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Friday, November 29, 2013

Lunch with Genevieve MCC

A wet ride in 2 buses up the N2 to Bot River

Full of happy smiling media

Warm welcome with a glass of Genevieve Method Cap Classique

Innovative canapés: Mushroom and lemon thyme mousse with humus, served as one journo commented, condom style in a leek

Oyster cream inside a shell of potato crisps dusted with celery salt. But where was the spherical pearl?

In front of a beautiful old house,

a huge marquee was set up for the large party

Cathryn Henderson accepts a top up of Genevieve
while Graham Howe and Yegas Naidoo await theirs

Melissa Nelsen tells us all about the history of Genevieve,
named after the patron Saint of Paris.

The beautiful table decorations echo the flavours and aromas in Genevieve

Lunch is served

First course is a Bouche of really excellent Goats' cheese with yellow beetroot, tarragon pickled almonds and grilled lettuce and topped with crisp noodles

A great selection of bread

Corlien Morris raises a toast

Genevieve 2010 is poured

Chef David Higgs flew down from the Saxon Hotel in Johannesburg especially to cook for the function. He is an old friend of Melissa’s

He tells us about the food pairings

Summer lemons

Genevieve 2009 is poured for the main course

Melissa's partner, viticulturalist Leon Engelke

Waiting for the next course

Quite a few bottles were consumed

Main Course was a Confit of Pork, meltingly tender served with honeyed well baked sweet potatoes, baby carrots of varied colours, a savoury jus and an excellent ginger beer gel. It was topped with pork skin popcorn, a bridge too far for those of us who don’t want our crackling subjected to molecular gastronomy, it had little flavour

Mike Bampfield Duggan of Wine Concepts

Melissa did get to sit down and eat

Now let me tell you...

Dessert was a Macadamia and Halva parfait with pear mousse and a lemon verbena custard and was very rich and sweet . It was topped with thin slices of poached apples and pears and was the best matched dish of the day as it went perfectly with the Genevieve 2008

Genevieve 2008 still has lots of flavours and elegance but is now more suited to pairing with dessert or patés

A duck pond at the back of the house

Some of the makeshift arrangements for the chefs

Christmas goose?

Darling duck

The rear of the old house

The vines and the Bot River hills

Thursday, November 28, 2013

Richard Kershaw MW launches his Kershaw wines

The view from the terrace at Rodwell House in St James

A lovely day for a wine launch

Magnificent canapés were served: olive tapenade and cheese

Mini mushroom and tomato tarts

Smoked salmon on cream cheese toast

We drank a good glass of a crisp and dry English champagne style wine Nyetimber Classic Cuvee from East Sussex and Hampshire , a first for most of us

There is always a lot of chat with a group of media

The dining room set up for lunch

But first, we were in the conference room for the tasting

Richard Kershaw giving us his very informative and detailed presentation

Richard Kershaw MW and winemaker

Richards wife, Mariette, listening intently to the presentation

The beautifully cooled wines ready for the tasting

Richard explains where he sources his grapes in the Elgin valley

Three chardonnay clones and the finished wine with two Shiraz clones and the finished Syrah

The lunch menu with the list of wines to taste again

A new way of serving the retro starter of prawn cocktail: luscious prawns,avocado, peppery rocket and a Marie Rose sauce

Lots of enjoyment

Mariette Kershaw with Jan Sleet

Richard answering some technical questions

Main course was a delicious melting pork belly, great crackling, an apple puree with vegetables and roast potatoes and, especially to please Richard, who is from Sheffield, we all got a good Yorkshire pudding

The new Kershaw brand and his new Elgin 2012 Chardonnay

A cheeseboard with strawberries and preserved figs finished the meal

Richard andMariette