closed, it echoes quite a bit and is very noisy. The night we were there, the demographic was not generally young and trendy as we expected, but much more our age group - middle income people out for an evening at their local restaurant. There is a fireplace and the pizza oven keeps it warm which is great because, when the terrace door is open, there is a draught. The menu is short and concise, more geared to the younger crowd and not at all like Societi’s. It has an Italian slant, with antipasti, pizzas, pasta and hamburgers. We had two courses each, paid corkage on two bottles and paid R600 for four including service, so not massively expensive, but not all good either because one of the dishes had Lynne up in the night.  Click here to see the pictures of what we ate.

Groote Post and Hilda’s Kitchen Restaurant     On Friday, it was a perfect spring day, gloriously clear, sunny and warm, so we decided to go up the West coast to see the Spring flowers around Darling. We have been to Groote Post winery many times; it is one of our favourites but we had never eaten at the restaurant and decided it was time. What a charming historic building the manor house is. Now a national monument, it was the home of Hildagonda Duckitt (1840-1904) famous for her recipe book amongst other things. It is filled to the brim with antiques and bygones, all fitting beautifully with the period of the farmhouse. We were delighted to be offered a table on the sheltered walled terrace and had a really lovely lunch. Because Lynne was still feeling a little delicate, she ordered just two small starters while John had a main course. We had a bottle of their excellent unwooded Chardonnay. We can’t wait to go back for another visit in the summer. You do need to book here as it is very, very popular. Our lunch with wine and service cost R 310. The chef, Debbie McLaughlin, changes her menu of modern country cooking daily and seasonally, and the Groote Post wines are at cellar door prices. The service was quick, efficient and friendly.

The flowers were magnificent on the road to the farm and on the way back from Darling. Click here to see the lunch and some flowers

Japan comes to Glenwood     On Tuesday night, we were invited to the opening of Okamai Japanese restaurant on Glenwood wine farm, on the Robertsvlei Road in Franschhoek. We were delighted to be offered a return trip in a small bus and it made such a difference to a normally long journey and allowed John to drink some of the excellent wines and enjoy the evening without the thought of the long drive home.

Master Chef Kiyomasu Deon Sensei is a local, with a lot of humour and character who has spent 27 years in Japan, learning all the intricacies of Japanese cuisine from masters. He used to have a restaurant in Franschhoek but has now moved to the newly rebuilt restaurant at Glenwood. There is a fire, open on two sides in the restaurant, which has just a few inside tables but many more on the terrace for better weather. We had a very interesting lesson in how to eat the food and an explanation of all the dishes in the Bento box we were served, which we enjoyed very much. It was a charming evening spent with the owners Nicky and Alastair Wood, their Farm manager and winemaker DP , staff and lots of other media. Click here to see the photos of the restaurant and what we ate. We will be returning for some sushi and other dishes next time we are in the area to buy some of their wine.

This week, we give you an easy, but not very quick, recipe for a chicken curry. We used a hot Masala spice mix we bought when in Durban. Use your favourite one. Lynne does take the meat off the bones when the curry is ready to serve. This will take about one and a half hours to prepare and cook.

Tomato Chicken Masala

For the paste:

1 large onion, roughly chopped - 8 cloves of garlic – 5 cm peeled ginger, cut into four pieces – 1 or 2 whole green chillies, according to your taste – 100 ml water – 1 T canola oil

Blitz in a food processor to a thick paste

Whole spices: 3 cardamom pods– 4 cloves – 1 t cumin seeds – 1 t fennel seeds – 1 t white mustard seed – 1 t black peppercorns – 1/2 a t of mace – 4 allspice berries – 3 cm piece of stick cinnamon

1 T canola oil – 1 T hot masala powdered spice – 1 tin of chopped tomato or equivalent fresh – 200 ml chicken good stock - 10 chicken pieces, thighs and drumsticks – salt and pepper – optional 1/2 t sugar

Fry the whole spices in 1 T of oil till they start to pop, then add the masala powder. Put in the paste and stir fry for a minute or two. Add the tin of tomatoes and the stock. Let this simmer for at least an hour till it is well cooked and thickening. Taste and adjust seasoning with salt and pepper, more chilli if you need it and perhaps a little sugar if the tomatoes are a bit sharp. Put in the chicken pieces and cook until the meat is just beginning to come away from the bone. If you want to use chicken breasts, cut them into bite sized pieces and add just 10 minutes from the end so as not to overcook them. Remove the chicken pieces, take the meat off the bones and return to the sauce. Serve with good fluffy basmati rice and sambals and chutneys.

Food and wine (and a few other) events for you to enjoy

There is a huge and rapidly growing variety of interesting things to occupy your leisure time here in the Western Cape. There are so many interesting things to do in our world of food and wine that we have made separate list for each month for which we have information. To help you choose an event to visit, click on our Events Calendar. All the events are listed in date order and we already have a large number of exciting events to entertain you right through the year. Click here to access the Calendar. You will need to be connected to the internet.

Learn about wine and cooking We have had a lot of enquiries from people who want to learn more about wine. Cathy Marston and The Cape Wine Academy both run wine education courses, some very serious and others more geared to fun. You can see details here.

Chez Gourmet in Claremont has a programme of cooking classes. A calendar of their classes can be seen here. Pete Ayub, who makes our very popular Prego sauce, runs evening cooking classes at Sense of Taste, his catering company in Maitland. We can recommend them very highly, having enjoyed his seafood course. Check his programme here.

Restaurant Special offers. Some more restaurants have responded to our request for an update of their special offers and we have, therefore, updated our list of restaurant special offers. Click here to access it. These Specials have been sent to us by the restaurants or their PR agencies. We have not personally tried all of them and their listing here should not always be taken as a recommendation from ourselves. If they don’t update us, we can’t be responsible for any inaccuracies in the list. When we have tried it, we’ve put in our observations. We have cut out the flowery adjectives etc. that so many have sent, to give you the essentials. Click on the name to access the relevant website. All communication should be with the individual restaurants.

13th September 2012

Remember - if you can’t find something, we’ll do our best to get it for you, and, if you’re in Cape Town or elsewhere in the country, we can send it to you! Check our product list for details and prices.

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

Our Adamastor & Bacchus© tailor-made Wine, Food and Photo tours take small groups (up to 6) to specialist wine producers who make the best of South Africa’s wines. Have fun while you learn more about wine and how it is made! Tours can be conducted in English, German, Norwegian or Dutch flavoured Afrikaans.

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 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. Our Avast! ^® Anti-Virus software is updated at least daily and our system is scanned continually for viruses.

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 and keep our mailing list strictly confidential. 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, please click here to send us a message.

John Collins annual Trade tasting at Den Anker, V&A Waterfront

John Collins list is so good that his tastings are always popular
and Den Anker's food is a perfect match for the wines

Chris Alheit, Cartology owner & winemaker

Tiny tender sticky quail legs make a perfect nibble with wine

Marketer Thelma du Plooy, Owner & architect Gerhard de Villiers and winemaker Gunther Schulz of Kleinood

There were excellent cheese boards with soft goats cheese, camembert and a good blue cheese to eat with preserved figs and crisp melba toasts

Thelema winemaker Rudi Schulz, Anél Grobler (Spit or Swallow) and Gavin Ferreira (Twelve Apostles)

Deidre Taylor presents the new Diemersfontein Chenin blanc

Enormous prawns coated in crisp Kataifi Greek pastry

Sue Proudfoot and her daughter Ryenne

The freshest tuna coated with black and white sesame seeds and covered in a great asian sauce and beautiful fresh oysters

Thomas Orpen and Kathy Jordan

Crumbed brie slices, deep fried and molten inside!

Higgo Jacobs and Lisa Boshoff with Bevan Newton Johnson

Duck en croute slices topped with a tangy berry jam

Bevan Newton Johnson

Posy Hazell, Vaughan Johnson and James Boreland

Peter Bayly

Pearl Oliver, Lynne Jarché Ford and Jeanette Bruwer

Evening in the Waterfront

Photographs are © John Ford, Adamastor & Bacchus cc 2012

6th September 2012 Main Ingredient's MENU - Our great trek, Expressions of Franschhoek, Seductive Sauvignons, Franschhoek Uncorked, Morvino trade show, Fish book launch, Winemakers Guild Showcase, Chicken pasta with truffle

MENU

Main Ingredient’s weekly E-Journal

Gourmet Foods, Ingredients & Fine Wines

Eat In Guide’s Outstanding Outlet Award Winner from 2006 to 2010

www.mainingredient.biz - http://www.adamastorbacchus.com/

+27 21 439 3169 / +27 83 656 4169

Click here to Subscribe to MENU or to contact us

A still life in Peter & Yvonne Bayly’s farmhouse kitchen, Calitzdorp

In this week’s MENU:

     Products

     Our market activities

     Our great trek from Durban

     Expressions of Franschhoek at the Taj

     Seductive Sauvignons

     Franschhoek Uncorked & lunch at Maison

     Morvino trade show

     You Can With Fish book launch

     Winemakers Guild Auction Showcase

     Chicken pasta with truffle

     Events and Restaurant specials

     Wine courses & cooking classes

To tell the whole story here would take too much space, so click on underlined and Bold words in the text to open links to pictures, blogs, websites or more information

This week’s Product menu   This week’s addition to our range is an interesting gingerbread mustard. To see what else we have available for you, you can access our product list and see pictures in our website. If you can’t find what you need, let us know and we will try to find it for you. Until our online shop is ready, drop us an email and we will help you. We are very happy to see that traffic on our website is increasing and more orders are coming from it.

We have a lot of fun putting MENU together each week and, of course, doing the things we write about, but making it possible for you to enjoy rare and wonderful gourmet foods is what drives our business. We stock a good range of ingredients and delicious ready-made gourmet foods. You can contact us by email or phone, or through our website. We can send your requirements to you anywhere in South Africa.

Our market activities  Come and visit us at the Old Biscuit Mill’s wonderfully exciting, atmospheric Neighbourgoods Market, as always, this Saturday and every Saturday between 09h00 and 14h00. Tip: Some visitors tell us how they struggle to find parking. It’s quite easy if you know how. Click here for a map which shows where we park.

We will be back at Long Beach Mall on Friday 14th September from 09h00 to 16h00. We look forward to seeing you there.

And just when you think you couldn’t get busier...     This week’s MENU is a little longer than usual, because we did so much last week and had very little time to reflect on it. Our trip from Durban started on Sunday, when we drove to Kokstad, where we had a very comfortable overnight stay at Peacehaven guest farm. On Monday, we traversed the Transkei. Horrifically, frighteningly, bad driving and stoppages at one-way sections of the N2, which is being rebuilt. We spent that night in Port Alfred. Tuesday saw us driving to Calitzdorp, the Port capital in the Karoo, where we had very comfortable accommodation at Spekboom Cottages and had supper with Peter and Yvonne Bayly on their farm, home of Peter Bayly Port. Next morning, Wednesday, we visited Boplaas after breakfast, where Carel Nel and his lovely winemaker daughter Margaux gave us an extended tasting of their wines and ports (see pics here). Then we were off to Axe Hill, where Mike Neebe gave us a tasting of his red wines and his Ports. That done, we hit the road for home and arrived at 5.30. We unpacked the car, changed and at 5 past 6 boarded SA Agulhas II for the V&A Waterfront Master of the Trade Routes function. Frenetic! The rest of the week has been very similar, rushing from one function to another and it doesn’t look as though it will let up anytime soon. Click on the highlights to see the relevant blogs and websites.

Expressions of... Franschhoek     On Thursday, we attended another of these excellent opportunities to taste the wines and food of a wine-producing area at a prime Cape Town hotel… The Taj.  Wines from Cabrière, La Motte, Haut Espoir, Holden Manz, Moreson, Noble Hill and Mont Rochelle were there for tasting. Chef Michelle Theron from Pierneef à La Motte’s restaurant cooked the dinner for us and we had a chance to taste some of the valley’s wines paired with the food.. Click here to see the photos and read about the food.

Seductive Sauvignons     Mike Duggan and Corlien Morris of Wine Concepts put on this really successful exhibition of their choice of good Sauvignons Blanc and Cabernet Sauvignons at the Vineyard hotel each year. We were delighted to see so many older Sauvignon blancs being shown this year and they were delicious. One day, South Africa will realise that good white wines improve with a little age and we will find it hard to buy the bargains we currently get, as farms sell off their older white wines. It is unlikely that a wine released this year is showing its full potential and we would really encourage you to keep back some of your favourite wines to see how good they become in a year or two. Many farms had their current releases alongside an older wine so it was valuable to see what a new wine could become with a little age. There were also some really good Cabernets for tasting. Where else can you taste this many good wines for so little money and effort?

Lunch at Maison, Franschhoek Uncorked     We had been invited to this festival in Franschhoek and have had so many good reports of Maison’s restaurant The Kitchen at the Tasting Room, that we decided it was time to try it for ourselves on Sunday. We were not disappointed; in fact, we think we have found another gem. The chef is talented Arno Janse van Rensburg of Ginja and Myoga fame. It is not cheap, the venue is smartly designed and comfortable, as expected - it is owned by Chris Weylandt of the eponymous furniture and homeware stores. There is a lovely garden overlooking the vineyards with huge tables under the trees, which look fantastic for large family gatherings, and a huge basket swing the kids love, as they do the family of chickens roaming the lawns. It was a very relaxing lunch.

And then there is the food. It is a small menu, but there is also a chalk board with the daily specials. The food is locally sourced, fresh and beautifully cooked. We had two courses each, benefited from the tastings going on in the front room for the Uncorked festival, as we could try the three wines on offer for tasting with our starter and then chose a glass each for our main course. John ordered Duck, so he went for the quite robust and chalky tannin Shiraz while Lynne favoured their elegant dry Blanc de Noir with her choice of tongue. Click here to see what we ate, where we ate it and the descriptions of the food at the festival. We paid R553 for two courses with a glass of wine each and service.

It was a lovely day, the sun was out and, despite snow on the tops of the far mountains, we felt Spring might finally be on the way. We were delighted to see lots of you at the various places we visited, enjoying the festival atmosphere and the wines and food.

We paid a brief visit Noble Hill and picked up our passes. Their restaurant, Cosecha, is modern and open with reasonably priced Mexican themed food next to a pretty dam. It looks like a definite Summer place to return to. Then to Leopards Leap to see the modern tasting room and Liam Tomlin’s cookery school and shop. We hear he is now moving back to town, but the venue will continue. At La Bri we tasted a lovely 2011 Viognier and met a wonderful soppy Labrador puppy. They were doing their chocolate and wine pairing, but it was late in the day and we didn’t have time to do it. Another time, Irene.

Morvino Trade wine show at Vineyard hotel on Monday evening; we tasted some interesting wines. Favourites of the night for Lynne were De Morgenzon’s full and many layered Chenin Blanc, Almenkerk’s 2011 Sauvignon Blanc, Lukas Wentzel’s own, beautifully elegant, MCC 2008 bubbly, Aurelia (he is the winemaker at Groote Post) and Rudi Schultz’s 2009 Shiraz which still needs a few years. Sadly Morvino chose very spicy canapés with our wine...sigh.

Lucky lunch with Tamsin     We all know we should be eating more fish and canned fish is packed with nutrition and the essential Omega 3 oils that make such a difference to our health. Lucky Star is an iconic local brand that has been around for many years and yesterday we were invited to the launch of their third cookbook, “You Can with Fish” by talented Tamsin Snyman, who has taken over the task of writing and publishing these books from her late and great mother Lannice. They are divided into 10, 20 and 30 minute recipes, so no excuse about not having the time to cook.

We were treated to a lunch of many courses, all from the recipe book but, thankfully, each one was a small portion eaten, as the Americans say, “family style” at our table filled with media. As a welcome, Ginger beer was served in jam jars on the lawn of the Hotel School in Mouille Point, with two canapés: Sardine Samoosas and Pilchard Bunny chows, which were served on delicious crisp freshly baked bread served wittily in sardine cans. It was a glorious day, so it was a bit of a wrench to go inside to eat. The book and all the products are endorsed by the Heart and Stroke Foundation of South Africa and it is available from all good bookshops and from Lannice Snyman Publishers. We are sure you will find recipes that delight you, as we did at the lunch and from these excellent books. This is the third in the series. Lynne is going to experiment with some of the recipes this week and we will publish our favourite one next week.

Winemakers’ Guild Auction Showcase tastings     Because of our hurried trip to Durban, we did not have time to cover these two phenomenal tastings, which took place on the 23rd August at the CTICC. The afternoon tasting for the trade and media is fast and furious, where we got to taste through 37 wines chosen to represent the auction wines. Each wine had a brief introduction by its winemaker and we tasted, spat and wrote about each of them in a very short period. They are a magnificent spectrum of what is best about the current South African wine industry.  After this tasting, we attended the public tasting downstairs where some of these and other previous vintages were available to taste.

It is hard to vote favourites when there are so many outstanding wines but Lynne’s top choices were Teddy Hall’s Hendrik Biebouw Reserve Chenin 2011, Kevin Grant’s Ataraxia Under the Gavel Chardonnay Reserve 2011; Rudi Schultz’ Hartenberg’s Loam Hill Merlot 2009; Etienne Le Riche’s Auction Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon 2009; Nils Verburg’s Luddite “Oscar” shiraz Mourvedre 2009 (next year’s Birthday wine John?) and Jac Borman’s Boschkloof Bakhand Shiraz 2010. She scored these all 19 out of 20 and is very interested to see what they make at the auction.

All these wines and more will be available for purchase at the Auction which is to be held at Spier this year on Saturday 6th October. There will be another public tasting there the night before – you need to book, it is usually oversubscribed. You can now bid on line or by phone should you not be able to attend the auction, which is open to all serious bidders. Check out the website here for details of the wines and the auction.

Lynne always tries to take part in the silent auction that takes place on these evenings and was very fortunate to have winning bids for one bottle each of Duncan Savage’s Cape Point Isliedh 2007 white blend, Bernhard Veller’s Nitida Decorous 2010 Sauvignon Blanc and David Trafford’s CWG 2008 De Trafford Perspective. Money raised at this auction goes to sponsor the training of young students in the wine industry - a very worthy cause.

And finally, this week’s recipe: Because we have been travelling, Lynne has not had time to cook much and invent new recipes. We have been send a consignment of goods from Greece to see if we wish to become importers and there was a small jar of sliced black truffle which is where the inspiration came from. Linguine, angel hair, spaghetti or any pasta that holds sauce well will work with this recipe. Serves four. Add a good tomato, avocado and basil salad and a bottle of Viognier and you have a complete meal.

Chicken pasta with truffle

2 large chicken breasts, thinly sliced into 3 or 4 cm pieces – 1 T corn flour – salt and pepper – 1 t thyme – ½ T butter – ½ T olive oil – 1 shallot, finely chopped – 1 small leek, finely chopped, including the green top – 150 ml white wine – 100ml good chicken stock – 100 ml cream – pasta of your choice – slices of truffle – truffle oil

Coat the chicken pieces in the corn flour , seasoning and thyme. Fry the onion and leek in the oil and butter till soft, then add the chicken and fry gently for a couple of minutes until just cooked. Remove the chicken pieces and deglaze the pan with the wine. Boil to reduce to half and thicken, then add the stock and cream to make a good sauce. Taste and adjust the seasoning.  Meanwhile boil the pasta in well salted water till al dente, drain and put it into sauce. Add the chicken pieces and mix. Serve with a few slices of truffle on top and a drizzle of truffle oil.

Food and wine (and a few other) events for you to enjoy

There is a huge and rapidly growing variety of interesting things to occupy your leisure time here in the Western Cape. There are so many interesting things to do in our world of food and wine that we have made separate list for each month for which we have information. To help you choose an event to visit, click on our Events Calendar. All the events are listed in date order and we already have a large number of exciting events to entertain you right through the year. Click here to access the Calendar. You will need to be connected to the internet.

Learn about wine and cooking We have had a lot of enquiries from people who want to learn more about wine. Cathy Marston and The Cape Wine Academy both run wine education courses, some very serious and others more geared to fun. You can see details here.

Chez Gourmet in Claremont has a programme of cooking classes. A calendar of their classes can be seen here. Pete Ayub, who makes our very popular Prego sauce, runs evening cooking classes at Sense of Taste, his catering company in Maitland. We can recommend them very highly, having enjoyed his seafood course. Check his programme here.

Restaurant Special offers. Some more restaurants have responded to our request for an update of their special offers and we have, therefore, updated our list of restaurant special offers. Click here to access it. These Specials have been sent to us by the restaurants or their PR agencies. We have not personally tried all of them and their listing here should not always be taken as a recommendation from ourselves. If they don’t update us, we can’t be responsible for any inaccuracies in the list. When we have tried it, we’ve put in our observations. We have cut out the flowery adjectives etc. that so many have sent, to give you the essentials. Click on the name to access the relevant website. All communication should be with the individual restaurants.

9th September 2012

Remember - if you can’t find something, we’ll do our best to get it for you, and, if you’re in Cape Town or elsewhere in the country, we can send it to you! Check our product list for details and prices.

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

Our Adamastor & Bacchus© tailor-made Wine, Food and Photo tours take small groups (up to 6) to specialist wine producers who make the best of South Africa’s wines. Have fun while you learn more about wine and how it is made! Tours can be conducted in English, German, Norwegian or Dutch flavoured Afrikaans.

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 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. Our Avast! ^® Anti-Virus software is updated at least daily and our system is scanned continually for viruses.

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