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Tuesday, September 16, 2014

Tasting Creation wines in Riedel glasses at Creation with Georg Riedel

We meet Georg Riedel of Riedel Glass at Creation Winery

This was the main reason for our visit to Hermanus. A lunch had been arranged at Creation winery by Michael Fridjhon and Michael Crossley of Reciprocal Trading, who are the distributors of this glassware in South Africa and they had invited lots of media and restaurateurs to meet him. Over lunch, we would sample Creation wines in Riedel glasses – the one designed specifically for that varietal and also in another. This does make it easy to see how well the correct glass showcases both the aroma, the taste and the enjoyment of each wine. We learned much more about Riedel Glass and how they formulate these special glasses for specific wines, based on very scientific methods

Creation winery from the parking area. It is surrounded on all sides by vines and some lovely indigenous gardens

A warm welcome

A lovely presentation box of The Art of Creation wines, Creation's new premium range, perfect for a gift or your cellar

The tasting room all laid out for the lunch and tasting

Carolyn Martin with Michael Fridjhon

Jean Claude Martin with Michael Crossley

The Creation wines we will taste with their appropriate Riedel glasses. From l to r Sauvignon Blanc, Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Merlot

Lots of discussion before the tasting

Georg Riedel had come from his factory in Austria to inform and instruct us on the correct use of his glasses. He says size and shape matters,. And, one and a half centimetres can make a difference – the Chardonnay glass is the same shape as the Pinot Noir glass, but higher and the wines taste completely different in each glass

The menu: first the wine tasting in the glasses paired with five canapés, then a main course selection and coffee and chocolate

With the Sauvignon blanc, a slightly sweet, fruity tomato gazpacho containing pineapple with some finely chopped scallop

“Wine makes the music, we are the loudspeakers”

Carolyn explains the canapé pairing with the wines

The full citrus and vanilla Chardonnay paired with prawn, avo and vanilla mayo on pastry

If you travel and cannot take your full set of Riedel glasses with you, you can travel with The O glass, a stemless glass which comes boxed as a pair and which Carolyn is holding. There was some amusing controversy about the correct glass for the Syrah/Grenache

Listening to the Maestro

who is passionate about his products and their use

He showed us how to swirl and wash the wine around the inside of the glass to get the maximum aroma and taste

He showed us how to smell – your face must make contact with the glass.

And he showed us how the same wine in different glasses was completely different in taste and smell and intensity

A tiny slice of thin beetroot atop a goats milk cheese panna cotta topped with lentils to go with the Pinot Noir

Waiting or the next wine pairing

The Merlot

with its tiny cup of warm cauliflower and gorgonzola soup

and finally the Syrah Grenache with a lovely duck rillette on a poppadum with aioli

Michael Fridjhon thanks Georg for coming

John’s main course of rare roast loin of springbok, greens, a fondant potato and a smoked marrow with a pinot noir and cranberry reduction.

The same dish for Lynne came with mushrooms

Creation have a superb selection of different teas for you to order. We smelled cinnamon, chocolate, vanilla mint and many more exciting tea flavours.

JC Martin, Georg Riedel, Carolyn Martin and Michael Fridjhon on the lawn after the tasting

Monika Elias, Shante Hutton having fun and in the background. Dieter Odendaal, Sales Manager of Creation, capturing the moment.

Creation’s Executive Chef, Warwick Taylor, who designed the menu for the day

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Riding City Sightseeing's Red bus to Constantia with the Klink Awards team

Friday's event was a ride on City Sightseeing’s Red Bus tour to Constantia. We started from outside the Aquarium with some of Klink’s staff, other media and Klink fans. www.winetourismsouthafrica.co.za/klinkawards/

After a late start, we headed off on the bus through the southern suburbs to Constantia Nek where we were served a lovely cold glass of Steenberg’s MCC (this is NOT part of the normal tour!) before boarding the Wine Bus, which ambles through this leafy suburb and takes you to visit several wine farms. We ended up at Groot Constantia, where a special event had been set up for us. You, too, can enjoy this tour; it is a great way to see our city if you don’t want to drive – http://www.citysightseeing.co.za/tour-timetables.php

The best pick up point is outside the Aquarium in the V&A Waterfront

Boarding our special bus

Our friendly and very competent driver, Mampe

Monika Elias, publisher of Wine Tourism South Africa and the Klink Awards, tells us about the planned trip

On De Waal Drive - the best place to sit is right in front, for the view. You are given earphones for a tour commentary along the way, pointing out all the important and historic landmarks

We arrived at Constantia Nek where the Wine Bus was waiting for us. This has been nominated for a Klink award this year and you can vote for it - the first time a tour bus has been nominated for an award

Jenny Prinsloo, CEO of Franschhoek Wine Valley gets a welcome glass of Steenberg Sauvignon Blanc MCC from Caroline van Schalkwyk, Steenberg’s Marketing Manager

Lots of takers for this lovely wine, including Grant Newton, Groot Constantia Sales & Marketing Manager

There were choices. Steenberg has been nominated for a Klink Award

Monica reads us the itinerary

Vincent is the driver on the Wine Bus

Mandi Jarman, Sales & Marketing Manager of City Sightseeing, makes sure we are all on board

Arrival at Groot Constantia

We all walk down the avenue to this historic landmark

and pause for a group photo

The event, put on by the Constantia farms nominated for Klink awards, was held in front of the historic winery behind the manor House. Here Thinus Botha of Buitenverwachting pours a glass of their lovely Hussey's Vlei Sauvignon blanc. Their Restaurant has been nominated in the Fine Dining category

Chef Edgar Osojnik had produced a lovely selection of biscuits and petit fours for us

The Groot Constantia Valley stand had Chanette le Roux, dressed as Napoleon, and a chocolate and wine pairing, always available in their tasting room, which has been nominated

Chef Edgar also produced a lovely stacked vegetable canapé, much appreciated by the hungry mob of journalists and bloggers ...

and was happy to help with pouring the wine

Lynne tasting and chatting to Justin van Wyk, who makes the wine for both Constantia Glen and Beau Constantia

Jenny Prinsloo with Gus Allen of Constantia Glen

Beau Constantia’s Pas de Nom (translation is Without a Name), but these wines are certainly not without character!

The stands set up in front of the historic wine cellar

The team from Constantia Glen

Caroline offered us cheese platters with the Steenberg wines

Back on the bus and time to go home. The wine bus drops you back at Constantia Nek, where you re-board the Red bus which goes via Hout Bay and follows the Atlantic coast all the way back to Cape Town, a lovely scenic trip

One of Lynne’s favourite views from the bus, of Llandudno, where her family used to live

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Thursday, September 11, 2014

Sunday seafood platter at Ocean Basket

Sunday bloody Sunday

Sometimes you have to turn a disaster into a positive. We were invited to lunch on a Helderberg wine farm but, when we got there, no one we spoke to knew about the invitation! A bit of a PR nightmare, but apologies have been received. After a long drive, huge expectations were dashed. So we decided to go down to the sea, where we had a lovely seafood platter at one of our favourites, Ocean Basket on the Strand. Marvellous views.

For those of our readers who are overseas, this wonderful selection for two costs only R215. Which currently equates to about €15.37 or £12.25, for which we conjecture you could buy a couple of muffins and 2 coffees in some of the countries we have visited

The bill. No corkage was charged for the bottle of Kleine Zalze Chenin Blanc we had bought locally, thinking we might have to picnic on the beach. We have to say a special thanks to the Blue Bottle liquor store, who gave us a wine glass to go with the one we already had in the car

A brave fisherman wearing waders. It was the beginning of the Spring tides and the water was right up to the top of the beach and roadside

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20140911 Main Ingredient's MENU - New World Wine Show, Truth Coffee, Taj Chilli Festival, IWSC Results

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The old prison boat Susan Kruger ferrying visitors to Robben Island

In this week’s MENU:

New World Wine Agency trade tasting

Truth Coffee. Doing the Right Thing

Taj Chilli festival

IWSC announces Beautiful South Wine results

Sunday bloody Sunday

Recipe - Cauliflower Keema curry

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

Learn about wine and cooking

To get the whole of our story, please click on “READ ON.....” at the end of each paragraph, which will lead you to the related blog, with pictures and more words. At the end of each blog, click on RETURN TO MENU to come back to the blog version of MENU.

This week’s Product menu Our Indian feast at The Taj and this week’s recipe are a reminder that we have a range of Indian and other spices which you will not easily find anywhere else, like Garam masala, Fenugreek, Five Spice, Mace, Shichimi togarashi, Ras el Hanout, Za’atar, Baharat, smoked Spanish paprika, superb Spanish saffron and Sumac See them here

New World Wine Agency trade tasting Each of the Trade Wine tastings we go to has a different location and also a completely different character. It depends very much on the personality of the people involved, both organisers and winemakers; and on the wines, on the warmth of the welcome and on the venue. Monday night saw us happily enjoying all of the above at the Vineyard for this fun tasting of some very good wines. Read On

Truth Coffee. Doing the Right Thing We received a mysterious invitation from Coffee entrepreneur David Donde, asking us to arrive at Truth at 3pm on Tuesday for something exciting, and some free coffee. It was headed “Truth Coffee Roasts on left overs”. We arrived to see his newly refurbished behemoth of a coffee roaster, circa 1947, which had been adapted to work on Bio-fuel instead of diesel. We applaud this green initiative. He is currently installing solar on the roof of his building. David says that Truth is the only roaster in Africa and probably the only one in the world roasting completely on waste fuel. Read On

Taj Chilli festival We are great curry fans and we like curries of all types, meat, chicken and vegetarian. So we were excited to be invited to The Taj Hotel for the Chilli Festival currently being run in the Bombay Brasserie. They sent a car for us which meant John could really enjoy the wine and beer, paired with the food and not worry about driving home. This small but perfectly decorated restaurant seats, on average, only 40 people, and has lots of well trained staff of character and good manners. We had a wonderful time. Read On

International Wine and Spirit Competition announces Beautiful South Wine results. Bright and early and just a little bleary eyed after our Chilli Festival the night before, we arrived at a new venue for us, the Shimmy Beach Club, which is right on the edge of the breakwater area in Cape Town docks. We were promised, and were given coffee, then breakfast with a glass of one of the winning wines, the deliciously crisp and lean Graham Beck Blanc de Blanc Brut 2009, a wine that is scooping lots of international awards, while we heard about this year’s awards. Read On

Sunday bloody Sunday Sometimes you have to turn a disaster into a positive. We were invited to lunch on a Helderberg wine farm but, when we got there, no one we spoke to knew about the invitation! A bit of a PR nightmare, but apologies have been received. After a long drive, huge expectations were dashed. So we decided to go down to the sea, where we had a lovely seafood platter at one of our favourites, Ocean Basket on the Strand. Marvellous views. Read On

Recipe - Cauliflower Keema curry

1 T coconut oil - 2 large onions, very finely chopped or gated – 1 T grated ginger – 3 cloves of garlic, finely chopped – 1 t turmeric - 1 t ground coriander – 1 t white mustard seeds – t 1 cumin seeds – 1 t fennel seeds – 1 green chopped Jalapeno chilli - 500 g beef or lamb mince – tin of chopped tomatoes –salt and freshly ground black pepper – 1 small cauliflower, broken into large pieces – 1 onion, thinly sliced – peanut oil – 200 ml thick plain yoghurt

Fry the onion gently in the oil till very soft, but not coloured. Add the garlic and ginger, and cook for a minute or two. Add the dry spices and temper for a moment. Stir in the mince and brown. Then add the tomatoes and season with salt and black pepper. Simmer for half an hour then add the cauliflower. Finely slice the third onion and cook until crisp and brown, then drain on kitchen paper. Cook the curry until the cauliflower is getting soft. Stir in yoghurt and top with fried onions. You can use half and half broccoli and cauliflower.

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 type of event 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 list of wine and food pairing dinners, list of Special events with wine and/or food connections, list of Wine Shows and Tastings and list of special dinner events. All the events are listed in date order and we 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

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

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

Nadège Lepoittevin-Dasse has French cooking classes in Noordhoek 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.

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

11th September 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.

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