Tuesday, October 11, 2011

Platter’s South African Wine Guide announces 2012 five star wines

Platter’s South African Wine Guide, the country’s leading wine annual, is delighted to announce the recipients of its highest rating – five stars – for the 2012 edition due in November.

Wines are graded in Platter’s on a five star scale, from “Somewhat less than ordinary” to “Superlative. A South African classic”. The guide strives to taste, rate and describe as many as possible of the South African-made wines available locally and overseas during the currency of the particular edition.

A record 7,000 wines are featured in the new edition (400 more than last time), of which 139 bottlings were identified in the first round of tasting by individual members of Platter’s judging team as potentially worthy of five stars.

The candidate five star wines were then entered into a second round of evaluation, conducted “blind” (without sight of the label) across a variety of categories, including reds and whites, sparkling, dessert wines and port styles. Only bottled (i.e. market-ready) wines, available during the currency of the 2012 guide, were considered.

Of the 139 five star contenders, 45 got the nod from the assembled panel. Remarkably, two producers each netted three five star ratings, namely Boekenhoutskloof, for their Cabernet Sauvignon, Syrah and Semillon Noble Late Harvest; and Mullineux Family Wines, for their Syrah, White Blend and Straw Wine; and Nederburg, with their Ingenuity White, Edelkeur and Eminence. Graham Beck Wines was the other star performer, with five star ratings for two wines: the new Chalkboard #3 Cabernet Sauvignon and Pheasants’ Run Sauvignon Blanc.

Noteworthy this edition is the high number of first-time five star recipients, including Badsberg Wine Cellar, Colmant Cap Classique & Champagne, Diemersfontein Wines, Glenelly Cellars, Miles Mossop Wines, Mont Destin, Oak Valley Wines and Warwick Estate. Established producers returning to five-star form after a gap of several years are La Motte, which last bagged the maximum rating in the 1995 edition, and KWV, in the 1986 guide.

The best-performing categories this edition are Red Blends, with seven wines, and Sauvignon Blanc, Shiraz, Unfortified Dessert Wines and White Blends with five wines each. Of the single-variety white-wine categories, Chenin Blanc, Chardonnay and Grenache Blanc yield three, two and one five star wines respectively, while Cabernet Sauvignon, Pinot Noir and Cabernet Franc are the top order in the single-variety reds line-up.

The leading Wine of Origin appellations are Stellenbosch, with 9 five star wines, followed by Western Cape (7), Coastal (5), and Franschhoek, Paarl and Swartland, with 4 apiece.

The five star wines for 2012 are:

Cabernet Franc

• Warwick 2008

Cabernet Sauvignon

• Boekenhoutskloof 2009

• Graham Beck Chalkboard #3 2007

• Stark-Condé Three Pines 2009

Pinot Noir

• Chamonix Reserve 2010

• Newton Johnson Domaine 2010

• Oak Valley 2009

Shiraz/Syrah

• Boekenhoutskloof Syrah 2009

• Fairview The Beacon 2008

• Mont Destin Destiny 2007

• Mullineux Syrah 2009

• Saxenburg Select 2007

Red Blends

• Bouchard Finlayson Hannibal 2010

• De Toren Fusion V 2009

• Glenelly Lady May 2009

• La Motte Pierneef Shiraz-Viognier 2009

• Meerlust Rubicon 2007

• Miles Mossop Max 2008

• Sadie Family Columella 2009

Chardonnay

• De Wetshof The Site 2009

• Jordan CWG Auction Reserve 2010

Chenin Blanc

• Beaumont Hope Marguerite 2010

• Diemersfontein Carpe Diem 2010

• Vins d’Orrance Kama 2010

Grenache Blanc

• KWV Mentors 2010

Sauvignon Blanc

• Graham Beck Pheasants’ Run 2011

• Hermanuspietersfontein No 5 2010

• Kleine Zalze Family Reserve 2010

• Steenberg CWG Auction Reserve The Magus 2010

• Strandveld 2010

White Blends

• Fable Jackal Bird 2010

• Flagstone CWG Auction Reserve Happy Hour 2009

• Mullineux White Blend 2010

• Nederburg Ingenuity 2010

• Tokara Director’s Reserve White 2010

Méthode Cap Classique Sparkling

• Colmant Brut Chardonnay NV

• Topiary Blanc de Blancs Brut 2009

Natural Sweet

• Badsberg Badslese 2009

Dessert Wine Unfortified

• Boekenhoutskloof Semillon Noble Late Harvest 2008

• Fleur du Cap Noble Late Harvest 2010

• Mullineux Straw Wine 2010

• Nederburg Edelkeur 2010

• Nederburg Eminence 2010

Port

• Boplaas Cape Vintage Reserve 2009

• De Krans Cape Vintage Reserve 2009

The five star wines will be available for tasting today and tomorrow at the Cape Wine Europe show in London.

Publisher Andrew McDowall extended the team’s congratulations to all the five star winegrowers, and to the makers of the wines that didn’t make the five star cut but are to be featured among the outstanding and highly collectible Wines of the Year for 2012.

To be unveiled with the book launch in November are the two Wines of the Year (a white and a red), the 'Superquaffer' of the Year - the wine judged to be the most drinkable and well-priced of all the entry-level bottlings tasted for the current edition – and the Winery of the Year, judged by the editor to epitomise the best of South African winegrowing today.

The 2012 edition will be available from the end of November 2011 from selected bookshops and retail outlets, as well as the website www.wineonaplatter.com. The recommended retail price is R159.95.

Sunday, October 09, 2011

110929 Main Ingredient's MENU - Zevenwacht, Morvino wines, Fennel, product news, affordable places to eat

Main Ingredient’s weekly E-Journal

Gourmet Foods, Ingredients & Fine Wines

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

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Click on anything underlined and Green to open a link to pictures or more information

A weaver building his nest at Durbanville Hills

The perfect way to spend a Sunday Saturday was a horrible day, grey and chilly with a very nasty icy wind chill factor, so we were not hopeful about the prospects for the Season of Sauvignon in Durbanville on Sunday. But we were so wrong and the most beautiful day dawned – windless, sunny and clear and just the right temperature. We had decided to go to two farms from which we have had superb wine and which have not been open recently. However, we called first into Durbanville Hills winery to collect our glasses and were delighted to see that they had bottles for tasting from every one of the farms involved. So we stayed, chatted to cellarmaster Martin Moore, his colleagues and some other guests, sampled the Sauvignons from the farms we knew we wouldn’t manage to see. We then took our full glass of Durbanville Hills’ excellent Biesjes Craal Sauvignon Blanc and sat under the trees full of weaver birds, who were flirting like mad with each other and building their nests. We succumbed to their lunch box for two, which contained food to match the Sauvignons blanc: a pasta and basil salad, an Asian inspired prawn, coriander and rocket salad, two small asparagus quiches, a creamy fish paté, slices of ciabatta, and some fruit salad. It was hard to move ourselves from the comfort, the sun and the shade and the wine. We left with a box of 12 of the Biesjes Craal 2009, which was offered at a very special price and we liked it very much.

Onwards to the farm at the very end of the Durbanville area, Phizantekraal. So many of our best wine farms buy these excellent grapes and blend their wines with them, and we were keen to see the farm and the location. The directions were sparse, there were detours everywhere and like many other seekers, our GPS sent us to a Close in a nearby housing estate. After driving around for ages, we managed to find a local who directed us almost all the way back to the town, where we had to head off in another direction. We do wonder how many other people simply gave up and went somewhere else; you did need to have determination. There was a large marquee with very loud live music, a couple of minimal food stands, things for children to do and quite a busy bar going. On a small side table, we found the wines they had for tasting. We did like their Sauvignon and could recognize the fact that we have tasted this wine before, in many guises. The surprise, however, was tasting their soft and full fruited cabernet sauvignons. They had three out on the table, (sadly the 2009 is not yet labelled) and we found them to be delicious. We bought two each of the 2004, 2006 and 2008 for our cellar. We will drink one of each in the next year and keep the others for later imbibing to see how well they keep, which we suspect will be very well.

Then back to Bloemendal which has been closed for building renovations for a long time, since it was sold. We have been buying and drinking lots of their Suider Terras Sauvignon Blanc from one of the discount warehouses because this was the only outlet we could find. The festival on the farm was not a great experience. First, you had to negotiate the children’s play area which had at least five bouncing castles, then move into another marquee with a very loud country style band. Behind this was a large food area and, at first, we couldn’t see the wine. Then we spotted a Coke fridge which had a few bottles on a table in front of it, no customers, just one staff member. We were told, somewhat curtly, that there were only 2 wines we could taste for free and after that they charged for each tasting and she then demanded our glasses so she could attach a cable tie for each wine we tasted (so we didn’t cheat in the huge tasting crowd… the 2 of us!). We replied that we only wanted to taste the Sauvignon blanc; we did that and then left hurriedly for the more friendly atmosphere at a very busy Nitida. Perhaps the Bloemendal experience is what the locals demand, but we won’t be back for a while - until the farm concentrates on the wine rather than the entertainment. We did ask who the winemaker was and got ‘don’t know’ and then later ‘Mike’ and when we asked her who Mike was, we got another ‘don’t know’. Perhaps it had been a long weekend for her. At Nitida on the way home, they were holding the awards ceremony for a bike competition and the place was pumping. Lots of wine was being drunk and they very kindly gave us a bottle of their excellent new bubbly, the Matriarch (not yet listed on their website), to taste. We took it off to a spot near their lake which looked sheltered, but a very chilly wind felt as though it would freeze the marrow in our bones, so it was off home to supper and the sunset.

How to do a good trade tasting John Collins represents a small but perfectly formed list of wine farms and we tasted them all at yesterday evening’s’s perfect trade tasting, held at Den Anker in the V&A Waterfront. We started with the excellent range from Jordan and have to mention some of our favourites, their complex Riesling, delicious Chenin and Sauvignon, their three outstanding chardonnays, unwooded and very carefully wooded and their excellent top level red Cobblers Hill. But all the wines, without exception are great and all are good food wines. Then on to Springfield, where it is another great year for Sauvignons. Lynne loved their Methode Ancienne 2009 chardonnay and the Thunderchild 2008, a wine made to support the local orphanage Die Herberg, which is now drinking extremely well. This blend of Cab Franc, Merlot and Cab Sauvignon is a bargain and 100% of the profits are donated to the orphanage. It was a delight to be able to taste three different Pinot Noirs on Newton Johnson’s table, especially our favourite the Domaine which is often sold out so quickly. The Domaine Chardonnay 2010 also delighted, as is the Resonance 2010, their white blend of Sauvignon Blanc and Semillon. Onward to taste Diemersfontein’s two pinotages: the popular coffee mocha 2011 is not a style we appreciate but it sells very well. The elegant Carpe Diem is more the style we do appreciate. Thelema’s Sutherland Vineyards from Elgin has a new Viognier Rousanne 2009 blend which we liked, amongst many other good wines. We then tasted and liked the soft spicy Kleinood Tamboerskoof 2007 Shiraz and their fruity Viognier 2011. And finally (and we are very biased because of our proximity to Peter’s table at the Biscuit Mill) the extremely quaffable Peter Bayly Cape Vintage Port and the absolutely delicious Dry White Port. Regrettably, we could not risk tasting any of the Ambleville imports of Cognac, Armagnac and Calvados because drinking spirits after wine makes Lynne very inebriated and John had to drive. Lynne did taste them last year and there is quite a gap in her memory of what happened to cooking dinner later that evening. They are all excellent and it is nice to know someone is bringing in such good quality imports.

We have to mention the really great canapés that were served at the tasting. Bravo the Den Anker chef. Spoonfuls of gooey risotto with truffle oil, huge deep fried noodle wrapped prawns; creamy duck mousse on toast and soft belly of pork squares topped with beetroot amongst others. All matched perfectly with the wines, there were plenty of them and they were delicious. As the weather was so good, they had lots of customers eating outside on tables by the dock so they had the best of both worlds.

Cooking at home We managed to get a superb piece of Porterhouse beef from the Long Beach Pick n Pay on Friday – it was hard to prevent the butcher from cutting it into steaks, Lynne succeeded in getting a good 1.5 kilo piece with good yellow fat on top. She roasted it on Saturday night, after we came back from the market at the Biscuit Mill and it was such a treat. We were very tired after a long busy week, not good enough company for friends and doing a roast with potatoes and Yorkshires and lots of steamed vegetables is actually not complicated cooking. It was as soft as butter with loads of flavor and the new Yorkshire recipe was a near success – they puffed up beautifully, but probably needed a little more time in the oven to crisp up a bit more. Check out the recipe below. You don’t have to have duck fat, you can use oil, but it did make a huge taste difference. It seems to be roast time in October, the weather is still not too warm and we haven’t moved on to salads. We are probably going to do a chicken next! Lynne made nachos with strips of the beef in a chilli sauce, guacamole and a lettuce, tomato and pepperdrop salsa for supper on Monday. And there is still a large piece in the freezer for another time.

Make this the night before or in the morning at the latest, so the glutens get time to expand.

Yorkshire pudding

3 Jumbo eggs – 125g Double 00 flour – 300 ml full cream milk – salt and pepper – 10ml of water - duck fat – 1 deep muffin pan with 8 or 12 holes

Mix the eggs with the flour and slowly stir in the milk, until you have a pouring cream consistency that coats the back of a spoon. Season and put in the fridge for at least 8 hours. Just before using, stir in the cold water.

Turn your oven to 220°C. Put a spoonful of duck fat in the bottom of each muffin hole and heat till the fat is smoking. Carefully pour in the Yorkshire batter till the tins are half full. Put back in the oven and bake for approximately 15 minutes or until they have puffed up nicely and are browning and loose in the pan, but still a little soft in the centre. Serve immediately with good gravy.

Our products. We haven’t had our delivery of Carnaroli rice; we hope to have more by the middle of next week. We do have the Violone Nano, which is also excellent and the more familiar Arborio. The Spanish Bomba paella rice continues to sell well. Goose fat is out of stock at our supplier, as is hazelnut oil. We do have ample supply of duck fat.

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. So, please have a look at our Product List and see what you need. You can contact us by email or phone, or through our website. We can send your requirements to you anywhere in South Africa.

Changes in our market activities

You will find us at Long Beach Mall in Sun Valley tomorrow, Friday 7th from 09h00 to 16h00. We will be at the Old Biscuit Mill’s brilliant, exciting and atmospheric Neighbourgoods Market, as always, this Saturday between 09h00 and 14h00. The Neighbourgoods market is being rearranged. It didn’t happen last week because cleaning up after the previous night’s beer festival took too long. We were promised a diagram showing our new position, but it has not been forthcoming in time for this edition of MENU. We have been told that the tables will be arranged at right angles to the way we are all used to, in order to improve the flow of visitors through the market. Expect Lynne to be wearing a strange gold plastic crown in order to help you find us.

Perhaps regrettably, we will not be back at the Dean St Arcade in Newlands on Wednesdays. We will miss friends we have made there, but our turnover there has not been enough to justify our presence, when we can be gainfully employed elsewhere. We will, in future, be at The Place at Cavendish (Woolworths underground entrance to Cavendish Square), from 10h00 to 17h00 on Fridays when we are not at Long Beach, and we will have our great selection of delicious treats and ingredients there for you. Expect to see us at Cavendish on Friday 14^th.

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

There is a huge variety of interesting things to occupy your leisure time here in the Western Cape. To help you choose an event to visit, we have taken our list of Interesting Food and Wine Events online. Click here to access it. You will need to be connected to the internet.

Many of the specials in our list of restaurant special offers are continuing through summer and we have been told that there will be some new summer menus soon. 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. we’ve been sent, to give you the essentials. Click on the name to access the relevant website. All communication should be with the individual restaurants.

6^th October 2011

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 send us a message, inserting "subscribe" in the subject line. If you wish to be removed from our mailing list, please send us a message, inserting "remove" in the subject line

Thursday, September 29, 2011

110922 Main Ingredient's MENU - Vineyard Wine Concepts dinner, wine tastings, Cape Point wine, roast pork, things to do, affordable places to eat

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.co.za

Click here to Subscribe to MENU or to contact us

Click on anything underlined and Green to open a link to pictures or more information

TW3* Sometimes you take a deep breath and say “What a week!”. We have not stopped. There have been four wine events this week so far, and one dinner paired with wine. Plus two markets.

A grey heron taking off from a treetop

Last Friday night we were invited to Wine Concepts’ Food and wine pairing dinner in The Square restaurant at the Vineyard Hotel. Late in August, we joined Mike Bampfield Duggan and Corlien Morris of Wine Concepts, the hotel management team and of course the chef, Alex Jenkinson, to taste the food and choose from the selection of wines Mike recommended to go with the dinner. Normally at these tastings, the wine comes first and the chef then has to come up with food to match. This time they gave the chef his head and let him choose the food for a wonderful four course menu, which Mike had to find wines to match. Mike chose so well that we had no problem at all in choosing the four that were served. No arguments at all. At the dinner, last Friday, we were welcomed with a glass of Genevieve bubbly, met lots of people attending the dinner and then went in to the feast. Our first course was a goat’s cheese panacotta with cucumber gazpacho, pine nuts and salad leaves matched with Adi Badenhorst’s Secateurs 2010 Chenin blanc.

Second course was pan fried Norwegian salmon, confit beetroot, with a hollandaise sauce and accompanied by a confit duck egg – cooked in a water bath at 51degrees for one hour, which is very soft and jellylike and acts as a very rich sauce to the salmon. This was served with a wine we were not familiar with: Beau Constantia’s Cicely 2010 Viognier. Main course was a very good Springbok loin Wellington which accompanied Gabrielskloof Red Blend. And the dessert was an American baked cheesecake with honey and lavender ice cream, served with Ridgeback’s lovely Natural sweet Viognier. The good news for all of you who missed this wonderful evening and menu is that most of these dishes or something very similar are currently on the à la carte menu at The Square, so you can rush off and taste them yourselves. And you can book for the next food and wine Gourmet events in October. See the Vineyard’s web site.

SMOKING HADDOCK! Lynne made a classic Fish pie last week and was delighted to find that Julie of Ocean Jewels fish at the Biscuit Mill is producing her own lightly smoked haddock. It is not coloured, something we are absolutely delighted about – who wants to eat unnecessary chemicals which add nothing to the flavour? The fish was wonderfully moist and flaky, with a good traditional smoked flavour. We should point out that haddock in South Africa is also hake but not the same species of hake as found in north Atlantic waters. We can detect very little difference.

HOW NOT TO On Monday night, we were invited to a different sort of wine trade show and we conclude that, in future, we might need a head torch to see our wine and read labels in the pitch dark, ear plugs to prevent damage from very loud music, and an ear trumpet to point in the direction of the wine makers or their staff, so that we can hear what they are saying. We think if you want to have a party, go ahead and have a party in a nightclub. But if you want the trade and the media to be serious about meeting the wine makers and taste their wine, a trade show in a nightclub is definitely not the way to do it, unless you organise a tasting with proper lighting and follow it with a party, flashing lights and ear splitting music. And it’s not the “old fogeys” speaking – most of the complaints (and there were plenty, then and afterwards) we heard came from people in the 25-35 age group. Enough said.

Shiraz showcase On Tuesday night, we attended the Shiraz Showcase at the Vineyard Hotel. Seventy mostly glorious examples of this very popular wine varietal were on show on two floors. It was so great to be able to taste through the different styles and origins of these lovely wines in a classy environment, with a string duet quietly playing in the background. Some of the wines have now won serious international recognition. Driehoek, made by David Nieuwoudt of Cederberg for his neighbours, has just received a 93 in Parker. It was John’s (and many others) favourite wine. Lynne’s favourite of the evening was an old favourite, Kalkveld Shiraz from Zandvliet, with soft spicy flavours but still holding good acidity and with lots still to come. This was very closely followed by Waterford’s Kevin Arnold Shiraz and she also liked the Antonij Rupert. John loved the Driehoek, Kalkveld and Guy Webber’s deliciously fruity but well-structured Stellenzicht Rhapsody Pinotage Shiraz blend, .

As usual, really good canapés were circulated during the evening – quite essential if you are tasting this amount of wine over a four hour period. Delicious seafood and fish cakes, Asian chicken spring rolls with a nice sweet but not hot dip, porcini mushroom and soft cheese spanakopita, a really clever aubergine bruschetta which so went with the shiraz and a small ramekin of lamb tagine, spicy but also not hot.

Cape Point Vineyards Cape Point Sauvignons blanc have collected many accolades since their beginning in the late 1990s. Their Splattered Toad second label contributes a portion of the money from the sale of each bottle to the conservation of the endangered Western Leopard Toad, which is endemic to the area round the vineyards. We visited the farm on a media event organised by Tracy van Maaren and Sue Anderson, who distribute the wines. Tractors and trailers took us high up the hill above Noordhoek beach to the Sauvignon blanc vineyard, carved out of the stony hillside, where Cape Point Vineyards winemaker Duncan Savage told us about the farm and the way he grows the wines. Then we were taken back down the hill to the tasting room, where Duncan led us through a tasting of his wines. We started the tasting with the palate and wallet-friendly Splattered Toad, and moved through the Cape Point Sauvignon blanc and Sauvignon blanc Reserve to the lean and well-balanced barrel-fermented flagship Isliedh 2010 white blend (75% Sauvignon blanc and 25% Semillon). These were followed by the excellent, elegant Chablis-like Chardonnay and the only red, Splattered Toad, a blend of Cabernet sauvignon and Shiraz. The tasting was followed by an excellent light lunch prepared by his wife. She made one of the best quiches most of us have ever eaten. The fillings (spinach & cheese and cheese & ham) were light and fluffy, the pastry crisp, thin and melt in the mouth. She does cater (Something Savage) so if you live in the area you can order from her. Pictures here.

Caroline’s White Wine Review is one of those not-to-miss wine shows each year. Caroline Rillema waits until most of the farms have released their wines for the year before making her selection of what she thinks are the most interesting. There were some seriously wonderful wines on show last night and it was difficult to know where to start and then where to stop. David Trafford’s Malagas Wine Company Sijnn white (57% Chenin & 43% Viognier), proved you can use large amounts of Viognier with another grape, not have it take over and still let both express themselves in a wonderful integrated wine. Howard Booysen’s and Groote Post’s Rieslings were different and sensational and showed no turpene flavours, thankfully. David Niewoudt’s Ghost Corner Semillon was the wine that blew Lynne away for the evening. John was very happy to see the number of Chenin blancs on show, all exhibiting different characteristics – something which this chameleon grape does so well. Jean Daneel’s Signature Chenin is a delight as are Beaumont’s Hope Marguerite and Cederberg’s Five Generations Chenin Blanc. Chardonnays which impressed most were Ataraxia and Dewetshof’s The Site. There is not enough space here to list all the wines we liked.

We have written an article on wine availability in the Durban area for wine.co.za. It should be published soon.

ALLAN MULLINS TRIBUTE Many people in the wine industry in this country – and, indeed, many round the world - know and respect Allan Mullins. For many of us, he has been a really special friend. Allan, a Cape Wine Master, has directed the wine department of Woolworths for many years and will soon be retiring from that position. He lost the use of his lower body in an accident many years ago and a dinner was held in his honour a few weeks ago at Spier to raise funds to help with his increasingly expensive medical treatment. As part of the fund-raising drive, a silent auction is being held in which some wonderful bottles of wine can be purchased. These have been donated by producers and collectors and you might be lucky enough to pick up some wonderful bargains and, at the same time, contribute to a very worthwhile cause. Allan says that many people have made incredibly generous donations and heI will feel very bad if they are not suitably acknowledged. You can find the list of wines under Silent Auction on the website www.allanmullinstribute.com.

How do you like your meat cooked? Lynne did a small pork leg roast just for the two of us at the weekend which was very successful. We like our Pork cooked long and slow, so Lynne either uses the River Café method or Reuben’s great recipe from his cookbook. This time she used both of them, covering the pork with the River Café mix of garlic, fresh chilli and fennel seeds, pounded to a paste then rubbed in all over. The pork is given 25 minutes at full blast in the oven then Reuben’s mix of 2 cups of stock, 1 of soya sauce, grated rind of one orange, a star anise, a cinnamon stick and half a cup of sugar is added to the pan, covered with heavy foil and the pork cooked in a long and slow braise for at least 5 to 6 hours at only 150°C. We had duck fat baby potatoes and lots of freshly steamed broccoli and beans with it. The crackling was very soft so Lynne peeled it off and put in a pyrex dish in the microwave, salted it, covered with kitchen paper and zapped for about 2 minutes on full power but at 30 second intervals. Perfect crisp crackling and because it was well covered with paper, no damage to the inside of the microwave. We served it with a Buitenverwachting Shiraz 2006 (occasionally available from the tasting room, but not a commercially available wine) We prefer our lamb pink, roast beef too, and our chicken just cooked and falling apart but moist and flavourful. What everyone wants to know at the moment is why is lamb so impossibly expensive (about R90 a kilo plus) compared to say fillet steak (R90 to R120) while good pork for roasting is selling this week for about R33 a kilo.

Our products. The Spanish paella rice (500g boxes) continues to find friends and we also have the top quality Bomba rice which is in 1Kg cloth bags, ideal for use in haute cuisine. This select variety comes only from the Ebro Delta. Tender and gentle on the palate once cooked, the great absorption capacity of its short, rounded grains allows it to fully soak up the flavour of the other ingredients. It stands out for its capacity to resist overcooking. Also from Spain, we have more stock of the popular Spanish smoked paprika and sherry vinegar. We have also replenished our stock of the brilliant Nielsen Massey extracts, French patés, goose and duck fat and vinegars and the excellent Protea Hill farm vinegars, especially the 7 year old barrel-matured balsamic raspberry, which is very popular, especially with American tourists. Fans of Masterchef Australia will love our Carnaroli risotto rice and truffles, amongst lots of other strange and difficult things to find that they use.

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. So, please have a look at our Product List and see what you need. 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 We will be at the Old Biscuit Mill’s brilliant, exciting and atmospheric Neighbourgoods Market, as always, this Saturday between 09h00 and 14h00. You will find us at The Place at Cavendish (Woolworths underground entrance to Cavendish Square), next Friday, 23rd September, from 10h00 to 17h00, and we will have our great selection of delicious treats and ingredients there for you.

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

Good food and wine continues to grow as a focal point for many people in the Western Cape and, to an extent, in other parts of the country. As a result, our list of Interesting Food and Wine Events has grown so much that it was making MENU too long for some of our readers. So we’ve taken it online. Click here to access it. You will need to be connected to the internet.

Our list of Winter restaurant special offers continues to grow. Click here to access it. These 2011 Winter 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. When we have tried it, we’ve put in our observations. We have cut out the flowery adjectives etc. we’ve been sent, to give you the essentials. Click on the name to access the relevant website. All communication should be with the individual restaurants.

* Fans of British television will remember that the 1960s programme “That Was The Week, That Was”, which brought to prominence names like John Cleese, Ronnie Corbett and Ronnie Barker, was referred to as “TW3)

22nd September 2011

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