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Sunday, October 23, 2016

A weekend at Laurel Cottage, McGregor

The Robertson Wine Valley invited us to Wine on the River and offered us accommodation for the weekend. We were given Laurel Cottage in McGregor, about 30 minutes drive from Robertson, and had a very comfortable stay

It is a large 3 bedroom cottage with a pretty garden and a lap pool in a midtown McGregor back street

A spacious main room with dining area, and comfortable sofas. DSTV TV and a wood burning stove which we used to great effect for on the two chilly evenings

A small galley kitchen, well equipped, is at one end of the main room

Our bedroom. There are some lovely pieces of furniture in the house; someone has very good taste

The twin bedroom

The other double bedroom

Our bedroom had this en suite bathroom

The other bedrooms share a bathroom with loo and shower

An olive thrush in the garden

The veranda is dripping with beautiful wisteria fountains at this time of year

Laurel Cottage is available to rent from McGregor Country Cottages, as follows: R1200 per night for a couple sharing

or R2400 per night (sleeps 6)

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This Week's MENU. Durbanville Pinotages, Sommeliers Selection, Reciprocal Trade Tasting, Veritas Awards dinner, Graham Beck Glass Affair, Blanko at The Alphen, Springfield Life From Stone, Prawn Pilaff

Summer coming in – a Southern Double-collared sunbird hen and wilde dagga

This is truly a silly season. We are running flat out to stay in the same place and, in truth, to try and do all the necessary writing and editing after covering all the stories you’ll see in this issue, as well as a few which we’ll tell you about next week, and to have a few moments for ourselves, so please read on... or click any of the following links to look at a story

Enjoying Durbanville Wine Valley Pinotages

The Sommeliers Selection Wine list

Reciprocal Trade Tasting in Cape Town

The 2016 Veritas Awards dinner

Graham Beck A Glass Affair

Dinner at The Alphen's new Blanko restaurant

On the Wine MENU this week: Springfield Life From Stone Sauvignon Blanc 2016

What's on the MENU this week: Prawn Pilaff

Coming events

Enjoying Durbanville Wine Valley Pinotages It is obvious from various tastings we have experienced over the last few months that Pinotage is coming of age in a big way. And that it is doing well outside of the recognised terroirs. This was reinforced by a tasting of some the Durbanville Pinotages at Meerendal recently.

The Sommeliers Selection Wine list Once a year the Sommeliers Association puts together their recommended list of wines, the wines they would like to see on a wine list. We tasted these wines at a trade and media tasting, which was held this year at the MOMO Gallery in Buitengracht Street. This is always an interesting selection, showing some wild cards, some favourites and some new entries

Reciprocal Trade Tasting in Cape Town Reciprocal has a very good selection of imported wines and spirits and, once a year, they come down to Cape Town so that their good customers, trade and media can taste a selection of these. This is a chance to taste before you buy and people were putting in orders for these iconic wines and enjoying this unique chance to experience these excellent foreign wines. We certainly were very pleased to be invited. You, too, can order these wines from Reciprocal. Check out their web site http://www.reciprocal.co.za

The 2016 Veritas Awards dinner This Annual Competition has been running since 1991 and is one of the largest wine competitions in South Africa, with 1 670 entries this year. Five overseas judges Joe Wadsack (UK), Thomas Lüber (Germany), Janåke Johansson (Sweden), Guido Francque (Belgium) and Denis Lahouratate (France) joined over 100 local wine experts to taste these wines blind over four day. We were invited to this year's Awards Ceremony, which is a black tie event with dinner in the Ballroom at the CTICC

Graham Beck A Glass Affair Did you know that different glass shapes have been made to enhance different wines (and other beverages)? Millions have been spent by the top glass makers in research to find the perfect shape for each varietal to showcase that particular wine in the best way. For many years, German and Belgian brewers have used glasses shaped to enhance the flavours of their products. We have experienced several tastings over the years in these different glasses and started out being sceptical. But we have come to see how well this works. Graham Beck have now done their own research and hosted this event o show us the changes they are making to their glassware in order to help showcase their Methode Cap Classique bubblies. Flutes are out, here is the future

Dinner at The Alphen's new Blanko restaurant You may, like us, have been to the Alphen restaurants in Constantia many times over the years under their different guises, there have been several over the years. The Five Rooms was the name of the previous restaurant in this historic building till September, now it has begun a new life as Blanko (an Esperanto word we are told). It is part of the group owned and run by restaurateur Paul Kovensky . He has initiated a new change: the Five Rooms have gone and Blanko has opened. The house has been transformed from historic into a modern all white, leather and glass space with lots of modern art from the Goodman Gallery. Gone are the antiques and the Cloete family art collection. We were asked to come and experience the place and the food. Group Head Chef, Amber-May Deetlefs, delivers Italian style food

What's on the Wine MENU this week: Springfield Life From Stone Sauvignon Blanc 2016

This wine is lively, zesty, green plums and elderflower with great minerality. It sings in the glass. Sip it before dinner and it will make you hungry, serve with seafood or fish and it will be the best compliment possible. See below.

What's on the MENU this week: Prawn Pilaff

1 onion, very finely chopped – 1 clove of crushed garlic – ½ t olive oil – 1 T butter - 2 cups of rice (not Basmati or jasmine) 100 ml dry white wine - 5 cups of fish stock –-sprig of thyme – half a bay leaf – a good pinch of saffron – salt – white pepper - 500g raw peeled and deveined prawns - 1 T chopped parsley

Fry the onion and garlic gently in the oil and butter with a pinch of salt. Do not brown. When it is soft, add the rice and stir till all the grains are transparent. Add the white wine and let it bubble away. Add the stock, a good shake of white pepper and the herbs and saffron. Stir, then cover the pot with some greaseproof paper, then its lid and put into a 170°C oven for 20 minutes. Add the peeled prawns to the rice and put back into the oven for 10 minutes.. By this time the liquid has almost all gone and the rice will be very moist and glossy. Taste and adjust the seasoning as necessary. Stir in the parsley. Serves 4

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22nd October 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

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. This electronic journal has been sent to you because you have personally subscribed to it or because someone you know has asked us to send it to you or forwarded it to you themselves. Addresses given to us will not be divulged to any person or organisation. We collect them only for our own promotional purposes. If you wish to be added to our mailing list, please click here to send us a message and if you wish to be removed from our mailing list, please click here to send us a message.

Saturday, October 22, 2016

MENU's Recipe of the Week: Prawn Pilaff

1 shallot, very finely chopped – ½ t olive oil – 1 T butter - 2 cups of rice (not Basmati or jasmine) 100 ml dry white wine - 5 cups of fish stock –-sprig of thyme – half a bay leaf – a good pinch of saffron – salt – white pepper - 500g raw peeled and deveined prawns - 1 T chopped parsley

Fry the onion gently in the oil and butter with a pinch of salt. When it is soft, add the rice and stir till all the grains are transparent. Add the white wine and let it bubble away. Add the stock, a good shake of white pepper and the herbs and saffron. Stir then cover the pot with some greaseproof paper, then its lid and put into a 170°C oven for 20 minutes. Add the peeled prawns and put back into the oven for 10 minutes. By this time the liquid has almost all gone and the rice will be very moist and glossy. Taste and adjust the seasoning as necessary. Stir in the parsley. Serves 4

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MENU's Wine of the Week: Springfield Life From Stone Sauvignon Blanc 2016

The price on their website is R86.00, very good value. Platter gives it 4 Stars

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Friday, October 21, 2016

2016 FNB Sauvignon Blanc Top 10 Awards at Nooitgedacht, Stellenbosch

Every year the Sauvignon Blanc Interest Group (SBIG) runs this competition, which is sponsored by First National Bank, "To celebrate and recognise excellence amongst local producers who have dedicated countless hours to perfecting their craft." This year there were 169 entries judged and this was our chance to see the winners and taste the wines. The award ceremony was held at Nooitgedacht Estate in Stellenbosch, and was followed by lunch

How very appropriate to be greeted with Steenberg's sparkling Sauvignon Blanc

The event was very well organised and we loved the format. We were invited to be there at 10h30. First, we went into a long hall where the top 20 sauvignons were available for us to taste and we were allowed 1¾ hours to do so. At this point, no one knew the names of the winners

Miles Mossop of Tokara with his 2016 Reserve Collection Sauvignon Blanc

Jacques Jordaan and Hannes Meyer of Simonsig with theirs, the 2015 Sunbird

Canapés circulated, just in case you were peckish. Beetroot and cream cheese on a crisp tart base

Danie Keulder from Nitida with the Golden Orb 2015 Sauvignon Blanc.

Tiny duck samoosas with a dipping sauce

The team from Jordan, winemaker Sjaak Nelson and Marketing manager Thea van der Merwe toast winemaker Lukas Wentzel from Groote Post. Jordan entered two wines: The Outlier 2015 Sauvignon Blanc and the Jordan 2015 Sauvignon Blanc

Charles Hopkins of De Grendel in conversation with Morne Vrey of Delaire Graff and some keen observers

Catherine Marshall and her mum Jakki. We really liked her wooded 2015 Sauvignon Blanc. There are not that many Blanc Fumés made these days.

Judge Christian Eedes and Joris van Almenkerk with Cathy Marshall. Joris had the Almenkerk 2015 in the competition

Then, at 12h15, it was time to go into the dining area to enjoy the awards presentation over lunch

A spacious building with a huge barn-like roof

The menu

The starter, a perfectly oozy poached egg with fresh asparagus, resting on a single salmon raviolo. Pasta a little undercooked, but great flavour from the salmon

JD Pretorius opened the proceedings. The aim of the Sauvignon Blanc Interest Group is to promote South African Sauvignon Blanc, which is the number one selling varietal in export wines, bulk and bottle by a long way. 2016 was a good harvest. They are seeing such originality in the wines, a huge array of different styles. This is our strength, regional site specific styles. There were 169 entries from 111 producers

Listening intently were Thys Louw of Diemersdal

GM of Tokara Karl Lambour

Hannes Meyer of Simonsig

Jacques Jordaan, Simonsig Marketing manager

Sjaak Nelson of Jordan

Main Course - two pieces of chicken breast (not too dry) stuffed with spinach served with a good parsnip and butternut puree, green beans, honey roasted butternut topped a delicious crisp piece of chicken skin. There was a good chicken and Sauvignon Blanc jus. It was a very large Boland helping of chicken!

Winnie Bowman CWM told us about the judging. Neil Ellis, seasoned winemaker and family estate proprietor, acted as convenor of the Top 10 jury which included wine journalist, Christian Eedes, winemakers, Wilhelm Pienaar and Narina Cloete as well as herself