Diners Club Winemaker of the Year Awards at La Residence, Franschhoek

This glittering affair was held at La Residence in Franschhoek on Saturday night where the Winemaker of the year Award went to Johann Fourie of KWV for the Mentors Pinotage. The Young Winemaker of the year was Phillip Viljoen of Bon Courage for his NLH. It was a chance to put on one’s best bib and tucker and enjoy the good wines entered into the competition with dinner

Very welcoming staff ...

...with glasses of Graham Beck Brut MCC

Lots of canapés were served

and film crews and photographers mingled with the Black Tie guests on the terrace. John confused them by being both in Black tie and a photographer

Nederburg's Razvan Macici with journalist Norman McFarlane

Emma Borg of Painted Wolf Wines with Lynne and Carrie Adams, who had flown down from Johannesburg to attend

Judges Carrie Adams, Colin Frith and Dave Hughes with Bartinney winemaker and Colin Frith's partner Ronell Wiid

Interesting choice of socks by Dave Hughes, better known for not wearing them. Must say, good polish on those carefully looked after shoes!

We take our seats at the long tables

And get to know each other. There was a good mix of sponsors, Diners Club, Standard Bank, winemakers and media

Bartho Eksteen of the Wijnskool Project with Willie du Plessis, Head: Business Banking Western Cape at Standard Bank Group. Willie knows the wine industry very well, as his previous position was Head of Agribusiness

Bartho with his wife Suné

MC for the evening was glamorous TV presenter Jeannie D.

CEO of Diners Club in SA , Ebrahim Matthews making the opening speech

He was followed by Chris Sweeney, Chief Executive, Personal and Business Banking, International at Standard Bank, who made a most amusing speech

Two of the nominees Johann Fourie of KWV with his wife and Margaux Nel of Boplaas with her winemaker partner Leon Coetzee

Chris Sweeney and last year's winner of the Young Wine Maker of the year, JD Pretorius, about to present the award

JD told us how much the award has enhanced his career and how much he enjoyed the trip to USA wine areas which comes with the award. It is sponsored by Delta Airlines

Finalist Murray Barlow, Rustenberg cellarmaster, and his fiancée

And the winner is: Phillip Viljoen of Bon Courage for his NLH

The valiant and courageous speech by Philip Viljoen, who admitted that his slight stutter does impede him somewhat, as it is an effort to speak

He was so charming

The menu

The starter was served with Philip Viljoen's Bon Courage Noble Late Harvest.

It was an unusual, but well-matched, pairing of a rather unyielding slice of camembert with a fresh apricot and some fruit brioche, pickled onions and vegetables and micro herbs. The wine was superb

Winemaker of the year award being presented to Johann Fourie of KWV for his Mentors Pinotage 2013 by CEO of Diners Club in SA , Ebrahim Matthews

Johann, generously, said that he would share the award with the entire Mentors team at KWV, who helped to make the wine

The winning wine was served with our main course and is a classic Cape Pinotage. It needs time, but you can see and taste the potential

Our neighbours across the table, Christa and André Jonker of the Standard Bank, were enjoying it too

Main course was a meltingly tender seared fillet of beef on a parsnip purée and was complemented by a wonderful rich and sticky sour cherry and dark chocolate jus. It came with rainbow carrots, fine beans and beetroot crisps. It was a very good food pairing with the Pinotage

Dessert looked very pretty, was very sweet and was served with a glass of Bon Courage's Jacques Bruére MCC Brut. It was a good mulberry macaron, a rather thin avocado sorbet (perhaps ice cream would have been a better texture?) and a rather thick slice of coconut panna cotta with a whiff of lemongrass

One of our favourite Radio presenters from KFM/Cape Talk and journalist on the Sunday Times Redi and her husband Dr Brian Thlabi had flown down for the event. Photographs do not show Redi's vibrant beauty

The band got the dancers going especially with their rendition of HAPPY!

And then after a great evening, it was time for the shuttle back to our hotel and “Time for bed”, said Zebedee

© John & Lynne Ford, Adamastor & Bacchus 2015

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This Week's MENU - Tuning the Vine, Kyoto Gardens, Great Domaines Trade Wine tasting at Bocca, 30th Anniversary of Kathy Raath Promotions and Van Loveren wines, Elgin does make great Chardonnays, This week’s recipe -Rohan's Chocolate Nemesis

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Night view across the mouth of Cape Town harbour

In this week’s MENU:

 Tuning the Vine

 Kyoto Gardens for dinner

 Great Domaines Trade Wine tasting at Bocca

 30th Anniversary of Kathy Raath Promotions and Van Loveren wines

 Elgin does make great Chardonnays

 This week’s recipe: Rohan's Chocolate Nemesis

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Some fun events this week and some really great ones coming up later in the week. Don’t forget to book for the Champagne Festival at the Vineyard Hotel of Friday evening. We are going to be there having fun and enjoying the French Champagnes

I Tune you my Vine (Cape vernacular!)     We started our week last Wednesday at Tuning the Vine. This is the second time this very successful event has been held in Cape Town and there will be another on the 9th of December. You book, there are 3 starter locations in town, you get an arm band, a glass to keep and you walk from venue to venue to taste wines all over the city. To book go to http://www.quicket.co.za/events/11656-innercitywineroute/#/schedules It is cheaper on early bird tickets. Read On

Great Domaines Trade Wine tasting at Bocca     Back to Bocca in Wale Street for this trade tasting of some really good imported wines from France, and Spain. There was a couple of wines which were really familiar to Lynne, who used to drink them when she lived in London, and their prices are not expensive given the current Rand exchange rate. We hope to see them appearing in good wine shops and on restaurant wine lists soon. Read On

30th Anniversary of Kathy Raath Promotions and Van Loveren wines     This was held at Weinhaus und Biergarten (formerly &Union), just along the road from Bocca, so it was a short walk to a very good social evening and the opportunity, if you had the stamina, to taste the whole range of Van Loveren's wines. Great canapés were served by Zest Catering too. Oh those crisp fries with truffle mayo..... Read On

Kyoto Gardens for dinner      We had a business meeting at Kyoto Gardens on Friday and our colleague bought us dinner afterwards. They have slightly changed their menu to (the more usual layout of) starter, main course and dessert format and we had a great meal with well paired wines. It can be expensive but the price is worth paying for such fresh seafood and Japanese dishes. See what we ate

Elgin does make great Chardonnays     Last night, we took part in another Elgin TweetUp and were not surprised to be impressed by the wines we tasted and tweeted about. You can follow us on Twitter if you want to: Johns twitter handle is @mainingmenu and Lynne's is @MenuLynne We will be doing another Elgin TweetUp in Elgin on the 2nd of December. Thankfully, they are offering transport.

Our wines of the evening were the Paul Cluver 2014 Estate Chardonnay (Lynne has already ordered some!) the Richard Kershaw Clonal Selection 2014 which is a 5 star Platter, the Sutherland Chardonnay 2012; Elgin Vintners 2012, made by Kevin Grant and very good value, and the Oak Valley 2012, which keeps impressing us.

This week’s recipe might just suit your pre-Christmas entertaining. It's an easy peasy but rich dessert. You can use other biscuits if you like, amaretti, ginger nuts etc etc.

Rohan's Chocolate Nemesis    

250g dark chocolate - 250g butter  - 2 medium eggs - 85g caster sugar - 250g Digestive biscuits - 60g walnuts or pecans - 60g glace cherries - 150 ml brandy

Melt the chocolate with the butter, either in a bain marie or in the microwave. Do not let it get very hot.  Beat the eggs with the sugar till fluffy and add to the warm chocolate. Stir till incorporated then add the brandy. Break up the biscuits and nuts and chop the cherries. Add them all to the chocolate mixture. Pour into a buttered smooth mould and refrigerate. Turn out and decorate with cream, cherries and nuts.

18th November 2015

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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.

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This week’s recipe: Rohan's Chocolate Nemesis

This week’s recipe might just suit your pre-Christmas entertaining. It's an easy peasy but rich dessert. You can use other biscuits if you like, amaretti, ginger nuts etc etc.

Rohan's Chocolate Nemesis    

250g dark chocolate - 250g butter- 2 medium eggs -- 85g caster sugar 250g Digestive biscuits - 60g walnuts or pecans - 60g glace cherries - 150 ml brandy

Melt the chocolate with the butter, either in a bain marie or in the microwave. Beat the eggs with the sugar till fluffy and add to the warm chocolate. Stir till incorporated then add the brandy. Break up the biscuits and nuts and chop the cherries. Add them all to the chocolate mixture. Pour into a buttered smooth mould and refrigerate. Turn out and decorate with cream, cherries and nuts.

© John & Lynne Ford, Adamastor & Bacchus 2015

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Supper at Kyoto Gardens

We had a business meeting at Kyoto Gardens just off Kloof Nek Road on Friday and our colleague bought us dinner afterwards. They have slightly changed their menu to (the more usual layout) starter, main course and dessert format and we had a great meal with well paired wines. It can be expensive but the price is worth paying for such fresh seafood and Japanese dishes

Our starter of sea urchin sushi. Tastes of the sea. Different and enjoyable

This plate was going to another table but we couldn't resist taking a photo as it was so pretty. Snow crab and asparagus, we think

Probably the most delicious beef we have had in a year or three. Thin slices of just seared Kobe beef - meltingly tender and very, very flavourful with a very simple dressing and sprinkled with sesame seeds

Our main course of thin slices of kingklip on lemon rice topped with bok choy

There was plenty for two and some rice was left over. We were enjoying the food so much we forgot to take more photographs

We were not expecting to stay for supper, so the only camera we had with us was our old Nokia Windows Lumia 920 (with a cracked screen for the last several months nogal), still arguably the best camera phone in the business. All photographs taken without flash, under the restaurant's dim lighting, with minimal editing

© John & Lynne Ford, Adamastor & Bacchus 2015

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Van Loveren celebrates 30th Anniversary with a tasting at Weinhaus & Biergarten

This was held at Weinhaus and Biergarten in Riebeek Square, just along the road from Bocca, so it was a short walk to a very good social evening and the opportunity, if you had the stamina to taste the whole range of Van Loveren's wines. Great canapés were served by Zest catering too. Oh those crisp fries with truffle mayo.....

Louise and Mark Herd of Sunset Beach Wines, greeted by our friend Bonita Malherbe, Van Loveren’s Marketing manager

The new style of wine in a bag by Van Loveren - it fits perfectly into an ice bucket for picnics

Something different to taste on nearly every table.

NO one can Bant when faced with these - Nici Beaumont's amazing French fries

It was very well attended

Bonita Malherbe and Dane Raath having a cuddle. They have worked together now for several years. Dane is Kathy Raath’s son and is also in the business

Nice to meet Shan Pascall from Oneiric in Elgin there and have a chat about the wine industry while tasting, no, confess, drinking some of the magnificent top of the range and a 4 star Platter wine, the Christina Van Loveren Limited Release Chardonnay

 © John & Lynne Ford, Adamastor & Bacchus 2015

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Great Domaines trade tasting of imported wines at Bocca

Back to Bocca in Wale Street for this trade tasting of some really good imported wines from France, Germany and Spain.  There were a couple of really familiar wines to Lynne who used to drink them when she lived in London and their prices are not expensive given the current price of the Rand. We hope to see them appearing in good wine shops and on restaurant wine lists soon

Familiar faces on the doorstep, ready to taste wine: Mark Herd, Morgan Delacloche, Karin Visser, Emile Joubert, Jean-Vincent Ridon

Karin Visser of Great Domaines gave us a very warm welcome

Morgan Delacloche says it's time to taste an Italian Prosecco by San Leo

We were all enthusiastically nosing the Lanson Brut Champagne, the wine "By appointment to the Royal Family" for over 100 years.  It is really superb

Karin Visser, Louise and Mark Herd

Next to taste was the Louis Bouillot Crémant de Bourgogne, made from Pinot noir, with a little Chardonnay and some Gamay noir

A fruity and full on RIoja with good vanilla and wood, a very soft and easy drinking, but polished Grande Vin Bordeaux, which we are tempted to buy and a juicy Malbec from Cahors in the South of France

The Saint Cosme needs much more time, the Beaujolais Villages is fairly typical of the area and the Pinot Noir also needs time to capture the fruit acids

A lovely Chablis with elegance and tightness, a slightly sweet and fruity Pinot Grigio/Muscat blend, and a very accomplished 2013 Chardonnay from Bouchard Pere et Fils, which we really enjoyed.

Tasting the Rioja, Morgan Delacloche and Tony da Costa of Liquor City, Claremont

Cognac Delamain XO. It's a small bottle but packs a punch. A treat for yourself

© John & Lynne Ford, Adamastor & Bacchus 2015

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