In
this week’s MENU:
What is the future
for South African Shiraz?
SHIRAZ Showcase
2014
Banting,
Mediterranean and healthy eating
This week’s recipe:
Smoked Mackerel Paté
Food and wine (and
a few other) events for you to enjoy
Learn about wine
and cooking
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This week’s Product menu – This cold weather does make one
think of sustaining food and risotto certainly fits the bill. If you are
longing for a wonderful mushroom or prawn risotto, we have the perfect Italian
rice, Violone Nano, which is best with seafood and Carnaroli for those with
chicken or butternut and goats’ cheese, or even a simple saffron and artichoke.
See them all here
What is the
future for South African Shiraz? South
African shiraz is rightfully wowing people here and abroad. It is entered into
every possible wine competition locally and abroad in large numbers (it is
currently the largest category in many competitions) and some of the farms come
off very well indeed with many awards. But it is a little schizophrenic. We
want to know if we are developing our own style of Shiraz or are we just
copying overseas styles? That is already visible as people try to convince one
that by naming shiraz ‘Syrah’ it is made in the Northern Rhone style. But is
it? Undoubtedly some are using
the French spelling to look more authentic, without being so. If
you took 12 samples of Shiraz and 12 of Syrah randomly, would they show a
definite style or is that style profile all in each winemakers head. And then,
what style are they achieving or aiming for with plain old Shiraz? It might be
Southern Rhone style, even Australian or Californian, Argentine or Chile, depending
on where the winemaker trained. What style profile does SA do the best? We
think the intelligent winemakers are looking at what their climate and terroir
produces and using that to their best advantage, not trying to copy styles which
could be unachievable in Africa.
We are asking these questions
because we have been tasting, drinking and buying quite a lot of this versatile
varietal recently. It is one of our favourites to drink with robust food. When
it is done well, and there are some stunning examples, it shines brightly with
intense but soft red fruit, well integrated wood and lots of elegance. When it
doesn’t, it can be thin, insubstantial, over wooded and, quite frankly, sour. Conversely,
it can be over-extracted and overblown with super high alcohols. We have even
picked up on several samples which showed that horror of the industry, burnt
rubber. As for two distinct styles, we are mystified.
There are areas that seem to
be producing good wines with their own singular terroir signature – Tulbagh and
Elgin are two that stand out for us and climatically they could not be more
different. We would love to see Shiraz SA do a blind tasting to see if others
can pick up these two styles or explain to us what they are. We are very
familiar with French and other international shirazes, so we are not speaking
from the point of view of ignorance.
SHIRAZ Showcase
2014 We were invited to this annual event,
hosted by Shiraz SA and held at the Vineyard Hotel on Friday evening. There
were approximately 70 shirazes to taste and some farms had brought a couple of
vintages. It was a good tasting of some very interesting wines and a couple
that were amazing. Although we are puzzled at the style question, we certainly
think that we can produce some beautiful expressions of this very friendly
grape, that has the potential to keep for several years. We tasted some that
have already lasted well. Rich, spicy and alluring, with lovely fruit layers
and soft tannins and a hint of smoke or chocolate is a style we like a lot. There
are also some farms making a sweet and sour lighter version. which we can’t say
we love, but perhaps it is a terroir thing. When a grape becomes fashionable,
everyone plants it and then some find that their soil does not allow the grape to
show at its best. Luckily, you don’t seem to get any heavy tannic bombs with
Shiraz, as you do with Cabernets. These need putting into an armoury and
waiting a long time before they are good. Shiraz is up front and friendly
almost from the start.
We couldn’t possibly taste all
the wines, so here is a selection of some that we did and liked. Almenkerk is
full of violets and good cassis, cool climate indicators we are told. Boschkloof
is savoury with violets and white peppers and a very long finish. Cederberg
lived up to expectations and was layered with good spice and vanilla, this one
will age. Edgebaston was very good indeed and they declare that it is leaning
towards its European heritage. It has white pepper, violets, mulberry and umami
and an aging potential. The Hartenberg is full of turmeric on the nose and
layers of cassis and silk on the palate, with a nice chalky elegance, making it
a good companion to food. La Bri has the necessary violets, chocolate and spice
with good sweet fruit to entrance us. Lomond has a lovely bouquet, nice fruit,
a little chocolate and long flavours, so we scored it high. Rickety Bridge has a
two word description, ‘pure fruit’ and a good score. Riebeek Cellars
Kasteelberg has nice sweetness (4.5 g/l) high alcohol at 15.5%, but it is not
hot. Its tannin makes us think this can also last. Rijks has good strong fruit
and elegance, and has many more years to go. And our favourite wine for the
evening (tasted separately then we swopped notes) was De Trafford 2012 Syrah
393. Incense and mystical aromas of spice. Soft deep red fruits, soft tannins.
Long, long, layer after layer of flavour with an end of salty liquorice. A food
wine and one to keep and to drink now.
There were also some blends
using Shiraz with Viognier, Mourvedre, Grenache, Petite Verdot, Pinotage,
Cabernet, even Cinsaut, which we think is A GOOD THING, unless of course you
are covering up a shiraz that was not good in the first place. Kaapzicht Estate
Red is sweet and soft and spicy, but waiting to develop more. Kleinood’s
Tamboerskoof has very expensive wood notes and was delicious. Sadly, because of
a bad harvest there is not much left. As always, we took some photographs
Banting,
Mediterranean and healthy eating The big
topic in food circles right now is Tim Noakes and the Banting regime. Various
cardiologists are fiercely combating Dr Noakes, who say that the dietary regime
he advocates is a recipe for disaster. Muddled in amongst these arguments is a
host of prejudices and a huge number of generalizations. One of the latter is
the so-called “Mediterranean Diet”. There are many countries round the
Mediterranean Sea, but the reference appears to be to the South of France (a
narrow strip at the bottom edge of a large country) and an emphasis on salads
and olive oil.
It is true that France,
historically, has had a lower rate of heart disease than most other countries.
The question is “Why?” We believe that the real answer is that people in France
have preferred to eat fresh foods and have not been huge consumers of fast and
processed foods. Sadly, this is changing and we saw a huge number of pizza and
burger outlets on our visit last year. However, we have never seen many obese
people on our visits to France in the last 40 or so years. But we don’t believe
that this is just because of salads and olive oil. This quote comes from an internet article about duck fat:
“The French Paradox - In the United States, 315 of every 100,000 middle-aged
men die of heart attacks each year. In France the rate is 145 per 100,000.
However, In the Gascony region, where goose and duck liver form a staple of the
diet, this rate is only 80 per 100,000 This phenomenon has recently gained
international attention as the French Paradox - They eat more fat in Gascony
than anyplace else, but they live the longest.” Duck fat is high in Omega 3
fatty acids and is a largely unsaturated fat. It also makes the best roast
potatoes.
We believe that most obesity
in the last 30 years has been caused by fast and processed foods and sugary
drinks like Coke and Pepsi. Large amounts of refined breads and pastas are big
contributors. The body converts the starches into sugars in order to digest
them, just as brewers malt barley and other grains in order to convert the starches
to sugars to enable fermentation.
Dr Noakes advocates a diet high in
fats, which is why he has been attacked. He also advocates a conservative use
of starchy (“carb”) foods, because our bodies convert the excess that we don’t
use as energy into fat. He emphasizes that his diet is aimed at diabetics and
pre-diabetics. We are lucky and are not in that category, but have both managed
to lose a significant amount of weight and girth by cutting down on bread,
potatoes, pasta and beer, without a significant increase in our fat intake.
Several friends and family members can tell the same story. But we do eat
fresh, unprocessed foods and avoid fast foods and fizzy drinks (other than MCCs
and champagne!) and we believe that this is the kernel of all the arguments we
are hearing about healthy eating.
This week’s
recipe
makes a great starter or sandwich filler. It is also really good served with
avocado. Or put into small tomatoes topped with olives or pepperdew slices.
Smoked
Mackerel Paté
2 smoked peppered
mackerel fillets – 30 g cream cheese – 2 t creamed horseradish sauce – 50 ml
cream - a good squeeze of lemon juice – freshly ground black pepper – salt to
taste
Remove the skin from the
mackerel and flake, making sure you remove any small bones. Put aside one
third. In a blender or with a stick blender, blitz the mackerel, cream cheese,
horseradish, lemon and just enough cream to make a nearly smooth spreadable
texture. Put back the flaked mackerel to add texture. Add pepper and salt and
adjust the seasoning to your liking. Serve with good bread or your favourite
alternative. You can also use any other smoked fish like snoek or even drained,
tinned salmon, tuna or pilchards. And if you don’t like or can’t find creamed
horseradish sauce, you could use a little wasabi paste. We served it with a lovely, fresh and crisp DeWetshof Bon Vallon 2013 unwooded chardonnay.
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
The Hurst Campus, an accredited school for people who want to become
professional chefs, will soon start a new series of short courses in baking.
Check the ad in our blog page or see the details here
In addition to the
new Sense
of Taste Culinary Arts School, Chef Peter Ayub runs a
four module course for keen home cooks at his Maitland complex. 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
our best policy. While every effort is made to avoid mistakes, we are human and
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a choice from several
bubblies from the area
An historic barrel with a story
attached
One of the messages on a barrel
The proud trophy winners
