Biltong and Pinotage Festival at L'Avenir

This was the first time this festival had been held and, because it was such a huge success, selling out the 600 tickets allocated and in fact more than 200 more, they will definitely be repeating it. The good news for you up country is that they are going to take it to Johannesburg soon. All the Biltong was provided by Joubert and Monte and on payment of your entry fee of R150 you received a good wine glass (to keep), a book of 12 vouchers for small tasting portions of the different flavours of biltong and a small bamboo container in which to put the biltong. There was a good selection of excellent pinotages to taste, although we missed some of our favourites. You could buy a cheese and paté box from L’Avenir or Joubert & Monty had braais going and you could have a boerewors roll for R30, a chicken prego roll for R40 or the full tutti: a Rump steak platter for R70. We had a ball

Queuing for tickets

Biltong for sale at the Joubert & Monty stand

Pairing biltong with Pinotage, perhaps for the first time

The stands were busy but not too crowded

Most farms brought their pinotages, some also brought pinotage blends

One thing that needs a bit of a boost is more seating, some were happy to sit on the lawn, but only if there was shade

A view from across the dam

Remhoogte from across the road shared a stand with Lanzerac

The area outside the tasting room was very popular

If you could find a table, the restaurant area was popular. But some people did reserve tables while they were tasting, we didn’t think this was very fair. Circulate and come back later, give others a chance

Tables were dotted all over the lawns

Recent immigrants from the Eastern Cape, Tracy and Graham Cherrington having fun

On L’Avenir’s own stand, there was a steady stream of people wanting to taste their excellent pinotages

Good live music all day

You didn’t have to wait too long for a taste

Danie and Karen Steytler of Kaapzicht with Danie the 3rd on their table

L’Avenir’s first winemaker Francois Naude giving a taste of Rhebokskloof to his son Francois

Some happy lads from Sea Point with girls from Stellenbosch having fun

and an entire family was out for the day. Dad was getting refills for them

A series of guided tastings took place in the tasting room with Barend Barnard, Marketing Manager of L’Avenir

The girl on the round table was serving biltong in exchange for vouchers

Wine enthusiasts Goolam and Denise Essop

We arrived home to a 2½ hour power cut, otherwise known as Load Shedding. So we had some miso soup and some sushi from our favourite Chinese restaurant, Dynasty, by lamp and candle light

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© John & Lynne Ford, Adamastor & Bacchus 2015

Saronsberg Full Circle Rhône blend 10 year vertical tasting with lunch at the Cape Grace

Once a year Saronsberg raid their vinoteque and produce a vertical tasting of one of their wines for the wine media. Last year it was their ???, this year it was their Rhone Blend Full Circle, which is their top red flagship wine. It was a most excellent and very interesting tasting. It is so educational to see how the blend matures with time and to pick out the really good years and learn why they were so good from the winemaker, Dewald Heyns. He has been with Saronsberg for all these years and the 2004 was the first wine he produced for them

It was held at the Cape Grace Hotel. We tasted impressive vintages, starting with the current one and working back: 2013/12/11/10/09/08/07/0605 & 2004. This was then followed by lunch in the restaurant accompanied by some of these wines. Do you ever go to eat at this hotel? You should

The welcome drink was Saronsberg’s 2011 MCC Brut, served on the deck next to the pool.The Brut is made from 91% Chardonnay and 9% Pinot Noir. Toasted brioche on the nose and fresh green apple flavours ending in a nice creamy dry finish, it is worth every cent of the R130 cellar door price 

Smoked salmon tartar topped with salmon caviar on melba toast shards was the excellent canapé

Winemaker Dewald Heyns with journalist Shante Hutton of wine.co.za

The Full Circle line up

We take our seats for the tasting

They provided enough glasses so that we could all taste all 10 wines together

The first five, 2013 to 2009. The younger wines are already showing their pedigree but as you go back to the the 2010, you discover how superb this blend can be when ready for drinking. The current vintage 2012 has now sold out so we await the release later this year of the 2013. These are wines to put down in your cellar if you can. They are dense in colour, intensely soft and fruity on the nose, with soft chalky tannins, plums and cherries on the juicy palate, ending with a dollop of spicy pepper and some wood elegance. Lynne’s favourites were the 2008 which shows vanilla and dark wood, cooked spicy berries and an aroma that needs exploration! It has dark cherries and rhubarb and is nicely integrated, making it soft and delicious and drinking so well. Also the 2004 which although the first one made, is still drinking well with notes of spicy wood, incense, violets roses fennel and turmeric, soft sweet fruit, still a juicy food wine and it still has a year or two to go

Dewald take us through the wines, giving us lots of information on the grapes, terroir, soils, climate and growing conditions in the year in which each wine was vinified

Getting serious with the wine

Describe that nose! Dewald taking questions

 Karen Glanfield Pawley

PRO Nicolette Waterford

Guy MacDonald of Goodhope FM’s Breakfast show, dreaming of lunch? No, it’s “What is that flavour I am tasting?”

Owner of Saronsberg Nick van Huysteen

appreciating his wine

Christine Rudman has a question

Alan Mullins and Christine Rudman celebrate a great tasting and head for lunch. Richard gets ready to assist Alan

The starter on its startling yellow plate. It’s a caramelised aubergine salad with a goat’s cheese mousse, warm tomato vinaigrette and onion crisps on top of some barlotti beans. If only we knew how Chef gets those aubergines to this sublime caramel! Served with Saronsberg Grenache 2012, a great match for the aubergines

Red or yellow? They were all delicious

The menu

Alan Mullins enjoying the day

The main course of braised lamb shank with a beautiful plum jus, labneh cheese topped with crispy filo, mashed potato. Served with the Saronsberg Shiraz 2012

A light and lovely deconstructed pear and almond tart with spiced orange, Valrhona jivara chocolate crème, streusel and rich honey ice cream. Served with Saronsberg Viognier 2013

And with coffee, there were friandises made by an expert. Tiny raspberry macaroons, a walnut nougat, caramel truffles and white chocolates filled with a crème . YUM

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© John & Lynne Ford, Adamastor & Bacchus 2015

This Week's MENU - Taste of Cape Town, Creation celebration, Bouchard Finlayson vertical, Solms Delta, Salted caramel

The end of summer on the beach as gulls tell us the weather is about to change

In this week’s MENU:

 Taste of Cape Town

 Harvest Party at Creation

 Bouchard Finlayson Vertical Tasting

 Authentic experience at Solms Delta

 WTM (World Travel Market) at the CTICC

 Long Weekends

 Salted Caramel

 Learn about wine and cooking

We write about our experiences in MENU, not only to entertain you, but to encourage you to visit the places and events that we do. We know you will enjoy them and we try to make each write up as graphic as we can, so you get a good picture of what is on offer at each place, restaurant, wine farm, festival we visit.

To get the whole story with photographs, 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.

Taste of Cape Town     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. Read on…

Harvest Party at Creation     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% 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 in the valley. Read on…

Bouchard Finlayson Vertical Tasting in Town     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 Read on…

Authentic experience, great food and passionate people at Solms Delta     As Klink judges we are always looking at what else wine farms do to attract customers. Solms Delta in Franschhoek has so much to offer it rather puts the rest to shame. This week we were invited to experience the whole gamut of things on offer and we had a very good day, despite power cuts and rain. John does take his tour customers there for the cultural experiences and wine. Yesterday we discovered how good the restaurant is and the people we met, who so love what they do. We had a wine tasting with the assistant winemaker, Joan Heatlie, a walk through the Dik Delta fynbos food garden with gardener Johan O’Rayn, lunch in Fyndraai restaurant cooked by chef Shaun Schoeman and visit to The Music van de Caab museum with Wanna Malgas. You too can enjoy similar experiences when you visit. Read on…

WTM (World Travel Market) at the CTICC     We managed a brief visit to this international and local travel Market at the Conference Centre on our way back from Franschhoek and have managed to sort out a few interesting things with Turkish Airlines and The Turkish Tourism board as well as making new contacts and networks in the travel trade. It is a vast and very mixed show, with a huge array of travel opportunities, large, down to very small indeed. It is more for the trade than the public however.

Long Weekends     There will be lots of things happening this coming weekend – we will be at the Pinotage & Biltong festival at L’Avenir and hope to see some of you there. We have also been invited to a couple of very exciting places which you will read about next week – dinner on The Queen Mary while she is in port and a night at Bartholomeus Klip. The following long weekend brings the Cheese Festival, the last Market at Groote Post and many more events – check out our What’s On list if you are looking for something to excite you.

Salted Caramel     We have been enjoying chocolate and caramel tarts and desserts so much recently Lynne though you needed this recipe so you can make your own. It is delicious on ice cream, puddings or on a pastry base, then covered with a good dark chocolate ganache. You can also pour it on shortbread to make a millionaires version, topped with the chocolate.

330g white sugar (1½ cups) - 125ml water - 50g butter, cubed – 250 ml cream (1 cup) - 1 tsp vanilla extract – 1 tsp flaked sea salt

Have the butter and the cream to hand. Put the sugar and the water In a heavy bottomed pan and heat until the sugar caramelises. Keep an eye on it as you don’t want the sugar to burn. When it has reached a lovely amber caramel colour, remove from the heat and quickly but carefully add the butter and cream, stirring well. It will be very hot. Add the vanilla extract and then add some of the salt. Taste when cooler and add more till it is to your liking.

You can pour this into a jar and keep in the fridge in a sealed container, just warm to pour. You can add more cream or milk if it is a little thick. You could pour this into a prepared pie crust, or individual ones and then top with a good chocolate ganache made with 150g chopped dark chocolate and 125 ml cream. Heat the cream to scalding but do not boil. Pour over the chocolate pieces and whip together till you have a good thick ganache. Use immediately and enjoy.

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

In addition to his 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

Nicolette van Niekerk runs baking courses at La Petite Patisserie in Montague Gardens

George Jardine will be running a series of winter cooking courses and other activities at Jordan. Details here

16th April 2015

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.

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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.

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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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