Wednesday, December 06, 2017

Wine-of-the-Month Club Winemaker Awards 2017

Time for Wine of the Month Club to laud their suppliers. The event was held at Vista Marine restaurant which is behind the Aquarium in the V&A Waterfront. This year's event was a chance to taste some of their most popular wines and meet the winning winemakers
Emil den Dulk of De Toren, Mike Ratcliffe of Warwick and Johan Malan of Simonsig all won awards
The man who started this successful (now on line) wine club in 1986, innovator and owner of Wine-of-the-Month Club Colin Collard
with his sons Clifford and Giscard, directors of the company and daughter Natalie, the wine buyer for the club and the publisher of Good Taste magazine
Clifford Collard began the ceremony. They have 30 000 active members and many more casual buyers. A box of wine is delivered every month. How does the selection of the wines work? They invite a panel of ten independent expert wine judges every week. They ask them to taste 40 wines each week (that is 2000 a year!) and score all the wines blind in a neutral environment at their premises. Blind wine tasting ensures that no judge is influenced by a label, the beauty of a wine farm or warmth of the host. As a member, you can order a selection of wines on line or just let them send you a selected mystery mixed case of the wine styles and varietals you prefer. Check out their website https://www.wineofthemonth.co.za/
Caroline Rillema of Caroline’s Fine Wines won an award for her own Celestina white blend and Jane Ferreira Eedes was there to collect an award for Vondeling
Some hopeful faces. The panel retastes the top 20 of each category every year and finds the champions. They want to award quality
Kathy Leaver Miller, Account and Marketing Manager at Wine-of-the Month Club
Asif Hoosen, Head of Marketing, Product and Public Relations at sponsor Audi South Africa, said that they "are very interested in the top winemakers, they want to know their 'back' stories and to be part of their future"
More intent wine people, with a glass of Johan Malan's winning Simonsig MCC Brut. This has won this category many times
Giscard Collard began the Awards ceremony
One of the slides showing the demographic of their orders nationwide
and another with the top 10 suppliers to the club
Pierre Waal, of Rijks gets his certificate as runner up in the Chenin Blanc category for the Reserve 2011 Chenin. The other runner up was Carl van der Merwe for the De Morgenzon Reserve
Alvi's Drift was awarded the Trophy for the Chenin blanc category with his Albertus Viljoen Chenin blanc 2015 (a Platter 5 star wine), collected here by owner Alvi van der Merwe
The Trophy of Winemaker of the Year went to Gerhard Swart of Flagstone
Some prizes were also awarded, this is some Laborie MCC for winemaker Stephanie Wiid of Fairview
Then it was time for some food to pair with the winning wines
Spicy chicken drumsticks, superb prawns, and fresh oysters,
Those drumsticks
A tray of canapés
Filo pastry quiches
A wicked selection of sweets, chocolates, biscuits and meringues
and a table full of the winning wines to taste
The trophy winners with Colin Collard, only missing Karl Lambour of Tokara who had to leave early
The individual cultivar winners for the Audi South Africa Wine Awards 2017 are:

  • Chenin Blanc: Alvi’s Drift Wines - Albertus Viljoen Chenin blanc 2015
  • Dry White Blend: De Morgenzon-  Maestro White
  • Sauvignon Blanc: Brampton Wines
  • Chardonnay: Pulpit Rock Wines
  • Bordeaux Blend: Bellevue Wine Estate - Bellevue Tumara 2008
  • Cabernet Sauvignon: Wellington Wines 
  • Merlot: Bayede Royal Wines 
  • Pinotage: Flagstone Wines - Writer's Block Pinotage
  • Shiraz: Stony Brook Vineyards - Syrah reserve
  • MCC: Simonsig  - Kaapse Vonkel

Posted by MENU at 9:20 pm 0 comments

Hillcrest launches new Saartjie wine range

Arno Smith, the winemaker at Hillcrest Wine Estate in Durbanville, invited us and other media to come and taste his newly released wines named after his rather cute Jack Russell terrier, Saartjie. Each of the four wines was paired with some tapas style food and a great evening was enjoyed by all. The wines are now available for tasting and buying at the Hillcrest tasting room.
This is Saartjie, the winemaker’s 2 year old Jack Russell terrier who is his constant companion and his muse and a loved and valued member of the team
Winemaker and viticulturist Arno Smith. He was appointed general winemaking assistant to then winemaker Graeme (Curly) Reed and he made the Sauvignon Blanc and the Rosé, In 2016 he was appointed General Manager and Winemaker. This was his maiden vintage of the red wines
The farm is owned by senior partners in Haw and Ingles, a Cape based construction company specializing in road construction and rehabilitation. Besides wine, they also produce olives, olive oil and now a range of craft beers
Broadcaster Guy MacDonald gets some love
We began the tasting with the Saartjie 2017 Semillon. Made in old white wine barrels, it is in the oxidative style. They allow it to ferment naturally in the barrels and add French oak staves. They made 1 barrel in 2016 which is now sold out, and 1,000 bottles in 2017. Oxidative whiffs, with honeysuckle perfume and 'fine herbes'. Nice limes and cooked apple on the palate, rounded mutton fat texture, as you should find in Semillon, a pinch of Durbanville salt and the wood supports but doesn't show on the palate. A good, enjoyable wine, especially with food
The menu
The Semillon proved itself as a food wine as it went very well with the two dishes served to us: an unusual but good apple and camembert Strudel with figs...
... and cooked pears, gorgonzola and walnuts on a quite tough pastry biscuit.
Then we tasted the 2016 Malbec. Huge notes of expensive French oak on the nose with a little violet. It is a dark, almost black garnet in colour and has intense fruit on both the nose and palate. This is a 10 year wine. Dark berries , cherries, plums and chalky grippy tannins with more violets on the end and some good fruit acidity to help it last the distance. Our favourite wine of the evening and we will try to keep our bottle as long as possible. Lots of quality
This was served with Beetroot and goats cheese
and a rather sweet spicy butternut soup with a parmesan cracker
Then the 2016 Cabernet Franc Still very young this also has lots of incense French oak on the nose with some herbs, with red and black berries. Soft and sweet fruit on the palate with some salty liquorice. It ends with chalky tannins and supporting fruit acid, with a little wildness thrown in
We had this with morsels of good roast pork on top of carrot puree and topped with a very sweet spicy apple chutney ...
... and rather dry chicken koftas on humus, topped with a nice moist smoky paprika tomato relish
Then the 2016 Petit Verdot, which was very popular in the room. It has intense perfume, cassis, coffee mocha on the nose, soft and sweet on the palate with good fruit and a kick of acidity on the end to help it last. This will sell well, it is a good expression of the grape
Accompanied by some rare tuna chunks, seared on the bottom, topped with sesame and rolled cucumber ...
... and awesome rare roast beef slices on crisp rosti with good French mustard, the dish of the evening and so good with the wine
Desserts to tempt were date and coconut balls and extremely moreish dark chocolate Rocky Road chunks which went well with the good coffee -they should sell these in the shop. Lynne bought her annual 3 kilos bucket of black olives from the restaurant shop, a bargain at R220. We thoroughly enjoyed the evening, the wines, food and the company. Thank you Hillcrest
Posted by MENU at 12:27 pm 0 comments

Monday, December 04, 2017

Mission Britain - Selling wine to the UK plus two Australian views

Last week we were asked to attend a seminar about Exporting Wine to the UK at Joostenberg and to hear from two prominent Australian wine makers who really surprised us as we learnt how difficult winemaking can be in that country. We were so impressed at how open they were with all the facts and figures and a they gave us a warning about water wars
One of the sponsors of the day was the Shippers Hillebrand. The Pebbles Project is another superb charity raising money for education. They " enrich the lives of disadvantaged children and families in the Winelands farming communities in the Western Cape and impact the lives of children and their families by providing support and intervention in five key areas: Education, Health, Nutrition, Community and Protection"  
Lynne chatting to Christian Eedes of Winemag.co.za as people take their seats
Lots of young winemakers
Charles Withington of The Darling Wine Shop, who organised this event with Pippa Woods of Seckford Agencies, respected wine importers in the UK
November saw Pippa planning a trip with a difference - bringing world experts in their fields, for their first visit to South Africa to pass on some of their expertise
Judy Kendrick and Ana Sofia de Oliveira from JKMarketing, a leading wine marketing company in the UK
presented a seminar based on their ‘Road Map’ of exporting to the UK
Judy and Ana Sofia gave us information about how costs are distributed in a bottle of wine sold in the UK with the variations across the price range. There is very little profit at the lowest end of the market
and where South Africa stands in relation to other competitors
with a slight improvement in the last quarter
Ana Sofia told the audience how she got into the business, from her origin in Portugal where she worked for ViniPortugal. She set up Wines Unearthed and The Wine Agency in the UK before joining forces with Judy Kendrick at JK Marketing
The audience listening intently
One of the most interesting and concise presentations was Shipping Trends by Marliese Martin, Area Director: Africa, Middle East & India at JF Hillebrand Global Beverage Logistics. She gave important information about shipping costs, pitfalls, insurance and freight. She covered all the necessities in ten minutes. Lynne, who has a diploma in Shipping from her sojourn at Safmarine, does find things like this interesting. She used to ship antiques worldwide when she worked in that trade in London. Not much has changed, just the rates and the jargon. Marliese says that the top three things you need to know about shipping abroad are Incoterms, Risks and the Export process. She warned that you do need to keep up to date with Brexit, things will change. Work with reputable service providers and avoid big fines, don't take shortcuts. The Government needs money and they are looking for it in interesting places
Then it was time to hear from the visiting Australian wine makers and the first presentation was by Anthony Murphy from Trentham Estate in the Murray Darling Region
His family went to Mildura from Ireland in the 1860's. He told us the almost 90% of wine is controlled by the large companies and it did remind us of when KWV and Nederburg held sway before the days of independent wine estates making their own wines rather than selling all their grapes to them. He also told us how they have dealt with years of extreme drought - the 10 year drought began in 2000 and in 2010 they only had 30% of water - sounds familiar. They got through this and now have the best water plan in the world but it took 5 years to operate. 85% of producers are not making money in the drought area. Now water has become an important tradable commodity in Australia. His tanks are outside, barrels inside. They are on the Murray Darling basin, so they have water. The farm was once a sheep station, they have sandy limestone soils. It is run by his brother and one worker, they have cut labour and it is all automated. They farm Chardonnay, Shiraz and Cabernet. They get 130 to 150 mm of rain per annum. To be small is the future as the Corporates control everything - he says with them "It's a race to the bottom. The big firms are putting juice through huge membrane filtration." Australian has gone from 4000 to 2000 growers in 10 years. And he says he avoids Bio label wine, there is no money in it. There is a lot of water trading going on. The farms with are dictating the price and selling to farms without. Table grapes, citrus and almonds are selling better than wine. He says the real cost of producing 12 bottles of wine is A$28.50
Pippa had persuaded her long standing friends, Stephen and Prue Henschke from the Barossa valley in South Australia to join the party. They gave a very interesting presentation. Stephen spoke about the wine making. They trained first in Australia then at Geisenheim in Germany, where many of our top winemakers have also studied. Their Hill of Grace was Australia's wine of the Year in 1987. Henschke is a small farm founded in 1860, making superb top end wines at premium prices from Shiraz vines (on their own roots). The vines originate from pre-phylloxera material which was brought from Europe by the early European settlers. The farm has had 250 years of growing Riesling and Shiraz. There are also small plantings of Riesling, Semillon and Mataro. The oldest vines still producing were planted in the 1860s by Nicolaus Stanitzki. These are called the Grandfathers and are up to and including 100 years old (average age is 80 years) and the cost of production is frightening. As both water and power are limited, they strive to be better rather than bigger
Stephen said they are disappointed with cork; they got the worst quality, screw caps came in and they now use a Vinolok closure and since 1996 the have not used any cork. He says if you are charging $A800 a bottle the wine must not be faulty and must be reliable. They put in a A$1 million bottling line, the first in the southern hemisphere. The average age of their vines is 80 years. Recently they have planted Grüner Veltliner for the future
and Prue talked about the viticulture, which she handles. They try for a sense of place, a flavour of the vineyards. She learnt in Germany how to look after the soil, they have lots of wind and water erosion. She uses pasture grass which is a native wallaby grass, it is hard to grow others. She uses straw coverage under the vines as mulch. They bring in 1000 tons of green waste compost annually and this goes beneath the straw. They also use genetic cuttings from the old vines, layering or replanting
Posted by MENU at 11:52 am 0 comments

Friday, December 01, 2017

What is on the MENU this week? Christmas cometh

We know you may be thinking of the Christmas holidays and the big Christmas meal, or of simply avoiding it! It is a difficult time for cooks, with the demands of a large meal probably for family and some friends. So we thought we would look back at our recipes from the last 14 years and see if we could find some to re-inspire you. The first thing that comes to mind is canapés to start the celebration or any event you might have friends over during the holidays. We usually like dips rather than finger food, which can be clumsy, especially if too large and crumbly - we do get to sample hundreds every year. Here are a couple of our favourites - some are fairly conventional, but coming back into fashion, easy and delicious
Guacamole
3 ripe avocados - 2 crushed cloves of garlic - 1 tablespoon olive oil - 1 tablespoon lemon juice -Salt and black pepper - pinch of Cayenne Pepper - ¼ teaspoon Worcester Sauce - Dash of Tabasco sauce
Peel the avocados and remove stones (keep one). Mash/liquidise the avocado with garlic, oil and lemon juice. Add seasoning to taste. Put into a bowl, placing avo stone in centre. This will keep it green. Chill till ready to serve, then remove stone. Serve with corn chips.
Asparagus spears wrapped in Parma ham
Snap off any hard bases of the asparagus. Blanche the asparagus spears in hot water for 1 minute then immerse in ice cold water till cold. Dry and carefully wrap each spear in a slice of Parma ham. Arrange on a plate, and grate over a little fresh parmesan cheese. Serve
Smoked salmon blinis
Blini recipe
125 g self-raising flour - 1 tsp caster sugar - 1 egg, beaten - 1 Tbsp melted butter - 150 ml milk - canola oil for frying - 100 g cream cheese - 160g smoked salmon slices - chives
Mix the flour with the sugar, add the egg and the melted butter and some of the milk, a little at a time until you have a smooth batter. Drop one level teaspoon on to a hot oiled pan and turn when the bubbles burst. Remove when firm and set aside to cool.. Put a dollop of plain or herb cream cheese on each blini. Cut 5cm slivers of good smoked salmon and wrap into a small circle big enough to fit onto the blini. Dust with some finely chopped chives.
Large peeled prawns in Prego sauce
There are never enough big prawns in the world at Christmas. Peel them, leaving on just the tip of the tail, and make sure you devein them. Marinate them in a good Prego sauce and just before serving toss them in some hot oil in a pan to cook. Serve immediately on a bed of lettuce, with forks.

And don't forget Paté, Stuffed Mushrooms, Cheese biscuits, homemade Humus, spiced nuts and good olives 
Posted by MENU at 1:06 pm 0 comments

MENU's Wines of the Week - Christmas bubblies

To start your Christmas Celebrations we can only recommend some good bubbles, the local Mèthode Cap Classiques that we have voted our best over a couple of years
Do look for Silverthorn, Colmant, Le Lude, Graham Beck, Simonsig Kaapse Vonkel, Laborie, Steenberg and Cru Monro from Villiera. (Apologies to Colmant, we've drunk our last bottle). The Woolworths MCC is by Villiera

The glasses are Royal Yacht by Thomas Webb, Vinismo Sensuality flute, Bohemia Crystal and Riedel's Veritas Champagne
Posted by MENU at 11:47 am 0 comments
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)