Wednesday, June 24, 2015

New winter menu at Den Anker, V&A Waterfront

We always enjoy it when we are invited by restaurants to come and taste their food; better still when we know that the food they produce is good. Last Friday was a beautiful crisp and sunny winter’s day and, following the Sommeliers Selection Awards, we made our way to this waterside restaurant in the Waterfront. We were able to sit outside on the dock and eat our way through tasting portions of their winter specials, accompanied by a selection of samples of Belgian beers. The selection is very good and those of you with children will love Sundays, when they eat free (but no beer for them!)
Lovely wintry light on the harbour. A long view of Den Anker, which is on the left
The Winter Special flyer with the details
The front of Den Anker. This popular Belgian restaurant has been open for 19 years
The beer bar inside with its rowboat canopy
Our table outside on the dock
Or you can sit inside in the window area and admire the view of Table Mountain and the harbour
The beer menu is large and comprehensive, they import good beer from Belgium
The food menu
Its Moules on Mondays. 1 Kg of mussels, cooked in beer with crisp frites and mayonnaise. Lynne is not a mussel fan but these were truly superb. Fresh mussels, cooked just enough to open them, so they were juicy and succulent, beautifully flavoured with herbs and onions and the beer. The frites disappeared too quickly
On Tuesdays, with every Trappist beer ordered, you get a plate of cheeses. This was a small taster, we had already enjoyed a huge amount of food. The actual portion is more generous
The Trappist beer served to John

On Wednesdays, it is seared Norwegian salmon steaks and a glass of wine. The salmon is so fresh and beautifully cooked in a citron cream sauce, on spinach and with more vegetables on the plate
On Thursdays, you can enjoy a spectacular tasting of six Belgian draught beers for only R50

The size of the tasters is good. They brought these first, so that we could drink them with the food

Fish and Frites with a white beer on Fridays
On Saturday, you get three Tapas treats for R120. We had enormous panko crumbed sweet prawns with two dipping sauces - a sweet chilli and mayonnaise; Steak béarnaise and deep fried Bitterballen meat croquettes with mustard. A lovely selection and, of course, if there are two of you, you will have six tapas

The Tapas menu

A Blue outlook. No blue filter was used! Just the winter light
There are some impressive yachts moored in the inner harbour and, in the background, the city and Table Mountain are on view
He wanted some of our lunch
Restaurant manager Brandon and Chef Doekie Vlietman
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© John & Lynne Ford, Adamastor & Bacchus 2015

Tuesday, June 23, 2015

A Visit to Niel Joubert Wine Estate in Paarl

Charles Withington has had a respectable career in wine. He owns the Darling Wine Shop and has become a friend. During his tenure as General Manager at nearby Backsberg, he got to know the Jouberts very well and has looked after their export marketing since the mid 90s. Recently, he suggested that we should all go and have a tasting and lunch with them. We met him there last Wednesday and a wonderful day was had by all
The farm is on the Simondium Road in Klapmuts, near Paarl and, on going through these imposing gates, you drive far up the road into the wooded countryside
until you come to these gates guarded by the two handsome Belgian Shepherd dogs who greet you effusively
The manor house, where they have their offices
The vines are behind and all around this leafy farm and creep up the Simonsberg
Lovely garden designs. It must be pretty when the creeper is in full colour
Into the tasting room to meet daughter Mari. Should you wish to visit they are open by appointment. http://www.nieljoubert.co.za/ It's a family farm, bought in 1898, and is now run by third and fourth generation Jouberts
Mari Joubert is in charge of PR and Marketing
Winemaker Ernst Leicht came in and told us about his wines
We tasted these wines in the cellar and photographed them at the same time. We began with the 2009 Christine-Marié MCC which is made from 100% unwooded chardonnay. It has lovely vanilla, perfume and aged lees on the nose and melon, limes and cooked pear on the palate, with good mousse and good length
We went on to taste the 2015 Chenin blanc, full of tropical fruits but crisp, dry and refreshing
Then the Pinotage Rosé Blanc de Noir, with pretty, floral fruity notes
The 2013, just bottled, Pinotage which smells of expensive wood, but has only been dusted. It tastes of red plums, with good tannins and licorice, banana, chocolate and coffee at the end. Something most Pinotage lovers will like, especially at the price, which is R52 from the farm
The 2013 Cabernet is excellent, with pretty cassis berries and leaves and vanilla on the nose. Its full of soft, sweet clean fruit, richness, elegance, some green tannins with licorice on the end. It is a good food wine and a snip at R63. It is punching well above its station and we think will also lay down well for future drinking
Their 2012 Shiraz, which is their biggest seller here and overseas, has incense wood and Chanel perfume, it is spicy, woody, herbaceous, with clove, cinnamon and pepper notes and some capsicum in with the fruit. Lots of wood on the end
This 2008 Christine Marié Chardonnay shows how well South African whites can age, which is why we bought a case. It spent 18 months in new French barrels. It is an elegant, classic Chardonnay, not over-wooded, but full of fresh golden fruit
Charles Withington
Viticulturalist Daan Joubert with winemaker Niel Joubert jr
Niel Joubert has accumulated a collection of classic American cars, mainly convertibles, from the 50s and 60s
Most of them are General Motors brands, but he also has a Packard
We then left the tasting room and headed for lunch at Daan Joubert's home across the road. It is very old and has been sympathetically and beautifully restored by the family. Daan is a stickler for detail and doing things the right way, says his wife, Eleanor
The family's elderly golden retriever
Lunch was set up for us in the dining room and we started with cups of a lovely seafood soup accompanied by the 2014 Herr Leicht, a great match. This is an unusual blend of 69% Sauvignon Blanc, 22% Nouvelle and 14% Chenin Blanc. It is made for the Namibian market
The main course was served with the 2006 Christine Marié Shiraz which is very refined, spicy on the nose and yet full on fruit and nicely matured on the palate. It was served with a corn, radish, cucumber, rocket and chevre salad and...
... beautifully cooked oxtail on the bone with onions. We were converted immediately. It is not a dish we have enjoyed before, but all the sinew and fat had been cooked away, leaving only the meat on the bone in its rich juices. It was also served with rice. The shiraz was the perfect match
We had lots of good conversation over lunch and then it was time for dessert. A wonderful soft cake filled with sweet cream and walnuts and 'iced' with fresh cream
Served here by Daan's wife, Eleanor
We enjoyed this with homemade limoncello. It was, deceptively, served in a Herr Leicht bottle
A beautiful handle on a piece of antique furniture
The vineyards have very interesting drainage ditches every four rows

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© John & Lynne Ford, Adamastor & Bacchus 2015

Boplaas launches the new vintages of Portuguese styled table wine and older Cape Vintage Reserve Ports at Dear Me

We were invited to taste four Boplaas wines made with Port varieties and four of their ports last Thursday. The tasting was held in Tjing Tjing on the ground floor and then we went upstairs to the Dear Me restaurant to lunch, paired with more of the wines and Port
Higgo Jacobs with Margaux Nel, PRO Emile Joubert and pouring bubbly is Carel Nel
Carel Nel greeting journalists Graham Howe and Jeanri-Tine van Zyl
Tasting tables laid out and ready to start
The line up for tasting. The most interesting wine was the Touriga Naçional Unfiltered 2003 still full of rich red berries and vanilla oak; it had a long sour cherry finish. The Woolworths Boplaas Connection 2013, made from Touriga and Cabernet Sauvignon, had sweet and sour cherries and blackberries with good depth and might be a good food wine. The 2013 Ring of Rocks Tinta Barocca /Touriga Franseca is only available in restaurants and from the farm. It tastes of cherries with their stones. It's elegant with chalky tannins and needs time. The flagship 2012 Gamka (Lion in Khoisan), 72% Touriga 28% Shiraz, has an intriguing nose of violets and incense. It, too, has dry tannins, sour sweet cherries and is built to last
Then we moved on to the Ports: Boplaas Tinta Barocca Vintage Port 1986, bottled way back then with a screw cap, has bruléed fruit cake and whiffs of smoke and vanilla. It's very sweet, with layers and layers of Christmas cake fruit, sugar and alcohol with a long finish. Can go years more. It was elegant, had some herbaceous notes, and was fresh and full of cherries. The 1999 Vintage Reserve Port, made from Touriga and Tinta Barocca, is dark brown and showing its age a bit, but still has Christmas fruit. The 2003 Cape Vintage Port Touriga and Tinta was most peoples’ favourite in the tasting. Sweet plums and raisins, with ginger and vanilla. A lovely soft port with good lasting flavours and lots of warm alcohol. The Boplaas Cape Winemakers Guild 2006 Cape Vintage Reserve, a blend of Touriga, Tinta and Souzao, has a shy dusty nose but on the palate is delicious. Sweet black cherries and blackberries warm off the brambles. Warm, with good chalky tannins and well integrated. We think this will last for years. Lynne scored this 18. If you have any, lucky you. The Cape Tawny Bin 1880 was a revelation. Pale amber glistening in the glass, it had balsam, herbs, wood and Oxford orange marmalade on the nose. It was lighter in weight than expected, but those refreshing orange notes with spices made the flavours almost Moroccan. Exceptional

The tasting begins
Carel leads us through the tasting
and Margaux adds information on the wines
Serious tasting and Michael Fridjhon on his laptop making notes
We moved up to the restaurant, which used to be completely white. We think the blue makes the room look bigger and more interesting
Some Boplaas brandy for later
The wines with lunch
The menu with the wine pairings
The starter of pickled hake with pineapple on squid ink toast. If you enjoy pickled fish, it went well with the 2014 Cape Portuguese white blend of Verdelho/Chardonnay/Sauvignon Blanc. It's full of citrus and pineapple flavours, so the pineapple was a good addition. The bread was strange. Slightly fishy, but very soggy
Next course was ribbons of char-grilled courgettes with toasted pine nuts and lightly whipped goats' cheese, topped with fresh mint, basil and chives. We liked it. Something to serve vegetarian friends. We might add a dressing. Good with the Bobbejaanberg crisp, green and aromatic Sauvignon Blanc, which is grown in the Outeniqua ward of Upper Langkloof. It was awarded a double gold at Michelangelo and the Vitis Vinifera awards
The main course was a four meats tasting plate: We liked the sticky soy pork belly, and the fynbos smoked pulled quail bun very much. The tartare was not cut correctly, but it was made with good meat. The lamb and buchu stew could have been a big serving. Matching them with the four different Boplaas wines was fun and each had its own perfect match
Then three elements on the first dessert to pair with the unctuously sweet Boplaas CWG Ouma Cloete Straw wine and the Boplaas Cape Tawny Reserve port: Caciotta panna cotta (unsweetened cheese) with honey glazed grapes and a wine (not brandy) snap; pecan tart (delicious, we all wanted more) and molasses ice cream, which went so well with the wines
The Nel family lines up after a very good tasting and lunch. L to R. Daughter Rozanne, Mother Jeanne, father Carel Nel and daughter Margaux 
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© John & Lynne Ford, Adamastor & Bacchus 2015