Wednesday, June 12, 2019

Robertson Wine Valley's Wacky Wine Weekend. Robertson views

We haven’t been to Robertson Wine Valley's Wacky Wine Weekend since 2011 and were very happy to be invited this year. Much smaller than in previous years; we were saddened to see how many of the smaller & larger farms no longer take part and wonder whether this is enough to sustain this winter festival.. 

Kerk Street which, predictably, leads up to the Dutch Reformed Church, on a quiet evening
Eucalyptus trees on a Robertson farm
A view of the Robertson Valley from Klaas Voogds
Winter vineyard scene
Robertson is on the edge of the Karoo and some areas show hints of the arid landscape
but the Valley is fertile and green where when the Breede River blesses it with its water
The Langeberg Mountains show the enormous uplift caused by the continental collision that took place when South America collided with Africa
A typical early 20th Century Robertson house, with 'Broekie'  Lace (panty lace) framing the stoep
Autumn vines with winter clouds blowing in
The view from Bonnievale Cellar 
The surrounding mountains peeking through the incoming clouds
Early morning on the way to Arendsig for breakfast with morning fog rising from the Bonnievale valley
Posted by MENU at 10:45 pm 0 comments

Thursday, June 06, 2019

This Week’s MENU. Bellevue, Kunjani, Wine Concepts’ Chardonnay Pinot, Wine Tasting Champs, Siris Trade Tasting, Old Mutual Trophy Awards, Pork Belly, Bellevue Chardonnay

A damp day at Waterford wine estate, Stellenbosch

 It never rains… and we really felt as though that was true. After a series of dry years, this has looked as though it would top (or bottom) them all but, suddenly, we have had a few days of “pour” – nowhere near enough, but it has been very satisfying to see the pond filling up and Lynne has been optimistic and planted some seedlings, so the little patch of garden in front of the house is looking a bit less like a desert. The fire burns every night and, suddenly, winter is here. Off to Robertson this weekend and it will be cold. Maybe it will rain…
We hadn't visited our friends at Bellevue for a while and wanted to see what wines they were releasing and find out about their winter specials. We began in the tasting room where we met winemaker Wilhelm Kritzinger and had a quick tasting of some new wines…
Kunjani held a celebration to celebrate their new branding as well as the 50th Birthday of one of the owners, Paul Barth, last week and we were invited. Paul comes from the Rheingau wine region of Germany and both his father and grandfather were winemakers. As a child, he helped with the harvest every year, so...
We really enjoyed tasting some of the best Chardonnays and Pinot Noirs at Wine Concepts Chardonnay and Pinot Noir Celebration last Friday evening. There is such a wide selection and so many friends to chat to about their wine while tasting it. We made a good attempt and tasted as many as we could between 5 and 8 pm…
Once a year Jean Vincent Ridon, the Flying Sommelier and urban winemaker, holds the South African Wine Tasting Championships. It started in 2013. The mission of this show is "To find the best natural wine taster, across all South African communities, to educate and empower them, so they will fly the national colours high in the world competition." Last Saturday…

We are always delighted to be invited to cover Trade wine tastings and attended the Siris Vintners trade tasting at the Mount Nelson Hotel last Monday. Colyn Truter showed us how easy it is to remove the wax cap on the Arendsig wines from Robertson…

This years Old Mutual Trophy Awards were held yesterday, 4th June 2019 at the Mount Nelson Hotel. The results are now out and you can look at all of them on https://www.trophywineshow.co.za/2019-results/ Less awards this year but some great surprises and one rather well deserve and emotional trophy. The wines served at the function were…

The just released 2018 wooded Chardonnay has had 12 months in 100% new French oak but is not over wooded. It has a typical bready Chardonnay nose, with elegance, minerality, golden fruit notes and whiff of smoke on the end. Round on the enjoyable palate, nectarines and peach, limes, citrus and golden oak on the finish. R180 on the farm. Delicious with rich dishes like roast pork belly with crackling below

Pork belly is always one of the comfort foods we go to, especially when the weather turn chilly. Lynne has several favourite versions of this dish, especially Rueben’s version, but this is a new variation which we enjoyed very much, especially the crisp crackling…








6th June 2019

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

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 our website and ancillary works are © John & Lynne Ford, Adamastor & Bacchus. Our restaurant reviews are often 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.

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Posted by MENU at 10:16 pm 0 comments

MENU’s Wine of the Week. Bellevue Chardonnay 2018


This just released 2018 wooded Chardonnay has had 12 months in 100% new French oak, but is not over wooded. It has a typical bready Chardonnay nose, with elegance, minerality, golden fruit notes and whiff of smoke on the end. Round on the enjoyable palate, nectarines and peach, limes, citrus and golden oak on the finish. R180 on the farm. Delicious with rich dishes like the roast pork belly with crackling in this week's MENU recipe
All content ©  John & Lynne Ford, Adamastor & Bacchus
Posted by MENU at 7:04 pm 0 comments

On the MENU this week. Roast Pork Belly with Fennel


Photo courtesy of Olive Magazine
Belly of Pork weighing 1.5 to 2 Kg – 2 Tablespoons of fennel seed – 1 tspn of chilli flakes – 15g of rough salt – 2 onions, quartered – 2 carrots, roughly chopped – 2 sticks of celery, roughly chopped – 2 courgettes, sliced into 3 cm pieces – 1 fennel bulb, sliced 5 cloves of garlic, peeled – 1 Tablespoon of fresh thyme and chopped rosemary – 2 bay leaves – – 1 Tablespoon of olive oil - 1 bottle of unwooded chardonnay – salt and freshly ground black pepper
Turn your oven onto its hottest setting. Grind the fennel seed, coarse salt, & chilli flakes in a pestle and mortar until you have a powdered spice mix. Using a very sharp knife or even a Stanley knife, score the skin of the pork in strips every centimetre. Do not go deep enough to cut the meat, just the skin and the fat. Rub the spice mix into the top skin, working it well in. In a roasting tray, put all the vegetables, garlic and herbs, give them a good sprinkling of olive oil and then rest the pork belly on top of them. Put into the oven for 20 minutes or until the skin starts to bubble and crisp, but not burn. Turn the oven down to 170ºC and roast for an hour. Then add two thirds of the wine to the base of the pan. Return the pork to the oven and roast for another hour. Check that it is not burning on the bottom; if it is, just give it a stir to mix up the juices. Then add the rest of the wine and cook until the pork is tender and pulls apart easily – at least half an hour, perhaps more. The crackling should be nicely crisp and most of the fat should have roasted off. Serve with mashed potatoes, all the vegetables in the bottom of the roasting pan and the gravy they have produced. This will go well with a good Chardonnay like our Wine of the Week, Bellevue Chardonnay
All content ©  John & Lynne Ford, Adamastor & Bacchus
Posted by MENU at 6:43 pm 0 comments

Siris Vintners Trade tasting at The Mount Nelson

We are always delighted to be invited to cover Trade wine tastings and attended the Siris Vintners trade tasting at the Mount Nelson Hotel last Monday
Colyn Truter showing us how easy it is to remove the wax cap on the Arendsig wines from Robertson
The wines available for tasting and, hey, are all worth it!
James Pietersen of The Wine Cellar tasting them with Colyn
It was a very busy tasting with many sommeliers, restaurateurs and wine retailers
Lots of tasting and lots of chatter amongst the wine industry representatives takes place
Mark Herd of Sunset Beach Wines chats to Megan Mullis of Domaine des Dieux, who were showcasing their award winning MCCs and their other wines
Gielie Beukes, winemaker/viticulturist, Sue Anderson who does their PR and Johan Fourie, General Manager,
Doolhof Wine Estate with these three impressive wines. We loved them all and think the new branding is very appealing
and will jump off the shelf in wine shops
Riaan Moller with his Lievland Liefkoos Rosé from Grenache and a little Mourvedre
On the Fable Mountain stand was Keelyn Gibbons with their Raptor Post wines and The Night Sky Red and Syrah
Clayton Reabow, winemaker at Môreson, Franschhoek
David Nieuwoudt was showing The Berrio Wines from Elim, the Cape's most Southerly wine growing area
and Reenen Borman was on his farm’s stand with Boschkloof, talking here to Bubbles Hyland
Girls having fun tasting the wines. Caroline van Schalkwyk and her friends Danielle Chalmers and Billie Lambrechts
At Paserene, winemaker and owner Martin Smith with his wife, who are awaiting their first child
The wines available for tasting and, hey, are all worth it!
James Pietersen of The Wine Cellar tasting them with Colyn
It was a very busy tasting with many sommeliers, restaurateurs and wine retailers
Lots of tasting and lots of chatter amongst the wine industry representatives takes place
Mark Herd of Sunset Beach Wines chats to Megan Mullis of Domaine des Dieux who were showcasing their award winning MCCs
Gielie Beukes, winemaker/viticulturist, Sue Anderson who does their PR and Johan Fourie, General Manager, Doolhof Wine Estate with these three impressive wines. We loved them all and think the new branding is very appealing and will jump off the shelf in wine shops
Riaan Moller with his Lievland Liefkoos Rosé from Grenache and a little Mourvedre
On the Fable Mountain stand was Keelyn Gibbons with their Raptor Post wines and The Night Sky Red and the Syrah
Clayton Reabow, winemaker at Môreson, Franschhoek
David Nieuwoudt was showing the The Berrio Wines from Elim
And Reenen Borman was on their stand with Boschkloof
Girls having fun tasting the wines. Caroline van Schalkwyk and friends
At Paserne winemaker and owner Martin Smith with his wife, who are awaiting their first child

Posted by MENU at 6:07 pm 0 comments

Western Cape tasting at The Taj for the 2019 South African Wine Tasting Champs

Once a year Jean Vincent Ridon, the Flying Sommelier and urban winemaker, holds the South African Wine Tasting Championships. The competition started in 2013. The mission of this show is "To find the best natural wine taster, across all South African communities, to educate and empower them, so they will fly the national colours high in the world competition." Last Saturday, it was the turn of professional and amateur wine tasters in the Western Cape to challenge themselves once more. It took place at the Taj Hotel during the day. The competition is also held in Durban - this was on the 11th of May - in Johannesburg on the 8th of June and again at the Cape Town Tops @Spar Wine Show on the 13th of July at Grand West. The winning team will represent South Africa at the World Blind Tasting Challenge, the Olympics of wine tasting, in France. The National Finals to select that team will be held on the 21st July 2019 at the Taj Cape Town
Checking in to take some photographs and taste some wine. We do not enter the competition, but love to see who is tasting
The Cape Town results from this tasting have already been announced and the following have qualified for the finals:
Samarie Smith
Gareth Robertson
Edwina Frantz
Matija Leskovic
Georgio Meletiou
Anita Streicher Nel (Captain of 2018 and before)
Anton Swarts (member of Team 2018 and before)
James Walls
For more details check out the web page of Wine.co.za, who are sponsors 
There were 152 visitors, with 112 taking the test
First you go to taste the wines from several wine farms - you need to taste them all. The wines in the competition are among these wines and you will later have to identify them in the competition room. The wines are not selected by the judges; they also have no idea which wines are to be tasted
Eben Bezuidenhoud had wines from Creation to taste
Joris van Almenkerk pours one of his wines for Fairview winemaker Stephanie Wiid
Some easy drinking sparkling wines from Spier - good palate refreshers
Abigail Mitton, Marketing Manager at The Winery of Good Hope, showed the Radford Dale wines
And there were wines from Spice Route
The tasters take this competition very seriously and put a lot of thought and memory into their efforts
Lynne with Fairview winemaker Stephanie Wiid and Black Pearl owner/winemaker Mary-Lou Nash CWM
Taking a selfie with Jean Vincent Ridon, who organises the tastings and is one of the judges
Jean Vincent Ridon
This is the room where the competition takes place. First you register, then taste 10 wines blind - 5 white wine and 5 red wines. You need to identify the wines and note down where they come from
Raymond Noppe CWM studying the questions. There are also some questions about wines and winemaking
Gareth Robertson - Sales and Marketing Manager, Anthonij Rupert Wines - with pen to hand
Lots of serious tasting and contemplation. It is very, very quiet in the room
Relaxing afterwards, Jacqueline Lahoud chats to another competitor about the tasting.
Joris talks to one of his previous interns
Enjoying the experience!
Can I remember what this was?
Posted by MENU at 5:35 pm 0 comments
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