Franschhoek Uncorked

On Saturday, we took our English friend Terry to this Franschhoek festival. We collected our tickets and glasses from Babylonstoren, which gave us a chance to show him their amazing gardens. Unknowingly, we arrived at the perfect weekend to see their collection of over 5000 clivias in full bloom. It was a superb site. You can walk through the clivia wood and admire those they have planted, plus a good display of other unusual and beautiful hybrids in pots

Then it was off into Franschhoek in time for our lunch booking at Foliage. After lunch, we called in at Cabrière, who had such a fun event going on in their marquee. We tasted their wine and bubbly, had a bit of a bop to the band and threw some balls at a rubber ring in the lake to try to win a bottle of Ratafia. No, we didn’t get one. What a lovely way to spend a Saturday.

Walking through Babylonstoren

Past the spekboom maze, a lovely view of the mountains

Fields of lavender and thyme

A spring vineyard on the mountain

One of their barns

Pale yellow Clivia

Terry Rodbard in the Clivia tunnel

Some of the marvellous varieties of Clivia in their collection

The lotus pond

A bee harvesting pollen on a mesembryanthemum flower

Arriving at Haute Cabrière, we were welcomed by two enthusiastic young people

In the tasting room, talking to Hildegard von Arnim

Terry with Achim von Arnim

Hildegard looking young and fresh, recovering from a shoulder op

A moody view of the Franschhoek valley from Haute Cabrière

Lovers on the terrace

A DJ pumping out the music in the marquee

with help conducting the band

Cabrière takes their Klink nomination seriously

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© John & Lynne Ford, Adamastor & Bacchus 2014

Plaisir de Merle launch of Petit Plaisir at The Dining Room, Woodstock

Plaisir de Merle invited us to join them at the launch of their new Petit Plaisir red, a Shiraz-driven blend, with lunch at The Dining Room in Woodstock, owned by the talented Karen Dudley. Petit Plaisir means Small Pleasure, but this is anything but small. It is a lovely, sweet and soft blend of Shiraz, Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Cabernet Franc and a scant 0.7% Viognier, which shows its presence despite the small amount. It is easy to quaff and great with food. We suspect that we will be seeing this on wine lists all over the country soon.

The Dining Room on Sir Lowry Road in Woodstock is also a function venue which can be hired. It is open only once a week for dinner. Contact Karen at her other restaurant The Kitchen, which is almost next door. This was where Michelle Obama chose to have lunch with her daughters when they visited Cape Town. A great surprise for Karen and it gained her wonderful publicity and many more customers who were attracted to her healthy style of good food

The Petit Plaisir, which was launched with lunch

But first, a glass of Plaisir de Merle’s MCC bubbly

The lunch menu. It was all served ‘family style’, so we could share platters

A long table to accommodate the crowd

Meeting and greeting

We get our first taste of the wine. On the left, next to Lynne, is Barry Nieuwoudt, owner of the Greek Fisherman, Meloncino and City Grill restaurants in the V&A Waterfront

Karin Dudley welcomes us to her restaurant

Slices of beef Carpaccio topped with horseradish, radishes, lentils, rocket , parmesan and capers

The dish of the day. Kentucky Fried Quail with a spice dusting and soy. It was crisp on the outside, beautifully moist inside and had wonderful flavour. We tore into it.

Almost as good was the fresh seared salmon with a sticky Vietnamese caramel sauce

A mixed salad for one of the vegetarians at the table

Venerable journos Neil Pendock and Graham Howe with Naas Erasmus, Cape Legends CEO

Tender roast pork with crackling, topped with stewed apple sauce, with a selection of vegetables

A cheese board with very good local cheeses

And finally as a parting snack, the duck pancakes. Very moreish. Lovely lunch, Karen, to go with a lovely wine

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© John & Lynne Ford, Adamastor & Bacchus 2014

Sunday Jazz brunch at the Winchester Mansions

The Sunday Jazz Brunch has become an institution at the Winchester. Every Sunday, throughout the year, you arrive at 11 and stay till 2 and, in the process, listen to jazz, eat breakfast, morning tea and sushi, and then finish with a full Sunday lunch and dessert. And all for a very reasonable charge of R270 per person. They provide a glass of Miss Molly Bubbly to start the morning and the Sunday Papers. The wine list is comprehensive and you can make choices from there 

Sunday turned out to be quite a pretty day. Not very sunny but not chilly either.  Tables around the fountain. Daughter Clare settling in.

It is a lovely old style hotel, right on the sea front in Sea Point. It was a block of flats back in the 50’s and 60’s

Aaah, the salad bar. Best were the smoked salmon and the prawn dish. Apparently, the mussels were also divine

Very good sushi, which they keep renewing.  It's a popular choice

Or you can start with breakfast cereals

and add some fresh fruit and yoghurt

The cheese board

The other side of the salad bar

May we tempt you with some pastries or rolls?

More salads

Fancy a Tricolore salad dressed with pesto?

How Lynne started brunch: a little sushi, salmon, prawns and some calamari. You can then go on to a full Sunday lunch and they had beef, pork, lamb chops, fish, lots of vegetables and roast potatoes. Oh, and very good curry and rice. And then, of course, there is the dessert bar

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© John & Lynne Ford, Adamastor & Bacchus 2014

Seductive Sauvignons with Wine Concepts at The Vineyard

After our hectic couple of days last week, with visits to Avontuur and L’Avenir on Wednesday and Thursday and then Friday’s wonderful lunch at Joostenberg, we had a quick trip home to unpack the car, fetch a friend from Europe who was staying at the Winchester Mansions and hare off to the Vineyard Hotel for Wine Concepts’ Seductive Sauvignons wine show. Were we tired? Hell no, when faced with over 107 wines to taste. Many farms showed both Sauvignon Blanc and Cabernet Sauvignon. And there were many seriously good wines to sample. The show was very well attended and Mike Bampfield Duggan told us that they had sold about twice as many tickets as they did for the show last year

One of the highlights of the evening was at the Springfield table. They showed a Methode Ancienne Cabernet Sauvignon 2008 which, for us, was the best wine of the evening. Just what a good Cabernet should be, bright and juicy fruit, silky smooth with nice soft tannins and acid holding it all together and some well integrated wood. A wine to drink with a splendid meal. And this year’s Life from Stone sauvignon blanc is lively and lean and worth buying

Ataraxia Sauvignon Blanc at R102 was a bargain. Kevin Grant has some of his Guild Sauvignon Blanc coming up at the Cape Winemakers Guild auction this weekend and it will go for much, much more. If you can’t afford auction prices, go and buy this. The exact same can be said for David Niewoudt’s Ghost Corner Sauvignon Blanc, very impressive as always

The Iona Sauvignon Blanc is a classic, as is the De Grendel Koetshuis 2014. The Le Riche Cabernet Sauvignon Reserve is quite splendid and will last for years, as it should at R421 a bottle

There were several older sauvignons blanc on show and they showed how well this varietal can develop with a bit of bottle age. Standouts here were Mooiplaas, Domaine des Dieux and Springfield who showed wines with great depth and complexity which were up to seven years old

Natalie Opstaele of Almenkerk with their full-on, tropical nuanced Sauvignon Blanc, which so impressed

Annemie Adriaanse with the wines from Black Oystercatcher

Terry Rodbard with Vineyard Hotel GM Roy Davies

Johan Kruger of Sterhuis, Jenna Bruwer of Springfield and John Collins

Jackie Rabe of Strandveld Vineyards and Trizanne Barnard, who was showing her Trizanne sauvignon blanc

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© John & Lynne Ford, Adamastor & Bacchus 2014