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Friday, September 16, 2016

Game of Wines at The Hoghouse - A Pinot Quiz

The HogHouse in Pinelands invited us to join them and take part in this wine quiz which is held once a month. We had no idea what we were in for, drank some good wine, did extraordinarily badly at the quiz but met some great folk and had much fun. Their resident sommelier Kimi Blackadder sent us the invitation and he sets and runs the quiz. This time it was five Pinot Noirs, one Pinot Meunière and three white pinots, some local, some international. If you want to attend one of their events, check out their website http://hhbc.co.za/events/ Their next event will be Hogtoberfest on the 8th of October, which sounds like a lot of fun, given the great beers they brew and sell

It is behind security gates between Ndabeni and Pinelands, with guarded parking, very near Sunrise Circle. Lynne gets a warm welcome!

There is seating downstairs next to the kitchen

and upstairs, where we had the quiz. There were two teams on two separate long tables

Events coming soon to the HogHouse

We learned the rules from Lara. Rather confusing at first. Kimi would ask four questions about each wine and there would be an either or answer, so you always have a 50% chance of being right. Then you had to hold up a paddle (a numbered one per couple) with a black and a white side

Our neighbour was the chef from Chalk and Cork. Their paddle is on the table. They were much better than we were. The young man on the end kept the score for the table. Sadly, the other table won

The competition wines. all unidentified. The sort of question we were given was: Do you think this wine is from South Africa or Europe? Is it Italian or from Alsace? Was it fermented in wood or stainless steel? Does it have 4 g/l litre sugar or 9 g/l ?

The white wines were Pinot Gris and the reds were Pinot Noir and one Pinot Meuniere

Kimi Blackadder asking us a question

It was great fun, there is lots of interaction between people on the tables and of course we had lots of wine to sample

Um, that question obviously has us stumped

This wine was auctioned: Haarlem to Hope from B Vintners in Stellenbosch. It is a blend of 54% Chenin Blanc, 42% Semillon and 4% Muscadel, with the Chenin barrel fermented and matured for ten months in 500-liter French oak barrels. The name comes from the town from where the Dutch departed when they ventured to deepest darkest Africa in the 17th Century

There was a competition for the best team on the winning table, they won a meal for two at the HogHouse

Three of the Pinot Noirs we tasted; one, unlabelled, was specially bottled for the HogHouse. The other wines in the picture were Clos Henri Pinot noir from New Zealand and B Vintners Pinot noir from Bruwer Raats and Gavin Bruwer in Stellenbosch. All the wines were very good and well selected

You can order food from the kitchen ( they offers a Texan-style smokehouse experience) during the competition but, thankfully, most of us decided to do so when it had finished. Barbecue meats are priced per 100 grams of cooked weight (as is the practice in Texas BBQ establishments). The meat is smoked without sauce, allowing the natural flavours of the meat to blend with the smoke from the Rooikrans wood. We could drink the rest of the wines from the competition or order more or have their excellent beers - they have six on tap and several in bottle. John had a duck leg and croquetten. These came with a cucumber relish and a green dipping sauce. http://hhbc.co.za/

Our neighbours Beverley and Francois had a burger, ribs, huge chips, scotch eggs, a toasted sandwich and a chicken dish. This is no place for vegetarians or non meat eaters!

Lynne had a pulled pork burger (the pork was a little dry) and some very charred but delicious lamb ribs. And we both wished we had ordered some of those chips. The bill for four of us came to just over R700

The Quiz over, everyone settled down to enjoying the company, the food and the wines and beers

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Thursday, September 15, 2016

The 33rd Blaauwklippen Blending Competition

This annual blending competition, which is now in its 33rd year and can be entered by wine clubs nationwide and overseas, had its awards ceremony this week on the farm. We love to go and meet the finalists over lunch and find out how their wine clubs work, how often they meet and how they approach the blending of the wine. During lunch we tasted the winning wine and, this year, we were surrounded by all four of the finalists. We had fun asking them if they recognised their own blend

Some duck filled spring rolls with an apple sauce

We loved this combination of good Parma ham with a sweet melon salsa

Slices of pepper crusted springbok with a macadamia nut and cranberry sauce on top of crisp warm gooey cheesy deep fried polenta croquettes, the best version of polenta we have ever had and it took some convincing. We are converted

... and finally, oh so sweet tomato tarts with goats cheese and red onion marmalade. Pastry was melt in the mouth. Now we were really looking forward to lunch and finding out who the talented chef was who made all these excellent canapés

We drank The Diva MCC blanc de noir and Ons Sprankel tank fermented bubbly. light and summery, both made from Zinfandel

We take our seats

MD of Blaauwklippen Rolf Zeitvogel stands to tell us about this year's competition. This year they received 72 entries of which 8 were international and there were 11 newcomers. Wine clubs were challenged to produce an easy drinking, fruity wine of medium complexity. The winning blend was made up of 31% Malbec, 5% Merlot, 37% Shiraz and 27% Zinfandel

The blend of 2016 in its magnum bottle. The label is designed each year by well-known Stellenbosch artist Frans Groenewald

The lunch menu

First we were served the starter of salmon gravadlax marinated in beetroot and orange, had a lovely firm texture. It came on an asparagus foam, topped with fresh buttered asparagus spears, pea shoots and grapefruit segments. Sprinkled over was something new - sweet lime tapioca pearls, which added another texture and flavour to a good dish

Two members of the each of the final four wine clubs are invited to the awards and their travel is paid for by Blaauwklippen: Business Time from the Western Cape, Howling Wolves from Gauteng, Loerie Wine Gurglers from Mpumalanga and the German Weinnasen from Rindchen’s Weinkontor Uhlenhorst. They had to introduce themselves to us. First were Lisa Kollmark and Cathy Lankers from Weinnasen (Wine noses) who work for Rindchen’s Weinkontor Uhlenhorst near Hamburg in Germany

then Phil and Laurette Tasker from the Loerie Wine Gurglers in Mpumalanga

and Rian de Hart from Business Time Club in Cape Town

Johan and Marina Cloete from the Howling Wolves in Gauteng (made up of old Maties - Stellenbosch University alumni)

Winemaker Nerina Cloete told us about her fellow judges. Judges for this year’s competition were Blaauwklippen’ s cellar master, Rolf Zeitvogel, seasoned wine judge and wine buyer for Ultra Liquors, Mark Norrish, popular breakfast DJ Guy Mc Donald, tour guide and wine lover Ligia de Coito and wine judge and journalist Karen Glanfield.

Between courses we were served a lovely palate cleanser sorbet of the Blaauwklippen Citrus gin. Excellent!

Time for the main course of Braised oxtail on a parsnip mash with baby rainbow carrots, roasted vine tomatoes, mange tout and other baby vegetables, topped with biltong dried onions. It was rich and fully satisfying

Rolf introduces the Chef Louise Veldhuizen and her colleague Chloe Beattie. We think Louise has a great future in front of her. She produced some really good food.

We drank the winning wine with the main course and there was lots of discussion about it. it is full of good wood with spicy dark red fruit on the nose with hints of black pepper. On the palate salty silky red cherries and berries and some cola. The fruit is hiding a little but is has good soft chalky tannins. Probably one of the best blends we have tasted over the years. It went well with the oxtail

Beautiful flower arrangements on the table

Now time for the awards, The winner of the Newcomer award was the Business Club. Rian is engaged to Blaauwklippen’s Hospitality manager Nanette Cloete, sister of winemaker Narina Cloete