Amorim Cork Helix launch at the Westin Grand

During Cape Wine, we were invited to the Westin Grand next to the CTICC by Amorim Cork to attend the launch of their new cork closure, Helix, a mushroom shaped composite cork designed for easy opening without a corkscrew. It is for use with wines which will not be kept longer than two years. The bottles which have a special raised helix in the neck, are manufactured at a factory in France. The corks can be used on normal bottling lines with some adaptations.

The view from the top of the Westin Grand is spectacular

The event was held in the upstairs conference facility

Leigh-Ann Mol was the MC

António Rios de Amorim, CEO of Amorim Corks in Portugal tells us about the new composite Helix cork which is mushroom shaped

and shows us the new cork being used in French and Italian wine bottles and in a Krone Chardonnay/Pinot noir wine by Vinimark

This is how they are being used in Europe with the cork visible and held on by a heat sealed plastic cap

The Krone cap design tries to echo a champagne cork and foil to show how easy they are to remove by just twisting off

Abigail Rands of Vinimark, who have plans to use the cork on some other brands as well

Some of the vegetarian canapés served

Some fishcakes and some filo pastries with a sweet chilli sauce

A red Thai curry was gratefully received

And these were the tempting dessert canapés

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© John & Lynne Ford, Adamastor & Bacchus 2015

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Robertson Wine Route dinner at The Twelve Apostles

Robertson went to town with their event this year and brought its wines to a gala dinner at the 12 Apostles Hotel on Tuesday night. It was made up of the producers who were showcasing their wines at Cape Wine and was a glittering occasion.

We were transported to the event in a fleet of classic cars - This is a 1938 Hupmobile

and we were taken in a very appropriate Ford Pilot from 1936

The driver says the cars are much admired and many of them belong to his father, who has lovingly restored them

We were having fun and reliving lots of memories in the back seat

Lynne finding out what our friend Elizma Botha (née Spangenberg) - Wine Route Manager is going to do next. She is leaving Robertson Wine Valley to go and work with her husband. The new Manager will be announced any day now. Elizma has safely and ably guided and assisted the Robertson Wine Valley through many successful festivals and functions. She will be missed

Robertson MCCs were served as a welcome drink

Table settings

Dinner was a buffet and these are the desserts

The starters and salads. All the food was labelled

The carvery waiting for the meat to arrive from the kitchen

There were lots of Robertson wines to taste or drink with dinner

Our table with Johann de Wet of De Wetshof, an overseas buyer, Sommelier Miguel Chan of the Tsogo Sun group, Christine Rudman, our ex principal at the Cape Wine Academy when we studied wine, Horst Frehse, MD of the 12 Apostles hotel chatting to Lynne. His wife Barbara joined the table later

The menu

Every table had a superb display of local proteas and ericas from the Robertson valley

We were able to taste the 1991 Finesse, one of Dewetshof’s great chardonnays. It was extremely, full of flavour and quite delicious, drinking beautifully despite its age. Our chardonnays do age extremely well

Horst offering us more wine to taste

Another wonderful wine with supper was the Springfield 2004 Methode Ancienne Cabernet Sauvignon; full of ripe berries with soft wood and tannins and lots of elegance and class

And amongst many other good and interesting wines, we could also taste a Springfield 2001 Special Cuvée Sauvignon Blanc. It was a great evening

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© John & Lynne Ford, Adamastor & Bacchus 2015

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Cape Wine 2015

Cape Wine is the largest trade wine exhibition in South Africa and it is currently held every three years. It was held on from Tuesday 15th to Thursday 17th at the CTICC and has been very good, very professional with many overseas buyers and media attending as well as local. There have been many social wine events connected to it and we were invited to several

The entrance to Cape Wine

Three young winemakers. Meyer Joubert (Joubert Tradauw), Leon Coetzee (The Fledge) and Peter de Wet (Dewetshof)

Leon Coetzee with The Fledge Red Blend

Tanagra showed a comprehensive range of Eau de Vie in addition to their wines

Weltevrede's new label shows the names of all the workers who have had a hand in making the wine

Shown by owner/cellarmaster Philip Jonker

An area in the middle of the exhibition made for rest and discussion

Etienne Heyns of Graham Beck with a visitor from West Africa

The Zoo Biscuits is an innovative collection of young, innovative winemakers

who based their display round an old VW microbus camper

An innovative spittoon from the Zoo Biscuits

Justin van Wyk and Gus Allen of Constantia Glen showing their new releases

This was not the price of Richard Kershaw's wines, it was the stand number

On the last afternoon, Lynne was preparing MENU and John visited the exhibition alone. He decided to pay tribute to the women who are such an important component of our wine industry

Mariette Kershaw and Jan Sleet

Susan McNaughton, cellarmaster and viticulturalist at Graceland Vineyards

Trizanne Barnard, owner/winemaker of Trizanne Signature Wines

Jane Ferreira Eedes of Vondeling Wines

Lizette Steyn-James, General Manager and winemaker at Welgemeend

Charlotte van Kradenburg with Rochelle Kotzé, Marketing Manager at Taste of Terroir

Bonita  Malherbe, Marketing Manager at Van Loveren

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© John & Lynne Ford, Adamastor & Bacchus 2015

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Supper at Borage, Friday night

We have been meaning to return to Borage all year after an excellent lunch there just after they opened and jumped at the chance when an advertisement appeared on Groupon this week with a very special offer for a three course meal for two. Lynne admits she relished the thought of someone else cooking a great meal for us after a very, very tiring week and it did made a great finish to it, as we had lovely food in a very necessary relaxed atmosphere.

Chef Frank Marks has worked under some top chefs here and abroad and has had his own restaurant in Portside, the FNB tower on Hans Strydom Drive for just over a year. It's a bistro and is open for breakfast and lunch Monday to Saturday and dinner only on Friday and Saturday and closed on Sunday. Check out their menu on the web site www.borage.co.za

The kitchen is open and there is a good atmosphere in the restaurant

We took along a bottle of Hartenberg Chardonnay 2008 and it went excellently with the food we ordered. Corkage is R45

The menu

Beautiful fresh" in season" seared tuna as a starter delighted Lynne

John chose the Pot au Feu (pot on the fire) with its rich meaty broth. An unusual starter and thankfully a small portion as this is normally a very substantial and filling French meal; you drink the soup then eat the beef brisket and vegetables which have been cooked long and slow in the stock. Normally you then don't need to eat for a day or two. We jest

Watching the chef assembling the dishes on the pass

Well sauced confit duck leg with creamy buttered mash, braised fennel, & Brussels sprouts in a spicy wine sauce was John's choice of main course

Lynne chose the very tender belly of pork with a wholegrain mustard sauce on mash, sugar snap peas and green beans and both green and red cabbage. Not too fatty, with a good deep flavoured sauce. No crackling sadly. The mustard sauce was not entirely to her liking, but this is just a personal taste, others would love it. The cabbage was

We do tend to be quite predictable when it comes to dessert. Lynne often doesn't have one, but if Tart Tatin is on the menu, she will order it. It was, it was delicious and very much worth having, if slightly different from the usual sliced apple. Here the apple was almost a purée infused with caramel. It came with a rich and unctuous vanilla parfait

John will normally veer towards anything chocolate so he had the Chocolate fondant, suitably warm, melting and gooey in the middle and very dark and chocolatey. It came on a cherry coulis, with a kirsch and ice cream with toasted almonds

Our very reasonable bill with service and corkage added. This is definitely a restaurant to visit soon and we hear they are going to be part of Restaurant Week which starts 22nd October to 1st November.. Check it out on the Internet

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© John & Lynne Ford, Adamastor & Bacchus 2015

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