Launch of De Grendel's big, new Op Die Berg Chardonnay in Durbanville

De Grendel’s wines always impress; the restaurant produces very good food, the wines are excellent and the farm has one of the best views of Table Bay and the mountain. On Tuesday, we joined a group of wine and food writers to taste this wine, ‘Op die Berg’ 2013 Chardonnay, paired with a three course menu prepared by chef Ian Bergh and his team, who are all on show in their open kitchen

The Chardonnay grown on this Durbanville farm has been used in The Winifred, their recently discontinued white blend, and their MCC, which is where they will continue using it. The Chardonnay vines on their Ceres farm are now ready and their grapes have been improving so much over recent years that they wanted to produce it on its own. The wine is big and bold, leesy, with perfume and slight smoke on the nose. It has been in oak for 8 months and has a full, rich mouthful of buttery golden delicious apples, then marmalade, followed by some dark toasted oak, which will soften with time. It has long, defined flavours and goes very well with food

The sad news is that this Chardonnay means the sacrifice of The Winifred blend of chardonnay, Semillon and Viognier. We are trying to encourage them to try to continue making this elegant wine which we love, by finding or growing some more chardonnay!

The tasting room terrace has wonderful views of Cape Town

We met in the private dining room and were welcomed by Restaurant manager Gerrie Dreyer with a glass of their own MCC, 2012 vintage, which is is a blend of 76% Chardonnay and 24% Pinot Noir and is beautifully crisp and appley

Public Relations for De  Grendel is handled by Errieda du Toit, who is quite famous for her work with Kokkedoor, the Afrikaans TV cooking programme, which resembles Masterchef in some ways. She has edited the Kokkedoor cookbooks

Lynne chatting to old friends from the media, Michael Olivier and Graham Howe

The wine is poured and we await our first course at the beautifully laid table

The Chardonnay ready on the table, a serving of water is poured

Chef Ian Bergh explains the menu and the pairings

takes questions

and generates some amusement

Winemaker Elzette du Preez has been with Cellarmaster Charles Hopkins at De Grendel for 8 years. She trained at Elsenberg and worked at Backsberg for 6 years before joining the team at De Grendel. Here she tells us all about the wine

Rapt attention - lots of questions followed

Maryna Strachan of Wine Extra listens intently to Elzette

A toast to this new wine

is echoed by all

The menu. Printed in red at the bottom are the tasting notes for the wine which Chef Ian Bergh used to pair the food.

The starter was super soft poached chicken breast in a lovely, gentle but savoury, chardonnay velouté - accompanied by tortellini filled with pea purée, which was also on the plate, as were courgette ribbons. A lovely mix of flavours and textures, but the star was the moist chicken. Peas are a very good match for this wooded chardonnay. A very sophisticated dish

De Grendel has flocks of geese around their dam

The absolutely superb main course. On discussion with the chef, Lynne learned that the crayfish had been cooked sous vide, which accounted for its tenderness and the marvellous flavour of the sea. Bravo! So many people ruin this luxury by overcooking it. The sea bass was also perfectly cooked - moist and flaky. The whole dish, balanced on a slightly al dente risotto, was cooked in a stock reduction made from all the roasted shells of the seafood and chardonnay. A triumph. And another perfect match for the Chardonnay, especially the slightly smoky flavour from the roasted shells.

Graham Howe and Errieda enjoying the day

De Grendel has a wedding chapel on its hill

Relaxed members of the media over a great lunch

So simply and beautifully presented: dessert was a small slice of rich pear frangipani tart with apple slices, vanilla ice cream and some dulce de leche (condensed milk) with some toasted crumbs for texture. This was served with the Chardonnay and with a small glass of the De Grendel Noble Late Harvest Sauvignon Blanc 2012 (with 190 g/l sugar), which is full of litchi, citrus, apricot and peach, spice and honey.

The wonderful view of the city and our mountain from De Grendel

A quote we like from their web site: “De Grendel Restaurant is 100 percent South African. Farm produce and ingredients, sourced from local suppliers, are given an inventive, modern edge. Home-grown South African chefs and staff are employed and trained to international standards, generating jobs for local people.”

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© John & Lynne Ford, Adamastor & Bacchus 2014

Sea Point's Dynasty Chinese restaurant

We do try to support our local Sea Point Restaurants as often as we can, despite being invited out to many others all over the Cape. Dynasty is where we go the most, it is close to home, we know them well now and if Lynne doesn't feel like cooking or gets a longing for good sushi or excellent authentic Chinese food, it is to Dynasty that we go. They are in the Nedbank Centre on the Corner of Kloof Road and Irwinton. We thought you might like to see their food

Huge live abalone for sale at an incredible price and Chinese tourists in the corner at the large round table.  They also have live crayfish, oysters and clams in tanks. They are not crowded out with huge busloads of tourists, just discreet small groups. And there is plenty of parking outside

Lots of tables as this restaurant gets busy, we usually make a booking. The take away business is also lively

How is your Cantonese? Specialities at the end of the Menu for the Chinese visitors

We thought we would have a Hot Pot until we saw the choices we could make and realised that we'd need a larger group of friends to share this with. More research required! Sounds delicious, especially the crocodile tail, Pork stomach (tripe) and the swaweed (sic = seaweed). Lynne once had bacon made from crocodile tail and it was amazing. Very fatty and very crisp. She likes tripe, John does not.

They have a reasonably good wine list, but we often take bottles with us. We had been sent this to try and it went extremely well with spicy Chinese food, it was crisp, fruity and robust. Corkage is R25

Alex Xu is the owner, with his wife Shirley, and he is a master of sushi. He is properly trained, won’t cut corners – if the rice is not ready, you wait for it. He never uses day old, doesn't put MSG in any of the food and makes superb sushi.

Lynne was in an adventurous mood and decided to try one of the new specialities on the menu. It was described as deep fried aubergine pies stuffed with chicken and prawn meat. They resembled small breaded schnitzel with a layer of soft aubergine between the chicken. She could not identify any prawn taste and it was is very nice, rich, slightly spicy gravy. Enough for two!

John had hot and sour chicken stripes (sic) with mixed vegetables. Very spicy, very satisfying. Shirley says it is just the way her mother makes it in Shanghai. We shared a small bowl of steamed rice and left half as there was so much food

The bill got lost in transit, but here is our card slip which includes the two dishes, R25 corkage and tip

They do very good Peking Duck. They have given up on our tough and scrawny local duck (when will our producers realise that we need to feed them properly?) and they buy duck imported from China. This was for a table next to us and was served with pancakes and the usual accompaniments of hoisin sauce, spring onions and cucumber batons

It is a delight to watch Alex carving the duck

Each piece must have some of the crisp skin

Owners of Dynasty, Alex and Shirley Xu, who are originally from Shanghai. They now live in Sea Point with their young daughter, who is at school at Reddam, and run a very successful restaurant

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© John & Lynne Ford, Adamastor & Bacchus 2014

Lunch with Steenberg's new vintage at Bistro 1682

Another one of those terrible days.  With a storm sweeping in from the North West, we headed off to Steenberg to meet Marketing manager Caroline van Schalkwyk in the tasting lounge, where she welcomed us warmly with a glass of their new Sauvignon Blanc bubbly. Not an MCC, not enough time on the lees, more of a Prosecco, fresh and crisp with sparkly style. Then we sat down and tasted through some of their other wines before going through to the restaurant for what turned out to be a very long lunch indeed. Were we having a good time? Yes, you bet or we might have left at a decent hour. And we were captivated by Chef Brad Ball’s food from his new Bistro style menu. 

Our welcoming drink

Caroline tells us about it in front of a very necessary fire

This is the new Sauvignon Sparkling wine. We really like the new modern stand-out label with traditional touches

We then went on to taste four Steenberg wines

The 2014 Sauvignon Blanc is a classic green pepper Constantia Sauvignon, very much to our taste, with lots of asparagus and lime. Very quaffable, with elegance too

Then the Black Swan 2012 Sauvignon Blanc which was launched in May this year.  It's a blend of two vineyard blocks and is fermented in barrel and then transferred to stainless steel tanks, which makes it a Blanc fumé. Leesy rather than woody, it is also full of green peppers, with a nice touch of smoke on the end. Refreshing and complete.

Our tasting sheet

The weather was becoming murkier outside, but the view of the Constantiaberg is still magnificent

Then came the Steenberg Shiraz 2012. Spicy with black pepper, turmeric liquorice, cassia and red berries on the nose, this is a very pretty, feminine wine. It has a lovely mouthful of red and black cherries, vanilla with perfume on the palate and some salt on the end. And then Steenberg’s famous Nebbiolo , still one of only three made in South Africa, and always one of our favourites. It has a wild nose, full of childhood sweeties, raspberry jelly and a whiff of smoke.  On the palate, it is full of salty goji berries, raspberries and cranberries. So complex and appealing, it is a great food wine. It spends 15 months in oak.

Sparkling glasses and a fruity mobile in the tasting room where we met sommelier Kayla Mayman, who will serve you the Steenberg wines you want to taste

And then it was time for lunch in a corner of Bistro 1682

Chef Brad Ball, busy at the pass in the kitchen

We examine and discuss the new menu

And drink some more delicious Steenberg wine, These are the 2014 Sauvignon blanc and the 2012 Black Swan

A rare photo of the photographer. John having a good lunch

Caroline Poulter van Schalkwyk

The Menu

Many of us ordered the Chicken Liver Parfait with truffled granola and a cranberry compôte. Perfect with the Steenberg Merlot

But we looked enviously at the baked camembert, which was crusted with nuts and surrounded by fig syrup and parsley oil. A very pretty dish. Caroline saw the envy and ordered another one for the table to share

She had the Smoked trout with a poached egg, asparagus and salad leaves, served with a grainy mustard dressing

We were in the restaurant from about 1.30 till 5 and it never seems to empty. People came for lunch, stayed for tea and others then arrived for tapas and, as we were leaving, the evening dinner crowd started to come in. The kitchen closes at 8.30, so do get there early. You can stay later, but without food service.

The deconstructed Banting Beef Bourgignon:

On the plate: Cauliflower purée, lardons, mushrooms and fondant onions

In a separate bowl, the short rib of beef in a rich red wine sauce

The free range roast chicken with a crispy egg, celeriac purée, confi'ed garlic and a thyme cream. And, of course, some broccoli. Another Banting dish!

In deep discussion about the food and wine

Ah, the cheese course comes with a Banting nut and seed cracker!

The rose red panna cotta was perfect, just set, so nice and wobbly, lots of rose flavour and a lovely pistachio sponge, an unusual (in a good way) green fig ice cream set on a burnt marshmallow.

Guess who had the Chocolate Nemesis? With honey ice cream, an orange anglaise custard and a chocolate almond crumble. Yum

Chef Brad Ball came and joined us at the table and we had lots to talk about while we tasted more wine with the excellent food

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© John & Lynne Ford, Adamastor & Bacchus 2014