Wine at the Mill Sunday festival

Nigel Cattermole’s boutique Wine at the Mill shop is at the Old Biscuit Mill in Woodstock and he had the very clever idea of taking over the outside area on Sunday for his wine festival.. It was tremendous fun, there were lots of wines to taste for the R175 entrance fee, which also got you a large wine glass

Three of our favourite characters in the wine industry: Hermit on the Hill Pieter de Waal, winemaker Lukas Wentzel of Groote Post and Jacus Marais of Nitida

The man who organised it all. Nigel Cattermole, proprietor of Wine at the Mill with Melissa Nelsen, who makes her own Genevieve MCC

Michelle Stewart of Extreme Wines with Neil Ellis wines, which she distributes

Time never stands still. This is Penny and Nils Verburg’s daughter Daisy pouring us a glass of Luddite’s terrific 2008 Shiraz

Melissa Nelsen of Genevieve and her partner, viticulturalist Leon Engelke,
talking to festival tasters about their MCC

Sharon Parnell of Domaine des Dieux with her prize-winning Claudia MCC and other wines. With her and pouring, Shane Mullis, her sales & marketing manager

John Loubser, cellarmaster and GM at Steenberg and his wife Karen with their own MCC, Silverthorn, enjoying the festival

Yvonne and Peter Bayly poured lots of Port and their wine

Old friend and fellow wine club member Carol Mills with her range of flavoured spirit aperitifs which include Limoncello, Buchu and Honeybush. All available from Wine at the Mill

Masterchef presenter and Kitchen Cowboy Pete Goffe Wood had those steak sandwiches and had a busy day

His wife Elize and a staff member prepare one

Lots of purchases happening inside the shop

Sisters Daisy and Alice Verburg

Nigel with staff. “Now just take this wine to their car please”

Young wine people having fun. Matthew Day, winemaker at Klein Constantia with his wife Catherine, Dave Nel, master wine smous, and friends

Jacques Wentzel of Black Elephant wines in Franschhoek with their new, totally black labelled, MCC Brut

They are will show this at the Franschhoek Magic of Bubbles festival this weekend

Joris van Almenkerk of Almenkerk wines in Elgin with his sister Liesel

A leopard sculpture made from recycled parts of horrendous gin traps, which are helping to wipe out the diminishing population of wild Cape Leopards. A great statement piece

© John & Lynne Ford, Adamastor & Bacchus 2014

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Wine Concepts Finer Things in Life Champagne Festival at The Vineyard

We wouldn't miss this annual festival of French Champagnes, held at the Vineyard hotel by Mike Duggan and his team from Wine Concepts, and nor should you. We changed into our ‘Ebony & Ivory’ finery (Formal dress suit for John) in the health centre of the Vineyard hotel and then it was time to get to know and love over 44 champagnes from 28 Marques

"Our" sauvignon blanc vine in the little vineyard on the bank of the Liesbeek is looking very healthy

with fruit starting to develop

Prosper Gundura showed us Philipponnat Vintage, Royale Reserve Brut and Rosé

A glass of Bolly

Tracy James Elphick showed us Ayala

Delicious morsels of salmon sashimi

with light jazz in the background

and a display of Jaguars

Ginette de Fleuriot shows the Nicolas Feulliatte Brut Réserve

and their Palmes d'Or Vintage 2002 Brut

Prosper Gundura

Huge oysters

Michael Bampfield-Duggan welcomed his guests

More interesting canapés

New labels from Gosset, same great quality

Ruinart on the ice

Derick and Karen Henstra

Sabrage at Mumm

Xolani Macotywa

James Pietersen purs a glass of Drappier

and Caroline Poulter van Schalkwyk vamps with Ruinart

It was a very well attended festivity

© John & Lynne Ford, Adamastor & Bacchus 2014

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Delaire Graff's Sunshine - a new Loire style Chenin Blanc MCC

There is a need on Delaire Graff for their own MCC and, this week, they released it. Named after the 118 carat Delaire Sunrise, the largest square emerald cut yellow diamond in the world. Morne Vrey has used mainly Chenin Blanc, making this more like a Crémant de Loire. It is a blend of Chenin Blanc (58%), Chardonnay (34%) and Cabernet Franc (8%). All the grapes come from the estate. It is intensely crisp and has quite a crackle on the palate. Given time, this will be a beautiful wine, but it will only be available at Delaire. Then it was time for a tasting of some currently available Delaire wines, followed by lunch on the terrace. It’s a hard life and, yes, the weather and the view were perfect.

A warm welcome with a tray of smoked salmon ‘sandwiches’

And another of choux gougères, filled with paté

A jar of gazpacho

or a cornet of beef tartare

and then some mini fishcakes

The lovely 2014 Cabernet Franc Rosé flowed and went well with the canapés

We are introduced to the Sunrise. Note the background decoration on the label is a depiction of the emerald cut of the yellow diamond after which the wine is named.  It is in the style of a Crémant de Loire blend, bready and leesy on the nose, has nice crisp bubbles and with lots of lime and pear drop flavours.  It has spent 15 months on the lees, has an RS of 5.9 and the acid is 8.

The view looking towards Paarl with the Banhoek Valley in all its early summer glory

Canapés and conversation on the terrace

Then taking our places for the tasting in the restaurant which was followed by lunch on the terrace

Wines we tasted were:

The 2014 Sauvignon Blanc is in the style we prefer with figs and green pyrazine notes, with crisp minerality  Then the Coastal Cuvée 2014 SB  which has a touch of Semillon added, Its slightly tropical in style with the detectable Semillon melding the acids and add richness. 2013 wooded  Chenin Blanc  from Swartland grapes is grassy guava and yellow peach on the nose and buttery with a lot of wood on the palate.  The  2013 Chardonnay: Umami on the nose then rich buttery limes with gentle soft wood, nice minerality. Also needs more time to gather itself together but will be a great wine. The 2013 Reserve White is 66% Sauvignon Blanc and 34% Semillon  Bready and leesy on the nose, there is a tingle on the tongue with the nice richness of the Semillon supporting the pineapple passion fruit and gooseberries of the Sauvignon. And finally the Laurence Graff Reserve 2011 red . It’s a single vineyard cabernet  with 5% Bordeaux varietals added.  The nose is full of cassis red velvet maraschino cherries and on the palate dark liquorice, cassis, brambles and warm wood. We loved it

Johann Laubser, Estate General Manager of Delaire Graff

Winemaker Morne Vrey

Fiona MacDonald, Annareth Bolton and her brother Higgo Jacobs

The beautiful Sunrise

The lunch menu

Trout Tartare, using good quality smoked salmon trout, on a blini with cucumber ribbons and savoury squid ink blots

Second course was almost too pretty to eat. A mosaic of lightly pickled octopus tentacles, topped with a perfectly cooked sea flavoured langoustine, artichokes and beetroot slices and a creamy foam

Main course was rather rare seared prime beef on yellow and red beets in a good wine jus and accompanied by a dish of those oh, so wicked truffle and parmesan crispy chips

Dessert looked like a disparate collection of separate ingredients but when you mixed them together on a spoon, they combined into pure heaven.  A panna cotta made with coconut cream, a tangy pineapple and mango sorbet, fruit jellies and rosewater pearls with crumpled fruit crisps and crunchy honeycomb and meringue pieces.  Brilliant, just too small.....

© John & Lynne Ford, Adamastor & Bacchus 2014

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