2014 Muscadel Awards at Noop restaurant, Paarl

After The Eedes Cabernet event, we were off that evening to Paarl to the awards dinner for the top Muscadels. It was held at Noop restaurant which we must admit to having passed by for a few years and this was our first visit. We were suitably impressed with the food and the company was a lovely selection of people in the industry who make good Muscadels. There were five awards and we got to taste all of these wines, including a very exciting KWV 1968 Muscadel. And this wine and another featured again at the Old Mutual Trophy awards this week

Noop Restaurant is on Paarl Main Street, still the longest main street in the world

Their specials of the day menu

We meet everyone involved

And sip wicked muscadel cocktails with other media, Anel Grobler and Jan Laubscher of Spit or Swallow

Two sauvignons from Rooiberg and Badsberg were served at dinner

The red wines served

Master of Ceremonies, Lolly Louwrens, made a short introductory address

Steven Baard from Enartis SA, was the sponsor for the evening

The interesting menu

The starter was something South Africans hardly ever see – Abalone - as most of these are poached and sold in Asia. They used to be very prolific around our coast., now they are scarce and very expensive. This morsel was crisp and tender and nicely flavoured with lemon on a spoonful of risotto

We really really liked and enjoyed this cauliflower and Gorgonzola soup and hope to attempt our own soon. Great depth of flavour

We had the presentation of the awards between starter and main course

Master of Ceremonies, Lolly Louwrens, announcing the 6 awards 

Badsberg Cellar was crowned king of the Muscadel kingdom at the 12th annual 2014 Muskadel SA awards function, sponsored by Enartis SA and hosted on 22nd May at Noop Restaurant in Paarl. Out of 25 entries, the 2013 Badsberg Red Muscadel won the only platinum award. Here Henri Swiegers, Chairperson of Muskadel SA, presents the award to Willie Burger, cellar master at Badsberg Wine Cellar. 

KWV won gold with a very special entry - a 1968 White Muscadel Jerepigo. This aged wine was quite extraordinary in its power and intensity. With a huge balsamic nose, this wine lasts and lasts in the glass and on the palate. There are spicy hints of turmeric, rich prune tart and a toasty end. This wine also took the Trophy for the Best Museum Class Fortified Fine at the Old Mutual Trophy Awards this week. Here, winemaker Anneke du Plessis accepts the award

Orange River Cellars built on their 2013 Muskadel SA success by winning gold medal for their 2013 White Muscadel. They also won the Old Mutual Trophy trophy this week for the Best Fortified Red Muscadel. Other winners from the Breede River Valley are Nuy Cellar with two gold awards for their 2013 Rooi and 2013 Wit Muskadel, while Bon Courage won gold for their 2013 Red Muscadel.

Delightful Honey and Soy basted pork belly with an unusual curry flavour cashew nut cream and a tempura litchi. Very unusual treatment for this fruit, but most of us like it a lot

There were two main Courses – this was the second one. Deboned lamb neck with a rich jus mash and a muscadel jus

And dessert was a huge but classic Muscadel Malva pudding with crème anglaise and ice cream

After dinner we all had a chance to taste the winning Muscadels

The line up

The winners pose for a group shot
Back l to r: Henri Swiegers (Muskadel SA chairperson), Steven Baard (Sales Manager at Enartis SA)
Front: Willie Burger (Badsberg), Steven Smuts (Bon Courage), Stefan Steenkamp (Orange River Cellars), Anneke du Plessis (KWV), Christo Pienaar (Nuy), Charl Myburgh (Nuy)

 Lynne and Linley Schultz, Managing director of from Alvi’s Drift, taste through the prizewinning wines

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© John & Lynne Ford, Adamastor & Bacchus 2014

140522 Main Ingredient's MENU - A Winter Lunch at Laborie, Mellasat Pop-up restaurant, Braised Fennel

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Sea Point Beachfront, 6pm, 21st May 2014

In this week’s MENU:

 A Winter Lunch at Laborie

 Mellasat Pop-up restaurant

 Braised Fennel

This week’s Product menu – Sadly, our supermarkets keep a very limited range of vinegars and too many people associate the word with the white spirit vinegar which is only really useful as a cleaning material. We keep a good range of French and Italian vinegars: red & white wine, champagne, shallot, Spanish sherry vinegars and, of course the wonderful Protea Hill Farm raspberry vinegar. See them here.

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.

A Winter Lunch at Laborie     It seems only a week or two ago that we were enjoying Matthew Gordon’s summer menu at Laborie. This week, we and other media were invited to sample his new Winter Menu and one of our number liked it so much, he took his family there two days later for Sunday lunch. We can heartily recommend it and think it is very good value indeed for the quality and quantity of food that you get. We started with a welcome glass of their MCC sparkling Chardonnay, which we seem to consume regularly a) because we like it very, very much and b) because it is also extremely good value. While we were standing around chatting they produced some good canapés: large and tender sweet tempura prawns and tempura slices of avocado, something new and quite interesting, we might try at home. MORE

Mellasat Pop-up restaurant     It is the season for lunches and, while you can partake of the excellent lunch at Laborie all year round, the Pop-up lunches at Mellasat are only every month or so and, should you care to drive Paarl to the next one will be on the 15^th and 16^th of August. You will need to book (for either lunch or dinner) as these are very popular with the locals. Their address is Mellasat Vineyards, Keerweder Road, Klein Drakenstein, Paarl. Contact them on +27 21 862 4525, Email: mellasat@mweb.co.za. The cost is R220 for two courses, R295 for 3. A cheese platter costs R70 per person.

Mellasat bills itself as the home of the original white Pinotage, and Steven Richardson’s wife, Janet, used to be the chef at Fraai Uitzicht in Robertson when Axel Spanholz & Mario Motti  owned it and some of you might be familiar with her good food. We were invited for lunch this Sunday and, despite the N1 being closed due to a nasty accident which necessitated a detour, we arrived just after 1 o’clock for a good repast with some well matched wines. MORE

This week’s Recipe     Fennel is a vegetable rarely found on menus or, we suspect, in peoples’ kitchens and we can’t understand why. This large white bulb, found at the bottom of long stems and feathery leaves, has a gentle aniseed flavour. It is extremely versatile and can be thinly sliced into salads or used in stews. It makes a great creamy soup and is wonderful on its own, gently simmered in a little stock. Lynne often uses it underneath roast chicken to soak up the juices and it has a superb affinity with pork.

If you want to try a simple vegetable recipe for the first time, try this one.

Braised Fennel

1 large fennel bulb, cut into 1 to 2 cm slices down the bulb – 1 T butter or olive oil – 30 ml dry white wine – good vegetable or chicken stock, enough to cover – salt and freshly ground black pepper

Wash the fennel slices well and dry. Place the butter in a small pot to melt.  Add the fennel and then pour over the wine. Reduce the wine a little to get rid of the alcohol and then just cover in stock. Season with salt and pepper and simmer very gently until the fennel is soft.  Serve with roast meat as an accompaniment or as a vegetarian option.  You can add a little thick cream to warm just before serving.

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 Thursday evenings and she has decided to introduce LCHF (Banting classes). The Kitchen Confidence classes, which focus on essential cooking skills and methods, have been expanded and are now taught over 2 evenings. She continues to host private dining and culinary team building events at her home. She trained with Raymond Blanc, and has been a professional chef for 25 years. More info here

22nd May 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.

Pop up lunch at Mellasat with chef Janet Richardson

Mellasat Pop-up restaurant     It is the season for lunches and, while you can partake of the excellent lunch at Laborie all year round, the Pop-up lunches at Mellasat only happen every month or so and, should you care to drive Paarl, the next one will be on the 15th and 16th of August.  You will need to book (for either lunch or dinner) as these are very popular with the locals. Their address is Mellasat Vineyards, Keerweder Road, Klein Drakenstein, Paarl Contact them on Tel: +27 (0) 21 862 4525 Email: mellasat@mweb.co.za  The cost is R220 for two courses, R295 for 3. A cheese platter costs R70 per person.

Mellasat bills itself as the home of the original white Pinotage, but Steven Richardson’s wife, Janet, used to be the chef at Fraai Uitzicht in Robertson when Axel Spanholz & Mario Motti owned it and some of you might be familiar with her good food. We were invited for lunch this Sunday and, despite the N1 being closed due to a nasty accident which necessitated a detour, we arrived just after 1 o’clock for a good repast with some well matched wines

Welcomed by owner Steve Richardson in their tasting room

The dining room is beyond

There is some interesting artwork in the two rooms

And some homilies

The restaurant is spacious and beginning to fill up

Our menu for lunch

Another Mellasat must

Lynne discusses with Steve what we should drink with our lunch choices

Although we were not tempted to eat any bread, we did taste this nice green olive and almond tapenade

Our Amuse was a tiny bobotie tartlet with guava pickle

The wine list. Dekker’s Valley is the original name of the farm and is the second label of Mellasat

A list of old wines which they have drunk and put to bed

Some more lurk in the cellar

We shared the starter and main courses. This is the Bouillabaisse with a crouton with good rouille. Well matched with Mellasat 2013 Viognier

The other starter was small salmon cakes with fried capers and lemon crème fraiche. This went well with a glass of their 2012 White Pinotage which, if you close your eyes, still tastes like a red wine.

Steve joined the family firm on their farm in Norfolk before coming here to farm grapes in South Africa. He says there is not much difference in farming sugar beet or grapes, it is just that the product's sale is delayed with wine and that costs money.

A guava sorbet was a refreshing interlude before the main course

A main course of Pork done two ways: soft Belly with apple and fennel and a seared fillet with a rather odd balsamic fig chutney. Very good crackling. This was served with a glass of 2012 M, a blend of Shiraz, Cabernet and Pinotage

Perfectly cooked Osso Bucco with a good tomato rich sauce. Beautiful with the Mellasat 2012 Tempranillo/Cabernet Sauvignon, which added something to the dish.

Belgian chocolate torte on a Génoise sponge, Frangelico mascarpone and espresso granita

Liquorice poached pear, brandy cream, toasted walnuts and pear sorbet


Our chef, Janet Richardson, looking a little relieved after service is over, with her smiling husband

Chatting about food and recipe with Janet. They kindly gave us 2 bottles of their wine to take home, a white Pinotage and an M.

Their lovely old farmhouse

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© John & Lynne Ford, Adamastor & Bacchus 2014