Sunset over Milnerton beach
In
this week’s MENU:
FNB Sauvignon Blanc Top 10 Competition Awards
Classical Concert at Nederburg
Overhex Balance wines
Say “Yes” to older Cape Wines
Pantry Pilchard cakes and Tartar sauce
This week’s Product menu: One of our most popular products in the last
five or so years has been the amazing Prego sauce from Sense of Taste. Sadly, the
producer has decided that it is no longer economical to produce and has decided
to discontinue it. We will try to find
substitute, but it won’t be easy. Our online shop shows our range of
rare and exciting products which you are unlikely to find elsewhere in South
Africa. See it here
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.
As usual, we have a link at the bottom to our calendar of
wine and food related events which might interest you. We have always has=d a
few from centres outside the Western Cape, but we now have enough to justify a
separate list, so, if you live in one of the other splendid places in our
lovely country, have a look. If you are promoting an event in any of these places,
please let us know and we’ll add it to the list.
FNB Sauvignon Blanc Top 10 Competition
Awards Back at Blaauwklippen again this Friday for the
presentation of these awards, we found we too could conduct our own awards as
we were allowed to taste all of the top 20 wines and come up with our own top
10. And the person who got closest to the actual awards, won an Apple iPad. It
wasn’t either of us! It is a very good idea and great fun to do, as you feel
you are involved in the awards rather than just listening while they are being
presented. Tasting 20 Sauvignon Blanc wines is no small deal however and,
luckily, it was interspersed with food. The wines had been divided into five
different categories and each had an accompanying paired course. It was a fast
and furious tasting but a very enjoyable day indeed with great wines and some
good food. Click here to see photographs of the event and the list
of winners.
Classical Concert at Nederburg Last Sunday, we enjoyed one of the
Nederburg Concert Series evenings, held in their magnificent manor house, which
now houses The Red Table Restaurant - a collaboration between Nederburg and Andrea
Foulkes’ Dish Food and Social, who serve bistro-style food made to match
Nederburg’s varied range of wines. There is a charge for these concerts and
they do include a welcoming glass of sherry on the terrace with a canapé or
two, a glass of MCC bubbly during the interval and a simple buffet supper with
wine afterwards. The music was absolutely magnificent. We were thrilled and
delighted to hear renowned soprano Hlengiwe Mkhwanazi sing a selection of
lovely arias and lieder from Bach, Mozart, Gounoud, Handel, Donizetti, Lehar
and Satie, ably accompanied by Philippus Hugo on the piano. We last saw
Hlengiwe as Susanna in Figaro at the Opera House a couple of years ago. Her
range is amazing, her sympathetic and sometimes amusing renditions of the songs
is very moving and special and we know she has so much to offer and will
definitely be seen internationally, making South Africa very proud. Also
featured were US Slagwerk Percussion Duo on Marimbas. A young duo, Cherilee
Adams and Dylan Tabisher turned Marimba on its head by producing amazing sounds
with very classical music. They also accompanied Hlengiwe on certain numbers.
The next Sunday concert is on 27th October and the Sunset Picnic
concerts begin on November 23rd. We could not find any more
information on Nederburg’s web site or by phone, but perhaps you can phone the
restaurant. Click here to see the programme and the photographs.
We so wish we could reproduce the music for you.
Overhex Balance wines On Monday, the sun
came out at last, it reached 36ºC in town, a stunning day, and it lasted till
Tuesday, when we went to the Bay Hotel in Camps Bay for the unveiling of the
new vintage of Overhex wines. Overhex Wines International is one of the top 20
exporters of wine by volume from South Africa. You will know them by the
trademark Balance
Wines with the very cute depiction of a large elephant
balancing precariously on the L in the word Balance. The Balance range aims to
offer affordable, good quality and consistent wines to the consumer at very
attractive prices.
Their production facilities are
located in Worcester, where they make wine from grapes bought in from all over
the Western Cape. The wines are made by five winemakers led by Willie Malan and
Ben Snyman. JC Martin, owner/cellarmaster of Creation wines, joined the team in
2006 as production director and later as partner and is responsible for the all
wine styles and blends. While the building of their existing brands is of the
utmost importance, their marketing team also invests a significant amount of
time and effort in creating individual Buyer’s Own Brands, mainly
for overseas supermarkets. JC and several of the winemakers joined us
for the day and we chatted to them over lunch
First, we met on the terrace, welcomed
with a glass of their very acceptable Sparkling wine, Boldly Brut, which you
will find in most good supermarkets. This went well with the crocodile samoosas
with chutney and the sunshine. Then we went indoors to taste though the 10
wines – 5 whites, one rosé and six reds. We thought the Pinotage and Shiraz
were the ones we would most likely drink and buy. We had the good Sauvignon
Blanc/Semillon blend for supper tonight with a Mediterranean lemon and herb
chicken and it went extremely well. It even stood up to fresh artichokes which
is a challenge for any wine.
These wines were introduced by co-owner
and MD Gerhard van der Wath, and this was followed by lunch in Tides
Restaurant. We found that the Winemakers selection Sauvignon Blanc and Cabernet
Sauvignon went very well with lunch. Sadly, the kitchen had a bit of a melt
down during dinner and all was not well with the food, or the timing. Feeding
four different courses to 40 plus people all at once can be a challenge, if
there is not enough experience in a kitchen. We shall draw a veil over the main
courses and dessert, but we did enjoy the taste of the Tomato Confit Tart with
Olive Oil ice cream. It seems there have now been some staff changes and the
hotel has really come to the party with an apology to all concerned, with
reparations to the Client. Well done. We are sure they will try harder at
the next function they cater for. We found the serving staff very pleasant and
helpful, but they seemed not to be kept in the loop by the kitchen. Click here for the photos. They
sent us home with wine, an apron and a lovely pair of silver balancing elephant
earrings for Lynne and an elephant key ring for John.
Say “Yes” to older Cape Wines Our small wine club meets once a month and we start at 6.30 and
taste wine for approximately two hours. Everyone brings a plate of something
and after the tasting we all fill up a plate and stand around chatting and
finishing off the wines we have tasted. Last night we had a wonderful tasting of
the best wines everyone could find in their personal collection, many of which
had been kept for a while. It produced some really exceptional wines and we
didn’t have any duplications. The organiser of the tasting was very naughty and
he snuck in a boxed wine which he had bottled. Only Lynne liked its strange
characteristics – it was a blend of many, many things, so it shows that our
group can spot good wine from dodgy.
The best wine of the evening with an average score of 17.5 was Grangehurst 2002
Cabernet/Merlot blend (Lynne scored it 18.5
- her top wine of the evening). A classic Bordeaux blend, it was soft,
silky and full of juicy fruit. Well done Jeremy Walker. Also amazing were the
Raats Granite Block Cabernet Franc 2010, Graham Beck Joshua 2004 - a blend of
Shiraz & Viognier, and Cederberg 2009 Shiraz. Buitenverwachting Cabernet
Franc 2004 knocked our socks off, as did Guardian Peak 2012 Shiraz. There was a
delightful Thelema Sutherland 2009 Syrah and we took along a 1998 Thelema
Cabernet, which also got high marks, having lasted very well. It does clearly
show that if you can keep our good wines longer, they so reward.
This week’s Recipe What did we take? Well, often it is on a busy day for us so Lynne has
to raid our pantry and this time she found a tin of Curried pilchards from
Lucky Star and Tamsin Snyman’s book You Can with Fish that they produced
together last year. This is indeed a pantry dish and made some good fish cakes
and tartar sauce with a little substitution.
Pantry Pilchard cakes and
Tartar sauce
3 large potatoes, peeled and cut into
chunks – salt - 800g tin of curried pilchard cutlets, well drained of all sauce
– 2 eggs, lightly beaten – 1 small onion, very finely chopped – 2 T chopped
fresh parsley – ground black pepper – 1 t chilli or Tabasco sauce – canola oil
– dry breadcrumbs
Boil the potatoes in salted water until soft, drain
and mash. When cool, stir in the pilchards, eggs, onion, chilli sauce, black
pepper and parsley. Mash well to blend then adjust the seasoning. Mould into
small flat cakes about 4 cm across and 1 cm thick and fry them gently on both
sides. If they are too sloppy to hold together, add some breadcrumbs until you
have a stable mix. Serve with tartar sauce
Quick tartar sauce
To half a cup of mayonnaise (NOT salad cream), add
approx 1T each of finely chopped gherkin and pickled onion, snipped chives,
chopped parsley.
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. 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, then you pay and then we deliver or post. 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. Click here to see our OnLine Shop.
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. Events outside the Western Cape are listed here.
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. We plan to visit their French establishment after
Vinexpo. 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
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
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