KWV launch the new vintage of the Mentors range at The Test Kitchen

As if this week could not get any better? Then it did. On Thursday we attended a tasting of the KWV Mentors newly released wines at the Test Kitchen, where some of their best wines were paired with the food of South Africa’s number one chef Luke Dale Roberts. It was a tour de force of wines which, to quote Johann Fourie Chief Winemaker at KWV, “started the renaissance of KWV”. This renaissance was driven ably by Cellar Master Richard Rowe.

KWV managed to take over the restaurant for the lunchtime service

Eamon and Clare McLaughlin welcome guests at the door, 

Fiona MacDonald chats to Marco Ventrella, Chief Viticulturist at KWV

We love watching these chefs doing preparation in the very quiet kitchen. They each have a job to do and they do it silently and efficiently, then the food is assembled and the magic happens

Everyone knows exactly what is expected of them

First a tasting of 7 white wines, then 7 reds and then the Noble late harvest 2013

Tasting, tweeting, discussing, photographing and making notes happen throughout

From bottom left: 1. Mentors Semillon 2013, so classic, so clean and crisp with long flavours of citrus. HOW can we get SA drinking more of this wonderful wine? 2. Mentors Stellenbosch 2013 Sauvignon Blanc with cats pee notes and quite austere for Stellenbosch! 3. Mentors Darling 2013 Sauvignon Blanc was shyer, with more asparagus, crisp and dry, very different, will age when it settles. 4. Mentors Sauvignon/Semillon blend from Groenekloof. Grassy, dusty, nice glycerols, crisp lemons and melons. 5. Mentors 2013 Chenin Blanc. Dusty but full of fruit salad - peaches and melons, nice crispness and elegance. Drink now! 6. Mentors Verdelho. Herbal and full of peaches, nutty apricots, with minerality and elegance which was unexpected, but not powerful enough, needs more fruit and acid depth 7. Mentors 2013 Chardonnay. Golden delicious apples, shy, with wood notes but no smoke. Some umami hints on nose. Golden flavours, vanilla apricot and peach but dry, not sweet

Richard Rowe talks about the wines

Eamon McLaughlin

Winemaker Johann Fourie and Viticulturalist Marco Ventrella

Johann talks about the way they make the wine and source the grapes

Marco Ventrella spoke about the way they select vineyards for their special characteristics, to find the best terroir for each varietal

The line up of red wines

Chef Luke Dale Roberts

The red wines from bottom left: 1 Mentors 2012 Pinotage. Very rich, bloody notes, with intense red berries on nose. Wonderful mouthful of rich berries, long flavours. No metallic notes, toasty on end. Lynne would drink this (second pinotage this year!) Keep it and it will show its Pinot Noir parentage 2. Mentors 2012 Shiraz. Amami, tomato soup notes, sweet fruit, deep and delicious, pepper, spice and black cherries and mulberries  3. Mentors Cabernet Franc. Elegant. Incense wood. lovely berries violets and vanilla. A Dive-in nose. On the palate, clean bright fruit, beautiful minerality, and nice chalky tannins. Superb flavours. Lynne has written I WANT SOME, so this might be her Birthday wine this year. She scored 19½/20  4. Mentors 2012 Cabernet Sauvignon. Cassis, warm fruit, classic nose. Cassis and amaretto cherries on mouth, chalky tannins and minerality. Needs 10 years to settle. Will be great  5. Mentors 2012 Petit Verdot. Shy but full of promise. Violets, roses, pure Chanel. Rich, full pure fruit, a lovely expression of the grape, vanilla on end. Nice structure. Taste this in 4/5 years  6. Mentors Orchestra 2012. Bordeaux blend. Blockbuster blend. With layers and layers, great balance; berries are expressive but not overripe. A 10 year wine  7. Mentors Canvas 2012 Rhône blend. “Hot country” wine, with nice acids and depth of fruit layers; violets and chalky closed tannins. See me in 10 years please. So unusual for a Rhône blend to be more closed than a Bordeaux

The menu paired with 5 of the wines

Pipers

A smiling chef

A plate of delightful amuses to go with the bread platter. It included some savoury millionaires' shortbread, a square of foie topped with gold leaf – more, we want more, we muttered

Luke tells us about the food to come

So hard to resist this bread and pretzel platter, but we managed

Tony Jackman, Eamon McLaughlin, Neil Pendock and Marco Ventrella

‘Home dried’ tomatoes served with aubergine and sesame puree, with the burnt aubergine jelly and a goats cheese mousse. It was everything you ever wanted a tomato to be. Paired with the Mentors 2013 Chenin

Another view of the same to make you even more hungry

Tuna sashimi with a miso cured quail egg on top of baby lettuce, toasted garlic and ginger dressing. Paired with the Mentors 2013 Verdelho

A sweet and perfectly grilled scallop on fine green beans, braised & raw shiitake mushrooms on a tofu miso suke (fermented bean paste), braised scallop dressing with miso on toast for crunch. Perfect with the Mentors Semillon 2013

A palate cleanser of pomelo and grapefruit three ways, a sorbet, a foam and small segments, sprinkled with herbs

We all have to have a photograph of THAT!

Pan seared rare Springbok loin, baby beets, springbok skilpadjie, (red onion and almond liver parfait wrapped in caul fat) with a roasted springbok and beetroot ‘extraction’. Such a perfect match with the Mentors 2012 Cabernet Sauvignon

And as a fine finale, an Assiette of chocolate, grilled white chocolate and cinnamon sponge, caramelia cremeuz, guanaja parfait & almond streusl and maple foam went with the perfect glass of The Mentors Noble Late Harvest 2013

Take a bow Mr Dale Roberts and KWV

RETURN TO MENU

© John & Lynne Ford, Adamastor & Bacchus 2014

Brandy and Tapas at the Mount Nelson

And the day was not over for us yet. We dashed home, unpacked the car and, with five minutes to spare, arrived at the Mount Nelson hotel for a tasting of their new Winter Tapas and Brandy Menu which will be served daily from 12h00 to 23h00.  Does brandy go with food?  You can now find out for yourself. 

We assembled in the Planet bar and rather took over the area in front of the fire on this chilly, wet evening. This tasting was organised by Dr Winnie Bowman CWM, Executive Chef Rudi Liebenberg, Christelle Reade-Jahn of the Brandy Foundation and Gabi Palmer Bolton, PRO for the hotel group 

Some of the people attending were not regular brandy drinkers, others are

Dr Winnie Bowman MW and Gabi Palmer explain the tasting

Christelle Reade-Jahn, CEO of the Brandy Foundation, tells us about it and the brandies we are going to taste with the food

Our first course was Snoek Fritters, served with Collison’s White Gold Pot Still. It looks unnervingly like a vodka and we are sure it gets bought as another spirit due to its lack of colour. Its notes of almonds, apricots, pineapple and hot chilli matched the spicy fritters, which had fresh chilli in them

Listening intently

Now how does this taste? Uitkyk Potstill 10 year old with Calamari in a tomato and olive sauce. The olives were a little sharp and bitter. Nice peaches, nuts, citrus and coffee notes in the brandy

We discuss the pairings

Elegant brandy glasses with the calamari taster

Gabi and Christelle waiting for the next pairing

Very hot and spicy chorizo on potato rather overwhelmed the delicate Kaapzicht Pot Still 10 year old, full of violets, lemon and wood-smoke nose with rich, smooth silk caramel toffee on the palate

Journalist Jos Baker was in fine form

Examining the photographer at a distance

The duck bitterballen (croquette) with mustard went very well with the Laborie Alambic, our current favourite Cape Brandy. Its citrus, fresh peach orchard and almond flavours are gentle and soft and silky and the savoury duck brought these out more. It is a lovely match

We all discuss brandy as the next course is served, It was Peri Peri chicken wings with Joseph Barry 19 year old Cape Pot still. Perfectly cooked but, again a little spicy for the brandy, the assembly thought. The Joseph Barry is very floral, like Versace’s Femme and has caramel, cinnamon and nuts followed by citrus sunshine and then hot toffee coffee smoke

Ah, here comes the best course of the evening, a beautiful citrus financier topped with lemon cream and a shard of white chocolate. It was served with the van Ryn 15 year old Cask Reserve, recently voted the best brandy in the world, which is herby, spicy balsamic caramel on the nose and tastes just like a very old style Cognac with nuts, apricots and coriander spice

Lots of enjoyment followed as we tasted our brandies and ate some petite fours

The line up of brandies we tasted

RETURN TO MENU

© John & Lynne Ford, Adamastor & Bacchus 2014

90 year celebration at Alto, Stellenbosch

How to hit the ground running? Leave Hermanus at 10 am and drive through to Alto in Stellenbosch to celebrate their 90^th anniversary as South Africa’s oldest red wine estate. Many of the most worthy media were present and most of us had to admit that this was our first visit to this lovely farm. That needs to be remedied. We think it is because it is in an area full of charismatic wine farms, but it is so worth the effort. But who knew this treasure was there;they have kept rather a low profile until now and things are changing. Alto are famous for their good value Alto Rouge blend of Shiraz, Cabernet Franc, Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon and now Petite Verdot (the blend varies slightly each year). We tasted the 1993, 2001 and 2004 vintages and these wines have lasted. But they also produce some really exciting and delicious Shiraz and very classic Cabernets on this 193 hectare farm with, 93 of which are under vines.

We gathered round a large square table in the tasting room. This was a very civilised way to do a tasting, as everyone could interact. From L to R: Christian Eedes, Wine Magazine; Cathryn Henderson, Classic Wine; Lise Manley of Manley Communications; Ross Sleet, Marketing Director of Cape Legends; the tasting room manager, Louise Lamprecht; Winemaker Schalk van der Westhuizen; Simone Scott, Marketing Manager; Roy Davies, Vineyard Hotel GM

Alto is under the Cape Legends Portfolio and is widely available

Journalist Graham Howe getting down to tasting and and describing the wines.

Tasting the Alto Rouge 1993, which showed notes of ginger, aged wood and elegance on the nose and then sweet and sour fruit with long soft flavours, Lynne concluded this was probably better with food now than quaffing

Winemaker Schalk van der Westhuizen has been with Alto since 2000 and made his first vintage in 2001. There have only ever been four winemakers on Alto and all are legends: Mannie Malan, then Pieter du Toit, who handed over to his son Hempies du Toit (who now farms down the road on his own farm, Annandale) and then Schalk. Many of the vineyards have had to be replanted over the last 25 years to get rid of leaf roll virus. Schalk says harvest is always late on Alto and it is difficult to wait. He is still waiting for his Sauvignon Blanc vineyards

Three vintages of Alto Rouge 1993, 2001 & 2004. Some even need more time! And they do show the same Alto characteristics. And on the right the Alto Cabernet 2001 which had a slight balsamic nose with cooked fruit aromas, but the wine on the palate gave so much more than expected. And it was unexpectedly lovely and fresh with a good mouthfeel

Some snacks were served beforehand. These are roosterkoek, bread filled with cheese and ham and toasted on an open fire

These were succulent barbecued chicken pieces with a good hot peri peri basting sauce

These are the wines we tasted. Shiraz 2001 which was so rich and full of fruit on the nose and is a beautifully elegant food wine with long flavours and nice warmth from spice and alcohol. Lynne’s highest scoring wine for a long time at 19/20. The 2004 Shiraz was full of Chanel No.5 on the nose and full of sweet spicy warm fruit, a good quaffer. The 2004 Cabernet was shy and not overtly attractive on the nose, but has beautiful fruit and is a lovely wine to drink. Lynne wrote “BUY if we can find”. If you have some, you are very fortunate. Drink it soon. 18½/20. The MPHS is their flagship wine and the letters stand for the initials of all the winemakers. It is a blend of 67% Cab Franc, 43 Cab Sauvignon and is only bottled when the quality is there. It is made in limited quantities and is available at R750 a bottle. We tasted the 2007, which has a classic cassis and green herbal notes on the nose and has lots of depth and layers but is still very, very young. The 2012 is still in barrel

Tasting Room manager Louise Lamprecht with the wines

Then it was time for us to move through to the impressive barrel cellar for lunch

Here we could continue to drink the same vintages with our meal – always a valuable exercise, to see if they do actually go better with food

Ross Sleet talks to us about the wines and the food

The Menu

Lunch was a serve yourself buffet, prepared by redpeppercatering, and had some lovely healthy options like this Rocket and oven roasted vegetable salad

Roasted baby potatoes with mushrooms and, in the background soft pork belly, topped with sensationally crisp crackling and a dish of Beef fillet to be accompanied by a mushroom and pepper sauce.

Lynne’s scrumptious Banting plate, sans potatoes...

Tasting room manager Louise Lamprecht kept us well supplied with wine all through lunch

The weather outside was not playing ball and in fact the heavens opened as we left

A view of damp winter vines on the hills of Stellenbosch. In good weather there are lovely views from Alto. Do go and see them

RETURN TO MENU

© John & Lynne Ford, Adamastor & Bacchus 2014