Wintry seas on
Sea Point rocks
In this
week’s MENU:
Old
Mutual Trophy Feedback Session
Brandy
on show
Kyoto
Gardens restaurant
Pierneef
à La Motte
The
best chocolate truffle mousse recipe
Good
Food and Wine Show On Line Shop
This
week’s Product menu
Our
market activities - Neighbourgoods, Long Beach
Wine
and Food Events
Wine
courses & cooking classes
This week’s Product menu: We have Chocolate back in stock now the
warm weather is over. As featured in this wee’ks recipes we also have chestnut
purée and Nielsen Massey extracts. Sadly, the Rand is having a bit of a
struggle against other currencies and prices are rising. Callebaut chocolate
has seen an increase and we have been told that all the French duck and goose
products are on the rise because the price of transport and poultry feed in
France has seen a steep increase. Nielsen Massey extracts will all go up in
price from the beginning of June. We have been very fortunate with these
products: our Nielsen Massey supplier is increasing the price for the first
time since 2006. So all we can say is to buy now while we still have stock at
old prices.
Buying from us on Line 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 which you are unlikely to find elsewhere in
South Africa. You can contact us by email
or phone, or through our on line shop. We can send
your requirements to you anywhere in South Africa. 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.
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, May 17th.
Old Mutual Trophy Feedback Session This
annual event was held last Thursday at the Grande Roche Hotel in Paarl. The
final tasting for the top wines deserving a Trophy took place that morning and
the judges came straight into the lecture theatre to report back on what they
had tasted over the previous days and what trends they have found. This year, as
usual, there were several interesting foreign judges joining the local
cognoscenti: amusing Oz Clarke from the UK, very serious (Oz said laconic) Tom
Carson from Australia and erudite Eric Goettelmann from France. Click here to see the photographs of the judges and the
lunch.
They taste between 110 to 115 wines a day on different
panels. Last year, they tasted mainly 2009 wines, which was a very good
vintage. There are fewer bronzes, silvers and golds this year, when they tasted
more 2010 wines, but they have also raised the bar when judging. They are also
seeing greater equality between red and white wine awards. Tom Carson commented
how much better the wines are since he last tasted for the Trophy in 2005. He
said that they are astounding; the top wines are remarkably better, especially
the Trophy wines. The wines are full of purity and vibrancy, length and
quality. We are not producing so many blockbuster wines, but wines with much
more elegance and consistency. Gary Jordan commented that Sauvignon Blanc and
the white blends have three styles emerging. Chenin, especially, runs the full
gamut of styles and was a very, very good class. Shiraz has dramatically
improved and is less faulty but still, perhaps, too much oak is being used. Oz
Clark said there had been great silvers and that SA must concentrate on Chenin,
our treasure. He would love to see more Rhône style wines, as well as
Portuguese and Italian varietals, being planted. We product too much cabernet
and merlot and possibly even Shiraz. Our chenins are great, funky and rich, how
far can we go with this grape? On Sauvignon Blancs, we need to produce more
stylish wines and fewer that are tropical in style. The north loves pyrazines. We
have the right conditions to produce these characteristic wines and the rest of
the world likes this classic style and, please, we must not lose what we do so
well. We should also treasure cinsaut. SA grows a beautiful wild creature from
this grape, like no-where else. We can also do lovely Bordeaux blends, but we
are trying too hard with Cabernet and spending too much money on expensive oak.
Make these wines accessible and ready to drink now. His opinions really were a
refreshing breath of fresh air.
Eric Goettelmann wants to see wines with elegance. Our
Cap Classiques have fresh aromas which persist. He found the Museum class had
very interesting wines, he can see diamonds in our wines. But he says he finds
SA red wines too sulphured and heavy. But he does find that our wines are
second after France in elegance – a huge compliment.
Angela Lloyd said there was one delicious Cote du Rhône
style wine which stood out amongst all others. In the alternative varieties
there were some very interesting wines. Merlot is often grown in the wrong
terroir; let’s find better areas.
There were 1038 entries. This represents one seventh
of the wines made in South Africa. Christian Eedes said that we must be
technically correct, with better viticulture and winemaking visible. In the
Pinotage class as a whole, there was no vision of flavour or consistency.
Francois Rautenbach said that Merlot in blends is not effective because good
merlot grapes are not being used. Very good, exciting Rhône blends are being
produced, head and shoulders above the rest. He agreed with Oz Clark that we
should be making our reds in the vineyards rather than in the cellars. And we
should be concentrating on producing good shiraz blends.
Tom Carson - Cork is a huge problem in SA and we
should sit up and listen, as it is affecting our industry. In Australia 95% of
all wines are under screw caps. We just have to get it. Michael Fridjhon said
that it was depressing to see the number of wines which they had to pull out
because of cork faults. Two corked bottles and you are out of the competition. And,
depressingly, at the Trophy wine judging, 63% of the wines selected as possible
trophy winners were corked. He said they would be going back to the farms about
their corked wines and over-wooding. Over-wooded wines score bronze rather than
silver. Too often, cheap oak staves are being used and less good fruit is being
produced. We need to buy better barrels. Oak is expected on some wines, but we
need to ask ourselves: is it integrated and is there enough fruit to handle the
wood? The rest of the world sees the Southern warm climes as producing clumsy
hot wines. We do not do these
and we need to get the message across that we are different and we produce
elegant and delicate wines.
Lunch was served on the terrace of the hotel, as it
was a glorious day, and we had lots of discussion about Cape wines while eating
the food and tasting some of the wines entered.
Brandy on show While we
were at Grand Roche, Janice Fridjhon asked if she would see us at the Brandy
show at the CTICC that evening. When we said that we didn’t have tickets, she
was kind enough to arrange media passes for us. The show was a very good
showcase for South African brandy, with a few examples of cognac also being
shown. Brandy and Coke has been a very popular drink for a very long time, but
this show promoted various alternatives: there was a wide range of cocktails,
but we were very pleased to see the emphasis on aged brandies from the big
producers and some very good Potstill brandies from smaller producers some,
like Backsberg, better known for their wines. Near the entrance, there was an
exhibit which could have been very useful to students of wine: an aroma route,
which was a passage lined with giant brandy balloons, each of which contained a
liquid with an aroma – fruit, herbs, nuts, etc., to help visitors identify
aromas they would find in the different brandies. The atmosphere was full of
glitz and glamour, with a group of very glamorous lady musicians entertaining
the crowd and well lit and dressed stands. We are not huge brandy drinkers but
we enjoyed the show and the few small tastes we allowed ourselves very much
indeed. See the pictures here.
Sadly, the food at the CTICC is still not worthy of
the venue. What we ate was a little better than we have seen and criticised in
the past, but the level of service was awful, with dishes like beef stroganoff
being slopped onto plates with a complete lack of care; we have not seen it
this bad in corporate canteens. Personally we probably would have fired the
whole lot of them had we the chance. Disinterested, unfocused, not listening to
orders and then nobody reacting to them so you had to repeat your order minutes
later when you realised not one of the five or six staff behind the food
counter were doing anything but chatting and staring into space. An extreme
example of awful management and very bad staff training..
Kyoto Gardens Sushi We
are avowed sushi lovers, but only of
good authentic sushi made by people who know how to do it. Not made with rice
cooked the day before, or loaded with MSG to make you eat more and more (did
you know that trick? It makes you thirsty too, so you order more to drink and
you finish up with a horrible headache and
a huge bill). A very recent experience, at one of our favourite fish
restaurant chains, had Lynne peeling off the awful, inedible gluey rice to get
to the salmon and tuna in the rolls she had ordered. We won’t order sushi there
ever again.
So when we were invited to come and eat at Kyoto
Gardens Sushi in Kloof Nek we were delighted. We have been to two wine
functions held there previously and the food has been exceptional. However it
is a misunderstanding if you think that they are a sushi bar only, they
actually are a very fine Japanese restaurant with a sushi bar. The owner, Scott
Wood says that he plans to change the sign. All the chefs are trained in the
art of fine Japanese cuisine and the menu is a tour de force of what you might
like to experience. From miso soups, fantastic seafood, noodle dishes, tempura
and some very interesting desserts, there is lots to choose from. Some of it
requires you to be adventurous, just ask the very helpful waiters and you will
get a very full explanation of what you are about to eat. They have a good wine
list too. We had many courses and it can undoubtedly get expensive because of
the imported ingredients they use, like Alaskan scallops and spider crab, razor
clams and huge prawns and octopus. But you can limit what you want to a few
choices to share and some of the
excellent sushi. At the moment they are running a really good special each
evening from 5:30 to 7pm, comprising 5 courses and a glass of wine for R150,
which is phenomenal value and a good way to introduce yourself to their menu. If
you want to see the feast we ate, click here. Nice warm atmosphere in the restaurant
too.
Pierneef à La Motte
At the end of last week, John was hired to take two visiting cabinet
ministers, who were here to attend the World Economic Forum at the CTICC, on a
tour of Franschhoek. Part of the tour was a meeting over lunch at Pierneef à La
Motte with some of the wine and tourism decision makers in Franschhoek. After a
few miserable, misty and drizzly days, the Cape was bathed in glorious bright
sunshine, so we were able to take our lunch on the covered verandah, next to
the little river which flows through the La Motte estate. The restaurant
features local produce, much of it grown on the farm, with dishes following a
traditional South African theme. Photographs of the excellent food (but not the people)
can be seen here.
This week’s recipe We have chocolate again now that the weather is cooler. 70% Callebaut
chocolate callets (drops) which are easy to melt. This week’s recipe is for one
of those of special occasions. It makes a very, very rich truffle mousse,
completely decadent and full of texture and flavour. We also stock a classic
French sweetened chestnut purée.
THE BEST CHOCOLATE TRUFFLE
MOUSSE RECIPE
250 ml double cream - 200g good dark
chocolate Callebaut or Valrhona - 200g sweetened chestnut purée - 2 T brandy or
dark rum or liqueur of your choice – Optional: more cream to serve and a bit
more to decorate
Stir the alcohol into the chestnut purée. Whip the
cream till gentle peaks form. Melt the chocolate over a low heat, in a double
boiler and do not let the water touch the bowl containing the chocolate. Gently
add the chestnut puree to the chocolate then fold in the cream. Put into
attractive serving glasses and refrigerate. This is a very rich dessert and
will easily serve 8. You can top with extra double cream and dress with
chocolate curls, nuts or cherries.
Good Food and
Wine Show This
will be held the weekend after next, 24th to 26th May, but we are not seeing
very much advertising. Many of the suppliers we have, and friends who work in
markets, are not appearing there this year as the fees for the stalls seem to
have doubled. Not too clever in a recession. We have written to them asking for
information but, so far, we have received no response. We have been told by our
Nielsen Massey supplier that Nielsen Massey extracts will be promoted at the
show by Chef Eric Lanlard, who is coming to South Africa for The Good Food and
Wine Show and to promote his new TV
show. Lynne says that he is very talented and rather attractive, so the girls
should enjoy going to see him.
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). Lynn Angel runs the Kitchen Angel
cooking school and does private dinners at her home. She holds hands-on
cooking classes for small groups on Monday and Wednesday evenings. She trained
with Raymond Blanc, and has been a professional chef for 25 years. More info
here
16th May 2013
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
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