.

Robertson Wine Valley's Wacky Wine Weekend 1. Tanagra

Our hosted accommodation was at Tanagra Wine Farm in McGregor, which was taking part in the festival with its wines, grappa and Eau de Vie. We were warmly welcomed by the owners, Anette and Robert Rosenbach, and taken to The Garden Cottage where we were to stay, which was very comfortable and is perfect for self catering. They have some interesting accommodation, some on the farm and also their Faraway and Hillside Cottages away from the farm, which are magnificent. Check out their website: http://www.tanagra.co.za/

A small kitchen as you enter then the large living/bedroom with a wood burning fire, essential for the very cold nights at this time of year. We saw temperatures drop to 7 degrees at night, but daytime temperatures are much more pleasant and on Friday and Sunday we had 25 degrees and full sunshine. There is also a commodious bathroom with a walk-in shower and plenty of hot water

The kitchen has a hob, and a microwave and is fully supplied with all cooking equipment, crockery and cutlery. And it has its own terrace with braai facilities and loungers. Sadly we didn’t have any time to use these, as we were always rushing off to another farm on our busy schedule, organised for us by Beatrix Galloway, Wine Route Manager at Robertson Wine Valley

We were gifted this bottle of the 2015 Tanagra Cabernet Franc which is our Wine of the Week

These are their other wines with the farm price list. The wines are made by Lourens van der Westhuizen,

The tasting room was moved for the weekend. Tanagra is a lovely farm. As they say on their website: "Tanagra is a treasure waiting for you, come and find it." It is a Birder Friendly farm and we saw many, many different species and they have many walking, hiking and mountain biking trails. They also have access into the nearby Vrolijkheid Nature Reserve with longer bird-walks and mountain trails.

Robert Rosenbach is the distiller of the spirits and they brought a German 200 litre still with them from Germany when they came to live here. It is a combined pot still (copper) and column still (stainless steel). This combination allows him to distil in a single process, resulting in a purer yield

The Grappas and Eau de Vies are very impressive, and you can taste them all

Arriving to see the tasting room with Anette. Robert is behind the temporary tasting counter in the cellar

Some happy visitors enjoying the day

And sampling the wares

What to taste first?

Thank you both Anette and Robert for a very comfortable stay;

we hope to return one day soon to see you both - and your dogs and cats

All content © John & Lynne Ford, Adamastor & Bacchus

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

Lunch at Bellevue, Stellenbosch

All content © John & Lynne Ford, Adamastor & Bacchus

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…

New labels launched at Kunjani

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...

Wine Concepts Chardonnay Pinot Noir Celebration at the Vineyard

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…

Western Cape tasting for the 2019 SA Wine Tasting Champs

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…

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 showed us how easy it is to remove the wax cap on the Arendsig wines from Robertson…

Old Mutual Trophy Wine Show 2019 Awards luncheon at The Mount Nelson

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…

MENU’s Wine of the Week. Bellevue Chardonnay

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

On the MENU this week. Roast Pork Belly with Fennel

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.

This email of this 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

All content © John & Lynne Ford, Adamastor & Bacchus

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

Photo courtesy of Olive Magazine

On the MENU this week. Roast Pork Belly with Fennel

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

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