Elgin Cool Wine & Country Festival. 3 Lothian

The day had started cool drizzly and misty in Cape Town on Saturday but, by lunch time in Elgin, the sun was out and we had a lovely festive day. We met some lovely people and tasted some very good wines. We began at Hannay Wines with Catherine Marshall doing a tasting of both producers' wines, followed by huge hamburgers. Then it was off down the road to see the Wallaces at Wallovale farm to taste their wines and some chocolate from Rococoa. 

Finally, we finished the day at Lothian in the most amazing house we have seen for some time, tasting their wines and watching the sun disappear over the mountains. It was a fine day

The house sits between a lake and a dam and, on the approach to the house, there is a lotus pond. You can hire the whole house for weddings and other large family functions

Blue waterlilies and lotus pads

Blue mountains, an orchard and Eskom’s hydro electric tower

The front deck where all the festival gatherers sat

Live music all day from the daughter of Lebanese caterer Ghenwa Steingastner and her husband, Geza

Explaining what there is to taste. We wanted to taste the Chardonnay but it had run out

The selection of wines for tasting

Sushi Box were providing the food, R150 for three rolls, but it had sold out by the time we got there

R50 a roll please

Lots of wine was being tasted

The dining room, with quirky coloured chairs, has a super view out to the deck

Relaxing by the pool with a glass of Sauvignon Blanc

Lots of places to sit

Late afternoon by the rim pool

A view of the dam from the back garden

Autumn colours over the vines early evening, time to wend our way home

RETURN TO MENU

© John & Lynne Ford, Adamastor & Bacchus 2015

Elgin Cool Wine & Country Festival. 2 Wallovale

The day started cool drizzly and misty in Cape Town on Saturday but by lunch time in Elgin the sun was out and we had a lovely festive day. We met some lovely people and tasted some very good wines. We began at Hannay Wines with Catherine Marshall doing a tasting of both their wines followed by huge hamburgers. Then it was off down the road to see the Wallaces’ at Wallovale farm to taste their wines and some chocolate from Rococo. Finally we finished the day at Lothian in the most amazing house we have seen for some time; tasting their wines and watching the sun disappear over the mountains. It was a fine day.

Paul Wallace, viticulturist, winemaker, consultant, man of many talents and a legendary hat, braaiing the steak sandwiches they had on offer

The original Black Dog, after whom the wine is named

Food, Dad, I need food...

Nicky's sister, Kathy Mukheibir, owner of Johannesburg catering company The Silver Palate, with Mark Wallace, assistant winemaker at Hamilton Russell and Southern Right

Bobby and Mark Wallace. Bobby is studying wine and viticulture at Elsenberg, so both boys have followed in their parents’ footsteps

The Paul Wallace wines in their new labels. The 2014 Little Flirt is a lovely Sauvignon Blanc, racy and refreshing, The 2011 Black Dog is a rich and deep, savoury Malbec, with dry tannins, especially good with meaty food; 2009 Crackerjack is exactly that, a huge red Bordeaux blend of Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Malbec with some age and some elegance; and the 2014 Brave Heart is their Pinot Noir, fruit driven, elegant and touched with wood, needs time for the flavours to fully open. A good Elgin Pinot in the making

The tasting room

Nicky Wallace's mother, Jean Weight with Anthony Haggie and Brittany Hawkins, who is visiting from Napa, California

The terrace outside the tasting room, a relaxing place to taste wine

Gabi Soule of Rococoa Chocolates with a pair of young fans. Lynne tasted and bought three bars: a salted dark chocolate, a cherry flavoured dark chocolate which is very berry intense and a white chocolate flavoured with truffle that has been come a necessity. Luckily John doesn’t like white chocolate. They are all a little sweeter than we would like, but the flavour additions to good chocolate mean these are a real find. She sells them at the Palms Centre, so go and sample for yourself

No, you are not seeing double, it’s the new addition with the original black dog

Lynne at the tasting counter, waiting to pay

The lovely Nicky and Paul Wallace behind the counter at their Domaine

Part Three: Lothian
or

RETURN TO MENU

© John & Lynne Ford, Adamastor & Bacchus 2015

Elgin Cool Wine & Country Festival. 1 Hannay and Catherine Marshall

Saturday started cool, drizzly and misty in Cape Town, but by lunch time in Elgin, the sun was out and we had a lovely festive day. We met some lovely people and tasted some very good wines. We began at Hannay Wines with Catherine Marshall doing a tasting of both their wines followed by huge hamburgers. Then it was off down the road to see the Wallaces at Wallacedale farm to taste their wines and some chocolate from Rococo Finally we finished the day at Lothian in the most amazing house we have seen for some time, tasting their wines and watching the sun disappear over the mountains. It was a fine day

The large cellar doors at Hannay

hold a message

Our first wine of the day, the Hannay Sauvignon Blanc 2014. More tropical flavours than before, nice acid fruit balance, good depth but still restrained. A food wine

Some of the Catherine Marshall wines we tasted later

Lunch preparations

A joyful Cathy welcomes us

Autumn vines, apple orchards and liquid amber trees on Hannay

The autumn colours are beautiful. Visit in spring and see the fruit blossoms

Time for the guided tasting of Hannay and Catherine Marshall wines in the wine cellar

We began with the Hannay 2012 Sauvignon Blanc. Pale lime in colour, cats pee, capsicum and elderflower on the intense nose. Crisp, lean, very fresh, with guava and elderflower on the palate. Finishes dry with a slight touch of chalk. Wish there was some left, this is a lovely wine Then we tasted the Hannay 2013 Sauvignon Blanc which has 10% Semillon added. Rain on flint is how Cathy describes it. Dusty with guava and Elderflower. Full of lime and zest of lemon, complex, layered with some fig on the end. A dry, extremely elegant food wine

The line up of the white wines. The last wine was the 2014 Sauvignon Blanc which we tasted on arrival

The full line up of wines we tasted

See, you can smell the cats pee... Early aroma training will one day a wine maker make

There were two superb chocolates paired with the (l) Sauvignon Blanc and (r)the Pinot Noir for everyone to taste

All the participants in the tasting, seated at the tables in the cellar

The four reds we tasted. Catherine Marshall 2013 Pinot Noir. Liquorice and roses, savoury, perfumed and spicy with a forest floor mushroom note on the nose. On the palate red cherries, raspberry, so layered and complex with a note dark toasted wood on the end. Very satisfying, well made with long flavours. The grapes for this wine were grown on lighter sandy soil. Then came the 2014 Pinot Noir, also grown on sandy soil. Incense, violet, raspberry notes, alcohol, Brûléed fruits. Pure fruit on the palate but not over ripe. Restrained cherries – the ones with the flavour but not the sweetness. A classic food wine, especially for rich patés

Next was the 2012 Catherine Marshall Pinot noir, grown on clay soil. So different. Nose has meaty savoury umami notes, almost soy. On the palate cranberry, rhubarb, but no sour acidity, quite chalky tannins, tight, needs time. The finish is long, soft and chalky. This will be a big wine. Then to compare, the 2013, also on clay soil. Spirity cherries, still one dimensional and closed but hiding. It started to open up and show its fruit a little and there are definitely forest floor notes with the classic pinot fruit. Keep and keep, but buy now and enjoy at its peak

Tasting and making notes

Time for lunch. Here is the expert cooking the hamburgers perfectly. You then dressed them yourself from the burger table: a bun, onion, tomato, sauces, mustard, lettuce, mayo, lots of options. And they were very good indeed. R80 each but, if you bought a case of wine, they were free

We shared our table with a charming couple who are immersing themselves in wine knowledge and experiences, Jean van Iddekinge and Yolandi la Grange

John with one of our favourite people, Cathy Marshall. It was a great tasting, thank you Cathy

Part Two, Wallovale
or

RETURN TO MENU

© John & Lynne Ford, Adamastor & Bacchus 2015

This Week's MENU - Glen Carlou Curator’s Collection, TVM Trade Tasting never disappoints, Graham Beck 25 years, Gold Restaurant, The Wine Cellar tasting room, Long weekend activities, Beef Chasseur

A flight of Quelea at Elandsberg Reserve

In this week’s MENU:

 Glen Carlou Curator’s Collection Launch

 TVM Trade Tasting never disappoints

 Graham Beck Celebrates 25 years

 The Gold Restaurant Experience

 The Wine Cellar opens their new tasting room

 Game drive at Bartholomeus Klip

 What are you doing this (long) weekend?

 Beef Chasseur

 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.

It was a celebration week!      A time of rejoicing and partying with some of our friends in the wine industry, who have milestone events to celebrate. We had a ball and were completely overindulged. Then came the long weekend, in which we planned to go to De Kelders for four days to stay with friends and enjoy a lunch at Marianne’s. But the gastric flu that is going around struck Lynne, so we had to cancel. It’s over, John did not get it and we’ve had time to enjoy this week as well.

Glen Carlou Celebrates The Curator’s Collection Launch & Arco Laarman’s 20th year as a winemaker     Arco’s winemaking career started as a worker with Danie Steytler in the cellar at Kaapzicht. After a few years there, winemaker David Finlayson appointed him assistant winemaker at Glen Carlou and, when David left, Arco took over as Cellarmaster. Over the years, he has experimented with different barrels of the wines they make and has also made wines from grapes sourced elsewhere, often rare varieties. These are now being released as The Curator’s Collection and are available only on the farm. We were invited to lunch to celebrate his winemaking career and to taste these very interesting wines. Read On.....

TVM Trade Tasting never disappoints     Tracy van Maaren represents a small range of wine farms and, once a year, we are treated to a very good tasting of their wines. This year, again, it was held at Auslese, the function venue in Gardens owned by Chef Harald Bresselschmidt of Aubergine restaurant. He creates a food pairing for each of the wines on show. Read On.....

Graham Beck Celebrates 25 years     Graham Beck sells more than a million bottles of their MCC Bubbly every year and that figure is now rapidly on the rise. All the Graham Beck wines are part of our rich wine tapestry and most people know them well. None of us realised that winemaking on the farm was started by Graham Beck only 25 years ago. His purchase of the land followed the Laingsburg floods of 1981, when the existing farm was almost wiped off the face of the earth. The farm was perfect for horses, his great love, and they also began to plant grapes. In 1991 they had their maiden vintage and “the journey of discovery in pursuit of the perfect bubble” commenced, driven by winemaker Pieter (Bubbles) Ferreira, who is still the magician wielding his magic wand there. We celebrated with so much MCC from so many different years and in so many different guises. This was followed by an excellent lunch prepared by Chef Margot Janse of The Tasting room at Le Quartier Française in Franschhoek – what a treat and what an ebullient and joyous celebration! They totally spoiled us. Read On.....

The Gold Restaurant Experience      Where do you go to show visitors the African experience? There are now several places and they are all different. We were invited to experience Gold Restaurant’s newly launched Autumn-Winter set menu and enjoy all the other amusements. We took part in the drumming, which started at 6pm, along with a huge group of tourists, and then proceeded to dinner which comes with enthusiastic live, boisterous and loud entertainment throughout. Read On.....

Wine Cellar celebrates the opening of their new tasting room and above ground retail space. 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/ Read On.....

Game drive at Bartholomeus Klip    We totally ran out of time last week, getting MENU out on time, so this part of our visit 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. Read On..... to see the pictures of what we saw on our 1½ hour game drive. Oh and it was lambing time on the farm.

What are you doing this (long) weekend?     The choice of festivals continues and this weekend has the Elgin Cool Country wines and the Olive Festival in the Riebeek area. We can’t go to both, so we are heading for Elgin on Saturday. Enjoy whichever you choose, and may the weather not dampen your enthusiasm. We so need the rain.

Coming soon:

12th & 13th May     Juliet Cullinan Standard Bank Wine Festival

15th May                Burgundy Lover's Festival at The Vineyard

This week’s recipe might well be suitable for this wet weekend. It’s a one pot dish and it is one of our all time favourites. You can fry the mushrooms separately and just add them at the end, to the dishes of those who like mushrooms. It’s a hunter’s dish and you can use pork, game or even poultry should you wish to, but you will need to vary your cooking times accordingly. Poultry will take less time, game may take longer.

Beef Chasseur

1 kg beef or veal stewing steak – 125g medium mushrooms – 2 T canola oil – 30g butter - 2 small onions or 4 shallots, chopped – 1T plain flour - 2 wine glasses Verjuice or white wine - 425 ml good beef stock - 1 T tomato purée – a few baby carrots – salt and black pepper - a bouquet garni of celery, rosemary, thyme and a bay leaf

Cube the meat into 3 to 4cm pieces. Wipe and slice the mushrooms. In a heavy oven-proof casserole, heat the oil with the butter and quickly brown the meat, a few pieces at a time, till golden brown, then remove it and set aside to keep warm. Reduce the heat, add the mushrooms and sauté them till they begin to brown. Remove them too. Add the onions and the flour and mix well, then fry until they are a good russet brown colour. Add the wine or verjuice and the stock a little at a time and deglaze the bottom of the pan. Add the tomato purée, the bouquet garni and the carrots. Put back the beef and the mushrooms. Cover with a well fitting lid and put into the oven at 180ºC for at least 1 and a half hours. Before serving, remove the bouquet garni, dish up the meat into your serving dish and reduce the sauce; adjust the seasoning and then spoon it over the meat. Serve with small new baby potatoes or with mash and a good green vegetable like French beans, or broccoli. Superb with a rich Cabernet or classical Bordeaux blend.

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

30th 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.

PS If a word or name is in bold type and underlined, click on it for more information

Phones: +27 21 439 3169 / 083 229 1172 / 083 656 4169

Postal address: 60 Arthurs Rd, Sea Point 8005

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.

We apologise if MENU caused your phone to bleep in the early hours. To send to our huge list of subscribers takes a long time and many of them receive it in the middle of the night. Might we suggest that your phone should not be activated to receive messages from us or from other sources in the witching hours? If your boss needs to contact you at that time, (s)he’s intruding on your valuable personal time.

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.

This electronic journal has been sent to you because you have personally subscribed to it or because someone you know has asked us to send it to you or forwarded it to you themselves. Addresses given to us will not be divulged to any person or organisation. We collect them only for our own promotional purposes. We own our mailing software and keep our mailing list strictly confidential. If you wish to be added to our mailing list, please click here to send us a message and if you wish to be removed from our mailing list, please click here to send us a message.