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Tuesday, April 05, 2016

Wildekrans Wine Estate, Bot River - a comfortable weekend getaway with super wines & scenery

We had a lovely weekend away, re-discovering the Bot River valley. We were invited to come and stay at Wildekrans by owner Amanda Harlow when we met her and farm manager/viticulturist Braam Gericke last year at the Nedbank Green Wine Awards. They received the Best Farming Practice Award, Leadership in Community Development and for Best Value IPW for their 2015 Sauvignon Blanc. With busy schedules and lots of overseas visitors this year, it took a while before we could take up the invitation but we had a lovely weekend staying in their cottages

The road into the farm werf is lined with Tahitian Lime trees

The tasting room ...

... was quite busy when we arrived on Friday afternoon

Braam Gericke, the farm’s General manager and viticulturist, very kindly spent the afternoon with us telling us all about the farm, its history, the accommodation, the changes that are happening with the restaurant and their green farming philosophy. The farm is vast, over 1000 hectares of mixed farming stretching from the mountains near the Houwhoek Pass, right across the plain to the hills on the other side. 71.8 ha are under vine

We did a comprehensive wine tasting with him. They produce Chenin, Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc, Pinotage, Cabernet Franc, Merlot, Shiraz, Pinot Noir, Tempranillo, Grenache Blanc and plantings of more Rhône and other dry country grapes are planned for the future

These are the new labels. We liked their 2014 unwooded Chenin so much that we bought some, it's on special at R30 a bottle. Francois Naude helped make their flagship wooded 2014 Chenin and the Pinotage. The current wine maker is William Wilkinson. We also liked their Cape Blend of Pinotage, Shiraz, Cab, and Pinot Noir with hints of expensive wood, raspberries, rhubarb and some dark liquorice – it’s as soft as silk on the palate. And the MCC Brut Rosé, made from Chardonnay and Pinot noir, shows well too. The 2013 Premium Shiraz with warm spice and lovely fruit is extremely drinkable. Even Lynne (not a fan of pinotage) found the 2014 Estate Pinotage, full of smoky red fruit with some violet perfume and a liquorice end, very lekker

Some history: M Kannemeyer was the owner of the farm in 1930

A once off commemorative bottle in the cellar

Braam then took us on a trip around the farm in his bakkie. These are old chenin bush vines

They also grow a huge crop of olives, mostly for oil, and we have never seen such healthy trees, absolutely groaning with ripening olives. And they have orchards of plums and pears

The olive plantation with wonderful views of the Houw Hoek mountains and the edge of the farm in the distance

Looking across in the opposite direction at the Babylonstoren mountains, the farm stretches to those black hills

They do have water on the farm from the mountains, but this is one dry pan, with what is left of the water in the dam in the distance

End of season vines; all the grapes have been harvested and no more water is being provided. We wait for the winter rains

And a rain storm was sweeping in over the mountains from Elgin as we stood there

Time to check in to our cottage for the weekend. They can sleep 34 in the various 2 and 3 bed cottages

The lounge, dining area and fitted kitchen. There is DSTV with a limited selection of programmes. We were able to watch the 20/20 cricket in India and the Super rugby

The very comfortable bed gave us two good nights’ sleep

The second bedroom. Both bedrooms have two single beds which can be zipped together

Looking back through the living room

The outside terrace has braai facilities, with wood supplied, shared with the cottage next door. There is a table and seating to enjoy the lovely views..

..which look across the vineyard of table grapes towards the hills. It is very quiet and tranquil

We relaxed a lot, just watching cloud formations and birds while enjoying a glass or two of Wildekrans Sauvignon Blanc, which they kindly supplied

An ever changing scene

There are two semi detached cottages in each house

and there are two rows of cottages

A stand of trees in the distance

Sheep, egrets and guinea fowl patrol these now harvested canola fields

We self-catered the first night, as they were in the process of changing the restaurant that weekend. The previous restaurant called Once has closed and Wildekrans have brought in Ilze Henderson and her husband Greg, who is a chef, to run both the restaurant and the cottages. She is Managing Director of the Endless Group and will run the cottages as the Endless Vineyards. They have properties in Durban too

Because the restaurant was being refitted, we had breakfast on the tasting room terrace

Good black coffee

and a selection of juices awaited us

And a selection of teas and fruit

It was rather a chilly morning. Polar fleece blankets were provided

Lynne had the Eggs Benedict au natural

John had them with freshly smoked snoek and apricot jam

Also on offer to be served with the eggs were pulled pork and salad; creamed spinach and mushrooms or a charcuterie and paté board

On the second morning, John cheekily asked if he could have scrambled eggs and bacon rather than Eggs Benedict and he got it, beautifully soft and creamy egg with smoky well-done bacon! Lynne repeated the plain Eggs Benedict. We both had toast with marmalade

Sunday morning breakfast. It was warmer

The tasting room and restaurant staff: L to R Enny, Alexonia, Nazlie, Zaidee, Marlon and Annaline. Enny, from Zimbabwe, was very professional, friendly and helpful

Herbs and veg in wine storage boxes for the kitchen. Chef Greg says he wants to forage locally too

They have a chapel for the weddings that are held on the farm

There are also toilet facilities for guests

Lovely views from the circular swimming pool ...

.... which is enclosed by wrought iron gates to keep children safe

And this is where the marquees can go, with the dance floor in the centre. It is right opposite the restaurant

Local birdlife. This is a fiscal shrike. There are many birds on the farm, it’s a great place for bird watching

A view of the farm from the internal gates

Old farm buildings and equipment

Vineyards looking towards a house on the estate

An old part of the farm with a stand of gum trees that look like dinosaur bird legs

Vida, the farm character, loves to play with sticks and stones. She has a lovely soft nature

The farm has many lovely dogs - this one took John for an early morning photographic walk

Such elegance. Vida says "please play with me". But she has had a dislocated shoulder, so must not be thrown things to fetch

Announcing the opening of the Henderson's new restaurant, to be called Forage

Chef Greg and MD Ilze Henderson. Ilze's third baby was due on Wednesday this week, we wish her a speedy recovery as she has taken on a huge job. We think they did a valiant job entertaining us and other guests, having just arrived to begin setting up the restaurant on Friday

Cottages at the back

Our meal was laid out for us on Saturday evening, when we returned from visiting friends and wine farms in Bot River

The menu

Our starter was a cheese platter with farm pears poached in Wildekrans pinotage

We had to put the Traditional Hoenderpastei (plain shredded chicken pies) in the oven to bake for 40 minutes. It came with a small Greek salad. Braam, very kindly, gave us a bottle of the unlabelled 2014 Pinot noir to try. It was very elegant with lovely soft fruit, drinking well now, but should mature well

Dessert was a rather soft, squidgy, underbaked chocolate brownie, a small pecan pie and a small chocolate topped caramel tart

Early morning light on the farm is always more charming. The sheep on the hill in front of the deck in the vineyards

Lynne encountered a klipspringer buck on the path that morning, he stood a while then raced off for the trees

Misty mountains over the canola fields. They will be beautiful when full of acid yellow flowers next season

Oh, we forgot the mention the very pretty pink pigs which are in very large enclosures

They came to inspect John

Making bacon!

It turned out to be a lovely hot day

The table grapes in front of the cottages

No one was stirring except the photographer

A late rosebud

Each house has a name of a previous occupant

White herons or egrets

Waiting for the worms to rise?

More herons in front of the Houw Hoek mountains that are still black with ash from the devastating fires this summer. Luckily the fire did not reach the main farm

Thank you everyone for a lovely relaxing weekend, we had a wonderful time and hope to return some day soon
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Thursday, March 31, 2016

MENU's Wine of the week. Alvi's Drift Viognier

Wine of the week. The wine that impressed us the most was Alvi's Drift Viognier from their Signature range (a Platter 4 star), which we had with a prawn feast we enjoyed with friends. The wine is unusual, and keeps surprising as you taste. It is initially full of luscious white peaches and apricots then there is a bump of bitterness and finally grapefruit and limes take over and the bitterness disappears. It opens up in the glass beautifully , remains aromatic and faintly tropical and is perfect with seafood.

Aged wine of the week I: KWV Pinotage 1988

Our Dutch friends, who are about to return home, invited us to join them for a small rijsttafel. Another friend also a guest, brought along this bottle, which she found in her late uncle's collection. It was extraordinary: a perfect cork, beautiful deep garnet colour and rich stewed plum flavour which was a perfect match for the spicy dishes. As we have so often said, Pinotage is the perfect red wine for spicy food and it ages better than any other wine in this country. Still full of fruit and freshness, it amazed us and it went perfectly with the spicy Nasi Goreng and Babi Ketchup we were eating

Aged wine of the week II: Nederburg Bukettraube Noble Late Harvest 1983. From the same source as the Pinotage. The cork was perfect, but the slight pressure of the two-pronged opener pushed it into the bottle. The wine had turned to a dark brown colour. It was rich and unctuous with silky honey, layered with good crisp limes and was the perfect foil for Lynne’s rather sweet Ile Flottante

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This week's MENU Food fact

We do not have good duck in South Africa. Even our local Chinese restaurant has given up and imports his duck from China. It was with delight that Lynne found six duck breasts (packs of 2) in Woolworths. And they were not too fatty, she was able to render the fat on the breasts down well, but the skin did not crisp up. Why? And the portions were a disaster. In each pack was one very large breast and one small. Woolworths, thank you for providing the duck breasts, often impossible to source but please, pack them in even sizes. They are incredibly expensive, so to avoid having the small ones overcooked and the large ones under, it is so, so important to time their cooking accurately and, when you are in the middle of a lively dinner party, this is often not possible. Please do what they do overseas: allow us the choice of size

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MENU's Easter Break

We have had a lovely Easter, spending it with friends from overseas and those who live locally, eating and drinking - mostly at home as the March weather turned very wintry so there was not much incentive to go out. We have also had some incredible wines. Our Easter meal with family was on Saturday night when a friend brought a prawn and avocado starter which we had with Magdalena Sauvignon Blanc 2009 from Gabrielskloof. Lynne prepared duck breasts with pomegranate molasses and five spice seasoning and this went so perfectly with Newton Johnson 2008 Full Stop Rock (Shiraz Grenache Mourvedre) that we demolished 2 bottles. Our recipe for today is the dessert we had, Ile Flottante, one of Lynne's favourites, often relished in France in years gone by. It is a floating island of baked meringue in a lake of creamy vanilla custard. We were incredibly lucky to have been brought a bottle of an iconic aged dessert wine by a guest, a Nederburg NLH 1983 which had silky honey layered with good crisp limes and was the perfect foil for this rather sweet pudding.

We went to an Easter lunch party on Sunday and Lynne's contribution was a large Greek Easter spinach and cheese pie, known as Spanakopita, that will be our recipe next week

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Recipe of the week: Ile Flottante (Floating island)

Nowadays you often see this recipe presented as small portions or quenelles of meringue in each plate. Traditionally however it is one large meringue island floating in warm vanilla custard to be shared. This is a much easier option as well, as you don't individually poach the meringues; you bake it whole.

For the meringue:

1/2 t butter - 4 egg whites - 225g caster sugar

Turn your oven on to 180⁰C. Lightly butter the inside of a deep oven proof 15cm round cake tin or bowl with straight sides. Coat the inside with a little of the sugar. Beat the egg whites until stiff, then gradually whisk in half of the sugar till thick and glossy. Then, using a metal spoon, carefully fold in the rest of the sugar. Gently spoon into the tin.

Place the filled tin in a roasting tray filled with 3cm of boiling water and put into the centre of the oven for 30 minutes. Remove and allow to cool. As the meringue (which may be golden and a little crisp on top) cools, it will shrink, so you should ease the sides away to allow it to move, gently using a pallet knife or your fingers.

The custard

4 egg yolks - 25g caster sugar - 250ml single or pouring cream - 1 t vanilla extract or 1 vanilla pod

Beat the egg yolks with the sugar. If using a vanilla pod, cut it open and extract the seeds and add them and the pod to the cream in a small pot. Heat the cream with the vanilla gently till just below boiling (it must NOT boil), then pour it on to the egg mixture. Stir well to blend, then strain into a glass bowl set over simmering water. The bowl must not touch the water. Stir till cooked and thickened, it should coat the back of your spoon. It does take several minutes, so do watch it carefully or you will end up with scrambled egg. Let the custard cool.

To assemble the pudding

In a deep serving dish a few cm's wider than the top of your meringue, carefully upend the meringue island. Drizzle over hot caramel (*see below) in a thin random pattern. If you can do sugar work, you can make spun sugar, but just randomly drizzling caramel is fine. You can also make a flower or whirl on greased paper to top the pudding with the caramel. All this can be done in advance. To serve, surround it with the warm custard and enjoy the praise.

*Caramel

50g of white sugar

Put the sugar into a clean, dry, small heavy bottomed pan, add heat and let it turn into caramel. Do not stir till it is all molten, but you can swirl the pan to make the colour spread. It does need to be a good dark caramel colour, but be careful not to let it burn. Be careful, caramel is molten sugar so do not touch it, you can be badly burned

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Having your cake and eating it - Just desserts

There is a new bakery opening in town this week, where you can sample all, including the fruits of your labour. You will be able to build your own cake favourite from the selection of different ingredients on offer. Do you want jam with it? Sprinkle over some gold dust or sparkly diamonds on the designer icing. Chocolate or sour plum or plain sponge? What or who is flavour of the month? There is even a Halloween design with lots of little skeletons hanging in the cupboard. Or you can get your own slice of the pie. Great served with really expensive French Champagne. We hear the Imi Peachment pie is all the rage. All you have to do is submit a tender offer and it’s yours. It is going to be in April Street in Town and is called Gupthazum, opening for offers tomorrow. We were asked to promote it, for which we will be rewarded. There are lots of fruit cakes on offer in the Cabinet too. And, of course, if you don't like what you have been sold, they will pay back the money. To mix metaphors: A mess of pottage is often served cold. Happy April 1st.

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This week's MENU: MediterrASIAN sushi, Myoga, Ile Flottante, Old wines

Heavy clouds off Sea Point bringing us very welcome rain - Change is in the air!

In this week’s MENU:

Easter Break

A fusion of flavours at Myoga

‘MediterrAsian' Sushi at Ocean Basket

Having your cake and eating it - Just desserts

Recipe of the week: Ile Flottante (Floating island)

Food fact

Wines of the week
Coming events

Easter Break We have had a lovely Easter, spending it with friends from overseas and those who live locally, eating and drinking - mostly at home as the March weather turned very wintry so there was not much incentive to go out. We have also had some incredible wines. Our Easter meal with family was on Saturday night when a friend brought a prawn and avocado starter which we had with Magdalena Sauvignon Blanc 2009 from Gabrielskloof. Lynne prepared duck breasts with pomegranate molasses and five spice seasoning and this went so perfectly with Newton Johnson 2008 Full Stop Rock (Shiraz Grenache Mourvedre) that we demolished 2 bottles. Our recipe for today is the dessert we had, Ile Flottante, one of Lynne's favourites, often relished in France in years gone by. It is a floating island of baked meringue in a lake of creamy vanilla custard. We were incredibly lucky to have been brought a bottle of an iconic aged dessert wine by a guest, a Nederburg NLH 1983 which had silky honey layered with good crisp limes and was the perfect foil for this rather sweet pudding.

We went to an Easter lunch party on Sunday and Lynne's contribution was a large Greek Easter spinach and cheese pie, known as Spanakopita, that will be our recipe next week

A fusion of flavours at Myoga We were invited to lunch at Myoga, (Japanese: Ginger flower) Chef Mike Bassett's gourmet restaurant by overseas friends who were staying at the Vineyard Hotel. It is quite a while since we last visited and we looked forward to his always adventurous food and were not disappointed. He fuses Asian with modern fresh cuisine in exciting and different combinations. We all had the set 5 course lunch (R275) which has choices for all. You can see pictures and descriptions of the food here. We have now been invited to sample their new seven course dinner menu in April and will also be writing about it in MENU.\

‘Mediterrasian' Sushi at Ocean Basket We love eating fish and seafood at Ocean Basket but, in the past, their Sushi has been less than perfect, often clumsily made hours or a day in advance, with mushy rice and minimal fillings. We are very happy to report that this has now changed. Last month, at the press launch we were invited to meet international sushi chef Pepi Anevski of Umami restaurant in Copenhagen, Denmark. He is a sushi master and was named Chef of the Year at Japan's first World Sushi Cup. He was employed by Ocean Basket to come and train all their staff in how to make good sushi. This has taken more than a month, as he travelled around South Africa doing the training. We were embargoed from telling you about this until today, but can now pass on the information and you can see some of the excellent sushi we were served by him and the staff at Ocean Basket in Camps Bay in February.

Having your cake and eating it - Just desserts There is a new bakery opening in town this week, where you can sample all, including the fruits of your labour. You will be able to build your own cake favourite from the selection of different ingredients on offer. Do you want jam with it? Sprinkle over some gold dust or sparkly diamonds on the designer icing. Chocolate or sour plum or plain sponge? What or who is flavour of the month? There is even a Halloween design with lots of little skeletons hanging in the cupboard. Or you can get your own slice of the pie. Great served with really expensive French Champagne. We hear the Imi Peachment pie is all the rage. All you have to do is submit a tender offer and it’s yours. It is going to be in April Street in Town and is called Gupthazum, opening for offers tomorrow. We were asked to promote it, for which we will be well rewarded. There are lots of fruit cakes on offer in the Cabinet too. And, of course, if you don't like what you have been sold, they will pay back the money. To mix metaphors: A mess of pottage is often served cold. Happy April 1st.

Recipe of the week: Ile Flottante (Floating island)

For the meringue:

1/2 t butter - 4 egg whites - 225g caster sugar

Turn your oven on to 180⁰C. Lightly butter the inside of a 15cm deep oven proof round cake tin or bowl with straight sides. Coat the inside with a little of the sugar. Beat the egg whites until stiff, then gradually whisk in half of the sugar till thick and glossy. Then, using a metal spoon, carefully fold in the rest of the sugar. Gently spoon into the tin.

The custard

4 egg yolks - 25g caster sugar - 250ml single or pouring cream - 1 t vanilla extract or 1 vanilla pod

Beat the egg yolks with the sugar and vanilla. If using a vanilla pod, cut it open and extract the seeds and add them and the pod to the cream in a small pot. Heat the cream with the vanilla gently till just below boiling (it must NOT boil), then pour it on to the egg mixture. Stir well to blend, then strain into a glass bowl set over simmering water. The bowl must not touch the water. Stir till cooked and thickened, it should coat the back of your spoon. It does take several minutes, so do watch it carefully or you will end up with scrambled egg. Let the custard cool.

To assemble the pudding

*Caramel

50g of white sugar

Aged wine of the week I: KWV Pinotage 1988.

Aged wine of the week II: Nederburg Bukettraube Noble Late Harvest 1983. The cork was perfect, but the wine had turned to a dark brown colour. It was rich and unctuous with silky honey layered with good crisp limes and was the perfect foil for Lynne’s rather sweet Ile Flottante

Nederburg Bukettraube Noble Late Harvest 1983. From the same source as the Pinotage. The cork was perfect, but the slight pressure of the two-pronged opener pushed it into the bottle. The wine had turned to a dark brown colour. It was rich and unctuous with silky honey layered with good crisp limes and was the perfect foil for Lynne’s rather sweet Ile Flottante

Food fact: We do not have good duck in South Africa. Even our local Chinese restaurant has given up and imports his duck from China. It was with delight that Lynne found six duck breasts (packs of 2) in Woolworths. And they were not too fatty, she was able to render the fat on the breasts down well, but the skin did not crisp up. Why? And the portions were a disaster. In each pack was one very large breast and one small. Woolworths, thank you for providing the duck breasts, often impossible to source but please, pack them in even sizes. They are incredibly expensive, so to avoid having the small ones overcooked and the large ones under, it is so, so important to time their cooking accurately and, when you are in the middle of a lively dinner party, this is often not possible. Please do what they do overseas: allow us the choice of size

Our Events Calendar has information about interesting wine, food and related events happening in the Western Cape and, occasionally, in other areas. It is as up to date as the information we have received from the various organisers. Accuracy in the descriptions of events listed here depends on the information given to us by the organisers or their publicity agents. Some of this information comes to us in hugely verbose communiqués which we have to précis to make it easier for you. We will not be held responsible for any inaccuracies, however caused

Click here to see MENU's Events Calendar with even more events to entertain you

31st March 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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About us

MENU, our weekly email newsletter, started as an advertising medium for Main Ingredient, our specialist retail grocery business. We opened our Sea Point shop in December 2002 because realised that there was a place in South Africa for a grocer catering to people with sophisticated tastes and needs. We moved the shop on line in 2010, but discontinued it in 2015, having decided that it is time to “retire” and concentrate on our writing, photography and tour guiding. MENU has a wide circulation and is read nationally and internationally.

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