Thursday, July 25, 2019

DGB Trade Show at the Mount Nelson

Two trade wine shows this week and they could not have been more different. The first was Douglas Green Bellingham (DGB), held at the Mount Nelson. We began as we usually do with a tasting of the MCCs from Graham Beck and once again fell in love with the Blanc de Blanc, so crisp and seductive. We chatted with Chris du Toit GEO of Graham Beck Enterprises
Kerry Kirby handles sales for Steenberg and Graham Beck and we enjoyed tasting the Steenberg Christina Bordeaux blend, the Merlot and the superb Nebbiolo with her
Kerry Kirby with Heather Poulos, Steenberg's Marketing Manager
Wow, the best way to supply food to the hungry trade that we have ever seen. They (and we) come after (and some, before)
work and need something to line the stomach while tasting wine. No elusive canapés passing in the distance,
but a well supplied table groaning with easy to eat delicious food
Pork and Pistachio terrine and good salami
The Gravadlax salmon was in a gentle herb marinade
An assortment of bread and crackers
A good selection of cheese, grapes, preserved figs and dried apricots, apple and mango
Very good scotch eggs; the sausage meat had lots of flavour
Paté
And a huge selection of dips and patés
Good Parma ham
James Gower, Premium Brand Manager at DGB (Pty) Ltd, on the Franschhoek Cellar table
We really like the branding of this wine from Franschhoek Cellars, a blend of their best wines:
The Last Elephant 2017. a Bordeaux blend of Merlot 52%; Cabernet Sauvignon 29%; Cab Franc 10%, .Malbec 9%
Great news that Boschendal winemaker Lizelle Gerber of Boschendal is soon to join Nederburg as Cellarmaster
Kathy van Niekerk and Lizelle Gerber
Why are Grandwill and Gaynor Johnson the only people sitting down? ...
... They are having their caricature done by talented Peter Mascher!
We really enjoyed these two French Quarter wines from Old Road Wines. The 2016 white is a blend of Roussanne, Marsanne, Grenache Blanc and Semillon; a very modern wine in South Africa as we head for warmer temperatures and these Southern Rhône grape varietals are so successful. Full, round and fruity, but with depth and so good with food. R150/R156. The 2015 red is Grenache, Syrah and Mourvedre, a deep dark composition of good fruit and enjoyment
On the Old Road Wines table, where they bill themselves as The Quirky Ones. Works for us!
Wayne Morris, Vergelegen National Sales Manager and Marese Swanepoel
we will be seeing Wayne Morris on the farm soon
Richard Duckitt, Bellingham winemaker, with his lovely wines
It was a dash to get round all the stands as there were so many excellent wines to sample
All content ©  John & Lynne Ford, Adamastor & Bacchus
Posted by MENU at 3:32 pm 0 comments

Monday, July 22, 2019

This Week’s MENU. Tops at Spar Wine Show. A weekend in the Riebeeck Valley, Meerhof Cabernet, Hungarian Chicken Paprikash

A misty winter morning landscape in the Riebeeck Valley

We are not young, physically, and we sometimes regret the loss of agility which we had in our youth. But there are compensations. We have learned many lessons which help us to avoid some of the pitfalls which life throws across our path, not that we always take note. But we do believe that age is an attitude and we have just had a weekend away which told us that we are right. We are members of a wine club. It is, possibly, the oldest extant wine club in Cape Town, and some of our members can remember its earliest days, when it was Men Only, and the dress code was jackets and ties. Fortunately, time has moved on from there; several of our members are women and we no longer insist, or even wear, ties. Each year Lynne organises a weekend away to one of our wine producing areas. We all love good wine and food and we all have a spirit of adventure. Above all, we love to get out and have fun. This week, we share our latest adventure with you and encourage you to visit places like those we have visited and enjoy them…

 But first ...
An invitation to attend the Annual Tops at Spar Wine Festival, held at the GrandWest Casino in Goodwood, was tempting. We set out at 4 to get there for the opening on Thursday and, sadly, the Cape Town traffic had us crawling very slowly and we only got there at just before 6. The 650 metres from Strand Street to the flyover took us more than half an hour due to gridlock. It is a daunting challenge to get to any event that requires central city and motorway driving nowadays to get out of town in the late afternoon and early evening…
A Riebeeck Valley weekend
Once a year, Lynne organises a trip for our wine club to a different wine district. The criteria are always the same. The accommodation must all be together, couples and singles want their own rooms en suite but it must not be too costly. This sadly cuts out several wine areas where the accommodation is sparse. There must be good wine farms and restaurants in the area and the hotel needs to offer us a good breakfast. We have been to Wellington, Robertson, Botrivier and Paarl in recent years and this year we were headed to Riebeek West and Riebeek Kasteel...
An icy morning mist kissed the whole valley on Saturday morning as we headed to our first wine tasting appointment at Allesverloren (tr. All is lost). Behind the far mountain is the Tulbagh valley, another wine area we want to visit. Amanda was waiting for us and had chairs and a table arranged in a horseshoe on the tasting room terrace…
We met Meerhof Cellarmaster Jaco Brand at the Tops at Spar wine show last week and he invited us to bring our wine club to the farm for a tasting while we were in the Riebeek area. One of the inducements was that the farm, besides having very good wines, has the best views in the valley. Meerhof was bought by Koos van Rensburg and his son Erik four years ago…
Wine farms close early on Saturdays in the Riebeek valley, so we had not made any appointments for the afternoon. We had made a booking for lunch at Bayleaf and Thyme which is in the main square in Riebeek Kasteel, but were a bit late from our superb tasting at Meerhof, which went on till nearly 2. But we phoned and the restaurant was fine with our coming late. It was actually too warm to sit at the table they had kept for us on the sunny porch, so we headed under shade…
5. Pulpit Rock
Sunday morning dawned sunny but icy cold. After breakfast we all checked out of the hotel and some of us headed to Pulpit Rock winery, which IS open on Sundays although not many people were there that day. It is just a very short distance down the road out of Riebeek West in the direction of Morreesburg with seating outside on the terrace and inside. They also have a restaurant below, but it was not open on Sunday…

made by Cellarmaster Jaco Brand. This classic Cabernet blew us away with its quality and fruit. Cassis fruit with some spice on the nose. 50/50 French and American oak has been used which adds complexity. It is a beautiful, cassis driven wine, layered with good black currant berry fruit, lovely soft tannins, and the fruit returns for a long end. We bought six immediately
One to watch, we think it is good enough to win major awards, a bargain at R95 on the farm. Do go and taste if you are in the area

This traditional Hungarian dish is just right for the cold days of winter when you want something that is uncomplicated and delicious. If you can find Hungarian paprika, that would be superb. But if it is not readily available, use a good, reputable local paprika…



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

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 our website and ancillary works are © John & Lynne Ford, Adamastor & Bacchus. Our restaurant reviews are often 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.

This email of this journal has been sent to you because you have personally subscribed to it or because someone you know has asked us to send it to you or forwarded it to you themselves. Addresses given to us will not be divulged to any person or organisation. We collect them only for our own promotional purposes. If you wish to be added to our mailing list, please click here to send us a message and if you wish to be  removed from our mailing list
Posted by MENU at 6:41 pm 0 comments

Friday, July 19, 2019

On the MENU this week. Hungarian Chicken Paprikash

This traditional Hungarian dish is just right for the cold days of winter when you want something that is uncomplicated and delicious. If you can find Hungarian paprika, that would be superb. But if it is not readily available, use a good, reputable local paprika
2 large onions, sliced – 2 cloves of garlic, crushed – 2 tablespoons olive oil - 1 large red pepper, sliced – 2 tomatoes, skinned and finely chopped - a free range chicken, jointed  or 4 chicken thighs & 4 chicken drumsticks - 2 tablespoon sweet paprika - 250 ml of good chicken stock - yolks of 2 eggs - 2 tablespoons of plain flour - 250 ml Smetana, Crème Fraiche or thick sour cream – salt and pepper

Fry the onions and garlic in the oil until just beginning to colour, add the chicken pieces, red pepper and paprika and seal the chicken pieces. Add the tomatoes, then simmer gently for 5 minutes to reduce the mixture. Add the chicken stock and simmer for 10 minutes. Stir the flour and the egg yolks into the sour cream and add to the dish; season and simmer until the chicken is tender and the sauce is creamy and thick. Serve with rice or, more traditionally, ribbon noodles. If you want to add a little heat, add half a tablespoon of hot paprika (or a little cayenne pepper) as well
Posted by MENU at 12:50 am 0 comments

Thursday, July 18, 2019

MENU’s Wine of the Week. 2018 Meerhof Cabernet Sauvignon from Riebeek Kasteel

made by Cellarmaster Jaco Brand

 This classic Cabernet blew us away with its quality and fruit. Cassis fruit with some spice on the nose. 50/50 French and American oak has been used which adds complexity. It is a beautiful, cassis driven wine, layered with good black currant berry fruit, lovely soft tannins, and the fruit returns for a long end. We bought six immediately
One to watch, we think that it is good enough to win major awards; a bargain at R95 on the farm. Do go and taste if you are in the area
Posted by MENU at 11:57 pm 0 comments

A Riebeeck Valley weekend. 5. Pulpit Rock

Sunday morning dawned sunny but icy cold. After breakfast we all checked out of the hotel
and some of us headed to Pulpit Rock winery, which IS open on Sundays although not many people were there that day
It is just a very short distance down the road out of Riebeek West in the direction of Moorreesburg
with seating outside on the terrace and inside. They also have a restaurant below, but it was not open on Sunday
They have a lovely walk up the mountain to Pulpit Rock, which is just 2 kilometres up and mostly gentle.  So off we set
It goes through the vineyards and then above to the rock that looks like  a pulpit in this photograph
The valley was still shrouded in freezing fog at 11 am
You could not see the mountains across the valley
The happy band of walkers who, sadly, missed an important red arrow painted on a rock and went merrily along their way in the wrong direction. They thought another rock looked like a pulpit. Sadly, the winery told us that they used to have better signage, but people (vandals) removed it
You can see the cement factory' chimneys peeping out of the fog
And the church steeple became more visible as the day wore on
There is the pulpit that we should have reached and the path up the mountain to it
Back at the winery some of us stopped to do the tasting, which was presented by Mignon
Not sure if this 2004 Nebuchadnezzar is for display or sale
Jocelyn really enjoyed the hike
These tall bluegum trees remind us of those behind our house in Sea Point
that prevented the fires on Signal Hill from getting too close to us. They do seem to act as a fire break
We began with a glass or two of Louisa, their nice crisp Blanc de Blanc Chardonnay MCC Brut, just to celebrate a good weekend. And the walk. Then we realised it was Bastille Day, so we sang - well, Alexandra sang as she knows all the words in French, and the rest of us hummed along the tune of the Marseillaise, just to celebrate that. Les Arms aux Barricades! 
We had a small tasting of their wines, bought some of the Brut and 3 bottles of the Unwooded Chardonnay, which is sweet on the palate at R65, and 3 of  the Shiraz, which has good wood, spicy fruit with pepper, lots of dark plums and tannins. R80. Then it was time to head home for most of us, although a couple of the members stayed another night at the hotel
Posted by MENU at 10:57 pm 1 comments
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)