Wednesday, April 10, 2013

10th April 2013 Main Ingredient's MENU - SAWIS presentation at Leeuwenhof, TvM wine trade tasting, Taste of Cape Town competition, Cashew nut chicken recipe


MENU
Main Ingredient’s weekly E-Journal
Gourmet Foods & Ingredients
Eat In Guide’s Five time Outstanding Outlet Award Winner
+27 21 439 3169 / +27 83 229 1172
Queen Mary 2 passes the V&A Waterfront en route to the Duncan Dock in Cape Town harbour
In this week’s MENU:                                                              
*       South African Grand Wines Collection presented to Premier Helen Zille
*       Tracy van Maaren Trade wine tasting
*       QM2
*       Taste of Cape Town competition
*       Cashew nut chicken recipe
*       On Line Shop
*       This week’s Product menu
*       Our market activities - Neighbourgoods, Long Beach
*       Wine and Food Events
*       Wine courses & cooking classes
To take a look at our Main Ingredient blogs, follow the link: http://adamastorbacchus.blogspot.com/ because to tell our whole story here would take too much space and you can also read earlier blogs. Click on underlined and Bold words in the text of this edition to open links to pictures, blogs, pertinent websites or more information. Follow us on Twitter: @mainingmenu
Main Ingredient's On Line Shop is performing very well. We are continuing to update it with new products and with photographs of products. Please do not pay until we have confirmed availability and invoiced you. When you make an eft payment, make sure that it says who you are. Use the form on the website to email us your order and we will send you the final invoice once we’ve made sure stock is available. Click here to see the shop.
This week’s Product menu  Unless you have lots of time to make your own, you probably use stock cubes.  We have Italian Chicken, Beef and Vegetable cubes. Portuguese fish stock in cubes. Australian vegetarian cubes without MSG in beef, chicken and vegetable flavours and a jar of vegetarian stock powder made with olive oil.
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 Come and visit us at the Old Biscuit Mill’s wonderfully exciting, atmospheric Neighbourgoods Market, as always, this Saturday and every Saturday between 09h00 and 14h00. Tip: Some visitors tell us how they struggle to find parking. It’s quite easy if you know how. Click here for a map which shows where we park. We will be back at the market in Long Beach Mall, Sun Valley, Fish Hoek tomorrow, Friday April 11th and next Friday, April 18th.
Presentation of the ‘South African Grand Wines Collection’ to Premier Helen Zille.      Leeuwenhof is one of the oldest houses in Cape Town and is set in a beautiful estate at the foot of Table Mountain. It is the official residence of the Premier of the Western Cape. The South African Wine Index invited us to a reception there, along with members of the wine industry and wine media, to witness Premier Helen Zille accepting the ‘South African Grand Wines Collection’. This collection currently represents 125 natural wines which show up the variety which comes from the SA landscape, their complexity and structure. Wines which achieve top scores in competitions here and abroad are indexed, evaluated to select the best and then listed as iconic South African wines. Premier Zille indicated that she would love to have some guidance from the industry as to the wines to serve at official banquets and other state functions. She was presented with two iconic brandies, 20 year olds from Van Rijn and the KWV, and two wines by Hempies du Toit: a magnum of Alto Rouge, which delighted her as she said this was the wine served at her wedding, and a very special bottle of Annandale. Hempies, who also achieved fame as a rugby Springbok, succeeded his father as winemaker at Alto before he bought his own farm, Annandale. She also received two bottles of Vin de Constance, the iconic dessert wine from Klein Constantia which was resurrected by the late Ross Gower to match the style of the famous Constantia wines of the 18th and 19th centuries.
We then moved through to the dining room, where we were served two courses of three canapés each, made by talented Chef Marc Wassung and some very good wines including Oak Valley, Bouchard Finlayson, Creation, Eagle’s Nest, Saronsberg and Cape Point,
Premier Zille spoke about the new Liquor Bill which has just come into effect in the province, imposing more restrictions on the sale of alcoholic beverages, saying that alcohol abuse poses an enormous problem. It is the cause of large numbers of Foetal Alcohol Syndrome children, crime, extreme violence and murder. She told us of how, for a short period in Nyanga, they had managed to close all the liquor outlets and for that period all the crime and violence decreased enormously. She asked for the industry’s help in combating these problems, while recognising that the industry does bring enormous wealth and tourism to the Province. Click here to see the photographs.
Tracy van Maaren Trade wine tasting     This was held yesterday afternoon at Auslese, Harald Bresselschmidt’s function venue in Hope Street. This is one of the trade tastings we really look forward to each year, because Tracy represents a small but very good list of wine farms and Harald is a master at matching the food to those wines. We started with a lovely, crisp NV Pol Roger Champagne (said to be Winston Churchill’s favourite), matched with a phyllo crisp topped with fennel puree and 2 magnificent tiger prawns. This had a flavour of lemon curd which went very well with the bubbles. There was a very ripe and fruity 2011 Chablis from William Fevre and a 2008 Rioja Reserva from Bodega Muga, which was matched with a bittersweet chocolate filled with blueberry and praline – magical. Next were John Loubser’s three Silverthorn Cap Classique bubblies. The Green Man is stunning and the canapé of Vitello topped with a fried white anchovy on Potato-artichoke puree was a very, very good match to it. The recently released Jewel Box was a very good match for the Paupiette of free range chicken and Prawn with leek mousseline. Matching their Genie Rosé with rose Turkish delight was also a lovely idea.
Vriesenhof have a deep and many layered 2012 Chardonnay and a really impressive 2009 Pinot Noir. One of the memorable canapés on their table was a wagyu beef topside and aubergine involtini with spinach, pomegranate and pumpkin seed salad. So unusual but in a way, so familiar.
The Pan fried duck liver, still just pink, with orange zest aroma and a grapefruit gelée completely echoed the taste of their 2009 Chardonnay. So well matched by the chef. We reached Lynne’s wines of the evening at Raats. On tasting the Original Chenin Blanc 2012, John heard those favourite words “Birthday Wine”. One word was written on the tasting sheet ‘Perfection’. She found it crisp and tight, full of minerality with long lime and lemon flavours and then the richness develops on the palate. We now have a case on order. Also of note is their interesting Blanc white blend.
On Cathy Marshall’s table we had our first tasting of Black pudding. The jury is still out on that, but we absolutely loved both her wines: the Amatra 2012 Chenin is rich, full and icy hot on the palate. This was paired with beautiful salmon trout that had been cured with beetroot and served with a tarragon mustard crème fraiche. Her 2011 Nine Barrels Reserve Pinot Noir is elegant and savoury and full of red berry fruit. Click here to see the photographs.
Queen Mary 2     We were a little late for the tasting because, as we crested the brow of High Level Road going into town, we heard on Cape Talk radio that the liner Queen Mary 2 was just passing Camps Bay. So we stopped and waited with camera at the ready. She really was a magnificent sight sailing past Robben Island, Blaauwberg and the Waterfront. She seemed to float above the new Stadium, then past some welcoming boats before meeting her tugs and entering Duncan Dock. The largest luxury Ocean Liner in the world, and Cunard’s Flagship, she is on her way from Australia to Britain. How we would love to be sailing on her. She will be back in Cape Town in 2014, so start making your plans now. Note for photographers: the picture was taken with a 300mm lens on John’s Nikon DSLR (which is equivalent to a 450mm lens on a 35mm camera), so the perspective is compressed. This is why Table Bay looks so narrow and Tygerberg hill and the oil refinery look so near.
Taste of Cape Town     Thank you to all the MENU readers who sent in entries to our Taste of Cape Town competition. We have never had so many entries to a competition and were able to obtain an extra ten pairs of tickets from the organisers. After the first ten names had been drawn, we drew another set of ten names from the submissions of correct answers received before the first deadline. We did receive a few late entries, but could not consider them. Deadlines are deadlines. All the winners will have been notified by now and should have retrieved their tickets from the website. We will be at the opening tomorrow and look forward to seeing many of you there.
This week’s recipe     Lynne has been cooking a lot of Asian recipes in the last couple of weeks. We have had a Chicken Tikka Masala and another Vietnamese beef. On Saturday, inspired by Masterchef Australia, she went out and bought a (not-so) fresh coconut, fresh turmeric (both at the Biscuit Mill) and uncooked prawns and made Rick Stein’s Malaysian Laksa. This still needs work, as the coconut was a washout and we think tinned coconut cream would probably work better here. The turmeric was also very unripe, so it didn’t give that wonderful golden orange colour or flavour Mr Stein achieved. And the prawns were awful and mushy. Hmmmmm. And it was a LOT of work.
One recommendation: we find it is better to eat spicy Asian recipes when they are warm rather than hot. When they are piping hot, you seem to lose a lot of flavour. Our recipe this week is from China. Probably more Western in influence, it is something you may have eaten in a Chinese restaurant or ordered as a take-away. Chinese food is really simple if you have the right ingredients and are prepared to do some prep beforehand. These ingredients are all easy to find. We find that the corn flour seems to help tenderise the chicken and it will help to thicken the sauce at the end.
Cashew Nut Chicken
80g raw cashew nuts - 2 skinned chicken breasts, cut into 1 cm slices – 1 T corn flour – 1 small egg, beaten – 2 T peanut oil for frying – 3cm piece of fresh ginger, grated – 2 fat cloves of garlic, chopped - 1 small white onion, chopped into 4cm pieces – 6 green beans, chopped into 3 cm lengths – 4 baby corns, sliced – 1 small red pepper, cut into 3 cm cubes – 2 spring onions, chopped into 2 cm lengths – 1 T sweet chilli sauce – 2 T light soy sauce -1/2 cup good chicken stock – 1 cup bean sprouts
Dry fry the cashew nuts till nicely toasted, then set aside. Mix the chicken, cornflour and egg and set aside while you do your preparation on the vegetables. When ready, heat your wok till smoking, then add the oil and quickly fry your chicken on all sides. Remove and set aside. Stir fry the onion quickly until the edges brown but it stays quite firm. Add the ginger and garlic to the pan and throw in all the other vegetables except the bean sprouts and quickly stir fry for two minutes. Put in the sauces and the stock and cook for another two minutes. Add the chicken and cook for a couple of minutes until it is just done. Throw in the bean sprouts and cashew nuts, stir, taste and add more soy if necessary, then serve immediately with fluffy boiled jasmine rice.
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 see what’s happening in our world of food and wine (and a few other cultural events), visit 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.
Learn about wine and cooking We receive a lot of enquiries from people who want to learn more about wine. Cathy Marston and The Cape Wine Academy both run wine education courses, some very serious and others more geared to fun. You can see details of Cathy’s WSET and other courses here and here and the CWA courses here.
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, his catering company in Maitland. We can recommend them very highly, having enjoyed his seafood course. Check his programme here. Nadège Lepoittevin-Dasse has cooking classes in Fish Hoek and conducts cooking tours to Normandy. You can see more details here. Emma Freddi runs the Enrica Rocca cooking courses at her home in Constantia. Brett Nussey’s Stir Crazy courses are now being run from Dish Food and Social’s premises in Main Road Observatory (opposite Groote Schuur hospital).





10th April 2013
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 and our blogs 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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Presentation of the ‘South African Grand Wines Collection’ to Premier Helen Zille

Leeuwenhof, Official Residence of the Premier of the Western Cape
 The guests enjoy a glass of wine before the presentation
 Izak Smit of SAWIS introduced the Premier, Ms Helen Zille
 who spoke about her experience with wine and of some of the eminent guests who have been entertained with South African wines at Leeuwenhof
  A bottle of Van Rijn brandy, presented by Marlene Bester of Distell
 Pieter de Bod of the KWV presents Ms Zille with a bottle of KWV 20 year old brandy
 Hempies du Toit presented magnums of Alto and Annandale wines
 Hein Koegelenberg presented a bottle of Klein Constantia's Vin de Constance
 Anthony Hamilton Russell also presented Ms Zille with a bottle of Vin de Constance
 
 History was made in another way -  Hempies du Toit wore a jacket and tie!
 After the presentation - Canapés in the dining room
 The Menu
 The L shaped dining room with Cape scenes painted by prominent Cape artists
Ms Zille asked Twelve Apostles sommelier Greg Mutambe to suggest suitable wines to match the canapés
 and they were joined by chef Marc Wassung who spoke about the food
 The first plate of canapés: Hot Baked Salmon with a hint of Smoked and Slow Roasted Tomatoes and Sauce Béarnaise - Brinjal and Goat's Cheese Stack with Herb Pastry - Crostini topped with Baked King Oyster Mushroom and Thyme
 Ms Zille spoke about the new liquor legislation, the Province's severe addiction problems and the need for control
 The second course: Curried Prawn - Springbok Loin served with White Bean Puree and Shiraz Reduction - Crispy Duck served with Thick Cut Potato Chips cooked in Duck fat and Rosemary
 Jos Baker shows Ms Zille her book "Preserving a House", about her historic 300 year old cottage
  © John & Lynne Ford, Adamastor & Bacchus 2013

TvM Wines Trade Show at Auslese

 Muga Rioja, Saint Cosme Gigondas, Pol Roger Champagne and William Fevre Chablis from Great Domaines
 Karen Loubser with a bottle of Silverthorn Jewel Box MCC
 Karen and John were celebrating their 19th wedding anniversary, so the wine was appropriate
John Loubser
Kingklip with tomato compote and mizuna coulis served with Vriesenhof Pinot Noir 2009 & Wagyu beef topside and aubergine involtini with spinach, pomegranate and pumpkin seed salad served with Pinotage 2008 
 Pressed Yellow Pepper & Cucumber Terrine with warm smoked fish served with Kleine Zalze Sauvignon Blanc Family Reserve 2011 & Lamb and aubergine roll with horseradish cream served with Shiraz Family Reserve 2008
 Winemaker RJ Botha at the Kleine Zalze table
 Pan fried Duck Liver with orange zest aroma and grapefruit gelee served with Longridge Chardonnay 2009 & Oxtail Croquettes with red onion and cassis cocktail served with Merlot 2008
 Mount Nelson sommelier Carl Habel
 Beetroot-cured Salmon Trout with tarragon mustard creme fraiche served with Cathy Marshall's Amatra Chenin 2012 & Fried Black Pudding with plum chutney and savoury herb gelee served with Pinot Noir White Label 2011
 Catherine Marshall's wines
 Cured beef fillet set on spicy rhubarb with pistachio oil served with Raats Family Wines Red Jasper 2011 & Seared Ostrich Tartare cherry guavas and red current basting served with Dolomite Cabernet Franc 2011
 A happy gathering of food and wine enthusiasts
 Paupietter of free range chicken and Prawn with leek mousseline served with Silverthorn JewelBox 2009 & Potato-Artichoke Puree with vitello and fried white anchovy served with The Green Man 2009
 Here's looking up at you: John Loubser and Tracy van Maaren
 Good friends - Mike Bampfield-Duggan and Ingrid Motteux
© John & Lynne Ford, Adamastor & Bacchus 2013

Friday, April 05, 2013

4th April 2013 Main Ingredient's MENU - Graham Beck Game Reserve & Antonij Rupert wine launches, Luan Nel exhibition, La Mouette Autumn menu


MENU
Main Ingredient’s weekly E-Journal
Gourmet Foods & Ingredients
Eat In Guide’s Five time Outstanding Outlet Award Winner
+27 21 439 3169 / +27 83 229 1172
A pastoral scene near Darling
In this week’s MENU:                                                              
*       On Line Shop
*       This week’s Product menu
*       Our market activities - Neighbourgoods, Long Beach
*       La Mouette Autumn Menu
*       Antonij Rupert tasting rooms
*       Luan Nel paintings
*       Graham Beck’s Game Reserve wines
*       Wine and Food Events
*       Wine courses & cooking classes
To take a look at our Main Ingredient blogs, follow the link: http://adamastorbacchus.blogspot.com/ because to tell our whole story here would take too much space and you can also read earlier blogs. Click on underlined and Bold words in the text of this edition to open links to pictures, blogs, pertinent websites or more information. Follow us on Twitter: @mainingmenu
Main Ingredient's On Line Shop is performing very well. We are continuing to update it with new products and with photographs of products. Please do not pay until we have confirmed availability and invoiced you. When you make an eft payment, make sure that it says who you are. Use the form on the website to email us your order and we will send you the final invoice once we’ve made sure stock is available. Click here to see the shop.
This week’s Product menu    Many of you know us for our Italian and French gourmet products, but we also have special Oriental products like black rice from China, Japanese mirin, dashi tuna stock and Shichimi Togarashi spice, Thai tamarind and shrimp pastes and Indonesian Sambal oelek and Kejap manis sweet soy sauce..
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 Come and visit us at the Old Biscuit Mill’s wonderfully exciting, atmospheric Neighbourgoods Market, as always, this Saturday and every Saturday between 09h00 and 14h00. Tip: Some visitors tell us how they struggle to find parking. It’s quite easy if you know how. Click here for a map which shows where we park. We will be back at the market in Long Beach Mall, Sun Valley, Fish Hoek on Friday March 22nd. Our  April dates will be Fridays 12th and 19th.
Well, after a quiet and family oriented Easter, we are back with a bang. We had a family lunch on Good Friday; Lynne cooked a gammon and we had it with salad, roasted butternut puree and potato salad. Dessert was a panettone bread and butter pudding, and we ate far too much chocolate over the very long and cold weekend. It seemed that winter had arrived far too early and we even lit a fire on Monday night and were peeved at all the rain we have had. However, yesterday and today we enjoyed marvellous weather and the forecast for tomorrow is equally good. Please let it last over this weekend.
Autumn is upon us, eat out well     On Tuesday night, we ventured out to try La Mouette’s new Autumn menu, very good value indeed at R185 for six course. Henry Vigar, the chef, is extremely talented at putting together a great selection of food and we ate heartily. We started off with a complimentary glass of Moreson’s Miss Molly Cap Classique, nice and crisp and citrusy, and Mari brought us a bowl of their truffle croquettes, which we can never resist, as an appetiser. The courses are small but, when you have finished, you feel as though you have eaten a very large meal. One favourite was definitely the classic mushroom risotto – rice of the perfect texture, creamy and full of mushrooms and then, as an added surprise, on the side are some lovely crisp battered deep fried mushrooms, a great innovation. John had the excellent roasted chicken alternative. The pan fried line fish was actually a very fresh piece of hake, not a line fish but well received. This will change daily according to what is fresh and available. And we also loved Henry’s witty homage to the Waldorf salad. Click here to see the photos and the menu. You can do the menu paired with wine for R295. We were happy to pay corkage and drank two wines from our cellar, a Winter’s Drift Chardonnay and Morgenhof Estate Red 2002.
The Good Cape Earth and the Sweet Life     Anthonij Rupert have just launched their Terra Del Capo tasting room and range of wines and we were invited to try them both on Wednesday. The farm was bought from Graham Beck wines a year ago. The Terra del Capo Tasting Room, situated at the entrance to the property, was designed to showcase the company’s Italian-inspired Terra del Capo range of wines which were a passion of the late Anthonij Rupert and which the family see as his legacy. Wine aficionados can enjoy bespoke wine tasting experiences of the Cape of Good Hope here and the Anthonij Rupert Wine range in the original Manor House on the farm, restored to its former glory and now home of the Anthonij Rupert Wines Tasting Room.
On arrival, we were treated to a taste of their new L’Ormarins Brut Cap Classique n.v. and then went upstairs to the tasting room, where we tasted three whites : Terra del Cape Pinot Grigio 2012, Protea Sauvignon Blanc 2012 and Protea Chardonnay 2010. These were followed by three reds: the Terra del Capo 2010 Sangiovese, 2011 Protea Reserve and Terra del Capo Arne 2008. We especially loved the well balanced and fresh Pinot Grigio which will retail around the R60 mark and the Sangiovese which is complex, spicy and full of delicious fruit. R75. Did you know that Sangiovese means the Blood of Jupiter? Many of these grape varietals are grown on a very different trellis system called Chandelier Escelot, where the vine is grown up a single post in a wigwam style as this is wind resistant and easy to harvest from on steep hillsides.
We were then served the magnificent antipasti lunch and then were driven up the road to the Manor House to taste the Anthonij Rupert wines in that tasting room. Click here to see the pictures and menu.
Guided by winemaker, Dawie Botha, we tasted two of their white wines - The Altima Sauvignon Blanc and the Cape of Good Hope Serruria 2010 Chardonnay and later we managed to get a taste of the Semillon. Then came four serious reds. The entry level Optima 2009 red blend of Cabernet, Merlot and Cabernet Franc with a soupçon of Cinsault was delightful with sweet unctuous fruit, lovely depth of flavour and a long end with notes of good wood and soft tannins, all artfully integrated. R125 at the cellar door. The Anthonij Rupert classic Bordeaux Blend 2007 is a little rich for our pockets at R750 a bottle but is a very well made wine and scored 95 points in Wine Spectator, the highest score a South African wine has ever got – so far. It is full of violets, cassis, dark plums, liquorice, cigar box notes, juicy and full chalky tannins, and it has still got years to go. Only 1000 bottles have been released and this is treated to very, very careful wine making, as are all the wines in the range.
Then we tasted the Anthonij Rupert Merlot 2007 (R410) and the 2007 Syrah (420), both excellent expressions of the grapes. Later we also got to taste the Cabernet Franc (R430) which, with its silky mouth feel and juicy fruit – rhubarb, mulberries and black cherries - we liked very much. This wine will last for ages and we wish we had some for our cellar.
The afternoon finished with a walk in their quite comprehensive herb garden, where Lynne had a conversation with the chef about his use of the herbs, a wander around the manor house seeing the beautifully appointed guest rooms and then they laid on a delicious tea on the stoop before we shot off home.
All a’Twitter     Not about communication on your phone but the name of an art exhibition! Luan Nel is one of our very talented young artists and we were invited to the opening of his new exhibition at the Everard Read Gallery at the V&A Waterfront last night. The exhibition features many new paintings, many of birds and we covet some of them dearly. Several were sold on the first night and if you want to see this fine exhibition it will be on until the 16th of April. Click here to see the photographs
GRAHAM BECK SAYS “PLANET FIRST – IT’S IN OUR NATURE”      This is the logo for Graham Beck’s newly launched range of wines, The Game Reserve. The media lunch was held today, appropriately at The Camps Bay Retreat and Nature Reserve in the Glen in Camps Bay, a magnificent old house now part of the Village and Life Group, built in 1908 overlooking the bay, the crashing waves and its magnificent gardens. We sat at long tables underneath the pergola and listened intently to Mossie Basson, formerly of the Department of Conservation, and now Graham Beck Wines’ conservation manager; and award winning Cellarmaster, Erika Obermeyer tell us about the Graham Beck Nature Reserve and the range of wines they are launching to support the reserve. Each of the 9 wines: 4 whites, one rosé and 4 reds, represents the precious animals on the Reserve. Graham Beck Wines is the only wine brand in the world associated with a private nature reserve that can demonstrate measurable actions taken to conserve the natural environment, something so necessary in our world.
The Graham Beck property, Madeba in Robertson, is situated in the heart of the Succulent Karoo Ecosystem in the Breede River Valley, an area extremely rich in plant and geological diversity. Of the 1,500 species of vegetation in the area, 115 are endemic and, of these, 77% are succulents. Only 2.4% of the region is formally conserved. Graham Beck Wines is proud to be one of the earliest pioneers in the initiative to conserve the biodiversity of the Cape Floral Kingdom. The winery was appointed the second BWI (Biodiversity and Wine Initiative) Biodiversity Champion and is currently still one of around only 28 wineries in South Africa that can lay claim to this prestigious status.
Bordering Madeba is the Graham Beck Private Nature Reserve, an area that extends to the eastern slopes of the Rooiberg. The reserve was set aside in the 1990s shortly after the Becks purchased the farm, in the hope of reversing the devastating effects of 200 years of over-utilization of the natural resources. They have even discovered a new mop head vygie (mesembrianthemum) now named Esterhuysenia grahambeckii and this now is on the Rosé label. Each animal or plant depicted on the label is endemic to the region and nature reserve on the property.
In July 2007, 27 neighbouring landholders pledged to join the conservation effort. The Rooiberg Breede River Conservancy was born, and remains a strong focus of the efforts, comprising no fewer than 13,500 hectares of natural vegetation. For every 1 hectare of land utilized for producing wine or stud horse farming on the Graham Beck Estate at Robertson, 4,5 hectares of land are conserved today.
The list of wines we tasted and Fauna and Flora depicted on the labels are:
•        The Game Reserve Chenin Blanc – The Riverine Rabbit
•        The Game Reserve Sauvignon Blanc – The Fish Eagle
•        The Game Reserve Chardonnay – The Cape Eagle Owl
•        The Game Reserve Viognier – The Honey Badger
•        The Game Reserve Rosé – Esterhuysenia grahambeckii
•        The Game Reserve Pinotage – The Bat Eared Fox
•        The Game Reserve Merlot – The Cape Clawless Otter
•        The Game Reserve Shiraz – The Eland
•        The Game Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon – The Cape Leopard
The white wines retail for around R60 per bottle and the reds for around R85
We particularly liked the Honey Badger 2010 Viognier, full of white peaches and honey but crisp and dry and elegant with a long finish.  Also the spicy and fruity Eland Shiraz, full of perfume and ripe red berries. This over-delivers with white pepper, cranberries, raspberries and is made in quite a serious style with 18 month in 1st to 3rd fill barrels: 80% French, 20% American. But all the wines are good and well worth drinking. Some, like the white wines and the rosé are easy drinking and ready now. Others like the Merlot and the Cabernet may need some time and could be put down in your cellar for a year or two.
Canapés were served on the lawn before lunch, while we drank glasses of Graham Beck Blanc de Blanc and then we sat down to a very nice lunch, the best course being a rack of pink lamb which was the most tender and flavourful lamb we think we have ever had.  After coffee we wandered around the house and gardens and got a feel for its history. Click here to see the pictures.
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 see what’s happening in our world of food and wine (and a few other cultural events), visit 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.
Learn about wine and cooking We receive a lot of enquiries from people who want to learn more about wine. Cathy Marston and The Cape Wine Academy both run wine education courses, some very serious and others more geared to fun. You can see details of Cathy’s WSET and other courses here and here and the CWA courses here.
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, his catering company in Maitland. We can recommend them very highly, having enjoyed his seafood course. Check his programme here. Nadège Lepoittevin-Dasse has cooking classes in Fish Hoek and conducts cooking tours to Normandy. You can see more details here. Emma Freddi runs the Enrica Rocca cooking courses at her home in Constantia. Brett Nussey’s Stir Crazy courses are now being run from Dish Food and Social’s premises in Main Road Observatory (opposite Groote Schuur hospital).



4th April 2013
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 and our blogs 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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