Elandsberg Nature Reserve

We totally ran out of time last week, getting MENU out on schedule, so this part of our visit to Bartholomeus Klip comes to you this week. The Elandsberg Private Nature Reserve has some interesting animals, great birds and plants and has three very special animal projects. They breed virus free Buffalo in an enclosure, they are part of the Quagga restoration programme and they have a Tortoise rescue and breeding programme, with fenced reserves for these wonderful animals that are so badly affected by our fires

Next to the dam

Stone pines on the edge of the reserve

Misty morning game drive

The buffalo in the reserve

A large bull and one of his cows

You don’t get close to one of Africa’s most aggressive animals

Nice to see all different ages in the enclosure, the breeding programme works

Early morning sun breaking through the clouds

A flock of quelea rises out of the scrub

Farm buildings outside the reserve, with sheep grazing

A rare and very welcome sight, a secretary bird. These, sadly, are now very rare

A sudden movement and this steenbok ewe rose up out of the grass next to the Land Rover

Springbok grazing together, We saw some “pronking” but the camera could not catch them as they were too far away

The rutted road through the reserve has seen many journeys and is not suitable for vehicles designed for urban roads

Is this the same bird or another one?

We thought we were driving through reeds until the driver pointed out that they were leucodendrons

A grove of Eucalyptus trees. These were planted for shade by early farmers

Especially along wagon trails to give the wagons some shade

These are the small flowers of the leucodendrons

Up close you can see the almost protea-like flowers

We saw several bontebok

some with really pied markings

Grazing on the fynbos

Is this bird following us?

Some steenbok on the far hilltop

They leap the fence or crawl underneath, so that they can graze the crop fields

Huge vistas and the park runs right up to the mountain

Back to the home farm, where twin baby lambs

were being born

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© John & Lynne Ford, Adamastor & Bacchus 2015

Wine Cellar launches their new tasting venue in Observatory

Wine Cellar is one of the premier outlets in the Cape at which one can buy fine local and international wines and also store your own wine collection perfectly, should you not have a cellar. We were invited to this newly finished function room (which is available for hire) for a tasting of David Trafford’s Sijnn wines, paired in a blind tasting, with some foreign wines. It was an excellent tasting of some very, very interesting wines and this was followed by an excellent Pork Chasseur dish accompanied great chewy artisanal bread, unsalted butter and good cheese. www.winecellar.co.za/

The tasting room all set up for the tasting. It now has a large photographic mural of the Stellenbosch mountains

Co-owner of Wine Cellar, David Brice, welcoming us all and telling us about the refurbishment and other changes. The end wall has been carefully covered with rocks collected by him and others from the Sijnn property on the Berg River and shows some very interesting sandstone and quartz river washed rocks

They still have to put up some shelves but, otherwise, the room is now finished

We began with a glass of Drappier Brut Nature Champagne

Bottles wrapped for the blind tasting

David Trafford tells us about his wines. The first one we tasted was his 2013 White Blend made of 76% Chenin, 20% Viognier and 5% Marsanne Roussane. It is a typical Chenin, full of rich layered fruit – golden apples and plums with a hint of woodsmoke. Good acidity and freshness. R175 a bottle

Roland Peens of Wine Cellar took us through the foreign wines. The second wine was a 2012 De L’Orée, a Hermitage Blanc made by Chapoutier from 100% Marsanne. Also golden fruit with a more mature backbone, almost a sherry-like character in the centre and some wood on the back palate. Roland rather spoilt us with this wine; he has just unpacked it and wanted to taste it. It’s a rather breathtaking R1450 a bottle. John found it very hard to spit a wine costing a large number of Rand per mouthful

This was followed by a Niepoort 10 Vertente Field Blend from the Douro in Portugal; full of bloody merlot cherries, smoke, violets, cassis and smoky bacon. Dry dusty tannins, cherries and chalk on the palate. Still to open up. R225, This was paired with David Trafford Off Centre: a Trincadeira and Mourvèdre blend. Green herbaceous nose, with cherries beneath. And greengage fruit with crisp acidity then mulberries and chalk. David said he was trying to make it taste foreign. He succeeded. R220

The delicious bread basket which had some of us Banters recanting for the evening

The Pork Chasseur with mushrooms on a polenta slice was prepared by a local caterer in Nelson Road, Observatory

James Pietersen of Wine Cellar making sure everyone has enough glasses

The line up of the wines we tasted. There were some very interesting foreign wines and many of them did match well with the Sijnn wines. The two Syrahs were both exciting. Sijnn 2012 was full of chocolate and cherries with smoky bacon and soft chalky tannins. We scored it high. R270. It was matched with a 2012 St Joseph Syrah from Northern Rhône, Le Grisières, which had a rather rich Burgundy nose of complex fruits, forest floor, mushrooms and leather. Pure red and black berries with chalky tannins reminded Lynne of Hartenberg’s The Stork Shiraz. R300

The last two wines were also very interesting and delicious in a very different way. A 2012 from the USA - Robert Haas Côte de Tablas Creek in California, a blend of Grenache, Syrah, Counoise and Mourvèdre The nose is pretty with layers of fruit - mostly rhubarb and raspberries. On the palate, light red cherries and berries with whiffs of wood smoke R465. This was paired with the Sijnn Red: Vanilla and dark fruit with herbs on the nose, delicious rhubarb and vanilla custard on the palate with soft chalky tannins, some salt and umami flavours. This was our best wine of the tasting. We confess, we are huge Trafford fans and have several of his good wines in our cellar, some of them Winemakers Guild wines

David Trafford with his Sijnn winemaker, Charla Haasbroek, and Harry Pieterse, who were responsible for building the stone wall

They hold these tastings fairly regularly. If you are interested, you need to get on their mailing list. We loved the evening and the opportunity to taste these wines

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© John & Lynne Ford, Adamastor & Bacchus 2015

An African supper at Gold Restaurant in Cape Town

On arrival, we went straight into the function venue for the drumming session

Our teachers first give a demonstration of their art

African drums at their best

Then it was time for the audience to get their drums out

Our amusing instructor could overcome any language barrier

and soon had the audience drumming to his beat. Sad to see that not everyone was taking part, although drums are available for all

Then it was time to wash our hands and go to dinner

Our lovely waitress is from Zambia and she explained the food to us

There are 14 small courses, you can call for more on any of them.  This is the Ethiopian Lentil Dhal with bread twists

It was served with a rather sharp tomato soup

From the top: Lynne's favourite, Zambian Kandolo balls made from sweet potato covered in sesame seeds. Then Ugandan sugar bean Briouats. These little money bags are crisp and can be dipped in the Cape Malay chutney.  Rather strong smoked local fish Frikkadels (fish cakes) with topped apple and mint raita

This man was magic on his “flute” made from a simple piece of plastic pipe with only the holes at the top and bottom to produce a huge variety of notes

Enthusiastic dancers and singers

A praise singer and another musician on an African marimba

The main course is a Ghanaian Groundnut chicken, South African maize meal Pap (porridge) not to everyone at the tables taste, many of us had this at boarding school. Also a Congolese spinach made from wild greens or marog. This has tomato and green and yellow flavours and is not hot but highly spiced. And the lovely crisp carrots from Zanzibar flavoured with star anise

More singing and dancing and some enthusiastic audience participation

Drummers with dancers who had so much energy that it was exhausting watching the speed at which they danced

Dessert  is fresh fruit kebabs, and Cape Malay Boeber - another dish that reminds some of us of boarding school.   Its a sago, vermicelli, sultana and alsmon pudding. There was also a Gogo’s (grandmother’s) Karamonk spiced  Biscuit but I don’t remember seeing that

A cute table decoration with Italian sponge finger biscuits

The Boeber

The Mali puppet dancers always impress

A final song and dance by all the staff

There are some great decorative items from the rest of Africa adorning all the walls

The drums laid out for tomorrow's drumming session

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© John & Lynne Ford, Adamastor & Bacchus 2015