Craig Cormack (Sofia's) and Bertus Basson (Overture)
Wayne Rademeyer discussing his award winning buffalo mozarella with Lynne
Pretty girls showing great wines from Dewetshof
All photographs © John Ford, Adamastor & Bacchus cc 2012
Friday, April 20, 2012
First night impressions at Taste of Cape Town 2012
We had wonderful fun tonight at the opening evening of Taste of Cape Town.
Craig Cormack, executive chef & owner, Sofia's at Morgenster
The Heckshers enjoyed a break from Winchester Mansions
Craig Cormack (Sofia's) and Bertus Basson (Overture)
Busy chefs from Savour at 15 on Orange
Lynne with Rudi Liebenberg, Exec chef at The Planet at the Mount Nelson
Sample platters at The Planet
and their pork belly sweet potato bake
and All things Valrhona on a pastry stick
Roger Jorgensen, distiller extraordinaire
All photographs © John Ford, Adamastor & Bacchus cc 2012
Craig Cormack (Sofia's) and Bertus Basson (Overture)
All photographs © John Ford, Adamastor & Bacchus cc 2012
Tracy van Maaren wine tasting at Auslese
A good trade wine tasting at Auslese in Hope Street yesterday (pictures here) of wines distributed by Tracy van Maaren. Auslese is the tasting venue of Harold Bresselschmidt’s nearby Aubergine Restaurant. Harold had done two food pairings for wine on each table, see the blog for pictures and details. We started with Pol Roger bubbly, a rather lightweight Chablis and a Bourgogne Pinot Noir that didn’t shine as much as the local ones on show. Then on to taste John Loubser’s own 2009 Silverthorn The Green Man, lean mean, crisp and interesting MCC and his NV The Genie Brut Rosé, made from Shiraz. (John is the Cellarmaster at Steenberg). Kleine Zalze had three wines, all of which cried out for food and, serendipitously, we have had them matched with food today at the Winchester Mansions – see below. Their wonderful Vineyard Selection 2011 Chenin is rich and complex and many layered. Their classic 2009 Cabernet Sauvignon should be used as the benchmark for teaching students what a Cabernet grape should taste like when made into wine, as it is a very true expression of what the grape can do. Their Family Reserve Sauvignon Blanc made from Elim, Stanford and other bought in grapes is really lovely and shows no influences of hot climate sauvignon. Vin’s D’Orrance 2011 Simply White (Chenin Viognier) and 2010 Simply Red (Cab Franc, Cab, Malbec, Petit Verdot, Merlot, were interesting, but more interesting was the 2008 Cuvée Ameena Shiraz which was sophisticated, soft and ready to drink now. The Raats Family wines blew us away, starting with the many layered very elegant 2009 Chenin Blanc, which goes off in the mouth like a firecracker and then cries “NOW EAT!”. The Red Jasper 2010 has fruit flavours jam-packed into the bottle and ends with a lovely long salty licorice. Then came the long and lean Dolomite Cabernet Franc 2010, with incredibly intense flavours of hot cassis and more salty licorice. The flagship Mvemve Raats 2009 De Compostella, this year mainly Cabernet Franc, with Petit Verdot, Merlot, Malbec and Cabernet sauvignon, has had enormous accolades and the previous vintage was awarded 96 points by Neil Martin for the Wine Advocate and was Robert Parker’s highest scoring South African wine in November 2011. It has a very sophisticated nose, is already soft and ready to drink but filled with class, fruit, acids, tannins and we think will definitely be one worth adding to your cellar for future happiness.
Vriesenhof showed their smoky green leaf 2011 Chardonnay which has layers and layers of good fruit and then a surprising end with flavours of vanilla ice cream. Absolutely delicious and just the style we should be making. Their Pinot Noir is full of berry fruits on the nose and palate, lots of alcohol and then finishes with echoes of those long fruit flavours. The Pinotage is one for Pinotage fans, showing typical Pinot noir strawberry fruit with a rich, rounded, toasty vanilla base.
Why do we leave the best till last and then find she has already run out of wine? Next year we will be sure to taste first. Luckily Cathy Marshall managed to find us another bottle of her Pinot Noir, so we were able to enjoy a final tasting of this notable Pinot Noir and her very approachable Amatra Merlot 2011 soft and sweet Merlot, made for drinking now. It has absolutely no stalky green flavours, or mint or eucalyptus.
A few snapshots:
Rick Bennetts (Wine on Time) with Karen Loubser of Silverthorn
Pol Roger: a great way to start
Tracy van Maaren with Cathryn Henderson (Classic FM Wine Editor) and friend
Bruwer Raats (on the right) hears an opinion
The Auslese cellar
Superb food, perfectly matched to the wines
Bertho van der Westhuizen Kleine Zalze assistant wine maker
Jan Boland Coetzee (Vriesenhof) tasting the French
Allan Mullins loves Champagne
Lynne with Lidia and Linda Nobrega (Chapmans Peak Hotel)
More wonderful mouthfuls
Christophe Durand (Vins d'Orrance) and his wife
Perfect pairings
from Harald Bresselschmidt
Allan Mullins and Cathy Marshall
Bruwer Raats with Linda and Lidia Nobrega
All photographs published here are © John Ford, Adamastor & Bacchus cc 2012
Kleine Zalze Grapes Gourmet & Gallery at Harvey's in the Winchester Mansions Hotel
We were invited by Nils Hecksher, the General Manager of the Winchester Mansions Hotel to join a pre-tasting and wine pairing lunch with Kleine Zalze wines in their Harvey’s restaurant.
This was to assess the menu pairings for their very exciting Grapes, Gourmet and Gallery dinner on Wednesday, June 6th matched with 6 Kleine Zalze wines.
These dinners are held every month, prepared by the hotel’s Executive Chef Jochen Riedel,
and cost a very reasonable R345 per person for a five course meal with matched wines from that month’s selected winery. They will use the Chenin Blanc as their welcoming wine and follow with the delicious first course of a fresh and warm glass of pea soup with a soft confit Norwegian Salmon served with the Family Reserve Sauvignon Blanc.
The next course is Cinnamon smoked (in house) Chicken with poached pears, roasted walnuts, garden leaves and a vanilla blue cheese crème fraiche, served with the 2010 Pinot Noir.
If you can get all the flavours on one fork, a superb mouthful. The pears poached in red wine work very well with the cinnamon, the chicken and the wine.
Then a perfectly cooked Osso Bucco on a delicious saffron risotto with gremolata, served with the 2009 Cabernet which we so loved at the TVM tasting yesterday. How well this wine complimented the food and vice versa.
The soft veal, the aromatic risotto, the deep and delicious jus and the herby garlic gremolata were outstanding with this classic Cabernet.
The fourth course is a fillet of pork rolled in rough cumin and black pepper, served with a shallot jus, a Brussels sprout-sized serving of stuffed cabbage and a tiny interesting tartlet of white chocolate and avocado cheesecake in the most buttery short pastry case we have had for a long time, that went ‘poof’ and melted when you bit into it.
The jury is out on the sweetness of the white chocolate but some tasting around the table thought it matched the wine well, others (us!) felt it needed a more salty note. The spices and the pork went superbly well with the 2010 Shiraz Mourvedre Viognier 2010.
We had a short pause, a spoonful of a lovely lemon lime sorbet to refresh our palates
and then it was time for dessert. Surprisingly, they served the Gamay Noir Rosé 2011 with the Berry compote Pavlova and what an unexpected, but excellent, match that is.
The fruit in the wine clearly complemented the berries in the Pavlova and cuts through the cream and the crisp and melting meringue, which is not too cloyingly sweet. The menu will also include filter coffee or tea to finish and we think this is going to be a wonderful occasion to attend. Get your booking in soon, we think it is going to be very well attended.
All photographs are © John Ford, Adamastor & Bacchus cc, 2012
This was to assess the menu pairings for their very exciting Grapes, Gourmet and Gallery dinner on Wednesday, June 6th matched with 6 Kleine Zalze wines.
These dinners are held every month, prepared by the hotel’s Executive Chef Jochen Riedel,
and cost a very reasonable R345 per person for a five course meal with matched wines from that month’s selected winery. They will use the Chenin Blanc as their welcoming wine and follow with the delicious first course of a fresh and warm glass of pea soup with a soft confit Norwegian Salmon served with the Family Reserve Sauvignon Blanc.
The next course is Cinnamon smoked (in house) Chicken with poached pears, roasted walnuts, garden leaves and a vanilla blue cheese crème fraiche, served with the 2010 Pinot Noir.
If you can get all the flavours on one fork, a superb mouthful. The pears poached in red wine work very well with the cinnamon, the chicken and the wine.
Then a perfectly cooked Osso Bucco on a delicious saffron risotto with gremolata, served with the 2009 Cabernet which we so loved at the TVM tasting yesterday. How well this wine complimented the food and vice versa.
The soft veal, the aromatic risotto, the deep and delicious jus and the herby garlic gremolata were outstanding with this classic Cabernet.
The fourth course is a fillet of pork rolled in rough cumin and black pepper, served with a shallot jus, a Brussels sprout-sized serving of stuffed cabbage and a tiny interesting tartlet of white chocolate and avocado cheesecake in the most buttery short pastry case we have had for a long time, that went ‘poof’ and melted when you bit into it.
The jury is out on the sweetness of the white chocolate but some tasting around the table thought it matched the wine well, others (us!) felt it needed a more salty note. The spices and the pork went superbly well with the 2010 Shiraz Mourvedre Viognier 2010.
We had a short pause, a spoonful of a lovely lemon lime sorbet to refresh our palates
and then it was time for dessert. Surprisingly, they served the Gamay Noir Rosé 2011 with the Berry compote Pavlova and what an unexpected, but excellent, match that is.
The fruit in the wine clearly complemented the berries in the Pavlova and cuts through the cream and the crisp and melting meringue, which is not too cloyingly sweet. The menu will also include filter coffee or tea to finish and we think this is going to be a wonderful occasion to attend. Get your booking in soon, we think it is going to be very well attended.
Monday, April 16, 2012
Main Ingredient’s MENU - Expressions dinner at the Taj, Vanilla, La Mouette, A night at the Chapmans Peak Hotel, Wine courses, Products, Our market activities, Events and Restaurants
MENU
Main Ingredient’s weekly E-Journal
Gourmet Foods, Ingredients & Fine Wines
Eat In Guide’s Outstanding Outlet Award Winner from 2006 to 2010
Click on underlined and Bold words to open links to pictures, blogs, websites or more information
The Sentinel & Hout Bay from the pool deck, Chapman’s Peak hotel
Products Our market activities Expressions dinner at the Taj Vanilla La Mouette A night at the Chapmans Peak HotelProducts We have had numerous enquiries from people who read this newsletter, asking which markets we attend and what products we sell. To make this information, which has always been near the end, more easily accessible, we have moved these paragraphs to the top. New this week is a range of Spanish sherry vinegars, solera aged for four and eight years, in addition to the less expensive sherry vinegars we have stocked before. These are still available, as are the real Spanish paella rice and smoked paprika. For those and any other products you need, you can access our product list and see pictures in our website. If you can’t find what you need, let us know and we will try to find it for you. Until our online shop is ready, drop us an email and we will help you. We are very happy to see that traffic on our website is increasing and more orders are coming from it.
We have a lot of fun putting MENU together each week and, of course, doing the things we write about, but making it possible for you to enjoy rare and wonderful gourmet foods is what drives our business. We stock a good range of ingredients and delicious ready-made gourmet foods. You can contact us by email or phone, or through our website. We can send your requirements to you anywhere in South Africa. Do contact us if there is something you cant find, we may be able to help.
Our market activities We will be at the Old Biscuit Mill’s brilliant, exciting and atmospheric Neighbourgoods Market, as always, this Saturday (Easter) and every Saturday between 09h00 and 14h00, and we will be back at Long Beach Mall on lucky Friday, 13th April for our South Peninsula friends.
Another of the Expressions of... regional wine and food tastings with dinner was held last Thursday at the Taj hotel’s Mint restaurant, this time featuring the wines of Elgin, Lamberts Bay & Cederberg, cooler climate areas, with the food of Gordon Manuel from The Venue at South Hill wine estate in Elgin. We had a fairly rapid tasting of the wines before dinner and especially liked the Elgin Vintners new release Sauvignon Blanc Semillon blend, The Century 2011 – the perfect wine for celebrations. Paul Cluver’s Riesling Close Encounter 2011 was very Germanic in style, attractive and full of light honey and low in turpene flavours. South Hill’s very reasonable Cabernet rosé is one we will be ordering this year and the Radford Dale Pinot Noir was knockout; completely fruit driven and very Burgundian in style and not at all heavy and dark. Then welcomed into dinner with a glass of Elgin Ridge Sauvignon blanc with great company as the winemakers and markets join you, we ate very well. Pictures can be seen here.
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.
Vanilla There is quite a debate about vanilla. It is quite a sophisticated flavour. One first encounters it in vanilla ice cream and then in your mother’s or others’ baking. And of course it is a prominent flavour in wines, as good oak often imparts this to wines like Chardonnays and Chenins. Vanilla essence is a chemical compound that tries to capture the flavours of the real vanilla bean, the fruit of a tropical orchid, but never quite succeeds; extracts are the real thing. We think the difference is extreme and won’t use anything else but real vanilla. But do you want vanilla in savoury food? We have been offered truffle oil which contains vanilla and it appears fairly regularly on top restaurants’ menus in sauces for fish, seafood, meat and even vegetables. We find the sweet, rather cloying flavour does nothing for us on savoury dishes, but we are open to being persuaded. What do you think? You will, of course, find vanilla pods and the excellent Nielsen Massey vanilla extract and paste in our product list.
Flying with Seagulls Before putting our Dutch friends on the plane on Saturday night, they treated us to dinner at La Mouette, who have just introduced their very reasonably priced Autumn six course menu. The portion sizes are, thankfully, not gargantuan but you do feel you have had a substantial meal at the end of the evening. Chef Henry Vigar has, you will be delighted to know, left the truffle and cheese croquettes on the menu as the first course; these come with a bowl of smoked tomato aioli. Next was a rather chewy round ravioli filled with butternut and covered with a brown butter and crisply fried sage leaves, which much complimented the dish. Then came a fresh piece of roasted yellowtail on a chickpea, tomato and spinach ragout. Do whole chickpeas go with fish? The jury is out on that one. The next course was a Confit shoulder of beef – tender and gentle; the beef was almost like something out of a stew and, surprisingly for us as we are not usually fans, the sweet corn polenta was soft and smooth with distinct notes of corn rather than the hard rubber-like starch you get in other restaurants. A tomato gremolata and pea shoots accompanied it. Pictures here.
Then appeared a tiny treasure, a warm and airily light choux pastry doughnut with lemon curd and filled with coffee Chantilly cream. Served on a Chinese spoon, it was far too little – we all wanted a bowlful of them. Dessert was a gooey Chocolate orange macaroon, a chocolate financier, an orange puree, a very good marmalade ice cream with some lovely crusty scrapings of what tasted like Ovaltine around it and Cointreau syrup. This menu costs a very reasonable R165 per person and R330 if you have the wine pairings they suggest with each course. We had a bottle of Springfield Life from Stone, and took a very special bottle from our cellar of Cordoba Cabernet Merlot 2002. Sadly the Cordoba wine estate is no longer in production, but Christopher Keet, who made the wines, is now producing under his own name.
La Mouette also has a 7 course Gourmand menu on offer at R395, R560 with the wine pairings.
The perfect weekend away and only a few miles from home We were spoilt rotten on Sunday night by Lydia Nobrega, who invited us to come and stay at the Chapman’s Peak Hotel, which her family has owned for many years. Many of us have lovely memories of the old hotel, which is still there, and the great calamari they serve on the terrace, but they have built on a super modern addition and the rooms are very tasteful and cleanly luxurious, all with wonderful views across Hout Bay beach and bay towards the Sentinel and the harbour. Glass doors to the balcony completely block off any traffic noise and you sleep in great comfort. First we treated ourselves to a great dinner on the terrace. Fiery hot Peri peri chicken livers and calamari & chorizo were our starters, followed by 5 fat sardines with very crisp chips for John and prawns and calamari and a salad for Lynne. The food is freshly cooked and has always been of a very high standard. We ordered a bottle of Adi Badenhorst’s lovely rich, fruity and crisp Secateurs Chenin Blanc 2011, very reasonably priced at R99, and then opened a very special bottle of Cape Point Semillon 2006 which we had brought with us in case Lydia appeared. This wine just gets better and better in its fullness of flavour, depth and elegance. We had the rest the following night and it was possibly even better. As we were not going far, we were tempted by the chocolate tart and the crème brulée before tottering off to bed for a reasonably early night. Dinner came to R530 including a contribution for our great waiter Jethro. Breakfast in the dining room the next morning was a sumptuous spread of everything you could possibly want - you can order a full English breakfast or variations - which is freshly cooked for you. If the weather is great, you can have it on the terrace. John stuck to his usual fruit and muesli, Lynne had a cheese omelette and we both could not resist the freshly baked Belgian croissants with our good black coffees. Many of you will remember them; we sold them frozen, ready-to-bake from our shop. If you want to spoil your partner, book here for a very special night away. Lydia gave us a tour of one the two amazing penthouse suites on the top floor and took us to see the superb swimming pool built into the rocks above the road. We then had a short walk on the beach after which it was home and back to mounds of work for us. Pictures here
Felicitations. Most of our readers will be celebrating Easter or Passover. We wish you and all who fill the important spaces in your lives happy Easter and Chag Sameach. May you travel safely and enjoy a wonderful long weekend with people you love.
There is a huge and rapidly growing variety of interesting things to occupy your leisure time here in the Western Cape. There are so many interesting things to do in our world of food and wine that we have made separate list for each month for which we have information. To help you choose an event to visit, click on our list for and beyond. All the events are listed in date order and we already have exciting events to entertain you through into the new year. Click here to access the list. You will need to be connected to the internet.
We have had a lot of enquiries from people who want to learn more about wine. Cathy Marston and The Cape Wine Academy both run courses, some very serious and others more geared to fun. You can see details here.
Some restaurants have responded to our request for an update of their special offers and we have, therefore, updated our list of restaurant special offers. Click here to access it. These Specials have been sent to us by the restaurants or their PR agencies. We have not personally tried all of them and their listing here should not always be taken as a recommendation from ourselves. If they don’t update us, we can’t be responsible for any inaccuracies in the list. When we have tried it, we’ve put in our observations. We have cut out the flowery adjectives etc. that so many have sent, to give you the essentials. Click on the name to access the relevant website. All communication should be with the individual restaurants.
Summer time is picnic time and several wine farms offer picnic facilities. We have put together a list of wine farms who can provide you with a picnic, We haven’t put in much detail, just where it is, phone number, email address and a link to the website. The latter is where you will find all the important information. Go and check it out.
5th April 2012
Remember - if you can’t find something, we’ll do our best to get it for you, and, if you’re in Cape Town or elsewhere in the country, we can send it to you! Check our product list for details and prices.
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 or Dutch flavoured Afrikaans.
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 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.
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 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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