A harvest celebration at Creation in the Hemel en Aarde Valley

An invitation we were delighted to accept, this turned into a rockingly good evening with DJ Tess playing all the numbers that get you up dancing, lots of food, excellent wine and fun. But there was also a purpose to the evening and for every bottle of wine the guests ordered, 30% of the price was being donated to the local primary school for very necessary supplies, improvements and upliftment. And a lot of wine was drunk. They introduced their new Special Reserve Merlot and it is one to rush off and buy. Intensely fruity, but very elegant and layered, this classic merlot shows no green stalkiness and is beautifully made. Yes, we bought some and yes, we stayed overnight in the valley

A generous glass of wine was the initial warm welcome

Initially, we stood on the lawn and then, as the evening air began to have an effect, most people moved inside

A braai to keep one warm

More and more people arrived

Each member of staff has a different grape variety on the back of her polar fleece jacket!

All the Creation glasses are from Riedel - each specific shape enhances the character of the wine it is designed for. It really does make a difference

Owners of Creation Jean Claude(JC) and Carolyn Martin with DJ Tess from New York

A happy evening

Out on the terrace

Peter and Ingrid Jones shared the media table with us and others. We also shared the great sushi and the Parma ham and figs

The tasting/dining room waits for guests who are still enjoying the outdoors

Creation staff were part of the party and the celebration

Just what we like to nibble on

Lovely Parma ham with figs

Bread and butter

Dieter Odendaal captures the moment

A glass of Whale Pod rosé?

Sauvignon Blanc please

A huge paella was cooked

People start to move inside

to enjoy the wine and the sushi

Carolyn and JC open the evening by telling us about the harvest and the reason for the party

and we were treated to a rousing prayer by the local pastor

John invaded the kitchen with his camera and discovered the suckling pig we were to eat

Chef Warwick Taylor must have cooked for days. Sushi, Paella, suckling pig, a lamb on the spit, dips, pita bread and pastries. Oh, and a salad

Wicked cream-filled pastries followed dinner

Serving oneself from the buffet table

Don't stir it! A sea food and chicken paella

Pita with Tsatsiki and humus

Yes, that does go with Greek lamb from the spit

It was a night without a moon; all the stars were out, but we needed a few lanterns to see the food

Creation’s restaurant manager Philip Marais with his paella

Lots of food, lots of wine and lots of chat

and the music was great - it got a lot of us up and dancing

Shake that booty Ingrid and Lynne

Even Carolyn and JC could not resist

and it was lovely dancing with the staff. It was a superb fun evening and we hope they raised a lot of money for the school

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© John & Lynne Ford, Adamastor & Bacchus 2015

Postscript: They raised over R6000 and more pledges are coming in from the party and from their newsletter posted today ...and they are working with CWA Pebbles and Rotary to make a difference! If you would like to contribute to the education of the children of the Valley, please contact Carolyn Martin at Creation

Bouchard Finlayson Vertical tasting at Hildebrand

We were invited to taste some of these great Hemel and Aarde wines at Hildebrand in the Waterfront this week. We do go there a lot but don’t always have time to visit all the wine farms we like and respect. This is one of them and if you find yourselves in the area, do go and do a tasting of these wines. You will find a warm welcome and some superb Chardonnays, Pinot Noirs and elegant red blends, as well as their Blanc de Mer white blend of Riesling, Viognier and Chenin Blanc. The wines were all paired with small tastings prepared in the restaurant kitchens

Hildebrand restaurant

They have a reasonably priced set menu on offer at present

Three vintages of the Blanc de Mer: 2012, 2013 and 2014. The most popular, and we concur, was the 2012. Warm linen and limes on the nose with faint whiffs of smoke, it is full of sweet fruit with a lingering elegance and aftertaste, performing well above expectation. The other two will mature as well as this one. It is a good food wine and it was paired with two pieces of salmon sushi.

It was quite a small tasting

Most of the people attending know and buy the wines. Peter Finlayson, in the top right corner, took us through his wines

Next we tasted the Galpin Peak Pinot Noirs: 2009, 2010 & 2012 (there was no 2011 made). We tasted this before the Chardonnay because Peter believes, as do many experts, that chardonnay can have an effect on the taste of Pinot Noir if tasted before it. Here the 2012 was just preferred more than the 2009. They all have a lovely silky mouth, and the 2012 has lots of juicy red morello cherries with a smoky finish. It is very, very elegant and has years to go. Definitely a food wine

Duck and rice to match the Pinot Noirs

This was the line up of wines we tasted. Next came the Tète de Cuvée Galpin Peak Pinot Noir: 2009, 2010 & 2012. the top Pinot. The 2009 vintage shone. Lynne picked up smoke and forest floor on the nose and juicy sweet fruit with a silky mouthfeel, raspberries cherries and some umami notes. It has a long, long finish. The 2012 is very similar, just needs more time to reach the same heights. Buy now and salt away for a year or three.

Lamb on tsatsiki to go with the Missionvale Chardonnays. We tasted 2011, 2012 & 2013. Again the same pattern. We like the 2011 best. It’s nose of wood citrus and vanilla is followed by a mouth full of intense fruit and good clean crisp acidity, limes and butter. So complex and layered. The 2013 has such potential, full fruit, lovely depth and continuation

It was a really good tasting. We wish we could afford more of these excellent wines as they are so built to last and go so well with food. We were given a bottle of the Blanc de Mer and the Galpin Peak Pinot Noir to take home. Thank you Peter. You somehow manage to get such beautiful silk into your wines

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© John & Lynne Ford, Adamastor & Bacchus 2015

Taste of Cape Town 2015

We went on the first evening this year and found it to be a lot more fun than last year, but with less impressive food. And on chatting to some of our hotel, restaurant, wine and cheffie friends, it seems that they want things back the way they were to start with or their presence might be missed next year. We can’t put our finger on what made it so much fun, perhaps seeing so many friends in the wine and food world as well as people attending whom we knew, but it was fun

We ate and really enjoyed food from two venues, the rest was OK but not terribly exciting to us. It seems that the top restaurants won’t come and do this as a purely PR exercise –would they need to? They don’t make money, but we think they are missing out on introducing new people to their excellent food

Tiny print on the programmes again made for fairly random eating; we ate what we found, until we had had enough. Planning our route would have been good

A merry crowd, but no rowdiness or drunkenness seen on the first night

Chef George Jardine (emulating John obviously) with Louise Starey of The Bakery at Jordan They were one of the Pop-Up restaurants for the evening – sad if you missed them, as they had the best food there. Yes, we are biased

The Jordan Pop-up menu. The baked egg tart with the melt in the mouth buttery pastry topped with truffle hollandaise was magnificent, the dish of the evening, followed closely by that Chocolate and caramel slice

Poor Chef David Hicks from the Saxon Hotel in Johannesburg was visiting the show and was presented with an apron and Shanghai’ed into helping George in the kitchen. So two great chefs together had good fun

The two savoury dishes from The Bakery at Jordan

We had the Crispy duck pancakes from Kitima in Hout Bay. Well, it was just one small pancake filled with very dry, overcooked duck

These were their three display dishes on their counter. We had a problem getting our heads around Dutch gouda cheese wrapped around Prawns but friends who had it said they liked it

Errieda du Toit of Kokkedoor fame, who was one of the organisers of the show

Long queues at one of the more popular stands

Char sui oxtail from Azure, gloriously tender with great rich flavours. We also had their Fisantekraal trout done two ways, Tequila cured gravadlax cut in a small round medallion and a superb smooth mousse, baked avocado and corn succotash, second best dish of the night. The duck pancake is from Kitima

More queues of mostly happy people

Lynne asked what the wine was at the Vingooo stand. The reply was White Wine. As it was not at all drinkable, we didn’t enquire further

A new wine for us was the 2013 Neil Joubert's Christine-Marie Blanc de Blanc MCC. We liked it very much and at R110 a bottle, worthy of purchase

The Azure menu – it is the restaurant at the Twelve Apostles Hotel

Old friend Gavin Ferreira, Assistant General Manager of the Twelve Apostles, trying to tempt Lynne into eating something. He succeeded admirably

Vaughan Walker was kept very busy with demand for sweet things on the Queen of Tarts stand

Roger Jørgensen, with the good range of spirits he makes in Wellington, meets Lidia and Linda Nobrega of Chapman's Peak Hotel in Hout Bay

His range with the prices

On the Domaine des Dieux stand tasting their Claudia MCC and new Rose of Sharon MCC Rosé

Lynne having a laugh with the lads & lass on the oyster stand. She can only admire

One of the richer stands, selling spirits and cocktails

Two of our favourites from Thelema/Sutherland, Melinda Jost & Michelle van Eeden having fun on the first night

Shall I, shan’t I?

The Villiera Tradition stand was very popular

Paul Kruger and Pascal el Azzi were great fun and very good at attracting customers

A glass of their Domaine Grier Rosé, from their French vineyard in Rousillon

And who should we find cooking on the Big Green Egg stand but chef Arnold Tanzer, down from Johannesburg for the show

Nearly time to close, so we did the brandy tasting, paired with chocolate. It works very well indeed and we all had a favourite. The chocolate is from De Villiers

Well dressed promoters Megan Venter and Cameron Stroebel on the Black Dog whisky stand

A cider from Sweden? We were too late to taste

There was a good selection of goods to purchase stands , charcuterie, sausages, chocolates, chilli sauces and preserves from The Little Herb Garden, cakes from Queen of Tarts and many others

The Speedy salted caramel tart from The Bakery at Jordan. Such delight

Burgers to go from the Ultimate Braai Master stand. Necessary nourishment at the end of the evening for Silwood students Kayleigh Wortley and Emilie Vidal

On the Paul René MCC stand (from Wonderfontein in Robertson) we found the owners Henk and Monica van Niekerk, Chef George Jardine with Chef Pete Goffe-Wood. A great way to end an evening.

Bottles for recycling after some enthusiastic MCC tasting

Strolling home in the fog

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© John & Lynne Ford, Adamastor & Bacchus 2015