In
this week’s MENU:
Old Mutual Trophy
public tasting
Saturday Lunch at
Devonvale
Shiraz and
Charcuterie at Hartenberg
Cabrière celebrates the 20th
Anniversary of their Pinot Chardonnay blend
Haskell Wines tasting and lunch
Carmien Rooibos tea with lunch in Banks new shop by
Nic van Wyk
Creamy Butternut
Soup
This week’s Product menu – Two items in our
inventory which have always been popular with our customers are Squid ink and leaf gelatine. This is
a great time for risottos and pasta (if you are not following the prescripts of
Messrs Banting and Noakes) and squid ink lets you make them black. Leaf
gelatine gives a much smoother, softer jelly than the granular variety –
wonderful for dishes like panna cotta and Lynne uses it to make the raspberry
and chardonnay jelly our guests love ... See them here.
Friday Old
Mutual Trophy public tasting at CTICC At
last, a chance to taste the winning wines (and several others) that we have
heard about over the last few weeks. The judges are right, South African wine
continues to improve and reach higher and higher standards. There were some
knockout examples. At a large tasting like this, we aim to taste as many trophy
wines as possible and then fit in others. We find that this competition really
does seem to drive quality, progress and innovation in the industry.
The fairly controversial wine
that won the Trophy for the Best Shiraz and the best red wine overall, Mount
Sutherland Syrah from the Sneeuwberg mountains, was very interesting. We didn’t
find it to be an in your face fruit bomb; it is much more restrained, elegant
and tight with some tannins, but you can see the potential and why it scored 96
points. Saronsberg also scored 96 points and a gold medal for their elegant and
structured Provenance Shiraz 2012 and this is ready to be enjoyed now.
The Chardonnays we tasted were
exemplary, especially Trophy winner and best white wine on Show, Mulderbosch
2013. Richness and freshness is what winemaker Adam Mason says he wants – he
has achieved it. Museum Class trophy winner Chamonix Reserve 2008 really
charmed us with its crisp acidity holding onto the lovely layers of golden
fruit. And gold medallist Iona 2013 might just have to be put into our cellar
soon. The Discovery of the Show, Baleia Bay Chardonnay 2013, is there already.
We could cover pages with
recommendations for many, many more of these wines. If you see a wine with one
of these awards and you can afford it, buy a bottle to try and then buy some
more if you like it. One you won’t be able to find is the KWV 1930 LBV Muscadel,
which won a gold medal in the museum class. What an extraordinary wine and how
fortunate we were to get some in our glass, so thick and syrupy, so balsamic and
yet still a joy to taste. Why do we ignore, neglect and not appreciate our
superb sweet wines and
port?
They are some of the best jewels
in our wine varietals. MORE...
Saturday Lunch
at Devonvale Devonvale Golf Club is in the
Bottelary Hills. It has a lodge, a restaurant and it also has its own wines. We
received an invitation from the owners, the Provoyeurs, to visit and taste the
wines and have their very good value three course lunch for R130 (till
September). So we set out last Saturday, as we were already going to Hartenberg
for the Shiraz and Charcuterie festival MORE...
Shiraz and
Charcuterie at Hartenberg South
African Shiraz is going through a fantastic period of growth and massive
improvement and it is being recognised here and abroad. So we love being
invited to taste a great selection of them. Hartenberg hold this festival once
a year and they invite local farms to showcase their impressive Shirazes. The
rain we’d had nearly all week the week stopped, the sky cleared and the sun
shone all afternoon as we and many other Shiraz fans milled around the terrace
tasting Shiraz under the pergola and in front of the wine cellar. There were
several stands selling charcuterie, good bread and some cheese as well so there
was plenty of choice for lunch or something great to take home. MORE...
Cabrière
celebrates the 20th Anniversary of their Pinot Chardonnay blend This is one of the best selling wines
bought by the public and it is on very many restaurant wine lists. It is
amazing to think that it has been around for 20 years. On Sunday we were
invited to come and celebrate with a lunch in the Cabrière restaurant with the
Von Arnim family and all the people invited were generously allowed to bring
their families so we had many children, all very well behaved. Chef Ryan Shell
produced a lovely informal lunch which lasted until 5 when we all scattered
home as the next winter storm and cold front was about to arrive MORE...
Haskell Wines tasting and lunch Where nicer than a wine farm to taste
wine? How about the owner’s well appointed house, high up the hill in Fresnaye.
It has the most beautiful views of Table Bay and Robben Island and we were able
to taste the wines in the magnificent wine cellar and then have a great ‘serve
yourself’ informal lunch upstairs. These wines are really superb. First 3
chardonnays from 3 vintages. All clean crisp and elegant, but each with a
completely different personality. Anvil 10 has reached maturity and was a small
vintage. It’s got melons and citrus with a light wood richness and good
minerality on the end made it Lynne’s favourite of the 3. Anvil 2011 has wood
smoke with citrus below on the nose. Clean fruit and nice crisp acidity with
long flavours of lemon make it quite French in character. Anvil 2012 also has
wood smoke and shy fruit on the nose but on the palate is an elegant food wine
full of clean clear flavours of lemons and limes.
Then three Shirazes from
completely different vineyards and soils. All have complex layered fruit and
lots of spice. Aeon 2011 shows elegance and long lingering chalk spice and
fruit. Pillars 2011, the vineyard at the gate of the farm, is being grown half
biodynamically and half organically, as it is so apart from the other vines. It
will be very interesting to see if any differences show. It’s all smoke and
spice with a rich mouthfeel, with good acids to give grip and spicy sour
cherries and rhubarb delight. Then the Hades 2014 – a barrel sample taken the
day before, just to show how it is developing, and we predict a wine well worth
drinking. It was remarkable for such a young wine.
Then the Haskell II 2010
Shiraz Cab Blend. Cassis, black cherries and violets bring elegance with
vanilla ice cream and warm spice. Silky smooth, nice chalky tannins make it
extremely drinkable. The Haskell IV 2009 is their flagship Bordeaux blend and
is full of Rumtopf berry flavour, rich and spicy on the nose. The fruit is
still maturing and the tannins still speaking, so it is one to put away for a
while. MORE...
Carmien Rooibos tea with lunch in Banks
new shop by Nic van Wyk Now many of
you will know that we are not great fans of Rooibos “tea”. So what were we
doing accepting an invitation to lunch matched with Rooibos? The draw card was,
we must admit, food cooked by Chef Nic van Wyk and we like challenging
ourselves every now and then and trying things we think we don’t like. It was a
very interesting experiment and we admit that the “teas” were more pleasant to
drink than we had imagined. And they certainly went very well with the food. It
was held in the new Banks shop in the Checkers Centre in Sea Point on the day it
opened. Creation were also there with their excellent wines and many people
were enjoying them. MORE...
Congratulations to Philip Costandius on his
new appointment as General Manager of Oldenburg wines in Stellenbosch. It’s a
beautiful farm and he joins a great team.
This week’s recipe is a creamy Butternut
Soup We have had some really good versions of
this recently and Lynne wanted to see if she could come up with a good recipe,
following the Banting diet. We cook our butternut in the microwave because,
with no water involved, it produces the very best flavours this vegetable has
to offer with no dilution. And you don’t have to peel the butternut. You can
boil it but make sure you strain it very well or the soup will be watery.
1 butternut approx
1.5 kilos – 500ml of good chicken stock – 30 ml butter - 250 ml of cream – sea
salt and freshly ground black pepper – a good grating of nutmeg
Take a sharp knife and make
several punctures deep into the butternut. Put it into a deep glass ovenproof
bowl. Microwave on high power for 8 minutes. Turn it over. Keep doing this
until it is completely soft. Let it cool and you will find it easy to remove
all the skin. Cut in half and scoop out the pips. Put the butternut into a
large pot and add the stock and the butter. Cook together for about 10 minutes
to blend the flavours then take a stick blender and blend till smooth. Stir in
the cream and blend again. If it is too thick add a little more stock. Taste
and adjust the seasoning, adding the nutmeg or another spice of your choice.
You want a really smooth velouté texture for the soup so blend until you have
this. This is much thicker if you leave this in the fridge overnight and then
reheat and serve. You could add another swirl of cream when serving. We
sprinkled with a little hot chilli pepper or cayenne but you could sprinkle with
some soft fresh herb leaves like thyme or sage. Serves 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. If you wish to come to our
home, please phone ahead to ensure that we have what you want in stock and to
make sure that we are at home. We are often out!
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
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
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