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Thursday, August 01, 2013

Caroline's Red Wine Review

Buitenverwachting cellarmaster Hermann Kirschbaum with his colleague Thinus Botha and Buitenverwachting Cabernet Franc

Lizette Kuhn showed Bouchard Finlayson's Galpin Peak Pinot Noir

Stuart Botha, Eagle's Nest winemaker with his Shiraz

David Trafford in discussion with a visitor to the show

A good turnout to an excellent show

Hartenberg winemaker Patrick Ngamane with the Gravel Hill Shiraz

Kaapzicht's trio of Steytlers: Danie Jr, Yngvild and Danie Sr from

Wade Sander and Christo Le Riche with the Le Riche Cabernet

Two happy fellas: Miles Mossop (Tokara winemaker) and Mike Ratcliffe (Warwick CEO)

Luddite Nils Verburg with his Shiraz

Alwyn Möller, Caroline Rillema and Muratie winemaker Francois Conradie

Nadia and Gordon Newton Johnson

Paul Cluver gave the flowers from his table to Jennifer Langlois from Dijon

The end of the show: Empty bottles from Peter Allan Finlayson's Cuvée Cinema Pinot Noir

Indian delight at Namaste

The restaurant is high up on Roodebloem Road, on the right as you go up, and this is the entrance

A warmly decorated fairly traditional Indian interior, no flocked wallpaper, greeted our friends Ronnie and Loraine Kopman Abel

Poppadums with lentil chilli and onion chutney, mint and coconut chutney and tiny pieces of lemon.

The Proprietor of Namaste, Jagdish, shows us how the Thali is served in the steel tray

The scrumptious plate of deep fried Onion Bhaji disappeared far too quickly

The magnificent Thali with six different dishes, rice, paratha and a fresh tomato chutney. This was a non vegetarian selection with a chicken dish, a fish dish, a lentil dish, a paneer dish, superb fried potatoes and a bean dish. All went very well together.

The small dessert is soft vermicelli in a condensed milk custard

Graham Beck Origin of Excellence lunch at the Camps Bay Retreat

The entrance to this lovely building

A very welcome glass of one of our favourite Graham Beck bubblies, the Blanc de Blanc 2008,

Served with two canapés: Beetroot cured salmon crostini and Caprese tartlets

The flight of wines we are about to taste

Chatting before we begin on this balmy day

Graham Beck cellarmaster Erika Obermeyer seated next to André Morgenthal of WOSA (Wines of South Africa)

The glorious view

The red wines, lined up

The whites cooling in an ice bath

And we begin

The media and Graham Beck staff: Tasting, listening, writing and tweeting: multi-tasking at its best. On the left winemaker Rocco de Villiers; Sales Ambassador Kerry Kirby, Nelia Vivier of Get It Magazine, Erika, André Morgenthal, Chloe Canderle and, on the right, Christiane Von Ulmenstein, Jonathan Snashall, PRO Nicolette Waterford, Greg Landman of Country Life and Lynne

Magnificent view of the Atlantic with our tasting table through the Dutch style door

Into the dining room for lunch: Jonathan Snashall, Erika, Chris von Ulmenstein, Graham Beck Sales Ambassador Chloe Canderle, Global Sales & Marketing Exec Etienne Heyns, André Morgenthal of WOSA. Sales Ambassador Kerry Kirby Winemaker Rocco de Villiers , PRO Nicolette Waterford, Nelia Vivier of Get It magazine and Lynne

They served a really well balanced and perfectly cooked five course menu, if you count the canapés

First Course: small butternut ravioli with sage and walnut beurre noisette. Comment: delicious, but we all wanted more. Served with the well-matched Bowed Head 2011 Chenin Blanc

Etienne, Photographer Danie Nel and Chloe Canderle

A plethora of glasses awaiting wines with each course

The second course: an excellent tranche of belly of pork with a smoked apple butter and a crackling twirl. Served with The William 2009 and The Ridge Syrah 2011

Discussion in and about the wine industry over lunch. Spot another attendee on the left, Radio personality Guy McDonald of Good Hope FM

The main course of pepper encrusted fillet with a mushroom jus and truffle frites. This was served with a herb and parmesan shaving salad and some well roasted vegetables with feta and balsamic reduction. Tender beef, good flavours. Only gripe for some was the overcooking of the fillet, others were perfect. Oh you noticed, this is John’s portion sans the mushroom jus. Accompanied by the 2011 Coffeestone Cabernet and The Joshua 2011

Dessert was a rich macadamia topped cheesecake served with a sublime salted caramel ice cream which sang when matched with the Rhona Muscadel.

Etienne Heyns and Kerry Kirby

Thursday, July 25, 2013

Elgin Pinot Noir Tweet-Up Tasting

We were invited to participate in this event this morning. The venue was Caroline's Fine Wine Cellar in Strand Street.

We tasted 13 Pinots from Elgin.

Simultaneously, the same wines were tasted by the winemakers at Paul Cluver in Elgin and the tweets from both venues were posted on a screen

and a table of wine professionals and writers began to taste and tweet

Norman McFarlane conferring with Karen Glanfield, who convened the event

The first flight....

and the tweets demand concentration

in a corner of Caroline's extensive cellar with its huge selection of wines

A great selection of Pinots. See the tweets at #elginwine

Wine Merchants - Caroline Rillema and Mike Bampfield Duggan of Wine Concepts
Visit Caroline's Red Wine Review next Wednesday and Wine Concepts Sauvignon Celebration next month. See details in our Events Calendar