2015 Best Of Wine Tourism Awards lunch at Waterford, Stellenbosch

Waterford is one of our most beautiful wine estates with classical Italianate buildings. How special then to have lunch accompanied by great wine, in the central courtyard  under the shady trees on a perfect early summers day while the local awards were announced and certificates presented.  These  awards celebrate innovation and excellence throughout the 10 greatest wine regions in the world. The awards went to Waterkloof Wines (Restaurant), KWV (Innovative Wine Tourism Experiences), Babylonstoren (Accommodation and Architecture & Landscapes), Waterford Estate (Service and Sustainable Wine Tourism Practices) and Cavalli Wine and Stud Farm (Art & Culture )

A warm welcome at the front door with some KWV MCC bubbly

Tables all set up under the trees

Some of the entrants wines were there to taste on the loggia. Here Claudia Young-Kelly presents Waterkloof wines

The two from Waterkloof for tasting

And Anelle van Tonder from Babylonstoren with their Shiraz

Media and guests start arriving

Fiona MacDonald back from her walk around the farm
The delicious lunch was served ‘family style” on each table and consisted of a good selection of salads, cold beef and chicken and much more

The Seared fillet of beef with Dijon dressing, Parmesan, rocket and tomatoes

A delicious oily Foccacia with great humus and olives

Griddled lemon chicken with herb sauce, pine nuts, blueberries, courgettes and artichokes

Heritage tomato salad with basil and mozzarella bocconcini

There was no shortage of helpful staff or food

Baby spinach butternut, lentil, feta and cashew nut brittle salad, topped with yoghurt dressing

Boules anyone? No, too busy eating and drinking and congratulating the award winners

The central fountain is the Waterford logo

More foccacia anyone?

André Morgenthal of Wines of South Africa welcomes us to the awards

The certificates, the awards and the prizes

Just a small one? Cellarmaster Kevin Arnold with André

It was a lovely day and a very relaxed event

The Executive Mayor of the Cape Winelands District Municipality, Alderman Neels De Bruyn, presenting the Judges Commendation Award certificate for outstanding services to the wine industry to Justin Munjanja of Cavalli

Kayla Mayman of Steenberg gets her Judges Commendation Award certificate

and Christa Olivier gets hers

Gabrieline Bailey of Babylonstoren gets her Judges Commendation Award for services to the wine industry

And the last certificate goes to Tendai Denhere

The wines we drank with lunch. Rather a lot of the Waterford 2006 Gem was enjoyed, it is really at its peak.  If you have any at home, open it for Christmas

Waterford’s team of charming young men. They often go on to greater things in the wine industry as they get a thorough grounding and training at Waterford

Terry de Waal of Babylonstoren receiving the trophy for Accommodation and Architecture & Landscapes

Chef Gregory Czarnecki of Waterkloof receiving the trophy for the best Restaurant

Cape Wine Master Dr Winnie Bowman enjoying the day

Kevin Arnold gave a very interesting address on Sustainable Wine Tourism Practices. Waterford was awarded the Trophy for Service and Sustainable Wine Tourism Practices

The Mayor thanking André Morgenthal of WOSA for his work and support on the Great Wine Capitals Global Network  with a small presentation

The local judges receive thanks

The finger dessert platter

US Consul General Teddy Taylor, Dorette de Klerk of Skål Winelands and Alderman Neels De Bruyn

The Arnold hounds added a lot of amusement to the day

I’m hot!  Damming up the Leiwater

The staff get to sit down at last and enjoy the day

Puppies at play

Roy Davies, GM of The Vineyard Hotel, also enjoyed the day

© John & Lynne Ford, Adamastor & Bacchus 2014

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The Cape Town Festival of Beer

A quick trip to Hamilton’s Rugby Club on the Green Point Common and a tasting of as many beers as we could manage. The growth in craft brewing locally is astounding, It was not crowded as we had expected, although we hear it got much busier later and over the weekend and there was a real enthusiastic and informed crowd while we were there. There were some really great beers, and just a couple that were not.

Yes, there was wine for sale at the Beer Festival. Not every friend or partner likes beer and they need to be catered for. Graham Beck came to the party

The League of Beers sells most of the beers shown at the festival

Jack Black is one of the craft beers that has been around for a while and many people know and love these beers www.jackblackbeer.com/

Lakeside beers with cheery faces, Cameron Doubell and Morne

Master brewer Wolfgang Koedel at CBC brewery, which is on Spice Route in Agter Paarl. He was the Master Brewer at the Paulaner brewery when it was operating in Cape Town and has thankfully stayed on in Cape Town which is now his and his wife’s home. capebrewing.co.za/

Pouring a good glass for John

With his Chinese wife, Li Xin

Red Sky brewery from Gordon’s Bay www.redskybrew.co.za/

Garagista Beers from Woodstock, CT

Good views on some stands, together with good beer

One of our favourite enthusiastic brewers. Rob Armstrong who runs the Ndlovu Brewery at his Franschhoek wine farm, Haut Espoir

The original Pilsner Urquell from the Czech Republic

Striped Horse beers from the Paardeberg area

Roger Burton ex Tierhoek winemaker, who now brews Bomb Shell beers, gives us a taste

There were a few food stands, not very exciting.

Happy friendly serving staff from Raith Gourmet, with German accented food

An impromptu picnic in front of the El Burro food truck

Soweto Gold seeking the market

Saggy Stone from the Nuy Valley was a fruit and wine farm and now produces beer, their flagship is a Californian style Steam Beer http://www.saggystone.co.za/

Gallows Hill Brewery has moved to Woodstock

And yes, we do have favourites. All the beers from Devil’s Peak Brewery are excellent but our absolute favourite, at the moment is the IPA Blockhouse full of orange and grapefruit flavours and very satisfying and thirst quenching. Shown to us by Operations manager Ernst van Rensburg

London Pride. Hmmmmm, should this be here?

The crowd getting larger as we leave at sunset

This year’s venue

Tuktuks laid on by the sponsors to take you to your car or perhaps even further. We did see them in Main Road Sea Point over the weekend. They were free but you could leave a tip

© John & Lynne Ford, Adamastor & Bacchus 2014

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Birthday dinner

© John & Lynne Ford, Adamastor & Bacchus 2014

Food and Wine pairing at the Cape Wine Academy

How nice to receive an invitation from our alma mater to attend a Food and Wine pairing evening guided by chef Wanda Cronje. It is a very clever concept and we thoroughly recommend them to anyone who wants to know more about this subject. It costs R395 a person and you get a full dinner with lots of wine, in smaller portions

When we got there we were faced with 8 glasses of different wines and a small platter containing a walnut (tannin), a (salty) biscuit, a slice of apple (fruit), a slice of lemon(acid) and a small dish of soy (umami). No, this was not the only food of the evening, we were relieved to learn. You taste each of these with a sip of the wine to see how they affect it, as many of these flavours are found in wines and some compliment and others clash. The wines were a popular selection of what many people drink with food. Then came several courses which were tasted with the wines and discuss how we found the matches and learn more. 

The wines we had for the tasting: Nederburg Cellarmaster Sauvignon Blanc, Durbanville Hills Rose, Raats Old Vine Chenin Blanc, Nederburg Baronne, Swartland Hanepoot, 4th Street Natural Sweet, Graça, KWV Cafe Culture Pinotage

The line-up on our tables of the glasses

Our lecturer for the evening, chef Wanda Cronje

The “class room”

1st course: Smoked salmon salad with balsamic vinegar

2^nd course: Chicken and mushroom tartlet with delicious crisp edged cinnamon pumpkin pie which made an instant convert of Lynne who has never liked this before. Recipe please someone

3^rd course was Fish and Chips. 4^th course was Cape Malay Bobotie on yellow rice. This is the 5^th course of Tomato and basil Oxtail stew on brown basmati rice. Rather sweet, as was the Bobotie, but that is traditional.

6th course was dessert a fruit salad, koeksister (crisp deep fried syrup dipped doughnut) and a chocolate mousse. Traditionally all very hard to match with anything else than the Hanepoot. And the last and 7^th course was a cheese platter with crackers and a green preserved fig

Our conclusion was that Graça and the Rosé go with almost everything. The Raats Chenin was a joy to drink

© John & Lynne Ford, Adamastor & Bacchus 2014

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