A visit to Charles Fox MCC in Elgin

We were at Elgin Cool last weekend and on Sunday morning there was a major storm sweeping in, which was quite impressive. The three of us went to Charles Fox for a cellar tour and to taste some of his excellent MCC bubbly. 

A great start to the day: a glass of good Brut Rosé

Charles Fox ushers us and other visitors into the entrance to the cellar

We explore the caverns with Cathy Marshall
They remind us of the way bubblies are stored in caves in Champagne

He has several thousand bottles on the lees

Charles explains the process clearly to visitors

and shows us how the wine lies on the lees until it is disgorged

It is quite a commodious cave

New technology helps in disgorging, as they no longer have to freeze the neck of the bottle. This neat little piece of equipment disgorges, doses and prepares the bottle for corking in a matter of seconds

The very comfortable tasting room

Cathy Marshall, Zelda and Charles Fox discussing growing Pinot Noir in Elgin, while we sip glasses of his delicious crisp Brut

The views are normally wonderful from this cellar, which is perched high on an Elgin hill, but this was while the storm was hitting us full on from the North West.

Another view from the entrance. If you want food, they do simple cheese platters

Charles pouring some of his Brut Rosé

The products on offer, elegantly displayed

He also produces a small quantity of an Elgin Pinot Noir. Furneaux is his mother's maiden name

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© John & Lynne Ford, Adamastor & Bacchus 2014

The new Wallovale tasting room, Elgin

Liquid Amber trees in all their autumn glory behind the vines

The lake in front of the winery

The new tasting room is in one of the old converted farm cottages

And in other, there was some lunch being cooked. Good hamburgers were spotted

Jovial Paul Wallace with Lynne and Sarah Russell

Nicky Wallace, Boschendal Marketing Director Jacques Roux and Paul Wallace inside the very chic tasting room

Nicky going to make sure that everyone is fine and to see if they need more wine

The Wallace dogs kept everyone in order and happy

Three lovely old chaps, with free reign to jump into the lake whenever they wish. The Black Dog malbec is named for the lovely old boy in front

Nicky with her mother and her friend Rennie from Pretoria at the food stand

The rugby match between the Stormers and the Highlanders was on screen for the fans

Nicky with bottles of their sensational Malbec - Black Dog

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© John & Lynne Ford, Adamastor & Bacchus 2014

Hannay and Catherine Marshall vertical tasting in Elgin

Someone said over the weekend how lovely fruitful Elgin is and commented that when most of us were growing up we drove straight through, never knowing how beautiful the valley and the hills are. You do need to go and explore this marvellous place. At the moment the trees are full of ripening apples and pears. In spring it will be full of blossom. And at harvest time, the vines will be laden.

The weather is slowly changing from autumn to winter and in Elgin this weekend we had both kinds of weather. The liquid amber trees are putting out the most beautiful show of reds, oranges and maroon shades.

We started at Hannay wines where they were having a vertical tasting of their sauvignons and some of their winemaker Catherine Marshall’s Pinot Noirs. A lovely tasting held inside the working wine cellar that was very well attended. You had the option of staying on for a simple buffet lunch costing R80 and if you bought a case of any of the wines, you had lunch on them. We loved their 2012 Sauvignon Blanc which has a little Semillon added and all of the Pinot’s were impressive. Cathy makes very, very good pinot in the fruit driven style that we like. Her piece de resistance was the 2005

We gather in the winery for the tasting

The red wines ready for pouring

We began with the three Hannay sauvignon blancs

Tracy van Maaren markets both these wines to the trade

What we tasted and could buy on the day. Plus the buffet menu

Owner Malcolm Dicey tells us how he came to buy and name the farm. 

Hannay is his Scottish grandmother's maiden name

Hannay winemaker & cellar manager Kosie van der Merwe

Winemaker Catherine Marshall, who makes the wines for Hannay, tells us about them

We learn more about the farm and the wines

Some interested imbibers

Some people make notes, others just enjoy the tasting

Three superb Catherine Marshall Pinot Noirs

Cathy tells us about the climate and the terroir and how she enjoys making Pinot Noir

What we tasted

The Buffet is open for lunch

Lynne and Cathy catching up

Sitting in the sun waiting for lunch

You could taste all the wines at the tasting table if you didn’t book for the vertical

Lots of enthusiastic tasters

and people enjoying lunch in the cellar

A warm farewell from the staff. It was very good boerewors

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© John & Lynne Ford, Adamastor & Bacchus 2014

140430 Main Ingredient's MENU - 12 yrs pics, Elgin Cool, Best biltong maker, Graham Beck & wilderness, Veg gratin

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A Cape weaver contemplates an evening plunge

In this week’s MENU:

 12 years of  MENU’s best photographs   

 Elgin Cool Wine and Country Festival

 South Africa’s Best Biltong Maker

 Graham Beck Wines and  the Wilderness Foundation  

 Vegetable Gratin

This week’s Product menu – Argan oil is the flavour of the month. This wonderful, aromatic oil from Morocco adds a very special, complex flavour to salads and Moroccan and other North African dishes. As a side benefit, it is also superb for conditioning skin and hair, which makes it very popular with beauty therapists and hairdressers. It is very expensive, but, like so many of the best things in life, it offers huge return for your investment.  Have a look at it here and place an order.

If you can find it in the supermarket, we don't usually stock it, just the products you would struggle to find.... Check our online shop to see more details and prices.

This week’s MENU is not a long one, we have been away and so have many of you, this is another week disrupted by holidays and our coming exciting (!) and controversial election and we suspect that your attention might just be elsewhere.

Lynne decided that it would be a good idea to showcase some of the photographs we have used in MENU since we started Main Ingredient late in 2002. We have put them into a blog, which you can see here

ELGIN COOL WINE AND COUNTRY FESTIVAL IS WHERE WE WILL BE THIS SATURDAY     Don’t miss the Elgin Cool Wine and Country Festival on 3rd May when 17 Elgin wineries will be offering a day filled with fine wines, good food and plenty of entertainment for the whole family, between 09h30 and 17h00. MORE

We will be staying over for the night and doing more visits on Sunday and having lunch at South Hill. Hope to see lots of you at this lovely autumn festival. The weather forecast looks cool but promising.

STELLENBOSCH HILLS IS SEARCHING FOR SOUTH AFRICA’S BEST BILTONG MAKER     Last year, we were taught how to make Droëwors and attended the award ceremony of the winners of the competition. This year, the award will be for SA’s best biltong maker and it could just be you... We are dying to find out just how to make it too.

Stellenbosch Hills is the first cellar in the world to combine two proudly South African delights with their Biltong & Droëwors Adventure, to be enjoyed at the cellar door. They recognise that the art of drying meat is as specialised as the art of winemaking. Their aim was to create a competition where two of South Africa’s most popular products, wine and biltong, could be combined.

The Biltong maker of the year competition has proved to be a huge success since its inception four years ago and, each year, a different Stellenbosch Hills wine is chosen to be the inspiration for entrants.

The winner’s biltong must be the best match to the chosen wine. This year, the selected wine is the Stellenbosch Hills Cabernet Sauvignon 2011. Entrants can use any meat for their entries and a grand prize of R15 000 is up for grabs. Judging will take place during September and the winner will be announced on 13th October. You do NOT have to be an expert to enter.

Prospective biltong makers can order entry packets at a cost of R200. This includes a bottle of Stellenbosch Hills Cabernet Sauvignon 2011 as inspiration, as well as delivery. Participants must register before or on 1st September. The closing date for entries is 30th September when 500g of biltong from each participant must be delivered at Stellenbosch Hills for judging. Visit www.stellenbosch-hills.co.za or phone +27 21 881 3828 for more information

Graham Beck Wines and  the Wilderness Foundation   In November 2013 Graham Beck Wines announced a unique partnership with the Wilderness Foundation. For every bottle from Graham Beck’s The Game Reserve range sold globally, a contribution of R3 is made towards the Wilderness Foundation`s conservation and education programmes throughout Africa, the benefits of which support biodiversity and cultural, scientific, economic and spiritual values. Three projects have benefited this year from the donation of R348 372 from the first quarter proceeds. They are The Forever Wild Rhino Protection Initiative, Pride Environmental Education Project and The Rooiberg Breederivier Conservancy. Bravo Graham Beck. And it is indeed wine well worth drinking.

This week’s recipe     Our deferred Easter celebration on Sunday (sticking to the Banting diet) took its toll and we were given lots of chocolate “Easter eggs” which are seriously tempting. However, despite a small helping of duck fat potatoes with our roast lamb with lots of vegetables and a flourless chocolate roulade with raspberries, we have managed to stave off any increases in weight, but no lie, it has been difficult. The starter was a salmon mousse, served with Nitida Semillon 2011 and Grangehurst’s wonderful 2002 Cabernet sauvignon was a perfect complement to the lamb. The chocolate roulade with raspberries was a great finish. Some of us enjoyed Laborie’s Alambic Potstill brandy with the coffee. See it here

With the need to eat a lot of butter, dairy and cream Lynne has had to be quite inventive and has come up with an adaptation of a recipe in The Real Meal Revolution that you might like to try. The inspiration actually came from gourmand Jeffrey Steingarten’s book “It must’ve been something I ate”, where he describes in detail how to make the perfect Gratin Dauphinois. Potatoes are out of our lives (mostly), but Lynne realised you can prepare layers of vegetables and top them with butter, cream and cheese. This is what we had for dinner last night with slices of leftover lamb in gravy. You can vary the vegetables as you like. You could put some mixed seeds on top for more crunch.

Vegetable Gratin

300g broccoli – 4 leeks, washed and sliced – 8 large courgettes, sliced – 500g butternut, peeled and cut into 1 cm disks – salt and freshly ground black pepper – good grating of nutmeg - 250 ml cream – 25g butter – 25g parmesan – 35g grated cheddar

Break up the broccoli into small pieces and slice the thick stem into rounds. Put a layer of this on the bottom of a square ovenproof dish. Season each layer as you go with salt and pepper. Add a layer of leek, then courgettes, the butternut and continue layering until the dish is full. Grate the nutmeg over the vegetables. Pour the cream over the dish and dot the butter all over the top. Then cover with the grated cheese. Put into a 180°C oven for 35 minutes or until all the vegetables are cooked and you have a lovely brown crisp coating of cheese. Feeds 4

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 and drives the wheels that enable us to produce MENU possible. 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.

Food and wine (and a few other) events for you to enjoy

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. Karen Glanfield has taken over the UnWined wine appreciation courses from Cathy. See the details here

Chez Gourmet in Claremont has a programme of cooking classes. A calendar of their classes can be seen 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

30th April 2014

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 online shop 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 and standard 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.

This electronic journal has been sent to you because you have personally subscribed to it or because someone you know has asked us to send it to you or forwarded it to you themselves. Addresses given to us will not be divulged to any person or organisation. We collect them only for our own promotional purposes. We own our mailing software and keep our mailing list strictly confidential. If you wish to be added to our mailing list, please click here to send us a message and if you wish to be removed from our mailing list, please click here to send us a message.

Dinner party with lamb and Grangehurst cabernet

Our deferred Easter celebration on Sunday (sticking to the Banting diet) took its toll and we were given lots of chocolate “Easter eggs” which are seriously tempting. However, despite a small helping of duck fat potatoes with our roast lamb with lots of vegetables and a flourless chocolate roulade with raspberries, we have managed to stave off any increases in weight, but no lie, it has been difficult. The starter was a salmon mousse, served with Nitida Semillon 2011 and, for those who were permitted it, ciabatta from Lust bakery at Vrede en Lust 

Grangehurst’s wonderful 2002 Cabernet sauvignon merlot blend was a perfect complement to the lamb

The chocolate roulade with raspberries was a great finish. Some of us enjoyed Laborie’s Alambic Potstill brandy with the coffee

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© John & Lynne Ford, Adamastor & Bacchus 2014