.

Sunday, October 04, 2015

Mercurial Cats art exhibition, The Lutge Gallery, 109 Loop Street, Cape Town

We visited Mercurial Cats, an exhibition depicting cats by 12 ceramicists and 7 painters, curated by Penny Dobbie. It is at the Lutge Gallery, 109, Loop Street, Cape Town and will run until 13th October

The Exhibitors are: Ardmore, Carol Mangiagalli, Ceramic Matters, Clementina van der Walt, Hennie Meyer, Leora Lewis, Lisa Ringwood, Lynnley Watson, Margy Malan, Margie Johnson, Nicolaas Maritz, Niki Daly, Ruby Lara, Simon Jones, Tania Babb, Tiffany Wallace, Wendy McClachlan

A very tiny, rather rude cat

Leopard Lidded Box by Ardmore, R6 000

Cattus Interruptus, by Simon Jones, R42 000

Leopard Teapot by Ardmore, R14 800

Penny Dobbie greeting visitors to the opening

A collection of Cat Ceramics by Tiffany Wallace

Lynnley Watson's Cat Vessel R4 800

Clementina van der Walt's King of the Car Park, R9 000

Ceramic Matters. Mercurial Cat 1

The crush of visitors to the opening in the small gallery, with Mercurial Cat plates on the table

Lynnley Watson's group of three cats, Bruiser Gang

Lesley Jennings with Penny Dobbie

Ruby Lara's Hidden Agendas, R38 000

RETURN TO MENU

Subscribe to MENU

Pongracz Methode Cap Classique's 25th Anniversary

The Pongrácz event to celebrate their 25th Anniversary was held at the CAAM Gallery in Hudson Street in the Waterkant. It was a loooong way up those steps. We began the tasting in the basement and tasted a different MCC bubbly on each level. Pongrácz is named after Desiderius Pongrácz, a Hungarian nobleman and cavalryman who was captured by the Russians at the end of the Second World War and made to work in the labour camps. He travelled to Africa, where he trained as a viticulturist and was employed by Distell, where he helped to revolutionise winemaking in the Cape. http://www.Pongracz.co.za/history

They served the Pongrácz wine in coupes, the old fashioned glasses that are incorrectly supposed to be moulds taken from Marie Antoinette’s breasts. We find that the bubbly goes flat very quickly in them and you don’t get as much flavour or aroma

The three tasting areas in the gallery were all hung with 'walls' of orchids. They used 500 stems

Ross Sleet of Distell opens proceedings

Cellarmaster Elunda Basson tells us about her philosophy of making bubbles

Barbara Lenhard and Florian Gast of Opulent Living Magazine

Food was prepared by The Chefs Bench. Chef Steffen Olivier tells us about the canapés they will serve. Some were rather odd

An amused Ross and Elunda paying attention

It was a very well attended occasion

First came the oyster

topped with a jelly and some mild chilli

Chef Jacques Fourie

Can I top up your glass?

Interesting vases acted as wine coolers

On the second floor, with the Brut Rosé, we were served peeled and balanced carrots dipped in pink beetroot mayo and covered in bitter chocolate 'soil'. It was very strange and looked rather unappealing. Chocolate does not go well with rosé, we think

On the third floor, we were served Desiderius MCC in glasses which matched the beautiful bottles, but they were a bit thick rimmed

Not La Dame aux camellias, but Siobhan Thompson, CEO of Wines of South Africa, in amongst the orchids

Winemaker, artwork and orchids

Duck breast 'nigiri' topped with mushrooms, micro greens & mayo. A bit big for one bite

With mushrooms and without for John

PRO Gudrun Clark who brought the guests here, with Jacqueline Lahoud of WineMag.co.za and Tshepang Molisana

Climbing to the top for some Desiderius: Journalist and Editor Ingrid Smith, Jeanri-Tine van Zyl and Lucille Botha

Desiderius with its recent Amorim MCC Award for the Museum class

Yellow orchids, yellow sofa and yellow cushions

We all gravitated to the roof garden, where there was seating

A sign on the window

We were told that dessert canapé was calf’s liver enrobed in dark chocolate and that sounded awful. Could the chef have been joking? Or pulling our legs? Actually it was a rather nice, rich liver mousse on a crunchy biscuit soil

Warm Madeleines straight from the oven with an icing and a nut brittle

Chefs making vanilla ice cream with liquid nitrogen. They then filled the thin tuilles with a spoonful of it. It got a bit messy, napkins were needed!

Gossiping with old friends and toasting life

Girls, you won’t believe this, but..... Justine Drake in full flow keeping us amused

RETURN TO MENU

Subscribe to MENU

Stanford Wine Route Launch: Stanford Hills

Monday evening saw us at Stanford Hills owned by Peter and Jami Kastner who produce Sauvignon Blanc, Chardonnay, Shiraz and Pinotage, and run the restaurant.. They also grow flowers for the export market, roses for the local market as well as olives

This is the tasting room and restaurant. We really enjoyed their Sauvignon Blanc, nice and crisp and green, with good pyroxenes