Tuesday, April 25, 2017

The Pinotage and Biltong Festival at L'Avenir, Stellenbosch

This annual festival was held on the grass at L' Avenir last weekend. It is a chance to taste some Cape Pinotages and lots of biltong. The days are still quite hot, so the wine farms were also encouraged to bring a chilled white wine or a rosé so there would be something for every taste. It was good value at R200 a ticket. This festival will be held in Gauteng on the 14th and 15th of October this year at the Leriba Hotel, Centurion. Tickets will cost R250
Despite the confusing sign it was Pinotage not Pinot Noir
The ticket queue
How it works: You were given this card with the list of the Pinotages you can taste. They tick them off as you taste them. Every wine is paired with biltongs from two suppliers: Boschendal with their Black Angus Beef Biltong and Dad's Choice, so you got to taste each biltong twice. You were given a very small bamboo tray that took 3 or 4 pieces of biltong. There was quite a selection of different biltong - some delicious and some rather weird. If we never taste chicken or bacon biltong again we will not mind. All other wines on the stands could be tasted without ticking a card
L' Avenir's tasting room, with outdoor seating
They had a cheese board on offer for R100
On the Lanzerac stand, Zelda Furstenburg and her colleague. Lynne enjoyed their Rosé
Knorhoek had an interesting Pinotage, which John liked
Nice moist Lemon Pepper Biltong from Boschendal. They were generous with their portions
Lots of places to sit and thankfully as it was a hot day, lots and lots of umbrellas giving shade
Mellasat showed their white Pinotage. We like the new packaging
Stellenbosch Vineyards had a very enjoyable bubbly, their rich and nutty Infinity Brut MCC made from Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier on sale at a very special price
Now that's fast food
There were some food stalls
We had Boerewors rolls from Boschendal which has the meat steeped in Pinotage. Good flavour but, sadly, they were a bit overcooked and dry
Great views of the lake and the Simonsberg
The band was great and played music to bop to all day
Our celebrity shot! Two members of the media we see often: Sue-Ann Allen, (Masterchef SA 2012 runner up) and Broadcaster John Meinking of #Hashtag Radio
A very important, award winning Stellenbosch winemaker visiting the festival gave Lynne a tip, "Go and taste the Wellington Wines". He was so right, they are doing some really good things to taste, leading with two good Pinotages
Chilling under the oaks
Still lush vineyards
Altydgedacht with their Pinotage delighted us
More enjoyment. It’s a very chilled festival
Where next?
Asking questions about the Paradyskloof wine
Leipzig pouring wine
It’s a Platter 4 star
The L' Avenir wine cellar
Girls having fun with Vriesenhof’s Paradyskloof Unwooded Chardonnay
We ended the day chatting with L' Avenir winemaker Dirk Coetzee. Now that Ad Vini, who own L' Avenir, have bought Le Bonheur wine farm and a share of Forrester Vineyards, Dirk is going to be very busy. Everyone was talking about his Pinotage rosé, just bottled and we were very impressed. It still has to be labelled, but will be available very soon. But the wine that blew our socks off was his Glen Rosé which is our Wine of the Week. Sadly, this is currently sold out off the farm but might be on good restaurant wine lists or in some of the wine retailers. The new vintage is on the way
The afternoon draws to a close with happy people still relaxing on the lawn
Posted by MENU at 11:44 am 0 comments

Monday, April 24, 2017

Restaurant Week lunch at Faber, Avondale, Paarl

Sometimes you just have the most perfect day and last Saturday was it. We had booked for lunch for four of us during Restaurant Week at Faber. We had eaten and really enjoyed chef Eric Bulpitt's food when he was at Newton Johnson and this is his new restaurant. So, when Lynne spotted Faber on the Restaurant Week list, she booked. We haven't been back to Avondale for several years - we try to get around as much as possible, but there is a long list of places we want to visit. And of course we do get invited to many. The name is Eric's inspiration: FABER m (genitive fabrī); second declension. craftsman, creator, artisan, architect, maker, artificer, smith

 Faber is open for lunch Wednesday – Sunday: 12h00 – 15h00 and for Dinner Wednesday – Saturday: 18h30 – 21h00. These times will change as we enter the Winter season, so check with the restaurant
The wine tasting area and restaurant share this building. The garden outside is absolutely magnificent. Avondale is a Biodynamic farm and they have 7 dams. They are outside Paarl, just off the N1 on the way to the Huguenot tunnel. They recycle almost everything and the water used is put through their water reclamation system, so the gardens receive the benefit. There are old fashioned roses with beautiful perfume, lots of indigenous plants, and those purple salvias attract lots of sunbirds, so you can sit on the terrace tasting wine watching them ...
...and the beautiful Drakenstein mountain and Paarl Rock with the autumnal trees and vines
We spent some time admiring the garden; we arrived a little early for lunch
Makes you wish you had this amount of space for a huge border garden like this. And the possibility of watering it
One of our friends had just celebrated a birthday, so we enjoyed a bottle of the Avondale MCC, Armilla Blanc de Blanc 2009. It has a lovely brioche nose with some lily of the valley, clean lemon and lime flavours of medium length and a nice mousse
This was the special Restaurant Week menu. Restaurant week is held twice a year; the next one will be in the Spring. It happens in our larger cities and in the Winelands. You can register on line and book for lunches and dinners. It began last Thursday, 20th April, and will finish next Sunday, 30th April. We believe there are still some places with availability http://www.restaurantweek.co.za
This is the normal menu, so even if you don't get there during Restaurant week, and we think you should visit, you can have the dishes we had, if not at the special price
The wine list carries the Avondale wines
Ah, the bread offering. Now some of you might recognise the reference. Yes, Chef Eric Bulpitt did work with Chef George Jardine and yes, his bread is as good as George’s. Those were warm Indian bhaji, good sourdough slices and really lovely seed loaf. Served with rendered lard and, for our veggie friends, good butter
The Pass and the Kitchen with chef Eric Bulpitt, his wife Celeste and waiter Prince Kohi. It is an open kitchen
We drank a bottle of Anima Chenin blanc, rich, and full of layers of fruit. So good with all the food we had
Lunch on the terrace
We loved our starter of small deep fried duck kromeski, crisp with lovely salty confit duck inside, with a pouring of a lovely chestnut velouté. Avondale has a large flock of ducks that keep the vineyards free of pests like snails. And yes, they do eat them. Ducks are rather fecund
The very pretty vegetarian starter of Korean style barbecued celeriac, with 'ferments' and pickles. Our friends said it was superb, very Korean, especially the pickles
We don't order chicken very much when eating out; it is often dry or barely cooked. However, if it was all like this, we would - often. The chicken was so moist and tender that we concluded it had to be cooked sous vide. The skin was flavourful and crisp. On the right, a well made of polenta and sweet corn contained a rich meat jus. This dish was also accompanied by a poured sweet corn velouté. We used our bread to 'George Jardine' our plates - sending them back to the kitchen shining clean, without a whisper of sauce left on them, as we do at George's
Whole roasted cauliflower, with fermented core and leaf ribs and a cauliflower purée. Cauliflower is not a favourite with everyone (like coriander and mushrooms) but it was said to be very good by She who loves it. Nice to see seeds used as texture. Lynne often uses slivered toasted almonds
There was a large tour group from Australia in the main restaurant, being hosted by owner Johnathan Grieve. The divine smells of the East Coast hake they were served wafted our way, redolent of shellfish. Definitely one to return to try while it is on the menu
The bill. We had the restaurant special of R200 pp for 2 courses and added two portions of chunky chips with their skins on. We passed on the dessert but enjoyed four excellent espressos. So it came to R700 per couple; we always split the bill. A special mention to our waiter Prince Kohi, pleasant, informed, friendly and efficient. Thank you
Posted by MENU at 11:44 pm 0 comments

Breakfast at Cape Point Vineyards

We felt like a drive in our new car to explore breakfast somewhere different and Cape Point Vineyards in Noordhoek got the vote. We also intended to explore the area afterwards. We did book and were reassured by them that the breakfasts, normally served outside, would be served inside should the weather change. We hadn’t been back there since we worked at their market in 2013
The menu
The view! The lake still has water, but is rather low
It was a lovely morning when we arrived at 10, so we were happy to sit outside at the picnic tables on the terrace. We were given a warm welcome
Our waitress Tumi explaining the menu. Lynne is not terrified or horrified, honest. Loraine is amused. We try to decide what to have
Loraine's and Ronnie's choice was the American pancakes with fresh strawberries, pecan nut crumble, vanilla bean cream and organic maple syrup. The pancakes are flapjacks. It was pronounced excellent
Lynne's Eggs Benedict with smoked salmon. The salmon was good and generous, the Hollandaise sauce correct and good, as were the toasted muffins. Sadly, the eggs were completely over-cooked and untrimmed, so she had bits of dead egg white on the edges. They ruined the dish. They need to ask how you want to have your eggs served. Runny yolks are essential
John ordered the Country style scrambled eggs with crisp bacon, topped with rocket, grated parmesan and tomatoes and a dash or three of balsamic vinegar. The scrambled eggs were very good; creamy and properly soft. Sadly, the bacon was not at all crisp and was a little leathery. The rocket, seemingly obligatory these days, was a little too ample and smothered the dish
Our bill, we had lots of coffee! Not too expensive
Lovely roses on the table
Birds in flocks on the trees, lots of starlings, but we think some were gathering to return north for the summer there
They have a small shop
Wines to take home and craft beers, cold drinks and sweeties
Both girls coveted the French cupboard facade, full of wine and corporate merchandise
The restaurant has a lovely terrace for lunch and dinner with those superb views
The bar inside. The wine tasting is done at their winery further down the road towards Chapman’s Peak Drive
An elegant lounge area
We explored Noordhoek and Kommetjie, went to a huge pottery there called Liebermann, with more pots than we have ever seen in one place in Africa, and then drove home along Chapman’s Peak and ended up at another favourite place, Dunes in Hout Bay, for a beer
and of course with beer goes chips, we called it lunch
Admiring the view, it was a beautiful day
People enjoying the bay 
and the beach. We are having quite a good Indian summer but we’re still longing for rain
Posted by MENU at 11:16 pm 0 comments
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