Lunch with Taillard wines and Teddy Hall

A one hour bus drive into the country took us and several other journos and trade members to the Voor Paardeberg area to this farm nestled under the Kanonkop Mountain. Teddy Hall has been making their wines for them since 2014 and this was our chance to sample the wines with a pairing lunch laid on for us by chef Gustaaf Boshoff of Stir Food. The farm Kersfontein was founded in 1749 by Joseph Taillard and the current cellar was built in 1790. It is only used as a barrel cellar nowadays; they vinify elsewhere. It is currently owned by Peter Taljaard, who is in mining, so  the names of the wines all have a mining connection. The farm has 134 hectares

Waiting in town for the transport arranged to take us to the farm

Teddy Hall sabraged several bottles of their Pinotage based MCC to welcome us. Nice and crisp and fresh

The wines we tasted

The tasting was held in the barrel cellar

Pieter Taljaard's daughter Anelise has her own wine named Lobola. If this hits the right market, we think it might do very well because of the name

Lots of bottles in the cellar/tasting room

Anelise introduces Teddy and the tasting begins

We started with The Gully Blanc de Blanc 2013. It's an unusual blend of 32% Roussanne, 30% Chenin blanc, 30% Viognier and 8% Chardonnay, The term Blanc de Blanc is usually reserved for an MCC wine made just with Chardonnay. Thankfully the viognier does not dominate. It has notes of apple blossom and peaches on the nose, crisp acidity with freshness and a little bitterness on the back palate, probably from the wooded Chardonnay

Teddy pouring the wine

The chef explains the food pairings to us

The Menu

We had a good wild field mushroom risotto, perfectly creamy and al dente, with rocket, pine nuts and parmesan shavings. A very good match

John was given a pea risotto, also very good

Then the Bullion Pinotage 2013. Incense and spice and the usual young Pinotage metallic notes, with very dry tannins and some good licorice and fruit, but this needs much more time. It was paired with a good meaty, spicy and creamy bobotie

The Miner 2012 Cabernet/Merlot blend with a touch of Cabernet Franc (1%). Teddy says this blend will change every year. It has cassis and cherries, incense wood on the nose. On the palate full on dark and sour cherries with cassis. Silky soft, barely chalky with some licorice on the end. This was well matched with a slow braised umami shoulder of lamb, well cooked, tender and succulent with a good savoury jus from the chicken stock and topped with pomegrante on a good cous cous base. The wine complimented the lamb. By now we were getting a little full, even though the dishes were reasonably small. Four main courses, one after the other is filling

Next was the Deep Level Shiraz 2010. Slightly musty and spicy on the nose with cocoa, chocolate and mulberries, and drying chalky tannins with bitter toasted wood on end. Needs a lot of time. It was paired with the Coffee dusted beef fillet on a parsnip puree - spoiled for Lynne as the chef added vanilla to the puree and she doesn't like vanilla with meat, but other people liked it. Good beef, great wine jus and lovely parsnip crisps atop

We then tasted a sample of Teddy Hall's first wine "from grapes to bottle "for Taillard, called The Watershed, it will be released later this year. Made from Cabernet Franc, Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot it is full of cassis, vanilla forest floor and cassis leaves. Herbaceous on the palate with violets and nice and warming, with a kick of acid and good rhubarb and cassis fruit, and some chalk. Needs lots of time, it's still newly bottled

Finally it was the Prospector's Cape Late Bottled Vintage 2009 in the port style. Juicy, sweet Christmas cake fruit. lovely and soft but not yet complex. Needs age. This was served with a selection of cheese, crackers and grapes

We love our MyCity bus, it means we can get to town easily for functions and we don't have to pay for parking all day at city rates

Thank you Teddy Hall, Kathy and Dane Raath and all at Taillard. A good day with good food and wine pairings

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© John & Lynne Ford, Adamastor & Bacchus 2015

De Krans wines trade and media presentation at the Mount Nelson

We were sad to hear that there will be no Port Festival this year (they will be holding special events during the month of June) but were delighted that De Krans brought their wines to Cape Town to show them to the media and the trade. On Tuesday, we met in the Mount Nelson's Planet restaurant for a guided tasting of both wines and port and tasted some very interesting and some really delicious wines. This was followed by a tour de force tasting of exceptional canapés, matched by Executive Chef Rudi Liebenberg with some older De Krans wines and port. You don’t realise how much you are eating when the canapés are so deliciously matched to good wine

The welcome bubbly was a Zero Dosage 2013 De Krans blend of Chardonnay, Chenin blanc and Tinta Barocca. Full of limes and apples with some pear and a very dry finish, as one would expect from a zero dosage wine. It is very quaffable and available, only on the farm, at R140. Only 2000 bottles have been made.

Getting to know each other, again

The table set for the tasting

Port for tasting later, with the canapé lunch

They took over Planet Restaurant for the tasting

First three wines for tasting were 2015 Free Run Chenin, Wild Fermented unwooded Chardonnay 2014 and a Moscato Perlé 2015. The Chenin has a good acid sugar balance and is quite tropical. It has huge concentrations of fruit. The chardonnay is golden fruit with apples, yellow plums and a really full mouth and lots of lees. We suspect this will age well. The fizzy perlé is full of roses, litchis and peach flavours and is quite sweet for our palate. Several people commented that it was a pity that, while there were good Spiegelau wine glasses on tables for the diners, the tasting was carried out in very ordinary, thick rimmed glasses, which would not bring out the best in the wines

Boets Nel of De Krans

The tasting information was under the glasses

Winemaker Louis van der Riet took us through the wines

Nicely chilled

Louis has been at De Krans since 2013

The first red was a 2013 Cabernet Sauvignon with 8% Merlot added, It has vanilla, cassis and cassis leaves on the nose, was as smooth as silk, with tight, chalky tannins and dark berry flavours; hot and juicy with some elegance

The next three reds. The Tinta Roriz (Tempranillo) was the wine of the tasting, captivating and delighting many. It has rich, deep berries and vanilla on the nose, with incense and forest floor notes; very pretty. It is soft and silky, then fruit-full, then dark, moody and velvety. Showing its port proclivities well, but without the sweetness. Structured with chalky tannins, this wine will, we think, win awards. We both scored it 18/20

The Touriga Naçional 2013 has a very green and spicy nose, very herbal, full of cherries and ripe mulberries with some incense wood. A kicker of a wine, full of heat and spice, dry tannins, licorice and violets

Tritonia 2011 is the De Krans flagship blend of Touriga Naçional, Tinta Roriz and Tinta Barocca. Violets, dark berries and incense on the nose, it is full of sweet fruit, soft chalk and then some sweet and sour complexity, long flavours with elegance. Needs time

Boets tells us about the port to come

A typical trade/media tasting. Everyone is seriously tasting, making notes and tweeting

Some of the older vintage wines and ports to taste with lunch. Such a treat

Journalist Sandile Mkhwanazi, Head Sommelier Luvo Ntezo of the One&Only, Head Sommelier Pearl Oliver of The Mount Nelson and Pippa Pringle, PRO, who put the day together for De Krans

Our third flight, this time of 4 ports. Premier Cape Ruby NV was full of spice, vanilla, fruit, green herbs and salty licorice and the unmistakable smell and taste of just picked warm blackberries. It needs time. The Cape Vintage 2013 - Amaretti biscuits on the nose and super sweet dark plums and cherries with a good kick of alcohol. Long flavours. The Cape Vintage Reserve 2012 is dense black in colour. Herbal fynbos, cinnamon dark plums, raisins and cough candy on the nose. Sweet velvety cinnamon chocolate and jam with more cough candy on the palate. Long chalky and warm aftertaste. Then the best of the flight: Cape Vintage Reserve 2011. Brûlée caramel, herbs, pomegranate and molasses on the nose. Sweet soft mulberries, red stewed plums raisins, glace and black cherries and chalk on the palate, finishing long hot spicy and satisfying. At its peak; it scored an 18 from Lynne

Sommelier Pearl Oliver and Pippa Pringle. Pearl and Executive Chef Rudi Liebenberg put together the tasting and food pairing 

The chef who prepared the food tells us about it

Restaurant staff, whose excellent service made the day so special

Wines to taste with lunch

The menu. There were three tables, each with a selection of wines, and the food came in small portions, so you could pair and match and help yourself as you preferred. It worked very well indeed

Table One with the sensational rich layered duck terrine, cured salmon and steak tartare. The seafood Fritto misto came hot from the kitchen in small bowls

Duck terrine. Layers of rich duck meat, sandwiched with duck liver paté on a slice of brioche. This was the perfect match for the older ports

Cured salmon, salmon caviar and salmon mousse

Mini steak tartar quenelle en croute with mustard, horseradish sauces and chopped onion, capers and pickles

Cathy Marston asks John if he would like some vintage De Krans

On Table 2: Gnocchi, confit egg with mushrooms; pork belly with cabbage – this had a marvellous tangy sauce.

Chicken and prosciutto – we didn’t get to taste this

Luvo (about to be a father) Ntezo, head sommelier at the One&Only

The crisp and delicious Fritto Misto

Beef en croute

Lamb, labneh and green beans

Executive Chef Rudi Liebenberg with Sommelier Pearl Oliver

Samarie Smith with Luvo Ntezo

Yet another tray of fantastic food arrives

The table we all wanted to visit, the dessert table. They were all rich and delicious dessert bites. The cheese and figs went very well with the ports, but by far the best match of the day, and this was after a superbly innovative and well matched performance by the chefs, was the creamy English Stilton. It always has been

Christian Eedes of Winemag.co.za persuading Winnie Bowman CWM to try another vintage port. Melvyn Minnaar looks on

John snuck into the kitchen to catch the chefs at work

Winnie Bowman with Boets Nel at the end of a great experience. We need to get the youth of today appreciating good port and wines made from port varietals. They are missing out on so much

NOTE: We use the term "Port" to describe the fortified wines we wrote about here and in other articles. The Portuguese don't like it and it is not used on the labels, but these wines were made with the same grape varietals as Ports in the Douro Valley, in similar conditions and compete on equal terms in international competitions

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© John & Lynne Ford, Adamastor & Bacchus 2015