A night at Franschhoek Boutique Hotel, supper at Allora

We had meant to go to Franschhoek Uncorked on Sunday and the Tourist board organised accommodation for us, so that we could stay for an extra day on Monday and visit more farms, while not burdened with the festival. Something important came up and we switched to Saturday but, on Sunday afternoon, after a family lunch in Tokai, we headed back to Franschhoek

The hotel has been built over a pre-existing car park, which is just off the main road

It has 8 rooms on the top floor and building continues on the first floor, where the reception and breakfast room are open

It is right next to the starting point of the Franschhoek Tram tours

We checked in at reception

where they have a lounge and where breakfast is served. Franschhoek has famously huge selection of restaurants, so they do not serve other meals

We checked into our room, which is large and nicely appointed. It is called the Palm room and is appropriately decorated

The bathroom is separated from the bedroom by a frosted glass sliding door which stops half way. It is an interesting decor device, but we are not sure if it works for us. You can't see the view from the bath. There is also a main bathroom door

There is also a large shower in one corner of the bathroom

High quality percale linen and good thick white towels are appreciated. There is also air conditioning

A small tea and coffee station has a six bottle fridge below and a mini bar. They supplied bottled water

Lynne liked the Indian bone inlaid bedside cupboards

We had met Johann van Zyl, the owner of Allora restaurant, at GlenWood on Saturday and he had invited us to join him for a drink on Sunday evening. The entrance to the restaurant complex is on the deck of the hotel. It was warm enough to sit outside. This is just off Main Road

They were nicely busy for Sunday evening. The menu is good. You can see it on line here http://allora.co.za/menu/franschhoek

We each had a carafes of the house white wine which, of course, made us hungry even though we had a large lunch. We decided to stick to starters. Lynne went for the smoked salmon and avocado stack, which came with a spicy but not hot Peppadew puree, olives, caper berries and some peppadews. It may look small; it was very filling

John chose the beef Carpaccio which came on sliced green apple. He also had a side of pickled artichoke hearts. Thank you so much Allora, we were not expecting to have a meal

The interior houses the huge pizza oven and the menu does have an Italian theme with good steaks added

The restaurant from our room's corridor, showing its summer terrace

The next morning broke damp and misty. This was the view from our room

Down to a sunny themed breakfast. Yoghurts, fruit, cereals, juices and pastries on the buffet table

The inclusive breakfast menu

Lynne chose the Eggs Onassis, ordered without the spring onion, but the citrus tapioca seemed to be missing. The eggs were not runny, sadly, and the hollandaise was rather tart

John had the weekend Breakfast with a rather scrambled omelette. He said the rosti was very good, as was the pork banger

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Franschhoek Uncorked

This annual celebration has Franschhoek's wine farms opening their doors to the public with special tastings and fun events over a weekend. The weather played along and we had a great time visiting several wine farms on Saturday. It was not as busy as we expected, but everyone we saw was having a super time. As it was the weekend after Heritage Day, there was a lot of braaiing going on

A tragic note after the weekend was hearing of the tragic loss of Jenny Prinsloo in  a collision on the Helshoogte Pass. Jenny was CEO of Franschhoek Tourism and played a most important role in taking Franschhoek to its very prominent place on the South African tourism map. We mourn her loss with all of Franschhoek and her family

We began at Boschendal. It has been rather a long time since we visited. This is the Rhone Homestead now a restaurant which is next to the wine cellar, the festival was being held on the lawn here

You walk down the oak avenue, now in beautiful new spring green leaf

They had this wagon with the working horses taking people on rides up and down the farm

The tasting desk under the trees. They only had the Chardonnay and Shiraz for tasting

The Rhone Restaurant was popular

There was a buffet lunch for about R280 a person

Lots of good food and dessert treats

Roasts under the hot lamps

We thought it looked lovely, but we wanted something light

Hamburgers on the grill. They had advertised sausages, but we saw none. Sadly, the burgers we saw (which had been discarded) were very brown on the outside and very raw on the inside. They did not tempt us

There was also one of two bubblies for tasting. If you wanted the other one there was a small charge

Some lively singing and dancing on the lawn by a local group of children and drummers

It certainly livened up the afternoon

Bud break has begun on the vines

Moody weather over the mountains, but it was warm and didn't rain although it had been forecast. Perhaps that is why numbers were rather low?

Off to GlenWood where we encountered Guy Kedian of Stellenbosch Vineyards with GlenWood's cellarmaster/general manager DP Burger, both old friends

Tables were being set up for the wine blending competition

We enjoyed some fun and Chardonnay with Guy and  and his partner Jackie Rabe, Sales and Marketing Director at Strandveld Wines,

Hands up or I'll shoot!

A good grey in the paddock

Hunger struck, so we had some of these kebabs. Steak or chicken? We went for the nice and tender steak with sweet barbecue sauce and a roosterbrood. Never quite sure if we trust chicken on the braai

Happy day

Spring green on the oaks

The blending competition starts. We can report that this team was the winner

Another enthusiastic team

Lots of fun and nonsense went on. Not all the blends were absolutely pristine!

Perhaps a little too much festival enthusiasm?

Then we went off to the other end of the valley to visit two farms we had not been to before. The first was Lynx, where we bumped into old Franschhoek friends whom we haven’t seen for a long time

They had a food truck

Hard to get to the tasting counter as it was busy

John peeked into the cellar

Serenaded by the Mexican duo

Down the road from Lynx, La Chataigne and Topiary had combined their celebrations on Topiary. La Chataigne is building a new tasting venue. Superb views of the Helshoogte pass to Stellenbosch and the Simonsberg Mountains across the vines

They had tables and chairs on their lawn

They had some good wines on special and a couple of boxes went home to our cellar. We bought the La Chataigne Kastanje 2013, made from Chenin blanc with a dash of Semillon, and Topiary Shiraz 2013

We chatted to co-owner winemaker Philippe Colin, who was serving the wine. It was a popular destination

and to owner of La Chataigne Richard Parkfelt, serving his wine

The sun is setting in the west

They do have some topiary at the entrance. It's time to head home

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Shana Tovah

Shana Tovah

We wish you and your family a wonderful New Year

and well over the Fast

John & Lynne Ford

This Week's MENU. Nederburg Auction 2016, Amorim Cap Classique Challenge, 1821 Grand Constance comes home, Asian Style Beef salad, Durbanville Hills Rhinofields Sauvignon

A bee harvests the delights of an orange blossom

 The Nederburg Auction 2016

 A Historical “Home Coming” at Groot Constantia

 The 15th year of the Amorim Cap Classique Challenge

 On the MENU: Asian Style Beef salad with foraged garden herbs & leaves

 On the Wine MENU: Durbanville Hills Rhinofields Sauvignon blanc 2013

 Coming events

We wish all our Jewish readers Shanah Tovah and well over the Fast

Another great week of wine and some good food. Our car came back to us just in time for a period of intense travel. The festival season is beginning and we are having to visit Franschhoek, Stellenbosch, Durbanville, Darling and Robertson all in the next couple of weeks. Our petrol bill goes sky high and we really appreciate it when the event organisers arrange transport for us. This is the height of the media season and the diary is rather full, so we will have lots to tell you about

We are having a problem sending MENU by email. When we called our service provider, MWeb, to ask why we could only send out to about 20 addresses per hour, we were told that they have a new policy which means that bulk mailing is no longer possible from any account and that this applies to all service providers. They said that the only way round it is to re-jig our mailing list of over 5000 addresses into groups of 20 instead of the 250 or so we've used up to now. Eveb that isn’t working, so we are looking at alternative ways of sending the email version to you

What we need to ask of all our subscribers is to follow us on Twitter, Facebook or Google+, so that all our stories and MENU can be accessed as they are published, so that we can all get round this obstacle

The Nederburg Auction 2016      This year's Nederburg Auction had 146 items, 1034 lots, 10 506 litres of wine to auction and made a final total of R7 593 200 with total sales increasing by 23% over last year, in spite of a slightly lower volume on sale of 4% from the 2015. Tsogo Sun was the top buyer for 2016, with a total of just over R1 million, followed by the SPAR group and the Singita group of luxury lodges. We attended on Saturday and had an interesting and enjoyable day. We didnt buy anything this year, the high prices were daunting

A total of 18 lots were sold at the exciting annual Nederburg Charity Auction taken by Roland Peens during lunch, which raised just over R500 000 for two community-based organisations, the Breytenbach Centre in Wellington and the Hope Through Action project in Paarl. The highest price achieved was R70,000 paid for a single 750ml bottle of Petrus, 1988, signed by Christian Moueix that was donated by auctioneer Anthony Barne MW. If you would like the see the results in details go here https://www.nederburgauction.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/2016-Results.pdf

A Historical “Home Coming” at Groot Constantia     Groot Constantia brought home an 1821 bottle of its famed Grand Constance. Groot Constantia was the successful bidder recently in an overseas auction for a 195 year old bottle of Grand Constance 1821, a wine that was produced in the Groot Constantia Cloete Cellar. They were so delighted at acquiring the wine and returning it to its origin that they invited a group of us to celebrate its return last week. They also promised a surprise event during the day

The 15th year of the Amorim Cap Classique Challenge     The awards ceremony for this prestigious competition, sponsored by Portuguese cork producer Amorim, was held last Wednesday at the Twelve Apostles Hotel. There were 113 entries for the four categories: Blanc de Blancs, Rosé, Blended Brut and a Museum Class for wines including and before the 2008 vintage. And there were a few surprises this year. The labels usually at the top were not up there and two producers both took home two top awards. The wines are tasted blind by a panel of experienced judges and this year there was a change in judging procedures in that categories were narrowed, with judging no longer being done separately on vintage and non-vintage wines. And to promote inclusivity among producers, entries were open to non-members of the Cap Classique Producers Association. The winners are: Best Brut and Overall Competition Winner: Anura Brut 2011; Best Rosé: J.C. Le Roux Pinot Noir Rosé 2010; Best Blanc de Blanc: Colmant Brut Chardonnay NV; Best Museum Class: J.C. Le Roux Scintilla Vintage Reserve 2008; Frans Malan Legacy Award: John and Erica Platter

On the Wine Menu this week: Durbanville Hills Rhinofields Sauvignon blanc 2013     Lees and pears on the nose complemented with vanilla. Layers of crisp clean fruit delight in their complexity. Pears, apricots, pineapple add to the tingle. Such a good wine to pair with food

What's on the Menu this week: Asian Style Beef salad with foraged garden herbs and leaves

This is an easy to assemble salad using left over-beef. You can add lots of other different things like blanched mange tout peas, or thin beans, baby corn, bok choy, baby spinach, pea shoots, radishes or whatever edible items you have in the garden or in the fridge. Lynne used spekboom, nasturtium, and huge oxalis leaves

300g cooked beef from a roast, cut in thin slices - Sesame oil - Ponzu sauce - Tamari sauce - watercress - rocket - carrot strips - celery thinly sliced - one small bulb of fennel, thinly sliced - 8 baby tomatoes , sliced in half- herbs and assorted foraged leaves from your garden - basil leaves, torn - pumpkin seeds - sunflower seeds - black and white sesame seeds - light soy sauce - sweet chilli sauce - hot chilli sauce - soba noodles

Dress the beef with a dessert spoonful of both Ponzu and Tamari and set aside

Salad dressing

1T Ponzu - 1 T light soy sauce - 1 T sweet chilli sauce - 1t sesame oil - 1 t freshly grated ginger - 1 t hot chilli sauce

Cook the soba noodles, drain and while still hot pour over a teaspoonful of sesame oil, 1T sesame seeds - 1 T light soy. Allow to cool.

When the noodles are cool, put them into a wide dish. Mix up the salad ingredients and layer them on top of the noodles, arrange the beef slices on top and when ready to eat, pour over the dressing

1 T = 1 Tablespoon 1t = teaspoon

27th September 2016

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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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What's on the Menu this week: Asian Style Beef salad with foraged garden herbs and leaves

This is an easy to assemble salad using left-over beef. You can add lots of other different things like blanched mange tout peas, or thin beans, baby corn, bok choy, baby spinach, pea shoots, radishes or whatever edible items you have in the garden or in the fridge. Lynne used spekboom, nasturtium, and huge oxalis leaves

300g cooked beef from a roast, cut in thin slices - Sesame oil - Ponzu sauce - Tamari sauce - watercress - rocket - carrot strips - celery thinly sliced - one small bulb of fennel, thinly sliced - 8 baby tomatoes , sliced in half- herbs and assorted foraged leaves from your garden - basil leaves, torn - pumpkin seeds - sunflower seeds - black and white sesame seeds - light soy sauce - sweet chilli sauce - hot chilli sauce - soba noodles

Dress the beef with a dessert spoonful of both Ponzu and Tamari and set aside

Salad dressing

1T Ponzu - 1 T light soy sauce - 1 T sweet chilli sauce - 1t sesame oil - 1 t freshly grated ginger - 1 t hot chilli sauce

Cook the soba noodles, drain and while still hot pour over a teaspoonful of sesame oil, 1T sesame seeds - 1 T light soy. Allow to cool.

When the noodles are cool, put them into a wide dish. Mix up the salad ingredients and layer them on top of the noodles, arrange the beef slices on top and when ready to eat, pour over the dressing

1 T = 1 Tablespoon 1t = teaspoon

Tamari and Ponzu are soy sauces

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© John & Lynne Ford, Adamastor & Bacchus 2016

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On the Wine Menu this week: Durbanville Hills Rhinofields Sauvignon blanc 2013

Lees and pears on the nose complemented with vanilla

Layers of crisp clean fruit delight in their complexity. Pears, apricots, pineapple add to the tingle. Such a good wine to pair with food

RETURN TO MENU

© John & Lynne Ford, Adamastor & Bacchus 2016

Please follow us on Facebook

Subscribe to MENU