Stanford Wine Route Launch: Boschrivier

The Cape has its 21st Wine route - In Stanford

Every now and then we find ourselves at the beginning of something exciting. A new restaurant, new wine release, a new B&B, but this was something different, the launch of a whole new wine Route. About a year ago we decided to go an explore the Stanford area and to be frank it was not a huge success as while there have always been some excellent wine farms to visit in the area, they were not organised. The winery was open but the restaurant wasn't. Some closed mid week and also in the winter because of lack of visitors or customers. How things have changed. Now that they have an official wine route it should encourage people to take that short trip from Cape Town to just the other side of Hermanus to discover a new area, an area which produces some great wines beer and some very good food and produce.

We were invited with some other media to come on a 3 day trip to discover Stanford's new wine route and signed up with alacrity. Little did we know how much we were going to enjoy ourselves.

They organised a bus with a trailer to take all our luggage and we met outside the Aquarium in the Waterfront

We drove over Sir Lowry's Pass into the spring green wheat fields of the Botrivier area, where the dams are full in a year which has seen very little rain. You can get to Stanford by going through Hermanus; we came on the N2, turned off at Caledon onto the R316 and headed for the R326 to our first stop

and there are vistas of wheatfields with the mountains of the Southern end of Africa in the distance

Our first stop was at Boschrivier, which is owned by a Paediatrician, Theo de Villiers who, with his handsome son Laing, runs this small wine farm, making a four star Shiraz, a Cabernet, a Sauvignon Blanc and a new Rosé made by consultant winemaker Mike Dobrovic

This is the tasting room and coffee shop, where you can stop and buy their wines

The oak trees were just bursting into green leaf

And the spring barley was becoming fat and ripe

They drove us all to the top of their hill for the most marvellous views of he valley and beyond

And the lovely staff from the tasting room were there to serve us the wines

Klein Rivier cheese were there to give us a tasting of some of their 14 products. They have recently changed hands and it will be interesting to see what changes, if any, they make to the cheeses. The Gruyere has been renamed Gruberg at the request of the EC as the name Gruyere is protected. The new owners are the Baleta family. Peter and Maggie who run Klein River Cheese with the help of their three adult children Hannah, Nicholas and Matthew, and a longstanding team of committed employees

You can buy slices of these cheeses 

or for special occasions, the whole rounds

Also at this event were all the new members of the Stanford Wine route. This is Tariro Masayiti General manager and winemaker of Springfontein, who is the Chairman of the Wine Route with Reinhard Odendaal of Birkenhead Brewery

Tariro introduced everyone and told us about Stanford and all its attractions, which we would be visiting over the next three days

Everyone enjoying the good weather, the wine and the cheese next to the dam

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© John & Lynne Ford, Adamastor & Bacchus 2015

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This week's recipe: Mole Pablano sauce

We love Mexican food and we were given some new tacos to try by a chef recently and Lynne wanted to use those Pasillo and Californian dried smoked chillies she bought recently at Wild Peacock.  She made a spicy mince, some guacamole, the refried beans did NOT work as the pan boiled dry while she was working in the study (Note, we need more tinned beans!) and she decided to make some Mole sauce (pronounced Mo-lay) to go with the dish. This is a rich chilli and chocolate sauce that the Mexicans normally use to accompany chicken and stewed meat but she wanted to see what it was like and it did go very well with the mince.  There are some surprise ingredients and there is almost no cooking involved. The left over sauce keeps well in the fridge and freezes well.

Mole Pablano sauce

3 or 4 dried Pasilla and or California dried smoked chilli peppers -1 T olive or canola oil - 1 small chopped onions - 1 cloves garlic, minced -3/4 cup hot chicken stock - 1 T peanuts - 1 teaspoon fresh oregano, chopped - 35g 85% dark unsweetened chocolate, chopped - salt and freshly ground pepper

Remove the stems and seeds from the chillies. Soak them in a little hot water for about 15 to 30 minutes.  Fry the onion in the oil until it is golden but not browning. Add the garlic to the onions and stir briefly, do not burn it. Make your chicken stock and when hot pour it over the chocolate in a deep mixing bowl or in the jug of your stick blender. It will start to melt.  Add the peanuts, the onions and garlic, the oregano and season.  Drain the chillies but keep back the water in case the sauce is too thick. Add the soaked chillies to the bowl and blitz with your stick blender until you have a thick chocolaty sauce to serve with or on top of your meat or chicken.  Don't forget to season it.

There are no substitutes for the chillies. The  peanuts are essential, they help to thicken the sauce. You can however use almonds.  Mexicans add sugar and raisins and lots and lots of different dry spices like cinnamon, coriander, cumin - the list is very long and we will be experimenting in future.  But we don't like a sweet sauce and loved the rich dark bitter chocolate combined with the slightly smoky and sweet chillies.  They are not at all hot, they just give a tiny buzz. Tonight we will have the remainder over chicken. 

A reminder:  1T - 1 Tablespoon  &  1t = 1 teaspoon

This Week's MENU - Cape Wine, Chenin On the Beach, Amorim Cap Classique Awards, Robertson Wine Valley dinner, Wine and Art at Tokara, Amorim Cork's new closure, Borage Bistro

A green Overberg landscape near Caledon

In this week’s MENU:

  Cape Wine Week

  On the Beach with the Chenin Blanc Producers

  Amorim Cap Classique Awards

  Robertson Wine Valley dinner

  Wine and Art at Tokara

  Amorim Cork launches a new closure

  To Borage Bistro for dinner

  This week's recipe: Mole Pablano sauce

  Coming events

  Learn about wine and cooking

We write about our experiences in MENU, not only to entertain you, but to encourage you to visit the places and events that we do. We know you will enjoy them and we try to make each write up as graphic as we can, so you get a good picture of what is on offer at each place, restaurant, wine farm, festival we visit. To get the whole story with photographs, please click on “Read on.....” at the end of each paragraph, which will lead you to the related blog, with pictures and more words. At the end of each blog, click on RETURN TO MENU to come back to the blog version of MENU.

Cape Wine Week     Cape Wine is the largest trade wine exhibition in South Africa and it is currently held every three years. It was held on from Tuesday 15th to Thursday 17th at the CTICC and has been very good, very professional with many overseas buyers and media attending as well as local. There have been many social wine events connected to it and we were invited to several. Pictures from the exhibition here

On the Beach with the Chenin Blanc Producers     An informal gathering on the beach at The Grand turned into a great fun event with the Chenin Blanc Association members showcasing their best Chenins while we partied "on the beach" from 11am to 3pm on the Monday before Cape Wine opened. And despite rumblings of thunder, the weather held. This was our first Cape Wine function of the week and the foreign trade were also invited and turned up. Photos here

Amorim Cap Classique Awards at The Twelve Apostles Hotel     These Amorim annual awards, now in their 14th year, took place on the eve of Cape Wine at The  Twelve Apostles Hotel. The awards are divided into four categories: Blanc de Blancs, Rosé, Blended Brut and a Museum Class for wines including and before the 2008 vintage. There is an overall winner, and the award this year went to Altydgedacht for their Blanc de Blanc MCC 2013. To promote inclusivity among producers, entries were open to non-members of the Cap Classique Producers Association. The competition was judged by Chairman Allan Mullins, writers Cathy Marston and Samarie Smith, sommelier and wine exporter David Clarke and critic Christian Eedes. Pearl Oliver, sommelier at the Belmond Mt Nelson Hotel, was an associate judge. All the wines are tasted blind and the judges do not know until the awards who the winners are. Read on.....

Robertson Wine Valley dinner at The Twelve Apostles Hotel     Robertson went to town with their event this year and brought its wines to a gala dinner at The Twelve Apostles Hotel on Tuesday night. It was made up of the producers who were showcasing their wines at Cape Wine and was a glittering occasion. See it here....

Wine and Art at Tokara     Every year in September, Tokara hold an event called Wine Made Art to showcase the release of their Premier Black Label new vintage wines and, this year, they were also celebrating 10 years of Tokara wines. The art exhibited is from the Marie Stander School of Art and is a selection of paintings done, not with watercolour, but with wine and very accomplished they were. The wine, donated by Tokara, has to be boiled down to produce an ink-like consistency and is then applied, often in many layers, to watercolour paper. Also showcased was the food of Executive chef Richard Carstens and his team who served brilliant canapés all evening. We were delighted to be invited. See the event here

Amorim Cork launches a new closure      During Cape Wine, we were invited to the Westin Grand next to the CTICC by Amorim Cork to attend the launch of their new cork closure, Helix, a mushroom shaped composite cork designed for easy opening without a corkscrew. It is for use with wines which will not be kept longer than two years. Amorim Cork launches a new closure      During Cape Wine, we were invited to the Westin Grand next to the CTICC by Amorim Cork to attend the launch of their new cork closure, Helix, a mushroom shaped composite cork designed for easy opening without a corkscrew. It is for use with wines which will not be kept longer than two years. The bottles which have a special raised helix in the neck, are manufactured at a factory in France. The corks can be used on normal bottling lines with some adaptations. More here....

To Borage Bistro for dinner      We have been meaning to return to Borage all year after an excellent lunch there just after they opened and jumped at the chance when an advertisement appeared on Groupon this week with a very special offer for a three course meal for two. Lynne admits she relished the thought of someone else cooking a great meal for us after a very, very tiring week and it did made a great finish to it, as we had lovely food in a very necessary relaxed atmosphere.

Chef Frank Marks has worked under some top chefs here and abroad and has had his own restaurant in Portside, the FNB tower on Hans Strydom Drive for just over a year. It's a bistro and is open for breakfast and lunch Monday to Saturday and dinner only on Friday and Saturday and closed on Sunday. Check out their menu on the web site www.borage.co.za and see our pictures here

This week's recipe     We love Mexican food and we were given some new tacos to try by a chef recently and Lynne wanted to use those Pasillo and Californian dried smoked chillies she bought recently at Wild Peacock.  She made a spicy mince, some guacamole, the refried beans did NOT work as the pan boiled dry while she was working in the study (Note, we need more tinned beans!) and she decided to make some Mole sauce (pronounced Mo-lay) to go with the dish. This is a rich chilli and chocolate sauce that the Mexicans normally use to accompany chicken and stewed meat but she wanted to see what it was like and it did go very well with the mince.  There are some surprise ingredients and there is almost no cooking involved. The left over sauce keeps well in the fridge and freezes well.

Mole Pablano sauce

3 or 4 dried Pasilla and or California dried smoked chilli peppers -1 T olive or canola oil - 1 small chopped onions - 1 cloves garlic, minced -3/4 cup hot chicken stock - 1 T peanuts - 1 teaspoon fresh oregano, chopped - 35g 85% dark unsweetened chocolate, chopped - salt and freshly ground pepper

Remove the stems and seeds from the chillies. Soak them in a little hot water for about 15 to 30 minutes.  Fry the onion in the oil until it is golden but not browning. Add the garlic to the onions and stir briefly, do not burn it. Make your chicken stock and when hot pour it over the chocolate in a deep mixing bowl or in the jug of your stick blender. It will start to melt.  Add the peanuts, the onions and garlic, the oregano and season.  Drain the chillies but keep back the water in case the sauce is too thick. Add the soaked chillies to the bowl and blitz with your stick blender until you have a thick chocolaty sauce to serve with or on top of your meat or chicken.  Don't forget to season it.

There are no substitutes for the chillies. The  peanuts are essential, they help to thicken the sauce. You can however use almonds.  Mexicans add sugar and raisins and lots and lots of different dry spices like cinnamon, coriander, cumin - the list is very long and we will be experimenting in future.  But we don't like a sweet sauce and loved the rich dark bitter chocolate combined with the slightly smoky and sweet chillies.  They are not at all hot, they just give a tiny buzz. Tonight we will have the remainder over chicken. 

A reminder:  1T - 1 Tablespoon  &  1t = 1 teaspoon

Coming Events:

SEPTEMBER

Tuesday 29th September at 5.30 pm  MERCURIAL CATS, an exhibition of ceramics, paintings and papier mâché by  Ardmore, Carol Mangiagalli, Ceramic Matters, Clementina Van Der Walt, Hennie Meyer, Leora Lewis, Lisa Ringwood, Lynnley Watson, Margie Malan, Nicolaas Maritz, Niki Daly, Ruby Lara, Tania Babb, Tiffany Wallace, Wendy McClachlan at The Lutge Gallery, 109, Loop Street. The Exhibition will be open for two weeks. Gallery opening times: Monday to Friday: 9 am to 4.30 pm, Saturday 10 am to 1 pm. Sundays: Closed. Enquiries:  Penny Dobbie, 021 424 8349,  e-mail: denarius@mweb.co.za

Wednesday, 30th September  Nedbank CWG Winemaker Dinners The Nedbank Cape Winemakers Guild Auction Dinners offer intimate food and wine experiences at top winery restaurants in the Cape Winelands. With Guild Members hosting the tables at the dinners, you will have the opportunity to meet and talk to the personalities behind the wines you will be enjoying. With sumptuous menus, each dinner promises to be a unique and unforgettable experience. There will also be a special charity auction at each dinner.  Funds raised will be donated to the Nedbank Cape Winemakers Guild Development Trust which supports the Guild's Protégé Programme.

Restaurant Venues:

Cassia at Nitida Wine Farm, Durbanville

Catharina’s at Steenberg Winery, Constantia

De Grendel Restaurant at De Grendel Winery, Durbanville

Tokara Restaurant at Tokara Winery, Stellenbosch

Jordan Restaurant at Jordan Winery, Stellenbosch

Cuvee Restaurant at Simonsig Winery,Stellenbosch

Rust en Vrede Restaurant at Rust en Vrede Wine Estate, Stellenbosch

For more information or to make your booking, please contact the CWG office on 021 852 0408 or e-mail us on bookings@capewinemakersguild.com

Wednesday, 30th September Around the World with Ingredients at Durbanville Hills. Beat the winter chill with an interactive food- and wine-pairing evening with ingredients from around the world, led by chef, Louisa Greeff, and Durbanville Hills winemakers. A tasting of four differently styled cheeses ranging from soft to hard, paired with a selection of wines from Durbanville Hills’ three wine ranges. The tasting will be followed by savoury snacks, Welsh rarebit, chicken prepared with ricotta, and gorgonzola soufflé. The cost is R395 per person for the interactive demonstration, snacks, three course meal, wine and coffee. Booking is essential as seats are limited. To book or for more information, contact Simone Brown on 021 558 1300 or send an email to sibrown@durbanvillehills.co.za. 

OCTOBER

Thursday, 1st October CWG Sports Day,  De Zalze Golf Course, Stellenbosch

Thursday, 1st October Sample the Sommeliers Selection at The Taj. The Reserve at The Taj Hotel in Cape Town, in conjunction with First Thursdays – a global trend fast growing in popularity, whereby likeminded people explore art galleries and cultural events on the first Thursday of every month - will play host to the Sommeliers Selection Listed Wines on Thursday, 1 October. Join fellow wine enthusiasts as you sip, sample and savour a selection of the listed wines. Doors open at 5pm and tickets cost R150 per person, which includes entry and tastings of the wines on show. A tutored tasting, which is limited to 40 people adds to the experience of the evening. For more info and to book your place visit www.webtickets.co.za.  Make the most of the evening and use the opportunity to relax and unwind, but not forgetting the wine sales and show specials on offer. Pre-book through www.webtickets.co.za. 

Thursday, 1st October Nobu Cape Town’s Wine & Dine 2015 Series: Bottega Distillery. Nobu Cape Town welcomes Italy’s finest Prosecco producers, Bottega Distillery to their shores. From their home in the Veneto, the Bottega family produces a range of outstanding sparkling wines and delicious grappas and liqueurs. The four-course wine evening is priced at R495 per person. Bookings are advised as soon as possible. To reserve your table at Nobu Cape Town, call 021 431 4511 or mail to restaurant.reservations@oneandonlycapetown.com. For more information and future dates please click here

Friday, 2nd October  CWG Final Pre-Auction Tasting, Spier Conference Centre

Saturday, 3rd October  Nedbank Cape Winemakers Guild Auction will take place from 09h00 at the Spier Conference Centre in the Stellenbosch Winelands. The auction is open to the public. To find out more, visit: www.capewinemakersguild.com, email info@capewinemakersguild.com or call +27 +21 852 0408

Saturday, 3rd October VAN LOVEREN’S JAVA MTB CHALLENGE. A fun-filled sporting event for the whole family with additional activities, which includes food stalls, music, wine tasting and so much more.  Not forgetting lucky draws and awesome prizes up for grabs! Taking place at Van Loveren Family Vineyards in the beautiful Robertson Valley (90 minutes from Cape Town), you are spoilt for choice between four MTB routes (8km, 20km, 45km, 80km) and a 10km Trail Run.  The routes boast spectacular views of the mountains and vineyards. The 8km is ideal for children while the 80km is a gruelling monster only for the seriously fit and experienced rider.  Medals will be awarded to all entrants.  For more info www.javamtb.co.za or e-mail java@vanloveren.co.za. The Java MTB Challenge is a fundraising platform for local schools and charitable organisations who in return provide event services.  Beneficiaries for 2015 includes Robertson Preparatory School, Robertson Primary School, Goudmyn Farm School and Wakkerstroom Farm School

Click here for details of more exciting events

Learn about wine and cooking We receive a lot of enquiries from people who want to learn more about wine. Cathy Marston and The Cape Wine Academy both run wine education courses, some very serious and others more geared to fun. You can see details of Cathy’s WSET and other courses here and here and the CWA courses here. Karen Glanfield has taken over the UnWined wine appreciation courses from Cathy. See the details here

The Hurst Campus, an accredited school for people who want to become professional chefs, has a variety of courses. See the details here

In addition to his Sense of Taste Culinary Arts School, Chef Peter Ayub runs a four module course for keen home cooks at his Maitland complex. Details here

Nadège Lepoittevin-Dasse has French cooking classes in Noordhoek and conducts cooking tours to Normandy. You can see more details here

Emma Freddi runs the Enrica Rocca cooking courses at her home in Constantia

Nicolette van Niekerk runs baking courses at La Petite Patisserie in Montague Gardens

George Jardine will be running a series of winter cooking courses and other activities at Jordan. Details here

18th September 2015

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 and standard or Dutch-flavoured Afrikaans.

If you like the photographs you see in our publications, please look at our Adamastor Photo website for our rate card and samples from our portfolio

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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 and our blogs 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.

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Tokara Wine Made Art

Every year in September Tokara holds an event called Wine Made Art to showcase the release of their new vintage wines and we were also celebrating 10 years of Tokara wines. The art exhibited is from the Marie Stander School of Art and is a selection of paintings done not with watercolours but with wine and very accomplished they were. The wine - donated by Tokara has to be boiled down to produce an ink like consistency and is then applied, often in many layers, to watercolour paper. Also showcased was the food of Executive chef Richard Carstens and his team who served brilliant canapés all evening . We were delighted to be invited . The exhibition this year was "Celebrating 10 Years of Wine Made Art…" All the pictures will remain on show in the Tokara gallery until January 2016.

Lynne chatting to Wilhelm Kühn, Restaurant manager, and Executive Chef Richard Carstens.

Some of the wonderful canapés Richard produced, These are scallops with mushrooms, topped with a herb mayonnaise

It looked and tasted like the best imported smoked salmon but in fact is excellent smoked trout from the Du Toitskloof area. Served on crisp Banting type seed crackers.

Crab paté topped with salmon caviar on crisp flaky pastry bases

Intense cheese biscuits topped with a creamy cheese sauce and grated parmesan cheese, a cheesy experience bar none

Oh-so-fresh oysters served with a dollop of lime sorbet

Lynne’s favourite, prawn tails on skewers with a garlic dipping sauce

Beautiful floral displays with the art exhibition

Tea and wine: A Celebration of Friends by Maroli van der Merwe

More stunning flowers. They all had a wonderful perfume that filled the gallery

Studying the pictures

The kitchen having a short rest between preparing and serving canapés

Vegetarian sushi rolls with something different - Richard put crisp and hot slices of radish in the rolls and then coated the outside in sesame seeds. Something to copy at home.

Rick and Marie Stander listening to the speeches

Aidan Morton, Tokara viticulturalist, spoke fluently about the exhibition

Owner of Tokara GT Ferreira

He talked about how quickly the last 10 years have gone since he bought the farm and the whole experience of planting vines and then seeing the results 10 years on. Those results were in our glasses and were extremely good

In the tasting room with the roaring fire

Tasting the new vintage releases of Tokara's premium Black label wines. We particularly enjoyed the crisp TOKARA 2014 Director’s Reserve White which is a Bordeaux-style white blend consisting of 69% Sauvignon Blanc and 31% Semillon. There is also a 2015 Sauvignon Blanc and a 2015 Chardonnay in the range, both excellent . The 2012 Director’s Reserve Red is a classic barrel matured Bordeaux blend made to last years and a 2012 Reserve Collection spicy perfumed Syrah, a lovely food wine

The Odobey turret clock in the tasting room, loudly ticking off each minute. Made in the 19th century, it was restored by clockmaker Jacques Arzul

It is very relaxed with good seating and the best works from the last 10 years were displayed in this room

Another amazing floral display and above it a very interesting lamp with a mountain relief moulded onto it and a star map inscribed onto the copper surface

Takuan and Christiane von Arnim with Ueli Schmidt and Andy Zimmermann from Kapweine in Switzerland who were attending Cape wine: 

The entrance way is rather like Alice in Wonderland with this huge well lit sculpture of a tree, all it needs is the Cheshire Cat

Looking through to the gallery

Our transport home down the N1. Tokara had laid on a bus for guests coming from Cape Town and we were very grateful for it

Nearly in town. This is where the motorway splits for people going to the Southern suburbs or into central Cape Town

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© John & Lynne Ford, Adamastor & Bacchus 2015

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