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Wednesday, August 01, 2018

Caroline's Red Wine Review 2018 at the Table Bay Hotel

To be able to choose your favourite top red wines and put them on show for customers, wine buffs, trade and media to taste must be so satisfying. Caroline Rillema does this once a year and the tasting was held last Thursday at the Table Bay Hotel. We love these tastings because you know that the calibre of the wines is going to be high. The prices are too, but at least these wines are deservedly making money. Prices ranged from R167 to the lofty R1724 a bottle. Some are older vintages, some are new releases

We try to taste as many as we can, but to do them all is impossible, not just because your palate tires after a while, but four hours is simply not enough time to do them all justice. Not to mention standing for that long at our age! Nor can John take that many photographs or MENU would just be too long for you to read. There are a lot of superlatives in this article, deservedly so. It was a really good exhibition of what the South African wine industry can do with red wine

When we arrived, Caroline advised Lynne to go and taste the three Cabernets Franc which were grouped together: Antonij Rupert 2012; Bruwer Raats 2015 Family CF; and Warwick's 2015 which won the Old Mutual Trophy. What an outstanding opportunity, each excellent wine was true to the varietal, but different in a very good way

Our Shiraz of the evening is worth special mention, as it has been one of our most enjoyed wines in the past and is so again. Powerfully perfumed, soft ripe fruit with long complex and deep flavours, with the perfect balance of chalk, fruit acid and wood, everything it needs to keep it together for a long while. Hartenberg's The Stork 2014 Shiraz, proudly made by Patrick Ngamane

Sebastian and Nici Beaumont were there at the front to lead the pack. They were showing their wonderful savoury, dark and complex 2014 Mourvedre

Peter Finlayson was showing Bouchard Finlayson's 2016 Galpin Peak Pinot Noir, always good - one of South Africa's best Pinots, a complex blend of dark cherry and spicy earthiness; rich and delicious

Bobby Wallace and Werner Muller of Iona. Nice to see Bobby back in the Elgin Valley. They were showing Iona's 2015 Solace Syrah, aromatic and spicy, with class which we wrote about recently

Lovely to see some seating in the main room. Not that we got to use any!

David and Rita Trafford of De Trafford and Sijnn. The De Trafford wine was a classic 2015 Cabernet Sauvignon with a powerful nose, good wood and fruit, violets, some good mouth puckering tannins and some chalk to make it last the predicted half a century. Would that we would be able to taste it at that age, but we'd have to last into our 130s

Simonsig red wine maker Debbie Thompson pouring her Simonsig The Garland 2010 Cabernet Sauvignon for Diaan van Zyl of Remhoogte; one of their classics and so ready to enjoy

Chris Boustred of Remhoogte, Francois-Jacques Malan of Simonsig and Rudi Schultz of Thelema. Remhoogte showed the 2014 Sir Thomas Cullinan, a blend of juicy Merlot and Cabernet, which had the best nose of the evening. It is given 80% new French oak, has incense from the wood and pure berry fruit, soft chalky tannins and it begs to be paired with food. Thelema had the best Cabernet Sauvignon of the evening, from the 2015 vintage; a lovely nose, juicy, with layers of cassis fruit and good gentle wood

Michelle van Eeden of Grangehurst with Jeremy Walker’s superb 2008 Cabernet Sauvignon. Jeremy holds his wines back in the cellar until he thinks they are ready to be released. This one is absolutely ready

JC Martin showing his The Art of Creation 2016 Pinot Noir, one of the most popular wines of the evening; they got through so many bottles. Savoury and sweet berry fruit, nicely wooded, with length and depth and some light chalky tannins on the end, the way a good Hemel en Aarde Pinot should be

David and Nadia Sadie were showing their 2016 Elpidios Rhône Blend. The grapes come from seven different Swartland vineyards. It contains Carignan, Syrah, Pinotage, Cinsault and Grenache. Raspberries, tayberries and mulberries with a whiff of wood. The fruit predominates; good acids and chalky tannins. We predict that this will become more complex with age

Having a short pause on the terrace between the two different venues

Cathy Marshall and Sue Anderson showing Cathy’s Catherine Marshall 2015 Peter's Blend. This Bordeaux Blend has Italianate flavours, a little wild from the Cabernet Franc, with lovely perfume on the nose, soft tannins, with a long savoury end. Just made for rich meat dishes

Happy girls

The Maestro. Giorgio dalla Cia with his 2015 Dalla Cia Giorgio Bordeaux blend, with juicy fruit, a classic; complex and layered with some good chalk on the end. With Nevers oak. This is a food wine

L’Re Burger and Louis Strydom with the Ernie Els 2013 Signature, a Bordeaux blend. Winemaker Louis keeps his wines for at least five years before releasing them. This one is fruit forward with wood support, cherry berry and chalk on the palate, a superb blend, and ready to drink

Kayla Oertle showing the very impressive Rupert & Rothschild Baron Edmund 2014 Bordeaux Blend. Cherry, wood, perfume, smoke on the palate. Well balanced fruit, wood and acid with lots of depth and length. An enjoyable, well made food wine, that has lots of time

Barend Barnard pouring a tasting of the Lanzerac Pionier 2015. From a high altitude, therefore cool, vineyard, it follows the trend of making Pinotage fresher, lighter and more elegant – more like its Pinot Noir parent. One to persuade the band of Pinotage haters of the varietal’s merits

Alice Verburg & friend with the Luddite 2014 Shiraz

Môreson winemaker Clayton Reabow with the 2015 MKM Pinotage which has deliciously good fruit

Paula Teixeira and Pierre Wahl who were showing the Rijk’s 2014 Pinotage Syrah blend. Quite a wild, mad blend but it works, intense and full

Saronsberg’s Full Circle Rhône Blend gets so many well deserved awards. A rich and complex blend, mostly Syrah with Mourvedre, Grenache and a touch of Viognier. The 2013 was our Wine of the Week in March

A happy Duncan Savage was showing his 2017 Follow the Line Cinsault from Darling. (You do have to be careful where you put the Darling!) It IS in that pale Pinot style which can encourage one to mistake Cinsault for Pinot, with spice and perfume on the nose

Duncan Savage and Delight Aitken

Sarah Revell with Delight Aiken and Lynne

Stuart Downes showing Shannon's Mount Bullet Merlot. Wow, if only all SA Merlots could be this good. Perfumed, great intense fruit, sweet cherries, berries with long flavours, and good wood, just supporting. An SA version of the St Emilion style, but full on. Our favourite of the night. Cellar and/or drink with good food now

Charla Haasbroek of Sijnn with the Free Reign 1st Edition Blend of three vintages 2009/10/11. It has salty Dutch liquorice flavours, with dark intense fruit

RJ Botha and Anthony van Schalkwyk of Kleine Zalze with Francois van Zyl of Laibach (Lynne was humming "I'm a lumberjack" from Monty Python)

Etienne & Marcelle le Riche. They were showing the Le Riche Cabernet Sauvignon, with its beautiful and intense nose and palate

9 pm and time to pack up. Sijnn winemaker Charla Haasbroek, weightlifter. Not really, the bottles had all been emptied for tasting, which is why she is looking so happy

Tired but happy at the end of a very very successful evening, Ray Kilian and Caroline Rillema (Mrs Kilian)

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Friday, July 27, 2018

This Week’s MENU. Kyoto Garden Winter Special, Breakfast at Coco Safar, The Trade Show 2018, Portuguese Duck Rice, Migliarina 2015 Single Vineyard Chardonnay

A Sea Point winter sunset

This almost didn’t make the deadline. We planned to try and leave early from Caroline’s wonderful Red Wine Review, more about which next week. A collection of the country’s best Reds – who could leave early from that - and we still had to finalise a couple of this week’s stories. We didn’t think we’d make it before we collapsed, but here it is, accompanied by the wonderful sound of gentle rain falling outside. We hope you’ll like it

Winter Special menu at Kyoto Garden

Cape Town seems to be going through an Asian experience at the moment with so many new Asian and Asian-inspired restaurants opening and being enjoyed. It has taken a while for SA to get there and we are loving it, as we so enjoy eating this style of food. Some of the successful Asian restaurants that have been around for a while are enjoying this revival and should never be ignored, as the reason they are still here is that they produce authentic Asian food. It is the season when we are invited to taste winter specials and Kyoto in Kloofnek Road invited us to visit and sample their Japanese offering

Breakfast at Coco Safar, Sea Point

The Adelphi Centre in Sea Point has had an ongoing refurbishment, a name change (that we don’t think will work for Sea Pointers), and many of the old shops have departed. As you enter the centre, you cannot fail to see Coco Safar restaurant, which has taken up space on the left and right of the main entrance and some at the back for their Rooibos brewery. We were invited to go for breakfast this week…

The Trade Show 2018. Trade wine tasting at Welgemeend

Another trade wine show this week, held at Welgemeend in Gardens. Five wine representatives grouped together to show their wines at one event: Sam Brown, Michelle Stewart, Hein de Jager, Miranda Rieker and Bev Murray. Hence there were a lot of wines to taste. We can mention just a few…

On This Week's MENU: Portuguese Duck Rice

This classic Portuguese dish originated in one of their Asian colonies many years ago and was adapted for the local taste. It has become a special dish that they eat at celebrations and high holidays like Christmas and New Year. Here is the recipe using a whole duck, very luxurious….

MENU’s Wine of the Week Migliarina 2015 Single Vineyard Chardonnay from Elgin grapes. There were two white wines that most impressed us this week, both from the same winemaker. First, the Migliarina 2016 Chardonnay made with Elgin grapes

The other is our Wine of the Week; it is the 2015 Single Vineyard Chardonnay, also from Elgin, which has soft incense wood and citrus fruit on the nose. Complex on the palate, it is full with caramel, pineapple followed by a creamy lemon posset on the palate, and finishing with elegant minerality. This wonderful creaminess…

26th July 2018

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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. 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

On This Week's MENU: Portuguese Duck Rice

This is the recipe using a whole duck, very luxurious, OR what you can also do is use a duck carcass that still has plenty of meat on it and less rice. We go to our local Chinese restaurant for special occasions and often order the Peking duck. You have paid for the whole duck, so ask for the carcass to take home – don’t let them chop it up. Put it into the freezer, whole, until you want to make this dish. Use just one cup of rice

If using a whole duck, this serves 6 - 8 people. If using a duck carcass, just 2 or 3, but you do end up with lots of extra duck stock which you can freeze till you are ready to make soup from it

A 2 kilo whole duck, cut up into 8 pieces - 2½ cups rice - 5 cups duck stock (from cooking the duck) - half of a Chorizo - 2 medium onions, quartered - 1 peeled carrot - 1 leek – 1 celery stalk, trimmed - 2 garlic cloves, peeled and left whole - 2 bay leaves - 4 cloves - 6 stalks of fresh parsley - 4 sprigs fresh thyme - 1 teaspoon whole Black peppercorns – 1 star anise – 1 T duck fat - salt- 2 cloves of garlic, finely chopped

Method: Push the cloves into pieces of the onion. Wash the leek very well and roughly chop it. Peel the carrot. Trim and wash the celery. Roughly chop both. Rinse the parsley and the fresh thyme

Wash the whole duck and cut into 8 pieces

In a big pot, add the duck, onion with cloves, leek, celery stalk, carrot, garlic, bay leaves, parsley, thyme, star anise, peppercorns and cover with water. Season with salt. Bring to a boil, reduce the heat and simmer, covered with a lid, for 1 hour. Remove the lid and allow to cook for a further 45 minutes until the duck is very tender and almost falling of the bones. This will slightly reduce and concentrate the stock. Do not overcook it or you will have a pot full of small bones. If using a carcass, leave it whole and cook until it is easy to take the meat off the bones, no more than an hour and a half

Remove the duck from the stock and let it cool. Remove the flesh, shred it into big pieces. Discard the skin and all the bones – be very thorough, because the duck has some very small bones

Pour the duck stock through a sieve– you will need 5 cups for the recipe. The stock will be very rich and have a lot of fat from the duck, which will give the rice its special flavour. If the duck was very fatty and SA ducks often are, there will be a very thick layer of fat. You can let the stock go cold in the fridge and take off some of the excess duck fat. Keep this for roasting potatoes, they are the best

In a big pan with a tight fitting lid, over medium heat, add 1 or 2 tablespoons of duck fat and sauté the rice for a minute or two until it is well coated in the fat and almost sticking to the pan

Add the duck stock, stir and scrape off any rice attached to the pan. Check the salt, bring to a boil, reduce the heat and simmer, tightly covered, for 17 minutes. During this time DO NOT uncover or stir the rice

Remove from the heat and allow to rest for 5 minutes without uncovering the pan or stirring the rice

Fluff up the rice, so you don’t have any lumps

Pre-heat the oven to 180 °C / 375°F

In a deep oven-proof serving dish, spread half of the fluffed-up rice and add some of the chopped garlic. Spread the shredded duck on top. Cover with the remaining rice and the rest of the chopped garlic. Or you can just mix in the duck and garlic with the rice if layering doesn’t work for you

Slice the chorizo and scatter the slices on top of the rice

Bake in the centre of the oven for 15 minutes or until the top layer of the rice is lightly golden and beginning to crisp at the edges. The chorizo should be crispy too. Sprinkle with some parsley or chopped chives and serve immediately. Great with a green salad and a good Chenin Blanc to cut through the richness and the spicy chorizo

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MENU’s Wine of the Week. Migliarina 2015 Single Vineyard Chardonnay from Elgin grapes

There were two white wines that most impressed us this week, both from the same winemaker. First, the Migliarina 2016 Chardonnay made with Elgin grapes

This wine will last and improve. It was scored highly by some of the British wine writers like Jamie Good and Greg Sherwood at 93/100. Boutique vintner Carsten Migliarina, who is a trained sommelier, says "I do not own a wine farm, I am not unhappy about this as it allows me the freedom to source the best grapes from the best vineyards I can find”. He buys in all his grapes each year and has many interesting and noteworthy wines. From R190 a bottle. We liked several of his other wines on show, so he is someone to watch

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The Trade Show 2018. Trade wine tasting at Welgemeend

Karen and Danie Steytler of Kaapzicht had their Kliprug Chenin Blanc and we kept being asked by other trade tasters if we had yet tasted this superb wine, as they recommended that we did; it was very popular and very good. A rich Chenin nose, soft wood on the palate with limes and cream, sappig and very much a food wine; so, so enjoyable

Madison Nixon, Zelda Fox and Nicolas Follet on the Charles Fox stand. We tasted all the wines, including the vintage 2013 Brut MCC, sweeter than we remember it, and the Vintage 2012 Brut Rosé which has a lovely prickle and good red fruit with a dry finish; very good. The 2013 Blanc de blancs was especially good, Granny Smith apple and a leesy, buttery base with a richness from the base wine’s partial barrel maturation

The space is large; they had wines in two rooms with the bar in the middle room for beers and spirits. There were tables with cheese, biscuits and fruit; canapés circulated

Mushrooms in filo pasty parcels

The Charles Fox bubblies on ice

Ian Corder had his Yellow Lorry and Red Lorry wines for tasting with their striking new labels. Lynne really enjoyed his Pinot Noir, perfumed with rose petals; full of gentle raspberries and soft wood with lots of elegance

Best canapés; smoked salmon on cream cheese and a good dark, malty brown bread

Chicken skewers. We hope no one's palate suffered after a bite of those extremely hot chillies?

and wraps

In one of the other rooms, people were busy working out what to taste and then what to buy for their wine lists or shops

The Strandveld sauvignons, from the southernmost vineyards in South Africa; they always produce excellent Sauvignons Blanc. Adamastor, their Sauvignon Blanc/Semillon blend wins many awards. The 2017 First Sighting sauvignon blanc was awarded 97 points in this year’s Decanter wine awards in London, the highest mark they have ever given to a white wine

Jorika Dreyer of Raka with their wines. We plan to visit both these farms in the next few weeks

Their selection

Truter wines are made from bought in grapes. The Blokhuis Grenache Blanc from Piekenierskloof was rather full of terpenes, not something one often finds on Grenache. The Agaat Christina is a blend of Sauvignon Blanc, Nouvelle, Chenin and 2% Viognier. It has a bit of a dip in the middle but time may sort that out. You may not have heard of the Nouvelle grape.It’s a local hybrid; it was thought that Crouchen blanc and Semillon were the parents. A paternity test in 2007, however, revealed that Ugni blanc was the father. A grape not much used in the industry

Vriesenhof winemaker Nicky Claasens and Delight Aitken sharing amusement. Lynne only had time to taste the excellent and typical Pinot Noir, darker berries than most but still typically Pinot - fruity with good wood, elegance and aging potential

John tasted the Chardonnay and really enjoyed its subtle balance of citrus fruit and light oak structure

Morgenhof was there with some of the farm's older vintages

Tasting at the bar. They had water: Aqua V and Swig; Hermanus Beers, a lager and a pale ale and Lanique, a liqueur tasting of Attar of Roses, which we could not be persuaded to taste, as wine was the source of enough alcohol for the evening

These were the two white wines that most impressed on the evening: first, Migliarina 2016 Chardonnay made with Elgin grapes. The fruit climbs above the wood, it does not go through malolactic fermentation, so it is so lovely and balanced, with lemon and citrus fruit. Then the 2015 Single Vineyard Chardonnay, also from Elgin. It has incense wood and citrus fruit on the nose, caramel pineapple and a finish of a creamy lemon posset followed by elegant minerality. This wonderful creaminess comes from the fermentation on the lees. This wine will last. It is our wine of the week this week. The boutique vintner, Carsten Migliarina who is a trained sommelier, says "I do not own a wine farm. I am not unhappy about this, as it allows me the freedom to source the best grapes from the best vineyards I can find”. He buys in all his grapes each year and has many interesting and noteworthy wines, of which the Piekenierskoof Grenache (4 star Platter) deserves mention with its almost Pinot noir nose; pretty and floral with slightly wild red berry fruit. It is herbal and savoury with a dark toasted end. He says his aim is to make wines with freshness, elegance and personality, wines he enjoys drinking. They certainly have those characteristics

Nicolas Follet and Madison Nixon

Winemaker Danie Steytler with his Kaapzicht wines

Hein de Jager with Karen Steytler of Kaapzicht

Danie Steytler of Kaapzicht and David Wibberley of Oldenburg chatting about the wine industry. We really enjoyed the Oldenburg Viognier; herbal with white peach fruit on the nose. This food wine is fruit forward on the palate but dry and has been made with restraint, necessary on this grape which can be blowsy and sweet. We liked this restraint and careful wooding

A very special wine of the evening was the Ondine Malbec from Ormonde in Darling. We often buy this wine by the case, it is so good. It is full of violets on the nose, dark but ripe berry fruit on the palate with salt and licorice on the end. A great wine with food. An essential in the cellar

Kirsten Stewart, Miranda Rieker, Bev Murray, Hein de Jager, Michelle Stewart and Sam Brown - the team who put the tasting together, representing all their wineries

The team from the Victoria and Alfred Hotel

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About us

MENU, our weekly email newsletter, started as an advertising medium for Main Ingredient, our specialist retail grocery business. We opened our Sea Point shop in December 2002 because realised that there was a place in South Africa for a grocer catering to people with sophisticated tastes and needs. We moved the shop on line in 2010, but discontinued it in 2015, having decided that it is time to “retire” and concentrate on our writing, photography and tour guiding. MENU has a wide circulation and is read nationally and internationally.

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