Main Ingredient's MENU - Morgenhof, Kyoto Garden, GF&W Show, Port Awards, Steakhouse champs, Nutty Banting bread

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Cormorants flying home ahead of a cold front

In this week’s MENU:

 The Tradition of Morgenhof

 KWV Classic Wines go with Japanese

 Good Food and Wine Show at the CTICC

 Any Port in this storm?

 Shiraz and Charcuterie Festival

 Angala Packages

 The Wolftrap Steakhouse Championships

 Old Mutual Trophy public tasting

 Nutty Banting bread

This week’s Product menu – Winter is with us and we all want something warm. The Portuguese live with a similar climate to ours (apart from the North-West corner of Portugal) and their cuisine is very popular here. We are told that June 10^th will be National Portuguese Day. We have written about South African Ports lower down, but the warm spices of the Iberian peninsula will also help to spice up the spirit. We are investigating some interesting chilli products but can offer you a great idea. Smoked Paprika is a wonderful spice to use in many Portuguese and Spanish recipes. Try it with stir fried prawns... 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.

The Tradition of Morgenhof       It has been a while since we visited this beautiful farm in Stellenbosch and it was delightful to be asked to come for lunch and taste their new vintages last Thursday. Owner Madame Anne Cointreau was there to welcome us and, despite it being another chilly grey day, the fires were lit and we had a good tasting followed by an excellent lunch. She was at pains to tell us that she is NOT trying to produce French style wines here in South Africa but, working with viticulturist Pieter Haasbroek (who has been there since 1998) and winemaker Andries de Klerk (since 2012), they are trying to express the best their dry land terroir can give them. It certainly shows in the wines. Morgenhof has always produced excellent Chenin blanc from really old bush vines and the vintage we tasted, 2011, was full of lovely tropical fruits with the richness nicely balanced by good acidity. Their reds do need time, as they have both structure and elegance and we enjoyed drinking them with food very much, particularly the Cabernet Franc, which is drinking beautifully and is a lovely food pairing wine. Which led us on to a great lunch prepared by chef Thys Esterhuizen. MORE.....

KWV Classic Wines go with Japanese     at Kyoto Garden restaurant, off Kloof Nek Road last Thursday, where KWV presented their Classic range to the media and we ate our second multi-course meal of the day. Luckily, the beautiful food at Kyoto Gardens is light and has barely any carbohydrates, so we managed. Yes, we did crumble at the four pieces of Wild Alaskan King Crab sushi. The wines are aimed at the middle market and sell very well, as they are competitively priced at R40/42 for the whites and R57 for reds - KWV Cellar Door prices. MORE.....

Good Food and Wine Show at the CTICC     We spent the morning at this exhibition and were amazed to see the absence of the large food conglomerates and supermarkets, the increased presence of small, good producers and so much charcuterie. We tasted lots of it, all good apart from some really dodgy looking red hot dogs and frankfurters which we saw being sold. We avoided all the sinful pastries and confectionery and spent some time and some money in the wine area. We were delighted to find that Baleia Bay, whose Chardonnay won the trophy for the Discovery of the Show last week at the Old mutual Trophy Awards, had a stand. We tasted and immediately bought a case. It is very lean and crisp and entirely to our taste. We also tasted their Pinot Noir and so another case was purchased. This has to wait a while but is full of red berries and elegance. We enjoyed the show this year. MORE.....

Any Port in this storm?     Yes, there was - at the Third Annual Port Awards, held at Muratie on Tuesday. We drove there at the start of a big storm and it was lovely to sit near the wood burning stove in the cellar and taste... first, lots of different wines made from Port varietals, and then some beautiful award-winning ports. Everyone was hoping the famous Muratie Lamb shanks would be on the menu and we were delighted that they were. If you want to see the full list of the Cappa Port & Wine Awards click on this link. Some of the wines and ports were available during lunch and we particularly enjoyed the Boplaas Portuguese Connection 2012, which you will find on sale in Woolworths. Axehill’s Distinta was also a great food match. Both were in the top 10 table wines. We drank some of Peter Bayly’s Cape Vintage 2004 port which got a gold medal in the museum class and it was so smooth and full of Christmas fruit. We are off to the Calitzdorp Port Festival soon and will write up the ports and wines in more detail then. We love good Port and encourage all of you to try it, if you have not had the opportunity. In blind tasted international competitions, many of our best Ports have proved to be a very good match for the European equivalent!  MORE.....

The Shiraz and Charcuterie Festival is being held on Hartenberg this Saturday; we hope to see lots of you there. What else are you going to do in bad weather? Not sit at home feeling miserable, but drinking great Shirazes and eating wonderful charcuterie, surely.

Angala Packages      You may remember that we stayed at this wonderful Guest House in April. They have some super packages at the moment and we think you should investigate Click on http://www.angala.co.za/packages

The Wolftrap Steakhouse Championships 2014     The final five steakhouses for 2014 (in alphabetical order) are: HQ (Cape Town). Fahrenheit (Edenvale), Johannesburg. The Godfather (Centurion), Pretoria (Finalist in 2013). The Local Grill (Parktown North), Johannesburg (2013 Champion). Theo’s (Mouille Point), Cape Town.

In the next few weeks the Final Five will be visited by a select group of South Africa’s food experts and chefs to select this year’s winner, and the 2014 Steakhouse Champion will be announced on 24th June at The Local Grill in Parktown North, Johannesburg (the inaugural 2013 Champion Steakhouse). Follow on their website www.steakhunter.co.za where you can also win a prize for predicting the winner.

The Old Mutual Trophy public tastings     Last week, we attended the Awards ceremony and reported on it. There are many wonderful wines to be found among the winners. Tomorrow, Friday, D Day, 6th of June, Capetonians will have an opportunity to taste the best of them at the CTICC and our many Johannesburg readers will be able to share the experience at Sandton Convention Centre, Bill Gallagher Rooms on Thursday, 12th June. Click here for more information and to book.

This week’s Recipe...

...is a wheat free ‘loaf’ recipe which was in last week’s Sunday Times and is so easy to make and so good to eat, that we thought we should reprint this in case you missed it. It makes a small rich loaf, but you could double up the quantities should you need more. It does keep, if wrapped in cling film and put in the fridge. Lynne might experiment with adding some mixed seeds to this to make a more complex and toothsome loaf next time.

Nutty Banting bread

2 ½ cups almond flour – ½ tsp salt ½ tsp bicarbonate of soda – 3 extra large eggs – 15 ml runny honey – ½ tsp apple cider vinegar

Combine the dry ingredients in a large mixing bowl. In another bowl mix the honey with the eggs and vinegar. Stir into the dry ingredients. Oil a small loaf pan or line it with buttered baking paper (this has quite a cakey consistency) and bake at 160°C for 45 to 55 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean. Turn out, and cool.

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

5th June 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.

CAPPA Challenge 2014 – Highlighting the best of the best

The third Cape Port Producers’ Association (CAPPA) Challenge highlights the very best Cape “Port” and Portuguese varietal table wines, showcasing the enviable variety and sheer quality these wines offer the consumer. This year, the overall CAPPA Challenge Trophy went to the Boplaas Cape Vintage Reserve 2011, while the top scoring Top 10 table wine went to the Boplaas Tinta Barocca 2013.

Although the Portuguese varietal table wines, blends and Cape fortifieds represent a niche in the Cape’s wine landscape, it is doubtless that there is a category possessing such a grand heritage and reputation for delivering world class wines. So, for the third year the Cape Port Producers’ Association (CAPPA) held its annual CAPPA Challenge to identify the top Cape “Ports” and Top 10 Portuguese varietal  and blended table wines, judged by means of a blind tasting conducted by a panel of wine experts, chaired by Dave Hughes. This year’s trophy winner and top performing Cape fortified went to the Boplaas Cape Vintage Reserve 2011 crafted by the ubiquitous fortified experts Boplaas Family Vineyards from Calitzdorp, while the Reserve Champion went to the Boplaas Cape Tawny Vintners Reserve N/V. The top scoring wine in the TOP 10 table wines went to the Boplaas Tinta Barocca 2013, which was joined by two other gold medal winning wines the Boplaas Family Reserve Touriga Naçional 2012 and De Krans Tritonia 2011 – proving that the Cape’s hotbed for these wines is definitely Calitzdorp.

As always, all wines are blind tasted by a professional panel, independently audited and the Cape fortifieds are judged according to the styles – Cape Ruby, Cape Vintage, Cape Tawny as well as “Other Cape Port” category – for the Cape Pink, White  and Late-bottled Vintage styled wines, and Museum Class – for wines a decade from vintage or older. This year, as in the past, the panel of Cape Wine Masters was chaired by Dave Hughes.

The Cape Ruby category delivered its first gold in a while, with the Slanghoek Cape Ruby 2013 walking away with category winner for this Breedekloof cellar, while the Northern Cape was represented by GWK’s Landzicht Cape Ruby 2011 runner-up in the category. The judges were impressed by the aromatic profile, soft tannins and quality exhibited in this class, especially that of the winning Ruby. The “Other Cape Port” category delivered a silver medal for the Axe Hill Late-bottled Vintage 2009 from Calitzdorp.

This year’s Museum Class was won by the gold medal winning Peter Bayly Cape Vintage 2004, an achievement made all the more special, as Peter and Yvonne Bayly are celebrating their 10th vintage this year from their small patch of vines in the Groenfontein valley near Calitzdorp.

Although a small class of entries, the Cape Tawny category impressed the judges with the complexity and authenticity of the wines, with the winner being noted as “an outstanding wine, possessing all the attributes of a fine Tawny”. The winner of the Cape Tawny category was the Boplaas Cape Tawny Vintners Reserve N/V – crafted from Tinta Barocca  and barrel matured for 12 years prior to blending, while the runner-up went to De Krans Cape Tawny Limited Release.

By far the largest category of entrants, the Cape Vintage category delivered superb examples of this style with the judges noting the best in this class possessing all that is required of a fine vintage “Port” – deep dark colour, firm yet ripe tannins, aromatic and flavour complexity with integrated oak allowing for further bottle maturation. The overall trophy winner emerged from this class, as well as four gold medal winning wines. Boplaas’s Cape Vintage Reserve 2011 took top honours in this category, as well as the trophy for best wine of CAPPA Challenge 2014; while Calitzdorp native, Morné Vrey’s Delaire Graff’s Cape Vintage 2012 took the runner-up laureate, as well as a gold medal. The other two gold medal winners in this category were awarded to the De Krans Cape Vintage Reserve 2011  and Muratie Ben Prins Cape Vintage 2010.

An oft over-looked fact was the advice given in the early 1920’s by Prof. A.I. Perold, that the South African wine growers should look towards Portugal, Spain and the Mediterranean regions of France for wine grape varieties rather than the classical winegrowing regions of Bordeaux or Germany’s Rhine. South Africa boasts a mere 221ha of Tinta Barocca, 104ha of Touriga Naçional, 53ha Tinta Roriz, and total plantings of Portuguese varietals amount to approximately 0.4% of vineyard area, making table wines from these varietals a definite niche. This year the judges noted the table wines exhibited a greater focus on elegance with red fruit, spice and supple tannins the order of the day, offering consumers approachable wines with enough complexity for further cellaring. The balance, varietal expression and focus on crafting fine wines rather than simply another wine for the portfolio or a consumer oddity was also noted by the judges. This category was open to all Portuguese varietal table wines  and blends consisting of a minimum 40% Portuguese variety/varieties.

This year’s TOP 10 delivered three gold medals for the Boplaas Tinta Barocca 2013, Boplaas Family Reserve Touriga Naçional 2012 and De Krans Tritonia 2011. The other seven wines in the TOP 10 are: Overgaauw Touriga Naçional 2013, Woolworth’s Boplaas Portuguese Connection 2012, Axe Hill Distinta 2012, Boplaas Tinta Chocolat 2013, Allesverloren Tinta Barocca 2012, Boplaas Touriga Naçional 2013 and the Allesverloren Touriga Naçional 2011. The sheer value  and quality offered to the consumer is epitomized by the overall top scoring wine, the Boplaas Tinta Barocca 2013 which is available from the cellar door for less than R60-00.

In future it is hoped that the CAPPA Challenge will grow from strength to strength gathering entrants from over the entire winelands to showcase the finest Cape fortifieds and the exceptional Portuguese varietal table wines produced in the Cape, not only by CAPPA members, but by all the producers of these wines.

CAPPA would like to thank Elsabé Ferreira and Johannes van Willing from Elpro Promotions for organising the tasting, as well as Raymond Noppé, Colin Firth  and Meryl Weaver for offering their time and expertise on the tasting panel, and a special thanks to Dave Hughes for chairing the panel.

Full Results List:

Overall winner CAPPA Challenge 2014 Trophy – Boplaas Cape Vintage Reserve 2011

Reserve Champion CAPPA Challenge 2014 – Boplaas Cape Tawny Vintners Reserve N/V

Cape Ruby - Class Winner – Slanghoek Cape Ruby 2013 (Gold medal),

Runner-up – GWK Landzicht Cape Ruby 2011

Cape Tawny: Class Winner – Boplaas Cape Tawny Vintners Reserve N/V (Gold medal  and Reserve Champion CAPPA Challenge 2014)

Runner-up – De Kranz Cape Tawny Ltd. Release N/V

Cape Vintage:

Class Winner - Boplaas Cape Vintage Reserve 2011 (Gold medal  and CAPPA Challenge Trophy winner 2014)

Runner-up – Delaire Graff Cape Vintage 2012 (Gold medal)

Gold medals – De Krans Cape Vintage Reserve 2011  and Muratie Ben Prins Cape Vintage 2010

Museum Class:

Class Winner – Peter Bayly Cape Vintage 2004 (Gold medal)

Other Cape “Ports”:

Class Winner – Axe Hill Cape Late-bottled Vintage 2009

Material supplied by CAPPA
RETURN TO OUR STORY ABOUT THE AWARDS LUNCH

Port Producers Awards at Muratie

Any Port in this storm?

Yes there was at the 3^rd Annual Port  Awards held at Muratie on Tuesday.  We drove there at the start of a big storm and it was lovely to sit near the wood burning stove in the cellar and taste first lots of different wines made from Port varietals and then some beautiful award winning ports.  Everyone was hoping the famous Muratie Lamb shanks would be on the menu and were delighted that they were.  If you want to see the full list of the Cappa Port & Wine Awards  click on this link.  Some of the wines and ports were available during lunch and we particularly enjoyed the Boplaas Portuguese Connection2012 which you will find on sale in Woolworths.  Axehill’s Distinta also was a great food match. Both were in the top 10 table wines.  We got to drink some of Peter Baylys Cape Vintage 2004 port which got a gold medal in the museum class and it was so smooth and full of Christmas fruit.  We are off to the Calitzdorp Port Festival soon and will write up the ports and wines in more detail then.

The Cape Port Producers Association report can be seen here

A line up of winners

Lively discussion as we try the winners and others before lunch

Emil Kanstinger of Anura with Rijk Melck, owner of Muratie

Lunch at the Langtafel in the cellar

Carel Nel of Boplaas opens ceremonies

Taking notes

Cape Wine Master Raymond Noppé of Oldenburg Vineyards gives a report from the judges

Judge Winnie Bowman CWM presents the umpteenth award to winemaker Margaux Nel of Boplaas who received lots of well deserved awards this year

Peter Bayly gets his gold medal for his Museum class Cape Vintage 2004 Port

Lynne with Mike Neebe of Axe Hill with his award for Best in Class for Axe Hill LBV 2009

Margaux received the trophy for Boplaas Cape Vintage Reserve 2011 with her father Carel. Presented by Winnie Bowman and Raymond Noppé

All the winners

Left to right: Carel Nel (Boplaas), Raymond Noppé (Judge), David van Velden (Overgaauw), Morné Vrey (Delaire Graff), Margaux Nel (Boplaas), Louis van der Riet (De Krans), Peter Bayly (Peter Bayly wines), Jaco Theron (Slanghoek), Mike Neebe (Axe Hill) & Ian Sieg (Landzicht GWK)

The Nel father & daughter team with their Trophy

The best lamb shanks in the Cape.  Ever.  Cooked long and slow in a wood fired oven. Served simply with mash and peas and sweetened carrots. You can get these only at Muratie. Phone to check they are on the menu.

Lots of chatting and lots of tasting after lunch

Louisenhof owner/cellarmaster Stefan Smit with a charming luncheon companion

Yvonne and Peter Bayly with their award

Mike Neebe offering his Axe Hill Cape LBV Port for tasting. Delicious

Some of this wine needs to be purchased and its easy to find at Woolworths

Muratie's characterful tasting room.

Winter vines, stormy weather coming in. We just made it to the car

Beautiful colours on the dying vine leaves. Thank you Muratie for a lovely day

RETURN TO MENU

© John & Lynne Ford, Adamastor & Bacchus 2014

The Good Food and Wine Show

 

We spent the morning at this exhibition and were amazed to see the lack of the large food conglomerates and supermarkets, the increase in small good producers and so much charcuterie. We tasted lots of it, all good except some really dodgy looking red hot dogs and frankfurters we saw being sold. Avoided all the pastries and confectionery and spend some time and some money in the wine area. We were delighted to find that Baleia Bay whose Chardonnay won the trophy for the Discovery of the Show last week at the Old Mutual Trophy Awards. We tasted it and immediately bought a case. It is very lean and crisp and entirely to our taste. We also tasted their Pinot Noir and so another case was purchased. This has to wait a while but is full of red berries and elegance. We enjoyed it.

The food truck area where you could buy something to eat and sit down

Prices were in line with what we’d expect to pay in the usual markets

Some good sausages to taste

There were lots of cooking demonstrations to watch in the theatre with invited celebrity chefs

James Kielczynski with his new variety of a home pizza oven next to great macaroons

Australia’s Masterchef winner Emma Dean signing copies of her book

How to pack a giant bottle of Kanonkop Cabernet for export. This bottle contains 18 litres of wine and is called a Melchior, named for one of the Three Kings in the Bible. Most of the extra large wine bottles are named after characters from ancient Middle Eastern history

We met Leon Ehlers and Ayama wines

Rob Munro and Mark Herd (of Sunset Beach Wines) on the VinOAir stand

KWV had a double stand

Christine Vosloo, Lourenza Britz and Marili de Swardt - pretty promotion staff on the Vrede en Lust stand

We reconnect with La Bourgogne from Franschhoek, we visited there last year

Issy Mabaso and Inge Schreuder

Sunny Derschug and Ilse Elton, old friends selling extra good German sausages on this stand. You will find them each weekend at the Biscuit Mill and at a kiosk in St Georges Mall during the week

Jenny (Giggling Gourmet) and David Morris with a friend, Roxanne Khan, enjoying the show

Principal Rebecca Hurst at the Hurst Campus stand with working students. It is, in our estimation, one of the best culinary academies in the country.

Chef Pete Ayub of Sense of Taste doing a demonstration on the Braun stand

Not going there. A scorpion lolly. John was interested, Lynne repelled.

You could try lots of insects, if you are brave or foolish enough, with Nathalie Leblond on Rentokil's Pestaurant stand

Another friend, Pesto Princess

And more friends, still at the Old Biscuit Mill on Saturdays - Terry Townsend, Steven Jeffery, his wife Kaylene and the gang with their Charcuterie

They make superb filled rolls. You will find them this weekend at Hartenberg’s Shiraz and Charcuterie Festival.

It was this big! Really..

We meet Penny Streeter OBE, the new owner of Benguela Cove winery, and promise to visit soon

RETURN TO MENU

© John & Lynne Ford, Adamastor & Bacchus 2014