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Thursday, April 05, 2012

Expressions of Elgin, Lamberts Bay & Cederberg at the Taj hotel’s Mint restaurant

Our first course of poached pears and gorgonzola, walnuts and candid beetroot puree was served with Iona Viognier 09. The next course was truly magnificent and very delicious. We don’t often eat chicken at restaurants but this Elgin free range chicken cooked en Papillote was served on a wild mushroom and truffle risotto and had been perfectly cooked: crisp skin on the outside and falling off the bone. We had two wines paired with the lovely dish and there was much debate about which of them best matched. We voted for the Thelema Sutherland Viognier Roussanne 09 but the Radford Dale Freedom Pinot Noir 2010 was a very, very close second. The next course was Beef fillet poached in red wine on a rather sweet smoked potato puree with vanilla infused baby vegetables and a port wine jus. Well matched with Cederberg’s Shiraz 2008 but a rather large helping after the chicken. The vanilla was intended as a component in the baby vegetables, but a little too much had leached into the meat and the potato puree, which rather overpowered the other flavours.

Dessert was a tiny apple mousse tart with strawberry compote, very good cardamom ice cream with ginger and this was paired with the South Hill Rosé which picked up the strawberry well. You can try these dishes on the Mint Restaurant menu for the whole month of April, paired with the same wines.

The next Expressions of ... Greater Simonsberg, Stellenbosch Valley and Bottelary Hills will be held on Thursday, 26th April with guest chef Christiaan Campbell of Delaire Graff, so be sure to book soon; these dinners are becoming very popular. And remember the Taj also has free regional wine tastings on from 5 to 8 pm on Wednesday evenings in the hotel lobby.

General Manager Michael Pownall with Jacquie Henderson of Iona

Dave Nel pouring the wonderful Radford Dale noble late harvest

Mint Restaurant

James Borland with Jacquie and Rob Henderson

Mr & Mrs Niall O'Regan

Jan Laubscher (Spit or Swallow) and Nicky Wallace (Elgin Vintners)

Friday, March 30, 2012

Jardine at Jordan

We know we have written about eating at Jordan several times, but it is our favourite winelands restaurant. George Jardine’s food is delicious, local and fresh. His presentation is fantastic and we love the relaxed atmosphere of the restaurant, the views

and Jordan’s great wines to accompany the food. We took our Dutch friends and their Aunt Maureen there for lunch last Thursday and we had a superb time.

It was an end of summer day with a heat haze across the valley, but the temperature at this time of year is very comfortable. The dams in all the areas we have visited are very low and we are all hoping for a wet winter this year. But it has been a fantastic harvest for many of the areas and we are already hearing great reports of superb wine from Gary Jordan and other wine farmers.

Some may produce quite low alcohol wines, as ripening has been slow and steady with good phenolic ripeness but lower sugars than usual, not a bad thing.

To accompany our starters, we had a bottle of the Outlier Sauvignon blanc and followed it with a bottle of the splendid Prospector Shiraz with the main courses. The rich, classic slab of terrine de campagne is full of flavour and pistachio nuts and is beautifully matched with a honey parsnip puree and tiny squares of sour green apple.

Peter’s starter of Saldanha Mussels en Papillote was full of Asian aromas, flavours and fat, plump green lipped mussels.

A starter of Figs, preserved, fresh and roasted, with deep fried breaded spoonfuls of smoked mascarpone cheese and crisp peppered lavash flatbread was decorated with summer flowers.

All the women chose the Confi’ed and roasted Kroon duck, roasted mushroom, roasted fig and honeyed parsnip puree.

The duck was in rare slices, the confit in small croquettes rolled in sesame seeds and the dish was topped with baby leeks and watercress; a small portion but enormously satisfying.
True to form, the men ordered very tender aged Chalmar Ribeye, served in neat fingers, topped with tempura shimeji mushrooms, roasted broccoli, sesame, onion and a rich soy dressing.

John had it without the mushrooms

Both courses went well with the Shiraz.

Only two could manage the wicked dessert of Vairhona chocolate torte, honeycomb, roasted plum and fig sorbet, the rest of us feasted with our eyes.

And then two people shared a cheese board they had selected from the air-conditioned cheese room, which does hold some really special local cheeses.
Riaan Nel is a very friendly and efficient manager

and the staff reflect this

Only two of us could manage the wicked dessert of Valrhona chocolate torte, honeycomb, roasted plum and fig sorbet; the rest of us feasted with our eyes.

Searching Heaven and Earth and Babylon

We took our friends to the Hemel and Aarde valley for three days this week, for some country air. We stayed in a cottage owned by friends which faces the other Cape Babylonstoren mountains

It is peaceful and so quiet. The plan is always to do as little as possible but taste lots of wines in the valley so we have been to four vineyards this trip:
Bouchard Finlayson,

Newton Johnson,

Ataraxia, with its tasting room styled like a Greek chapel

and Creation

all of whom treated us like royalty

Petit Verdot grapes at Creation, two weeks from picking

We bought wine at each farm and even had some sent to Holland

We had one meal out at Harbour Rock in Hermanus’ new harbour,

which we expected to be busy as the school holidays have begun, but it wasn’t

We ate fish and seafood, with very fresh kabeljou,

West coast oysters, small starters of calamari, sushi and some not quite perfect prawns - some were a little raw and others overcooked. Some crisp chips but, sadly, lots of slap chips and minimal salads

Carolyn Martin at Creation had given us a bottle of the just released, delicious 2011 Sauvignon blanc to drink with dinner and we also had a bottle of Jordan Nine Yards 2003 Chardonnay,

which Lynne gave John for his 60^th birthday, and needed drinking. It was a golden yellow and still full of fruit and good flavours, but on the edge of maderisation, so we did drink it just in time

PEOPLE
Danel Theron at Bouchard Finlayson spoiled us with a most generous tasting