Great Wine Capitals Best Of Wine Tourism and the Cape Wlnelands District Municipality Mayoral Tourism Awards

Last Friday, we were off to Marlenique  in Simondium, a conference and wedding venue which was new to us, for the celebration of the awards in these two competitions. The Best Of Wine Tourism awards celebrate innovation and excellence in wine tourism throughout the eight greatest wine regions in the world. These were the awards for the Cape Winelands, which were announced in November. The CWDM Mayoral Tourism Awards celebrate the achievements of tourism businesses in the Cape Winelands tourism industry, showcasing outstanding performers, products and service excellence. The full lists of the awards and the winners are at the end of our story

The venue is in a large converted warehouse building on a busy fruit farm

Talented musicians played on the terrace

Inside Marlenique

Lunch was served 'family style' with many salads arranged on each table for us to serve ourselves during the awards. This was a summer chicken salad

This was a biltong and dried cranberry salad

The menu

Andre Morgenthal of Wines of South Africa

His honour the Executive Mayor of the Cape Winelands District Municipality  Cornelius de Bruyn

The presentation of the awards begins

The assembled throng

Claude Schroeder Executive Director CD & PS Cape Winelands District Municipality announced the Mayoral Tourism Awards

and the Executive Mayor, Cornelius de Bruyn, presented them

There was Villiera Tradition MCC to enjoy pre lunch

Delaire Graff Estate was named South Africa’s overall winner at the Great Wine Capitals Global Network 2016 Best of Wine Tourism Awards, having taken first place in both the Art & Culture and Wine Tourism Restaurant categories. Here General Manager of the Estate Johann Laubser accepts the award

Almost everyone at our table won an award! Jenny Prinsloo, Khail van Niekerk, Berrington Msuneko, Jacques Jantjies, Gert Lubbe, Zukiswa Matiwane

The Mayor presented some herb awards to the organisers

and a large bouquet to Andre Morgenthal of WOSA

Dagmar Jungbauer and Zukiswa Matiwane of Spier with  Philip Engelen

The Creation team with their awards: Marketing Manager Dieter Odendaal, Owner Carolyn Martin and Sales manager Khail van Niekerk

Simon Grier and Cathy Brewer with Villiera's award

The Delaire Graff team with their awards

Alex Hughes of Waterford Estate with his award

All the winners together

The Mayor with Zukiswa Matiwane of Spier hotel

Andre Morgenthal and Judy Lain of Wesgro saying goodbye to a guest

One of the good wines we drank with lunch, Unfortunately, it had stood a long time on a warm table and was too warm to show well. The staff were very good at standing against the wall watching proceedings

 © John & Lynne Ford, Adamastor & Bacchus 2015

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The Cape Winelands District Municipality Mayoral Tourism Awards:

Adventure, Outdoor and/or Ecotourism business of the year, Winner: African Game Lodge

Adventure, Outdoor and/or Ecotourism business of the year, Runner Up: Protea Farm  

Tourism Business of the Year, Winner: Montagu Country Hotel

Tourism Business of the Year, Runner Up: Robertson Wine Valley  

New Tourism Business of the Year, Winner: Rambling Rose

New Tourism Business of the Year, Runner Up: In Abundance Guest House  

Wine Tourism Destination of the year, Winner : Leopard's Leap Family Vineyards

Wine Tourism Destination of the year, Runner Up: La Motte Wine estate

Tourism-related event / Festival of the year: Robertson Wine Valley's Wacky Wine Weekend, Winner

Tourism –related event/ Festival of the year, Runner Up: Franschhoek Cap Classique & Champagne Festival  

Community Based Initiatives: Public, Winner: Dance for All School of Dance

Community Based Initiatives: Public, Runner Up: Wamakersvallei Training Centre

Community Based Initiatives: Private, Winner: Bosman Family Vineyards

Community Based Initiatives: Private, Runner Up: Stellenbosch 360  

Visitors Information Services (LTA) Excellence: SERVICE , Winner: Franschhoek Wine Valley

Visitors Information Services (LTA) Excellence: SERVICE , Runner Up: Stellenbosch 360

Visitors Information Services (LTA) Excellence: TOURISM DEVELOPMENT, Winner: Montagu-Ashton Tourism

Visitors Information Services (LTA) Excellence: TOURISM DEVELOPMENT, Runner Up: Stellenbosch 360  

The Great Wine Capitals 2016 Best Of Wine Tourism Awards

Judges Commendation Awards for outstanding service in the wine tourism industry:

Portia Festus, KWV

Roxanne Waldick,  Delaire Graff

Jacques Jantjies,  Rhebokskloof

Zukiswa Matiwane, Spier

Johandri Ras, Indochine, Delaire Graff

Khail Van Niekerk, Creation

Alex Hughes, Waterford

Bennetina Lewis  Spier 

Berrington Msuneko, Delaire Graff

The Great Wine Capitals 2016 Best of Wine Tourism Awards

Regional Category Winner: Architecture & Landscapes:  Cavalli Wine & Stud Farm

Regional Category Winner: Innovative Wine Tourism Experiences:  Creation Wines

Regional Category Winner: Sustainable Wine Tourism Practices:  Villiera Wines

Regional Category Winner: Wine Tourism Service:  La Motte Estate

Regional Category Winner: Art and Culture:  Delaire Graff

Regional Category Winner: Wine Tourism Restaurant:  Delaire Graff

Overall South African Winner: Delaire Graff Estate

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MENU's Photographs of 2015

Early morning shadows on a road between the vines at Laborie in Paarl

Sunbird agapanthus breakfast

The sunset at Babylon’s Peak, seen from Creation in the Hemel en Aarde Valley

Evening on Milnerton lagoon

Hout Bay harbour

Red wing Starling Take off and Landing...

Smoke from the dying fires above Buitenverwachting wine estate

Vineyards and Mountains in the Helderberg Valley

Clifton sunset

A black backed gull in the evening light

A Clifton evening. Looking toward Oudekraal and Llandudno

A common tern at sunset

The end of summer on the beach as gulls tell us the weather is about to change

Bartholomeus Klip has a breeding herd of disease free Cape buffalo

A flight of Quelea at Elandsberg Reserve

Autumn vines, apples and olives at Hannay, Elgin

A hooded crow takes a bath at Topkapı Palace, Istanbul

A classic Greek Island church on Ios

An elegant Three master on a rainy Naxos night

Trees on the shore of the Gulf of Corinth

Blue hills of a late afternoon in Mycenae. A sort of Trompe de l’oeil, certainly an optical illusion

A last look at ancient Greece. A temple being restored in Corinth

A stormy winter Sea Point sea

A break in the storm. Looking across Wellington to the surrounding mountains

A wintry sunset over Camps Bay beach

Evening rush hour on a rainy N1, returning to Cape Town

A misty spring day near Stellenbosch

Spring is in the air and the dragonflies emerge

A carpet of Spring flowers at Postberg, West Coast National Park

A red sun setting into the Atlantic off Sea Point

The sun sets over the dam. Robert Stanford Estate, Stanford

The view across False Bay from Strandfontein

A family of meerkats in the Karoo near Oudtshoorn

Grace in flight - a grey heron comes in to land

Malachite kingfisher (Alcedo cristata)

Night view across the mouth of Cape Town harbour

The Meerlust manor house, built in 1776

Summer is here

A baby owl at Steenberg

 © John & Lynne Ford, Adamastor & Bacchus 2015

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This Week's MENU: Beer Festival Braai at Hamiltons, 2015 WWF-SASSI Trailblazer Awards, Elgin Christmas Tweet Up, This week's recipe: Strawberry Ice Cream

Summer is here

In this week’s MENU:

 Beer Festival Braai at Hamiltons

 2015 WWF-SASSI Trailblazer Awards at The Table Bay Hotel

 Elgin Christmas Tweet Up at South Hill

 This week's recipe: Strawberry Ice Cream

To get the whole story with photographs, please click on the paragraph title, which will lead you there. At the end of each story, click on RETURN TO MENU to come back to MENU.

This was a reasonably quiet week for events, but a crazy week for us at home, as we had to get the house and the food ready for John's 70th birthday celebrations on Friday 27th and Saturday. We had wanted to do the Saturday party as a picnic somewhere nice, but it was too much of a challenge at this time of the year. Everywhere is booked for weddings and Christmas parties. We couldn't afford expensive function places and even if we had, they wanted to sell us their own food and wine and we wanted to do our own catering, and, especially, bring out some great bottles from our cellar, which we did.

So, somehow, after cooking all week, we managed a family dinner party on John's actual birthday and then managed to squeeze 30 people into our small house. Lynne has vowed never to attempt this again. She said the same after John’s 60th, when we had 60 people. Presumably, there will only be 15 for his 80th! There was lots and lots of food and drink. Thank you to the friends who contributed, we are very grateful. Did we mention that we also stripped and painted a wall, replaced some decayed planks on the deck and coated it with preservative and repotted all our planters...?

Oh, and as if that was not enough excitement, on Tuesday, John had his second cataract operation. All is well and his sight is much improved. Nowadays, it's just a five hour visit to hospital and a 20 minute op.

Beer Festival Braai at Hamiltons     The festival was held last weekend and on Thursday night before that, we were invited to join other media and the exhibitors for a braai there. We tasted lots of the different new beers and ciders and ate a good braai. It was a great fun evening, except for the exercise we endured getting there.

We learnt an important lesson. NEVER leave the house for a function without checking a map. Lynne spent her ’Tween years living in Green Point so we decided to take the bus there and Uber back. She knew how to get to Hamiltons Rugby Club. Or did she? Had we checked a map we would have seen that the Green Point Golf club has now blocked the way she knew and we had a very , very healthy 4 to 5k walk first through the beautiful Green Point park at twilight and then onward in almost a circle to get there! Well, we do need the exercise.

2015 WWF-SASSI Trailblazer Awards at The Table Bay Hotel     Every year SASSI (South African Sustainable Seafood Initiative) award chefs and others who support the initiative in some way. This year the awards went to seven chefs. The Media Award went to a cookbook author, Daisy Jones, a journalist, for her cookery book, Star Fish, published by Quivertree Press. Daisy’s cookbook is a collection of recipes using only green listed seafood. SASSI is aimed at informing the public how their choice of fish for consumption can help determine the future health and productivity of our oceans. We were invited to the awards ceremony on Monday evening.

Elgin Christmas Tweet Up at South Hill     The Elgin Winemakers Guild decided to reward all the hard work by the Tweeters this year with a last tasting for 2015 and Christmas lunch party in Elgin at South Hill. Transport was arranged for many of us from town and a great day was had by all.

This week's recipe was served at John's birthday lunch and had everyone demanding the recipe. It is the easiest ice cream recipe ever, it does not take a lot of time to make, has only four ingredients and does not need either an ice cream maker or lots of stirring to break up ice crystals. It comes out of the 1973 edition of the Cookery Year Book, which Lynne has used for years. Their recipes are faultless. This quantity would fill one ice cream container. Make this before the end of the strawberry season and you can have strawberry ice cream in the middle of the winter.

Strawberry Ice Cream

500g fresh strawberries - 175g icing sugar - 1 teaspoon lemon juice - 600 ml whipping or double cream

Wash and hull the strawberries and cut them in half. Put them into your liquidiser or food processor with the lemon juice and icing sugar. Add the cream and blitz. You can do this until completely smooth, but we like it with a few small pieces of strawberry still remaining for texture. Freeze. It is soft serve and can melt quite quickly. You don't have to take it out to defrost a little, as you do with normal ice creams. We know you will enjoy it.

3rd December 2015

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