Hidden Valley wine estate relaunch

Dave Hidden sold Hidden Valley Wines last year to Riaan Stassen, the now retired CEO of Capitec Bank. We were invited to meet him and his partner this week to find out what changes they are making to the farm, to drink the newly released wines and to eat Bertus Basson's lovely food. His restaurant, Overture, is on the Hidden Valley estate

Hidden Valley has wonderful gardens

and spectacular views - looking over their olive grove and vineyards on a clear day, you can see Table Mountain in all its glory

The newly released Hidden Treasure 2015  Rosé is made from 72% merlot 15% cabernet Sauvignon 13% shiraz. It bears the new label which features a sculpture of a face by Willie Botha, who has his studio on the farm. You will see one of these large sculptures as you enter the farm gate and you can visit the studio

Also for tasting were the two Hidden Valley MCC's, the Brut  Rosé and the classic Brut

New owner Riaan Stassen enjoying some Hidden Treasure Rosé with Christian Eedes of Winemag.co.za

Two new labels for the Hidden Gem and Hidden Secret reds

Louis Strydom, winemaker at neighbour Ernie Els Wines and Rianie Strydom, winemaker at Haskell Vineyards. They also have their own label

Lots of small dishes from the kitchen kept us very happy all evening. This is one of Bertus's signature dishes. Tender belly of pork in an intense jus, topped with a spicy and crisp corn fritter and fly away pork scratchings. Lynne's favourite of the evening

Thank you, Overture, for toasting these wraps, so they were not slimy. Filled with intense tomatoes and cream cheese

Duck spring rolls

Beautifully cooked mushrooms, well fried till almost crisp, with buttery gnocchi topped with grated parmesan

Uva Mira Winemaker Christian Coetzee with Tobie Venter, owner of neighbour Uva Mira Mountain Vineyards and Porsche SA

Crisp tempura prawns in a jar were very moreish

Dessert was a cheesy panna cotta topped with fresh figs, a fruity goo and pieces of honeycomb

Journalist Lucille Botha and Wynland editor Edo Heyns

The sun sets behind the mountain

Bertus tells us the great news. This restaurant is going to be changed into a braai restaurant under Bertus's supervision and Riaan Stassen is building a larger restaurant on the hill next to the winery for Bertus

Rapt audience

Riaan Stassen tell us of his plans for Hidden Valley

Sculptor Willie Botha and his wife Carlene

Lynne with Judy Brower of Wine.co.za with Riaan and Anton du Toit

Anton du Toit with Annalie van Dyk, Hidden Valley winemaker

The winemaker in her cellar

Willie Botha's gallery

A bust of Anton Rupert

Bronze buffalo

Lynne chatting to Willie

'Cat' in fine detail

The face bronze which features on the wine labels

All the bronzes and other sculptures are for sale

This is a commissioned work in progress, still in the clay stage

Boy with staffie on the beach

Another small rendition of the huge face sculpture at the front gate to Hidden Valley

entitled Marikana

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© John & Lynne Ford, Adamastor & Bacchus

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This week’s MENU - PR Blurbs Jordan Harvest Report, Marc's Table, Revving Up Rosé Festival, Corn Bread with Jalapenos, Morgenhof 2002 Cabernet, Coming events

This magnificent visitor to our southern countryside, a sable antelope bull with his young companions, in a Boschendal field

In this week’s MENU:

 PR Blurbs

 Jordan Harvest Report

 We find a new local restaurant, Marc's Table

 Revving Up Rosé Festival at Rickety Bridge

 This week's recipe: Corn Bread with Jalapenos

 Our Wine of the Week: Morgenhof 2002 Cabernet Sauvignon

 Coming events

To get the whole story with photographs, please click on the paragraph title, which will lead you there. At the end of each story, click on RETURN TO MENU to come back to MENU.

PR Blurbs     We are sent a large number of public relations bulletins which ask us to tell you about a new wine, winery, restaurant – essentially asking us to regurgitate a PR blurb about something we have not experienced and possibly never will. We find this somewhat disrespectful, to us and to you, especially when the agency involved never invites us to their events in case we might be too critical. When we write about something, it is to inform and, hopefully, entertain you and to encourage you to try something which we have experienced and give you a pictorial insight. We will never pass on stuff we have not experienced.

Jordan Harvest Report     We spent a lovely day on Jordan wine estate, tasting the new just picked juices of several grapes, the newly fermenting wine and listening to the undisputable facts of the effect on global warming, El Nino and drought on wine farming. It is not all gloom and doom and Gary Jordan has plans in hand to stay in business planting grapes that will adapt to the rise in temperature and the lack of water. We followed this with a delicious lunch on the deck at The Bakery. Read on

For those of you in the wine industry Gary has forwarded the link to this article. The impact of climate change on the global wine industry: Challenges & Solutions http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2212977414000222  

We find a new local restaurant, Marc's Table     We don't often find a place that is completely new to us and which has been open for a while. Marc's restaurant is in a hotel that, quite frankly, when it was painted a lurid pink and given the name of Sugar, we concluded (wrongly!) that is might be slightly disreputable. It is now painted white, still called Sugar (why?) is perfectly respectable and on the corner of Boundary Road and Main Road in Green Point. The menu has interesting choices, the prices are reasonable for fine dining and the food was good. Both the hotel and restaurant are owned by chef Marc van Rooyen. Read On

Revving Up Rosé Festival at Rickety Bridge on Saturday     Some festivals are just smarter (in both senses of the word) than others and this one outshone many others. Held in the grounds of Rickety Bridge in Franschhoek, there were plenty of tables, chairs and umbrellas, an intelligent limited lunch menu and some great and interesting, mostly Franschhoek, Rosé wines and MCCs. We took our foreign visitors and had a wonderfully relaxed day. Well done, Darielle. Read On

Food Fact: Burnt food is not good for you. The black burned bits are pure carbon and this is a known carcinogen. So cut the black bits off or put the food in the bin.

This week's recipe is something we had never tasted before. It was served at a lunch party friends gave at the new home of their daughter and son in law who have just returned from working in the USA. We absolutely loved this easy to make bread and apologise to all of you who are Banting for subverting you. You need to use yellow corn meal and we did find it in the health section of Dischem. You could use polenta, but you will get a smoother, less chunky bread. As it is made with baking powder, it doesn't keep very long. You could portion leftovers (if there are any remaining), wrap in foil and freeze. You can leave out the spicy jalapenos, if you must.

Corn Bread with Jalapenos

½ cup plain flour - 1½ cups yellow cornmeal (not fine texture) - 1 teaspoon salt - 1 Tablespoon sugar - 2 teaspoons baking powder - 1½ cups grated strong cheddar cheese and a little more for the top - 410g can creamed corn - ½ cup plain Greek yoghurt - 4 eggs, lightly beaten - ¾ cup melted butter - (optional) ½ cup sliced jalapenos, drained

Preheat the oven to 180°C

Lightly grease a heavy bottom round skillet or frying pan. In a large mixing bowl, combine all the dry ingredients and stir well. then stir in the cheese, corn, jalapeños, yoghurt and eggs, just enough to blend, and finally add the melted butter. Sprinkle the top with some grated cheese.

Pour the batter into the pan and bake for 30-35 minutes, or until the cornbread is golden and an inserted toothpick comes out clean.

Remove from oven and let cool in pan 15 minutes then cool on wire rack.

Our Wine of the Week: Morgenhof 2002 Cabernet Sauvignon     This has been nestling in our cellar for a few years and we wanted something classic to accompany some good rump steak dowsed with truffle oil. This classic Cabernet is full of cassis and other red berry flavours, still has some chalky tannins and is soft, juicy and still has a few years left in it. One of those wines that shows what we can do and that we should age our good reds. Thank goodness we have another bottle in the cellar.

Here is a list of coming events up to the end of February. There may be more, but we will add them as we receive them. We will be at the Stellenbosch Festival on Friday and at Franschhoek Summer wines on Saturday and we hope to see many of you.

Friday, 19th February     Maison Ruinart Champagne Dinner at Benguela on Main, 206 Main Road, Somerset West R1400 per person. For details, contact http://www.bengueladining.com/capetown or email  onmain@benguelacove.co.za  Phone: 087 357 0637

Saturday, 20th February  10am – 2pm Beaumont Federweisser Day. Celebrating our Chenin harvest at Beaumont Family Wines Werf. At the early stages of harvest, once our delicious Chenin juices start fermenting, we celebrate this short but sweet period of feathery white, aromatic wine – The Federweisser. Come and taste this unique stage of our Chenin Blanc and compare this to the finished Chenin’s from last year. As tradition demands it we will be pairing these lightly alcoholic nectars with our home-made Flammkuchen, an Alsatian style flat bread with crème fraiche, onions, bacon and chives. Tickets: R100 per adult / R50 per child. The day will include a tasting of our Federweisser, tasting of our grapes, tasting of the Beaumont Family Wines range as well as one Flammkuchen per person. Vegetarian options are available so please let us know any dietaries when booking. Activities for the kids include tasting of the juices, the opportunity to stomp some grapes as well as the use of our farm play ground. Wine, produce and our home-made ice creams will be available for sale on the day.  To book please email us at nici@beaumont.co.za or phone the office on 028 284 9194

Saturday, 20th February           Brooklyn Bubbles. Summer’s in full swing and so are the bubbles at Brooklyn Mall. Don’t miss out on the chance to sample over 15 of SA’s finest Méthode Cap Classiques at this year’s Brooklyn Bubbles on Saturday, 20th February (11am to 4pm). Tickets cost R200 per person and include entry to the event, a complimentary tasting glass as well as tasting coupons. Additional coupons can be purchased. Pre-book directly via www.webtickets.co.za to avoid disappointment.

Saturday, 20th February  Annual Grande Provence Harvest Day, Grande Provence Heritage Wine Estate, Franschhoek. Celebrate the grape harvest with Grande Provence in the Franschhoek valley, with barrels of fun the order of the day. The annual Grande Provence Harvest Festival kicks off at 09h00 with coffee and muffins, before embarking on a tractor ride, followed by grape picking, stomping, wine tasting and a cellar tour. Live music and a lavish harvest feast prepared by Grande Provence Executive Chef Darren Badenhorst will end off a day of festivities. Tickets for this traditional Franschhoek harvest celebration are R650 for adults and R350 for children under 12. Booking is essential, so be sure to contact Barbara at 021 876 8600 or e-mail reservations@grandeprovence.co.za. For accommodation enquiries, phone 021 876 8600 or e-mail ownerscottage@grandeprovence.co.za.

Sunday, 21st February     The Backsberg Centenary Picnic Concert Series kicks-off on with a performance by Gerald Clark & the Deadmen. Come and enjoy your Sunday afternoon by relaxing on the lawns with a glass of wine whilst listening to some great SA music. Tickets are R120 from www.webtickets.co.za and R150 at the gate. Students pay R60 and there is no charge for children under the age of 12. Delicious food and snack boxes will be available on the day. Snack boxes can be pre-ordered at restaurant@backsberg.co.za at a cost of R160 for two persons. Gates to Backsberg Estate Cellars open at 15h00.

Thursday, 25th February          Summer Sounds at Haute Cabrière, featuring Morne Meyer, from Wellington, who has recently worked in Dubai as an entertainer for Regal Plaza Hotel with guitar, vocal and live music. He is talented in multiple genres including Jazz, Blues, Funk and Pop. This is the perfect way to enjoy a delicious light meal paired with great wines. The breathtaking views and sunsets provide a splendid setting for the entertainment on the Terrace area at Haute Cabrière with seating on the Terrace and the lawns which overlook the magnificent Franschhoek Valley. Booking is essential as each event has a maximum capacity of 60 people. Please note only the Terrace menu is available at these events and no cover charge applies. For reservations and enquiries e-mail restaurant@cabriere.co.za or call 021 876 3688

Saturday, 27th February  Constantia Fresh Fine Wine and Food Festival. Local produce, gourmet canapés and over 200 wines are ripe for the picking at this popular annual event. The fresh green lawns of Buitenverwachting Wine Estate are where you’ll find foodies and wine enthusiasts for the seventh annual Constantia Fresh Fine Wine & Food Festival. Over 200 wines will be available for you to swirl, sip and savour, while you nibble on gourmet canapés prepared by some of Constantia’s most talented chefs (Peter Tempelhoff, Christian Harbeck, Brad Ball, Edgar Osojnik, Annemarie Steenkamp and Garth Almazan, among others). Your ticket includes a festival glass, tasting of over 200 wines, as well as the gastronomic extravaganza on offer. Live music will be part of the afternoon’s entertainment. The event runs from 15:00 to 19:00. Tickets cost R495 each, and available from www.quicket.co.za or participating wineries. For more information, visit www.constantiafresh.com, e-mail info@finewineevents.co.za or phone 083 265 2405

Saturday, 27th February at 15h00        Muratie presents Robin Auld in an evening of music, wine and plenty of fun!  R100 per ticket. Please book tickets in advance to avoid disappointment. For further information contact Jean-Mari Strauss at Muratie on 021 865 2330 or taste@muratie.co.za.

Saturday, 27th & Sunday, 28th February       Durbanville Wine Valley’s Feast of the Grape. Kick off your shoes for some squishing and splatting at this year’s Durbanville Wine Valley’s Feast of the Grape, a weekend of harvest fun hosted by 12 wine farms in the Valley. The festival will take place at D’Aria Wine Farm with an abundance of seasonal wines and entertainment to enjoy. The 12 farms coming together from the Durbanville Wine Valley to take part in the grape festivities are: Altydgedacht, Bloemendal, D’Aria, De Grendel, Diemersdal, Durbanville Hills, Groot Phesantekraal, Hillcrest, Klein Roosboom, Meerendal, Nitida and Signal Gun. Tickets costs R120 and include entrance to the festival, a wine glass and tasting coupons. Tickets will be available via www.webtickets.co.za. For more details and the festival programme visit www.durbanvillewine.co.za

Sunday, 28th February    The Backsberg Centenary Picnic Concert Series continues with a performance by Blues Broers. Come and enjoy your Sunday afternoon by relaxing on the lawns with a glass of wine whilst listening to some great SA music. Tickets are R120 from www.webtickets.co.za and R150 at the gate. Students pay R60 and there is no charge for children under the age of 12. Delicious food and snack boxes will be available on the day. Snack boxes can be pre-ordered at restaurant@backsberg.co.za at a cost of R160 for two persons. Gates to Backsberg Estate Cellars open at 15h00.

18th February 2016

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.

If you like the photographs you see in our publications, please look at our Adamastor Photo website for our rate card and samples from our portfolio

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.

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PR Blurbs

We are sent a large number of public relations bulletins which ask us to tell you about a new wine, winery, restaurant – essentially asking us to regurgitate a PR blurb about something we have not experienced and possibly never will. We find this somewhat disrespectful, to us and to you, especially when the agency involved never invites us to their events in case we might be too critical. When we write about something, it is to inform and, hopefully, entertain you and to encourage you to try something which we have experienced and give you a pictorial insight. We will never pass on stuff we have not experienced

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© John & Lynne Ford, Adamastor & Bacchus

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This week's recipe: Corn Bread with Jalapenos

This week's recipe is something we had never tasted before. It was served at a lunch party friends gave and their children have just returned from working in the US. We absolutely loved this easy to make bread and apologise to all of you who are Banting for subverting you. You need to use yellow corn meal and we did find it in the health section of Dischem. You could use polenta, but you will get a smoother less chunky bread. As it is made with baking powder, it doesn't keep very long. You could portion leftovers (if there are any remaining), wrap them in foil and freeze.  You can leave out the spicy jalapenos, if you must

Corn Bread with Jalapenos

½ cup plain flour - 1½ cups yellow cornmeal (not fine texture) - 1 teaspoon salt - 1 Tablespoon sugar - 2 teaspoons baking powder - 1½ cups grated strong cheddar cheese and a little more for the top - 410g can creamed corn - ½ cup plain Greek yoghurt - 4 eggs, lightly beaten - ¾ cup melted butter - (optional) ½ cup sliced jalapenos, drained

Preheat the oven to 180°C

Lightly grease a heavy bottomed round skillet or frying pan. In a large mixing bowl, combine all the dry ingredients and stir well. then stir in the cheese, corn, jalapeños, yoghurt and eggs, just enough to blend, and finally add the melted butter. Sprinkle the top with some grated cheese.

Pour the batter into the pan and bake for 30-35 minutes, or until the cornbread is golden and an inserted toothpick comes out clean.

Remove from oven and let cool in pan 15 minutes then cool on wire rack

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Our Wine of the Week: Morgenhof 2002 Cabernet Sauvignon

This has been nestling in our cellar for a few years and we wanted something classic to accompany some good rump steak doused with truffle oil. This classic Cabernet is full of cassis and other red berry flavours, still has some chalky tannins and is soft, juicy and still has a few years left in it. One of those wines that shows what we can do and that we should age our good reds. Thank goodness we have another bottle

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Revving up Rosé at Rickety Bridge, Franschhoek

Some festivals are just smarter (in both senses of the word) than others and this one outshone many others. Held in the grounds of Rickety Bridge in Franschhoek, there were plenty of tables, chairs and umbrellas, an intelligent limited lunch menu and some great and interesting, mostly Franschhoek, Rosé wines and MCCs. We took our foreign visitors and had a wonderfully relaxed day. Well done, Darielle

You didn't have to walk from the crowded parking, but could take a veteran tractor ride through the vineyards

Rickety Bridge Manor House hotel with a raft of shady umbrellas in front of it

Even though we arrived at 11h45, we still found a good table

Owner Gerard Holden of Holden Manz on their stand with Marketing Manager Wayne Buckley and their very good 2015 Rosé from Shiraz, Cabernet, Cabernet Franc and Merlot. The Cab Franc adds a good savouriness and it was one of the best of the day

Ann Ferreira on the Le Lude stand with their newly released MCC Brut Rosé - so elegant and crisp, another favourite. There were some good MCC Rosés including the Haute Cabrière, another we love

Pouring a tasting for our friend Terry Rodbard, visiting from Greece

The tasting tables were right behind the seating, so you could get a glass and sit down to enjoy it. The tastings worked on a voucher system

Steve Chase of Foothills Vineyards pouring his 2014 Dry Rosé, made from shiraz, viognier and a dash of semillon

Raymond Noppé of Delheim with their Pinotage Rosé 2015

Wine cooling nicely. It was a hot day, despite the early promise of rain

Paul Gerber of Le Lude and Kean Maske chatting with Dawie Botha, winemaker of Anthonij Rupert Wines, who were showcasing the L'Ormarins Brut Rosé and the Protea Rosé, and Nic Barrow owner of Le Lude

Innocent Mpahleni of Boekenhoutskloof with the Wolftrap Rosé 2015 - as expected, a good value Rosé

Now this is one we didn't understand. You come to exhibit your wine at a festival but you don’t allow people, good potential high spending customers - and a lot of wine was sold on the day - to taste your wine. You could buy a bottle at R250 or a glass at R50. Surely you have a marketing budget like all the other wineries do? It is from Chateau d'Esclans in Provence but it was very similar in taste to the Solms Delta at R55 a bottle. We don't get the French marketing strategy

Berenike Knierim was a lovely friendly face on their stand

Estelle Oosthuizen pouring a tasting of Vrede en Lust

On the restaurant terrace, there were more tables and you could buy coffee and bottles of wine to drink with lunch or to take home

Inside the restaurant. There was a good limited menu but we don’t think they were equipped to handle 400 orders in one hour

Queuing to order and pay

GM of Rickety Bridge, Jan van Huyssteen, with festival organiser Darielle Robertson

The lunch menu

The salmon roulade, which the girls on our table chose

and the good cheese burger and, sadly, very slap (half cooked) chips, which all the men had

There was lots of entertainment for the children, jumping castles and even a water pool

and games to play

Dieter Sellmeyer from Lynx wines with their Blanc de Noir, made from Merlot. It was delicious, crisp and dry, exactly our style of Rosé

Anne Ferreira with Darielle Robertson at the end of a busy and very successful day

The wines you could taste and buy

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