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Thursday, December 04, 2014

The Franschhoek Cap Classique and Champagne Festival ‘The ‘Magic of Bubbles’

Held, as usual, at the Huguenot monument in Franschhoek, this was a huge success this year as they were totally full on both days. We love this festival, but don’t love the heat that arrives in some years. We chatted to many of our favourite producers to find out what they were doing with their MCCs and tasted several new releases. Several of our friends were also there, enjoying the day. With your entrance ticket costing R200 you were given a champagne glass and a MasterCard sponsored card, loaded with points. It was ‘tapped’ at the various stalls to pay for tastes, usually one per generous tasting. Food had to be paid for with cash. Sadly, Franschhoek has not embraced Banting, almost all the food was with or on large amounts of bread.

One thing we just don’t understand. WHY can you not taste the French champagnes at the show? This surely is the place and time and more importantly the perfect target market to introduce their wines to? But no, you could only buy an expensive full glass or a bottle with cash, they don’t all take the card which was provided. We think that it looks rather snobbish and puts people off who have not yet experienced these lovely bubbles. Many told us that they wouldn’t mind giving up more points to taste the champagnes.

The queue at the entrance. Black and white theme yet again this year

Every seat and umbrella was taken

What a great place to start with - Rickety Bridge’s Rosé MCC and a chat with marketing manager Andrew Harris

Two Foxes on the Charles Fox stand with their lovely crisp Brut

Nicolas Feuillatte Champagne were creating real bubbles

Takuan and Christiane von Arnim on the Cabrière stand

A happy lady

Peter “Bubbles” Ferreira celebrating with some fans

Champagne Jacquart stand

Would Monsieur like a glass or a bottle?

The Simonsig barrel looked good enough to climb into

Lots of elegant well dressed people tasting Champagne

A bottle of Veuve Clicquot on ice in the carrier cost R500

Gold card sir? Lots of takers

Shade in the Pongrácz tent

If you bought a bottle of Piper Heidsieck, it came with a ‘glass’ slipper to drink it from. Demonstrated here by brand manager Tamika Sewnarain

And, as we are media, she gave us a taste of it. Lovely Champagne, dry and elegant

Ross Baker of Wild Peacock and his team spent two days shucking oysters. They sold a boat load

Grand Brut MCC from Plaisir de Merle on ice

And the lovely ladies from Weltevrede in Bonnievale with their three special MCCs

Weltevrede’s Philip Jonker Brut, The Ring, a Blanc de Blanc. It has won so many awards because it is a really good MCC

Happy festival goer and some stilt walkers to entertain us

Ivan Oertle on the Woolworths stand was showcasing the Comtesse Champagne with Chef de cave Alain Pailley and marketing manager Gerard Rafai of Alexandre Bonnet champagne

One of Lynne’s all time favourite Cape MCC’s Silverthorn. So lean, so dry, so sophisticated

Sharon Parnell of Domaine des Dieux with their Claudia MCC

Another busy stall was Genevieve

Leon Engelke, Daisy Verburg and Melissa Nelsen. They always have great branding

Winemaker Anneke du Plessis with the MCC we are drinking most at home this year, the Laborie.

“I am hot and I like eating ice”

She didn’t want any MCC, only ice

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Le Lude - a new MCC from Franschhoek

There is a new wine farm in Franschhoek and we were invited to the opening of the new, very beautiful cellar at La Lude in Franschhoek and taste their new MCC Brut and Rosé, which will be released next year. Owned by Advocate Nick Barrow and his wife Ferda, this is just past the museum on the way up to the Franschhoek pass. It is named after one of the most beautiful chateaux on the Loire.

This is a special machine in the cellar, which they had made to a design from Champagne. It can separate the three levels of pressing when selecting juice to ferment into quality bubbly

Taking a tour of the cellar. The couple on the left are the owners, Nick and Ferda Barrow

Listening to the winemaker, Paul Gerber

The first 2012 bottling racked in the naturally cool cellar

They bottle all the reserve wines in magnums. Wine-maker Paul Gerber is a pioneer in fermentation of Cap Classique on cork. The process – Agarfé – leads to a more complex and unique development of flavours and mouth-feel. "The main reason for this is the difference in the rate of exchange of gases that takes place when the bottle is closed with a cork for the secondary fermentation and aging compared with crown-cap," he says. "It leads to a wine with a unique character, and in Champagne some of the houses such as Bollinger, Krug and Taittinger still use it". At Le Lude, portions of MCC are fermented and aged under both cork and crown-cap in both 750ml and 1500ml. The research data from this will be shared with the University of Stellenbosch so as to accurately asses the impact on the chemical composition of the wine and the changes that have occurred. The wine spends a minimum of 30 months in bottle, and the corks are especially imported by Amorim for this purpose. The first batch is from the 2012 harvest and will be available to market in 2015.

But they do also still use crown caps on the majority of the bottles until degorgement and release

The owners, Nick and Ferda Barrow

A view of the bottle cellar

A light lunch had been prepared for us by the Barrows’ daughter, who is a chef.

A cheese board with preserved green figs and watermelon konfyt (same as confit)

Local coppa ham

We tasted the MCC Brut, and the Rosé, both of which will be released early in 2015 and the base wine that went to these bubblies. Both are extremely drinkable and we await their release with anticipation.

Labels are yet to be designed, but these elegant bottles are made especially for Le Lude in Italy. They have the logo LL moulded into the glass

A demonstration of releasing the cork in an MCC bottle, disgorging the wine to remove the lees

The result!

Really delicious garlic and herb Toulouse sausages from Somerset West

Parma ham

Pamela Fabbian and Simone de Biase, of dell’ Amore bakery in Stellenbosch, who made the bread

Wine enjoyed!

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Summer Festival at Jordan wine estate, Stellenbosch

This may not be a large festival, they sell just enough tickets to completely fill the car parking but it was one of the most enjoyable and relaxed of the year. Jordan asked people to donate dog food, blankets, bowls, etc., which they were collecting for the Border Collie Rescue, PETS and Animal Welfare, all of which are close to Kathy Jordan’s heart. Over the years they have collected blankets and pet food at their event, which have all been donated to the three charities. Food and wine was sold and all the profits they made on the day went to this worthy charity. This year they collected R7000 on the day. The 2014 Winter Charity drive saw them collect almost 5 tonnes of clothing, food & blankets, which was delivered weekly to several churches, night shelters and recognised charities in their community. In addition to that they received generous donations for Stellenbosch Animal Welfare.

We picnicked under the trees or on the lawn, enjoyed the tasting stations which had a R15 canape to match each wine, the lovely view, music and weather, chatted to almost everyone on the farm, ate delicious food prepared by chef George Jardine and sipped lovely Jordan wine with lunch. They had boules and croquet, vineyard and cellar tours, a blending completion, childrens’ jumping castle and a lucky ticket draw, where Lynne won one of the prizes.

Beside the lake, beneath the trees...

Gary Jordan, master builder, wine maker, geologist and farm owner. He has nearly finished building guest cottages on the farm, but told us to hit him over the head with a cricket bat if he ever mentions starting another building project! It will be worth it, Gary