Celebration of Chardonnay at DeWetshof, Robertson

A Generous Celebration of Chardonnay

Every two years, De Wetshof in Robertson holds this very prestigious tasting. It is, to quote Danie de Wet: “to pay homage to South African Wine producers whose passion for Chardonnay is displayed in the quality of their wines currently in the market ... we believe that as a wine nation South Africa can now be recognized as a global force in the production of site-specific wines expressing their place of origin to the degree of excellence this variety deserves”. Visiting wine journalist Andrew Jefford was the guest speaker and he made an impassioned plea for growers to look more closely at growing site specific wines. See his speech here

Two marquees were erected, one for the tasting of 3 Method Cap Classique wines and 16 Chardonnays , two each from different region of the Cape winelands selected by a panel lead by David Hughes, British Wine Master Richard Kershaw and winemaker Hannes Storm. The wines were tasted blind. And they were magnificent.

The other was for lunch prepared by Chef Garth Stroebel and his team. They have catered for this even since its inception in 2004. Lunch was five courses and we were served the wines that did not quite make it into the top 16 plus two Chardonnays from France and the Laborie Alambic Brandy. All of them were superb, as was lunch.

What impressed us most was the unstinting generosity of spirit shown by the De Wet family in promoting all South African Chardonnays in this way.

We caught the bus in town at 7 am. A very early start to a long but sensational day. We made a stop at Joostenberg to collect the media who live in the winelands

And our journey was improved by a glass or two of bubbly

On arrival we were served an innovative mini-breakfast-in-a-glass canapé: sausage, tomato and scrambled egg!

Anne Huchon of Morgenhof, WOSA CEO Siobhan Thompson, Arco Laarman of Glen Carlou and Gary Jordan

The Who’s Who of the South African wine industry gather outside De Wetshof

Host Danie de Wet at the badge table

Wine for the tasting chilling on ice. Impressively, It was all served at the perfect temperature, throughout the day

Judge Dave Hughes

The Twelve Apostles Director Horst Frehse and his wife, Barbara

Our brigade of pouring waiters who did their job with aplomb and efficiency

The full tasting marquee as the morning commences

Invited Guest speaker for the day was Andrew Jefford who is a contributing editor for Decanter and the World of Fine Wines. Since becoming a wine writer in 1988, he has written for many British newspapers, including the Evening Standard, The Financial Times, The Guardian and The Times. He writes a weekly blog called Jefford on Monday for www.decanter.com and has also broadcast extensively on wine and other subjects for BBC . Like Lynne, his original background was in book publishing in the UK.

Vines in the glasses

Table setting for the tasting

Listening with rapt attention to Andrew Jefford

The gears between the wheels: De Wetshof Marketing Manager Bennie Stipp and PRO Emile Joubert, who worked tirelessly with others to put this awesome event together

Johann de Wet introduces Dave Hughes

Johann de Wet tells us why the De Wet family hosts this event

Dave Hughes tells us how the judges reached the order of the top 16 wines

Bolla Gerber, Cellarmaster at Groot Constantia, introduces his 2013 Chardonnay, the first we tasted, which had a lovely rich lime marmalade nose and a long lean elegant Constantia citrus palate. Each winemaker presented his wine and gave us information about the site, the soil, the production and the climate

Nice pale colour on the first two chardonnays

Andre van Rensburg of Vergelegen introduces his wine, Chardonnay Reserve 2012, full of peachy smoke, ending with lemon and grapefruit

Jan Boland Coetzee’s Vriesenhof 2012 Chardonnay had whiffs of cooked loquats and apples with a clean lime and lemon minerality with some grains of paradise on the end. Long, long flavours. He told us his plant material was stolen 33 years ago from Beaune in Burgundy in the era when Chardonnay was not allowed to be planted in South Africa!

Newald Marais of Kranskop produced the best value chardonnay in the tasting which retails for R55. This 2012 wine has orange citrus deeply layered flavours with some stony minerality and a lovely spicy naartjie ending

Danie de Wet presented De Wetshof Bateleur 2012. It smells of golden delicious apples and is a huge wine that packs a punch. Citrus, spice and warmth with red apples and mineral lime ending

Johann Fourie of KWV presented the 2012 The Mentors chardonnay. Full of golden grapes, it has a rounded palate which is very satisfying with a dry finish of lemons, limes and Granny Smith apples

Randolph Christians of Rustenberg introduced the 2011 Five Soldiers. Smokey with grace notes of green melon and bacon, it is a lean complex and layered citrus panoply. The wood in in the background supporting the wine, but not interfering. He told us it is grown on the highest vineyards in the Cape

Gerry Wagner of Tokara presented their Reserve Collection Stellenbosch Chardonnay as Miles Mossop is away. It's a fruit forward wine with notes of yellow melon and butter. On the palate, yellow fruit, lemon, peaches, some chalk, with no wood visible and warm alcohol

Gottfried Mocke presented his award winning 2013 Reserve Chardonnay. He said there is “No terroir by truck” at Chamonix and raised a laugh from the audience. Floral and fruit, peaches and apricots on a very aromatic nose. Clean lean and mean crisp limes and green apples on the palate with minerality and elegance. A wine to last? Many of these are

Gary Baumgarten of Anthonij Rupert Wines presented the 2012 Cape of Good Hope Serruria Chardonnay. Brioche and butter with a whiff of smoke on nose. Lime juice, some sweetness and a little chalk, it has nice elegance and is a balanced food wine. It comes from a clone CY559 no one else has planted. And is from a very cool vineyard in Franschhoek, never warmer than 30°C and has had snow in the vineyard these last two winters

David Brice of The Wine Cellar asks a question

Carl Schultz of Hartenberg presenting The Eleanor 2013. This was one of our favourite wines of the day, but only by a small margin as the quality of the wines was extremely high overall, including the wines we had with lunch. It is bready with golden fruit on the nose, shy with some slight smoke. On the mouth vanilla wood and toast with crisp limes. Very complex and layered with chalky minerality and a lot of character and attitude. Food wine deluxe

Gary Jordan with 2013 Nine Yards which is full of apples and spice and warm linen on the rose, full of apples and white peaches with a lime finish, and terroir minerality. They have white quartz in the vineyards. Another wine to keep and mature

Kevin Grant presented our highest scoring wine of the day, his 2013 Ataraxia. Smells of spicy apples and pears and tastes of crisp limes lemons and chalky minerality. So French, so elegant. He grows on 7 different soils. He didn’t pull up his vines and grow vegetables, thankfully. He stuck to making good wine

Hannes Storm, who is moving from Hamilton Russell to make his own Storm wines

Bernhard and Fida Hess of Mimosa Lodge in Montagu

Taking a selfie is Ultra director Mark Norrish with Kevin Grant

Assembling for lunch

Johan Malan of Simonsig chatting to Carl Schultz of Hartenberg

Johann de Wet telling us about the wines we will be served with lunch. All the wine was served at 17°C, it was 20.5°C in the tent, thankfully on a very temperate cloudy day.

Richard Rowe of KWV with Johann Fourie

The lunch menu

The starter was a pillow of oak smoked river salmon trout filled with avocado and fromage blanc topped with a very fine red caviar and micro green salad. We could have Moreson, La Motte or Puligny Montrachet Chateau de Puligny Montrachet. The Puligny sadly run out as everyone wanted to taste it, but Peter de Wet generously went to get some more, so we did taste some. A very different style indeed from SA ‘s big Chardonnays, mostly.

Lunch underway

A few speeches

And the award of the Golden Vine went to Luke Dale Roberts of the Test Kitchen and The Pot Luck Club. It was presented by Lesca de Wet and Johann de Wet. It is awarded to a chef for his contribution to the food and wine culture

Luke accepting the award

Every farm involved has produced a sample of their soil

Jeanette Bruwer of Springfield

Lourens Jonker of Weltevrede

Johann Fourie, Michael Olivier and Morné Vrey, chatting

Mr & Mrs Carel Nel of Boplaas

Carel congratulating Luke Dale Roberts

The main course was half a small crayfish with black mussels serve with cured sweet beets, chardonnay jelly, sea grass and the first samphire we have had in South Africa. The crayfish was not familiar and we wondered where it came from. It had rather a tough red skin which peeled off but was inedible.

The two French wines available for tasting with lunch

Kevin Grant enjoying the day

Time to get back on the bus! Bennie Stipp making sure we have lots of supplies for the trip home. Some madman trying to get some NOW. Some of us had to leave without having had the cheese or dessert courses as other members of the media wanted to get back to town early. A pity. It was a very, very good event, one of the best this year

© John & Lynne Ford, Adamastor & Bacchus 2014

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141030 Main Ingredient's MENU - Jordan lunch with Guala closures, Stellenbosch Hills at La Mouette, Season of Sauvignon, Chenin Showcase, Platter launch, lunch at Borage

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A red bishop surveys the young vines in a vineyard

In this week’s MENU:

 Guala Closures lunch at Jordan

 Stellenbosch Hills at La Mouette

 Season of Sauvignon at Durbanville

 Summer Chenins at Meloncino

 Platter Launch

 Diners Club Winemaker of the Year 2014

 Lunch at Borage

 Elgin Chardonnay Tweet Up

 This week’s recipe: Gravadlax

 Important festivals this month

 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     Product of the week: Crème de Marron is a wonderful sweet chestnut puree from France sold in small 78g tubes and which costs only R>> per tube. It has been produced since 1882 and still has the same classic packaging. You can eat this on toast like Nutella, sandwich macaroons with it or put it on meringues and serve with fresh sliced strawberries. It is an essential ingredient in a Mont Blanc dessert. If you have had this once, you will never forget it. We do also have larger tins..  See them here

Guala Closures lunch at Jordan     Are you still feeling the “Romance of the Cork”? Or are you realistic about how many bottles of wine closed with cork can potentially fail because of the cork? Thursday saw us at Jordan for lunch and a presentation by Guala closures on the use of aluminium closures on wine. We came with a little knowledge as, when we visited Excelsior on Monday, we saw their bottling line in action and watched and learned as the screw cap closure machine swiftly did its job. It is fascinating. There were three presentations, one by Guala Closures themselves, who told us how the closures work and their low impact on the environment, as all these cap closures can be recycled an infinite number of times. And they are easy to open and close again, should you not want to finish the bottle. Billions of screw caps are used world-wide, mostly on soft beverages and beer, with more and more in the wine industry, mainly in the New World. We were told that 75% of all aluminium ever produced on the globe is still in use.

We had two very amusing presentations. One from Michael Fridjhon who used the analogy of coating an expensive car with a fragile paint made from rare molluscs and a video from Ken Forrester, both supporting the use of screw caps. To quote Ken, “A random piece of cork can ruin all the hard work in the vineyard and the cellar”.

We then had a very good (as expected) lunch prepared by Chef George Jardine and his bevy of talented chefs and assistants. This was accompanied by excellent wines from different producers, all from screw capped bottles. Read on

Stellenbosch Hills at La Mouette     Stellenbosch Hills invited us to a wine-paired lunch at La Mouette in Sea Point. After we had all gathered and tasted their new Polkadraai Pinot Noir Rosé semi-sweet Sparkling 2014, aimed at the younger market, and eaten some rather good canapés, we were treated to a 7 course pairing menu, which was served with other Stellenbosch Hills wines. It is a co-operative winery, which was known for most of its existence as Vlottenberg and is now 69 years old. The grapes come from 16 different producers in five Stellenbosch wards: Polkadraai, Lynedoch, Vlaeberg, Vlottenberg and Stellenbosch Kloof. Read on

Season of Sauvignon at Durbanville     We really wanted to go and see what everyone had planned. We must admit that the programme this year didn’t exactly grab our attention, but we love the area and its wines, so off we went and had a great time in lovely sunshine. We started at Durbanville Hills and found it pumping and full of people enjoying themselves. And it was the same at all the farms. There was live music, lots of food for sale, things to keep children happy, wine tastings not only of their own wines, but Sauvignons from all the other 11 farms involved in the Season of Sauvignon and “The Twelve”, the bottle containing grapes from all 12 farms. We managed to squeeze in four more farms before wending our way home at 4.30 Read on

Disappointed   A farm in Stellenbosch also had a festival over the weekend, a “Secret festival”. So they hung posters in the Durbanville area. This is called Ambush Marketing, guys. We didn’t see any in Sea Point. Read on.....

Summer Chenins at Meloncino     There are some tastings we always look forward to and the Chenin Blanc Association’s Summer Chenin Showcase is one of them, as we are great fans of Chenin Blanc. Invited by the Sponsor, Standard Bank, to Meloncino in the Waterfront at 10.30, we knew we were in for a good showing of Chenin. There were 5 flights of wines from this versatile grape and it was followed by a very good lunch. The first flight was titled. Minerality - mixed vintage; and included such gems as Beaumont 2014, DeMorgenzon DMZ 2014, Villiera 2014, Raats Original 2013 and Remhoogte 2013 – nice to start with a bang! And it only got better. Lynne’s two top scores went to Spionkop 2013 and Rijks Touch of Oak 2012, but the quality overall was very high. And the prices of many (not all !) are still very affordable.  Read On.....

Platter Launch     How to top off a very good day? Follow a good tasting and lunch with the excitement of the Diners Club Platter Wine Guide launch at the Mount Nelson. This year there were 50 five star wines and one five star Brandy and, following the well organised award ceremony, we had the opportunity to taste all of these five star wines. It was very exciting indeed and we love seeing happy beaming wine makers. Winery of the year was Swartland based Sadie Family Wines - the only winery to get three 5 star wines. White Wine of the year went to De Morgenzon Reserve Chardonnay 2013 and Red Wine of the Year to David Trafford for the De Trafford Blueprint Syrah 2012, his most affordable red. There was a very large crowd and some killer wines. But not all suit all palates, nor should they. Vive la difference! Read on.....

Diners Club Winemaker of the Year 2014     The finalists of the prestigious Diners Club Winemaker of the Year 2014 are Jacques Erasmus (Spier Wines), Alicia Rechner (Backsberg Estate Cellars), Alvi van der Merwe (Alvi’s Drift Private Cellar) and Bryan MacRobert (The Hughes Family Wines). Both Jacques Erasmus and Alvi van der Merwe have been nominated for two of their wines – the Spier Creative Block 2 2014 and 2013, and the Alvi’s Drift AD CVC 2011 and 2012, respectively. This year’s category for the Winemaker of the Year is Dry White Wine Blends and the winner will be announced at a black tie gala dinner at the La Residence Hotel in Franschhoek on 15th November. For more information, visit www.dinersclub.co.za

Lunch at Borage     You may not know it but this is Restaurant Week, when for 10 days each October you get to eat at some good restaurants for a special price. http://www.restaurantweek.co.za/  A 2 course lunch costs R95 and a three course dinner is R175. Restaurants can add further stars and each adds another R50 to the bill.

Although we are busy, we wanted to try this new restaurant in town of which we have had good reports. Chef Frank Marks worked at La Colombe, The Test Kitchen, Pot Luck Club and Heston Blumenthal’s Fat Duck, so he has a good pedigree! The restaurant is on The Hans Strydom Avenue face of the new blue Portside skyscraper which fills the block bounded by Buitengracht, Bree, Mechau and Hans Strydom. We had a lovely meal and hope to go back soon. Read On

Elgin Chardonnay Tweet Up     Lunch was followed by another Elgin Tweet-up, this time we tasted 12 Elgin Chardonnays. And very different some of them are.  There was a huge range of styles and flavours and depth, but the usual suspects tend to rise to the top in this cooler area which is producing such good fruit and wine. Favourite wines of the tasting were the Paul Cluver, the Kershaw Clonal Selection and the Iona. The latter two are Five Star Platter wines. But they were followed closely by Oak Valley and Almenkerk. It is such a good area for Chardonnay. Prices are mostly over R100 a bottle and upwards. The Kershaw sells for R305 and this price caused some controversy but, as Richard says, he gets it from his market.

Wine	Vintage	Cellar Door	Alcohol	Winemaker
Corder Cool Climate Chardonnay	2013	R 90.00	13.50%	Joris van Almenkerk
Winters Drift Chardonnay	2013	R 97.00	14.00%	Koen Roose
Lothian V'yards Chardonnay	2013	R 140.00	14.00%	Stefan Gerber
Oak Valley Wines Chardonnay	2013	R 150.00	13.50%	Pieter Visser
Almenkerk Chardonnay	2013	R 180.00	13.50%	Joris van Almenkerk
Iona Chardonnay	2013	R 175.00	13.00%	Werner Muller
Kershaw Clonal Selection Chardonnay	2013	R 305.00	13.50%	Richard Kershaw
Paul Cluver Chardonnay	2013	R 150.00	13.50%	Andries Burger
Thelema Sutherland Chardonnay	2012	R 100.00	13.50%	Rudi Schultz
Elgin Ridge Chardonnay	2011	R 110.00	13.50%	Brian Smith
Oneiric Oh! Chardonnay	2011	R 112.50	14.00%	John Seccombe
Elgin Vintners Chardonnay	2011	R 100.00	13.50%	Kevin Grant

Recipe      This week’s recipe is the Gravadlax mentioned above

We last gave this recipe in 2010 and since then there have been some more modern variations and we have adapted our recipe slightly. Modern chefs often briefly marinate the salmon in beetroot juice which gives a beautiful dark red jewel like stain to the outside of the salmon.

It is really not very complicated to make. If you don’t have Aquavit you can use plain Vodka or leave out the alcohol, but the taste will be different. A good South African Aquavit can be obtained from Roger Jorgensen in Wellington. You can make some small cuts on the skin side to allow the rub to penetrate.  If you are worried about parasites in raw fish, briefly freeze the salmon first.

Gravadlax (Buried Salmon)

1t = 1 teaspoon 1T = 1 Tablespoon

One side of fresh salmon, deboned completely, but leave the skin on the base of the fillet

Rub: 3 T flake salt - 1 t ground white peppercorns - 1 t ground allspice - 2 T pale brown sugar - 2 T finely chopped fresh dill - 50 ml Aquavit/gin/vodka

Mix well, you can do this in a food processor, then spread on all sides of the salmon.  Cut the side into two pieces, spread on the marinade, sandwich flesh sides together and put it into a large container like a plastic ice-cream container, covered it with cling film or baking paper (don’t use foil, it gives a metallic taste), then put another similar container on top and fill this with heavy jars to weigh it down. You need to flip it daily and keep it refrigerated.  Marinate for between 3 and 6 days. When ready, remove from the marinade, wipe down and thinly slice and serve.  If doing two sides of salmon, double up on the rub and place them together with the skin on top and bottom, flip it every day.  Serve with a creamy mustard sauce and thinly sliced full seed brown bread.

Tastings and Festivals     The World Is Your Oyster. Vertical tasting of 12 Oysters with MCC and Champagne at Mondiall in the V&A Waterfront. Oysters and bubbly are a match made in heaven. We take the nuptials a step further by pairing different sizes (i.e. different ages) of oysters with different ages of Methode Cap Classique wines: cocktails with non-vintage, medium with vintage and large with Grande Marque bubbly and French champagnes. Strictly No Under 18. 12 oysters with champagne tasting - R250. Saturday, 1st November from 11h00 to 15h00. BUY TICKETS HERE

Bosman Release Celebration on Lelienfontein estate on Saturday 15th and Sunday 16th November. Bosman Wine Club members each receive two complimentary tickets. Tickets can be booked online through Webtickets. Additional tickets for family and friends can also be booked at R150pp. Ticket includes access to both days, a wine glass and a R50 voucher redeemable with your first purchase of six bottles of wine on the day. Tasting journey through the 250 year old cellar. Children under 12 enter free of charge. Food is sold at an additional cost of R50 per station. Live entertainment.

Wine Concepts will celebrate their thirteenth year of staging their “Finer Things in Life” Champagne Festival with the theme of Ebony & Ivory on Friday 21st November. They will be offering more than 30 cuvees for tasting from premium and boutique Champagne Houses to tantalize your taste buds. Expect names like Taittinger, Piper Heidsieck, Drappier, Mumm, Ruinart, Montaudon, Jacquart, Philipponat and many more. Tickets cost R380.00 if purchased from Wine Concepts stores or online on www.webtickets.co.za Tickets will be on sale for R400 at the door on the evening.

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, has a variety of courses. 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

30th October 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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