Villiera at the Vineyard

Tastes of 2012 Villiera dinner at Vineyard Hotel   Invited for a friend’s 75th birthday celebration to eat in the Square restaurant last Friday, we were delighted to discover that it coincided with one of the Vineyards excellent wine and food pairing dinners which they now hold every two weeks. We met in the foyer where all the guests gather for a welcoming glass of Villiera Brut Natural 2008, full of lovely ripe and mature flavours – an aged bubbly, very much to the gout Anglais (English taste), and then went in to dinner. Sadly, the table was not suitable for our host’s wheelchair, so there was a short wait while an appropriate one was found before then we sat down to the first course.

We so enjoyed this meal and will definitely be back to try another soon. The price of R265 per person includes all the wine, but not coffee or bottled water. The next one will be with Ernst Gouws & Co Family Vineyards on May 25th. However, a recommendation is that you do try to sit away from the rather loud piano, as it does make conversation a little difficult. The service, as always, was discreet but attentive.

Our first course of Smoked Salmon Orzo (rice shaped pasta) with wild rocket, apple, toasted almonds and citrus emulsion blew us away.

So much did we enjoy it that when we got the opportunity later to talk to the chef we asked lots of questions and Lynne is going to attempt to make it this Sunday for Clare’s birthday. The salmon, some cooked in the dish , some fresh decorating the top was gentle, the orzo perfectly cooked, still al denté, mixed with a cream sauce gently flavoured with dill and other spices, topped with fresh Granny Smith apple shavings and then sprinkled with toasted almonds which added just the right amount of crunch to the texture. The small starter portion was surrounded by a reduction of lemon and orange which also added to the dish rather than overcomplicating it. This was served with Tradition Brut Rose which highlighted all the flavours in the dish without being overwhelmed.

The second course was a very surprising contrast: crisp deep fried balls of homemade blanc fromage (paneer cheese) with dukkha, artichoke, mango and pineapple salsa and a curried korma dressing.

Very Indian, very light, great textures and a good match indeed to the fruity and complex Villiera Tradition Barrel Fermented Chenin Blanc 2010.

The next course was very tender peppered beef fillet slices with rosti potato, creamed spinach and promised a bitter chocolate jus but sadly we tasted sweet Lindt chocolate.

This was served with the Domaine Grier Crusade 2006 which comes from the Grier family vineyards in Southern France. It is a Côtes du Rousillon Villages made with Grenache, Syrah and Mourvedre. The wine was lovely and smooth, fruity and had good wood, tannin and depth. Sadly, there is no more available from the farm. It matched this course well, particularly the creamed spinach, which we thought might fight with it, but didn’t. We do wish the chocolate had been bitter rather than sweet.

Dessert was a lovely classic individual Apple and Pear Tart Tatin, with roasted rhubarb ice cream and a honey rooibos gel.

The tart's contrasts of sweetness and sourness was well-matched by the Villiera Inspiration Noble Late harvest 2010. made from chenin blanc.

Photographs taken with Nokia N8 in dim available light. ©John Ford, Adamastor & Bacchus cc 2012

THE BOLLINGER EXCEPTIONAL WINE SERVICE AWARD. Entries now open for 2012 Competition

THE BOLLINGER EXCEPTIONAL WINE SERVICE AWARD AGAIN ON THE MENU FOR 2012

Entries now open for 2012 Competition

Entries for First Round of The Bollinger Exceptional Wine Service Award 2012 are now open and candidates are urged to enter soon as entries close on the 31 May 2012. See below for entry details.

The high standards attained by Joakim Hansi Blackadder, now Sommelier at Rust en Vrede Restaurant, (previously at The Roundhouse), the winner of the 2011 Competition, and the other finalists have set the benchmark for aspirant sommeliers. As with the inaugural The Bollinger Exceptional Wine Service Award in 2011, the winner of the 2012 Competition will be announced at The Swartland Revolution in November 2012 and will win a trip to France including a trip to the prestigious House of Champagne Bollinger. Hansi Blackadder is presently in Champagne enjoying his prize and celebrating his victory, no doubt with a glass or two of Champagne Bollinger.

This annual Competition, which is aimed at enhancing and recognising the calibre of local sommeliers and wine service staff, was launched in 2011 and proved to be a resounding success.

Ginette de Fleuriot, Marketing Manager at Vinimark The Wine Company and organiser of The Bollinger Exceptional Wine Service Award, anticipates more entries this year, “We look forward to an increased number of entrants for The Bollinger Exceptional Wine Service Award 2012 and to wider representation from all of South Africa’s premier tourist regions.”

Champagne Bollinger is proud to be the main sponsor of the prestigious The Bollinger Exceptional Wine Service Award. The Competition is a joint initiative between Vinimark The Wine Company (importer of Champagne Bollinger and South Africa’s largest independent specialist wine wholesaling company) and The Reciprocal Wine Trading Company, importers and distributors of Riedel Glassware.

Ginette de Fleuriot comments further, “This industry-wide initiative was established to advance the interests of all of the country's fine wine producers, as well as those who make their living from the sale of wine in hotels, restaurants and wine bars. The sponsors and organisers trust that this Competition will continue to act as a catalyst for the hospitality industry to expand training facilities and support local sommeliers and sommeliers-in-training, in the interests of all those who enjoy dining out.”

Neil Grant, Chairperson of the South African Sommelier Association (SASA) and one of the judges of the 2011 Competition, states: “Wine service has a poor history in South Africa and only with incentives such as these will we find an improvement within the industry. Chefs in South Africa over the past 10 years have proven how good they are and now wine stewards/sommeliers need to be part of this movement so we can challenge the international markets.” SASA has committed to mentoring the winning candidate to further assist in guaranteeing continued professional wine service of an international standard.

The Competition entry criteria are:

·       Those currently employed in the service of food and wine and with a history of minimum three years of such service.

·       Contestants are required to have substantial knowledge of the local wine scene and of the professional service of both food and wine.

·       An adequate knowledge of international wine appellations and styles of wine is also a prerequisite.

·       More importantly, however, the contest examines the ability of those selling wine in the hospitality industry to relate what is produced in South Africa to the expectations of international visitors more familiar with the major wine producing regions of the world.

Competition dateline

First Round

Registration Forms and the completed Question Paper are to be submitted no later than 31 May 2012.

Second Round

The Second Round will take place from 6th - 8th August 2012 at venues to be announced.

Final Round

Finalists will compete in Cape Town on 8 October 2012 at a venue to be announced.

Competition winner announcement

The winner of The Bollinger Wine Service of Excellence Award will be announced at the Swartland Revolution on Friday, 9 November 2012.

Judges

Judges at all rounds of the Competition will include internationally trained sommeliers; Cape Wine Masters; and members of the hospitality trade.

To enter The Bollinger Exceptional Wine Service Award

Go to:    http://www.wineserviceaward.co.za/registration/

For more information contact:

Ginette de Fleuriot

Vinimark Head Office

Email: ginette@vinimark.co.za

Tel: 021 – 8869165

or

Michael Crossley

Reciprocal Wines & Riedel Glassware

Email: crossley@reciprocal.co.za

Tel: 011 - 482-9178

For further details on this year’s contest, go to www.wineserviceaward.co.za.

Wine education courses and cooking classes in the Cape

Cathy Marston, whom many of you will know from her late, lamented The Nose wine bar and currently as wine editor of food24.com has launched WSET Wine Courses for serious students of wine. The UK-based Wine & Spirit Education Trust (WSET) wine courses are recognised as the international standard for wine courses with Approved Programme Providers in over 55 countries around the globe teaching WSET to their students. You can see more details and contact her on her website. (Ctrl/click here to access it).

Cathy also started another in her less serious series of wine courses on Wednesday, February 28th. Relax, chill-out and UnWined with the sociable wine course which combines education with good times, good friends and good wines! Cathy has been running her hugely popular informal wine courses for more than 8 years now and the combination of great winemakers, her friendly and informative teaching style and some of SA’s top wines has proved to be a winning one. You can read more and enrol here.

Cape Wine Academy Certificate Wine Course - For more information or a registration form,  please contact Susan Skinner, Certificate Wine Course Coordinator, Cape Wine Academy, Stellenbosch
Email: susan@capewineacademy.co.za, Tel:  021 889 8844, Fax: 021 889 7391, Web site:   www.capewineacademy.co.za, Twitter:       @Capewineacademy, Facebook:   Capewineacademy. Learn about wine, meet people and have fun.

Cooking classes:

Chez Gourmet in Claremont has a programme of cooking classes. A calendar of their classes can be seen here.

Pete Ayub, who makes our very popular Prego sauce, runs evening cooking  classes at Sense of Taste in Maitland, which we can recommend very highly, having enjoyed his seafood course. Check his programme here.

3rd May 2012 Main Ingredient’s MENU - Luke Dale-Roberts, Awards & Pot Luck, Taj Expressions of Stellenbosch, Masterchef SA, Chicken & peanut stew, Products, Our market activities, Wine courses, Events and Restaurants

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Lion’s Head on a wintry day, from Cape Town docks

In this week’s MENU:

     Products

     Our market activities

     Luke Dale-Roberts, Awards & Pot Luck

     Taj Expressions of Stellenbosch

     Masterchef SA

     Chicken & peanut stew

     Wine courses, Events and Restaurants

Products     We hope that our order of Prego sauce will be ready tomorrow. The public holidays of the last week tend to throw spanners into the works of business. We have lots of the wonderful Mexicorn salsas and delicious French and Italian delicacies… patés, truffles, balsamic reductions etc. 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.

Our market activities    We will be at the Old Biscuit Mill’s brilliant, exciting and atmospheric Neighbourgoods Market, as always, this Saturday and every Saturday between 09h00 and 14h00. Come and visit us at Long Beach Mall on Friday 11th May from 09h00 to 16h00.

What makes an award winning chef?     In our opinion: Experience, subtlety, flair, a great palate, adventurousness, care for detail, consistency, food knowledge, stamina, great management skills, financial nous and the ability to pass all this on to their staff and still run a happy restaurant, and lastly, the ability to make money, not just reputation. Bravo and congratulations to Margot Janse at Le Quartier Français and Luke Dale Roberts of The Test Kitchen for making the top 100 Restaurants in the San Pellegrino & Acqua Panna Restaurants Awards this week. Yes, they have been higher on the list before but there is a great deal more competition out there in world restaurants in a recession. People have to work very hard indeed to make these lists.

Last night, we were invited to Luke’s other restaurant, The Pot Luck Club at the Biscuit Mill (next door and connected to the Test Kitchen) and it was a truly wonderful experience. We had fun, we ate like royalty and we will definitely go again. They have two seatings: 6 to 9 or 9 to 10.30 and we were booked into the early session, not always our choice as we do prefer to eat later. However, if you want to see your dishes cooked and get a blow by blow rundown of what each of them consists of, book a counter seat on an early session. Then when you know what you like, you can go to a late session and order it all. This dark and moody industrial style restaurant with an open kitchen and art on the walls gets busy early but is not as bustling, loud and fun as it is later and you can enjoy your food and discuss it at the same time. Some of the food is life changing in its ingenuity, simplicity and layers of complimentary flavours. It shows the many influences from the places that Luke has travelled to and worked in during his successful career. It is served Tapas style so you are meant to share but you could hog a whole dish to yourself if you absolutely adore it. And there are dishes that Lynne is now intent on trying to recreate at home, something she only does when she is intrigued and absolutely delighted by the food. The chef in charge of The Pot Luck Club kitchen is Nic Wilkinson, a local lad who has come from working at Scott’s in Mayfair in London (the older amongst you will know it as Ronnie Scott’s). He was assisted by the trainee chef Romy Jansen (amongst several others) from Silwood, who also explained to us the dishes she so ably served us. The staff is so impressive in the open kitchen, responding quickly to instructions and working smartly, quietly and quickly to produce lots and lots of dishes. And the service is slick. Do you want to see and read about what we had to eat? Follow this link.

The Pot Luck Club & Gallery is open for dinner from Tuesday to Saturday inclusive, and lunch on Saturday. For booking enquiries, call +27 21 447 0804 or email reservations@thepotluckclub.co.za

Mint Restaurant at the Taj, Expressions of Simonsberg, Bottelary and Stellenbosch with Guest Chef Christiaan Campbell of Delaire-Graff and wines from Greater Simonsberg, Stellenbosch Valley and Bottelary Hills

We joined the wine tasting at 6 and tasted some very impressive wines from the area like Bartinney’s classic cats pee and elderflower flavoured 2011 Sauvignon Blanc, their very vanilla 2010 Chardonnay; Dalla Cia’s Chardonnay and great red Giorgio; a selection of Warwick’s wines, the best of which was the Trilogy 2009, full of sweet liquorice, dark red fruits and elegant tannins with a very long finish. Martin Meinert’s Synchronicity 2007 Cape blend, almost balsamic in character, stood out well with its soft fresh fruit, red berries and lovely extraction of flavours. Jordan showed us their new The Real McCoy Riesling 2011 which has great balance and long flavours. Thelema also showed their drier Riesling, their Chardonnay and their Shiraz. Meerlust, their very French style Pinot Noir full of forest floor smells, mushrooms and marmite as well as the classic Rubicon red blend. Tokara’s Collection Chardonnay 2010 was smoky, limey and crisp and Delaire let us taste five wines, two of which were paired with dinner. Nice to taste the Beyerskloof Pinotage again, Lynne even agreed she might drink the Reserve 2009 often, not something she often does with Pinotage.

Our all time favourite of the evening was the outstanding Stork Shiraz from Hartenberg, a wine to rave about and wish we had the budget for cases of this wonderful, faultless wine. Such intense fruit, such quality and still so much time to go. Their Chardonnay, the Eleanor, was also the best one of the evening for us and it had some close competitors. It is so nice to see good Chardonnay taking front of stage again. Several of these wines were served with the rather rich dinner which followed. We had great company as we sat at the Delaire table and enjoyed the meal and wine together with their charming General Manager, Johan Laubser, his wife and their two marketing ladies. See photos and descriptions here. You can taste these dishes in Mint restaurant all through May, until the next tasting and dinner which will be Expressions of Robertson & Tulbagh.

Masterchef SA   We have not mentioned South African Masterchef before, as we wanted to get into the series before commenting. Lynne is a great fan of the series and has watched the UK programme for years, both the Australian series’ that have been shown here and the awful USA programme with Gordon Ramsey, which was like an abridged version with serious attitude. To put it into perspective, they have stuck to the programme’s formula but is it art? Can they cook? We haven’t been shown much cooking or presentation skill yet; in fact, very little. Are they keeping the good cooks in the shadows? The new UK series started on Monday and the UK competitors (all amateurs) have to invent a dish from a mystery box, go straight into a pressured professional kitchen for a session, and then come back to the studio and cook their best two course menu. And this is just to get into the show. They are producing restaurant level food. We are not seeing this in the SA programme ... yet? Will it happen? We wait to see. One element we don’t like is letting the contestants vote for their peers. We think this is what the judges, who are the professionals, are there for. They tried this in the first series in Australia and the contestants managed to get rid of someone who was a threat and who might have gone on to win, rather than someone who was weak.

Chicken and Peanut Stew

The Sunday Times Food section this week featured recipes of interesting African food and there was a spicy Ghanaian chicken and peanut stew; Lynne decided to try. It was very interesting but, following the instructions to a T, she thinks it was cooked a little too long because the chicken all fell apart and the sauce thickened up a lot. We had it with samp and beans. However, it is good to be outside our comfort zone and try other food from our continent instead of Europe, Asia or America. If you want to try it, you will need to find a copy of last week’s Sunday Times.

Food and wine (and a few other) events for you to enjoy

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 Events Calendar. All the events are listed in date order and we already have a large number of exciting events to entertain you right through the year. Click here to access the Calendar. 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 more 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.

Winter is coming in with a bang, but we can still expect some wonderful clear and sunny days. Make the most of them and enjoy a picnic on a wine farm; 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.

3rd May 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.

This electronic 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 and keep our mailing list strictly confidential. 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, please click here to send us a message.

Old Mutual Trophy Wines feedback at the Grande Roche, Paarl

Today, we enjoyed, once again, the privilege of going to the Grande Roche in Paarl for the Old Mutual Trophy Wine Show competition feedback.

The Grande Roche conference venue

Coffee and tweets to set us up

Angela Lloyd with Johan Laubser, Delaire Graff GM

Gary Jordan, Carl Schultz (Hartenberg) and Thelma du Plooy (Kleinood)

Karl Lambour (Holden Manz) and Graeme Read (Hillcrest) with Michael Fridjhon

Michael Crossley who, with Janice Fridjhon, Alex Mason-Gordon and some others, makes it all work

Michael Fridjhon opening the session

François Rautenbach (Singita) and Carl Schultz (Hartenberg)

Tiaan and Rene Burger (Welbedacht) and Colyn Truter

LUNCH ON THE TERRACE AT BOSMANS    

A serious discussion: Anthony Rose, James Petersen, André Margenthal (WOSA), Christian Eedes and Angela Lloyd
Sommelier Michael Gabagas
The view from the terrace

Norman Mc Farlane gets a taste of Hartenberg The Eleanor from Michael Gabagas (it was too much - he shared it)
The next small course was a duo of prawns, a quenelle shape of yellowtail tartare and some yellowtail ceviche slices with a teaspoonful of mango corn salsa and some interesting dots of avocado crème. The flavours were absolutely delicious and all complemented each other, but a few more prawns would have been appreciated... 

some slices of honey glazed duck breast, meltingly tender, served on a flash of sweet and sour butternut puree, an amazing confit of duck spring roll and a ginger jus. 

Dessert was a poem of a light chocolate nougat mousse gateau with a sour dark berry ragout and crème.

We were drinking the Hartenberg Cabernet Sauvignon 2004 which is a cassis driven fruit bomb, soft and mellow. If you have some, drink now, it is at its peak. Unexpectedly, this serious wine matched the dessert to a T, its cassis and chocolate flavours being the perfect meld.

Jonathan Snashall enjoyed some elegant company 

All these photographs are ©John Ford, Adamastor & Bacchus cc. 2012

Parking at the Neighbourgoods Market

Drive down Kent Street from Salt River Road. College of Cape Town has a high wall with a gateway. Park there. R10 gets you all day secure parking. There is a pedestrian gate leading to Albert Road and the Old Biscuit Mill is directly acrosss the road. If they get too full, park at the site on the corner of Kent St & Salt River Road, but we prefer College of Cape Town - it's more convenient.