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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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On the MENU This Week. Daube of Beef with Prunes

It is a dish you start in the morning, cook in the late afternoon/early evening and it braises and is ready to serve for dinner. There are some different ingredients from a normal beef stew recipe and they make all the difference. Do try and use very good beef stock. The recipe comes from the South of France. Use good robust red wine, you can drink the rest with the meal. We used Nymphomaine 2014 from La Vierge in the Hemel en Aarde Valley. Serves 6, so great for a dinner party

A kilo of lean stewing beef or deboned shin of beef , cut into 3 cm cubes – 100g streaky bacon cut into 2 cm slices – half a bottle of good red wine – 75 g butter or olive oil – 450 g peeled and sliced carrots – 450 g of finely sliced onions – 2 sticks of celery, finely sliced – 2 cloves of garlic, roughly chopped – 2 tablespoons of flour or corn flour - a 10 cm strip of orange peel – a bouquet garni or 2 bay leaves, 1 teaspoon of thyme leaves and 2 teaspoons of chopped rosemary leaves - 500 ml good beef stock – 2 rounded tablespoons of tomato puree – 10 prunes

Put the cut up beef and bacon into the red wine in a mixing bowl and marinate for 3 to 4 hours. This helps to tenderise the cheaper cuts of beef. If you want to add the marrow bones from the centre of the shin of beef to this, it will add so much richness. Just remove before serving

Drain the meat from the wine, but keep the wine. Set your oven to 150ºC. In a heavy casserole with a lid, fry the meat in half the butter or oil until nicely browned on all sides. Remove it and set aside, then put in the onions with the rest of the butter or oil and some salt and fry till soft and just beginning to take on colour. Add the garlic and the rest of the vegetables and fry for 5 minutes until softening. Add the flour and stir through well to cook it a little. Then stir in the tomato purée. Add back the meat, the wine, the stock, the orange peel and the herbs. Add a teaspoon of salt and several good grindings of black pepper. Put on the lid and cook for two and a half hours. Check once an hour to see that the liquid has not cooked away. Add water if it is becoming too thick. With half an hour to go, add the prunes. At this stage you can add baby potatoes as well. Before serving remove the bouquet garni

This is traditionally served with creamy mashed potatoes. Or with ribbon noodles. And fresh broccoli or beans. Warn your guests to look out for stones in the prunes if they have not been de-pipped

All content © John & Lynne Ford, Adamastor & Bacchus

A day at Journey's End

First a visit to the wine cellar...

...to taste a tank sample of this year’s aromatic Sauvignon Blanc

Mike was at Steenberg before he joined Journey's End. They have three large Foudres in the tank cellar

A Foudre is a large wooden vat, it can contain up to 300 hectolitres and more

Then into the barrel cellar where we tasted a sample of the barrel fermented Chardonnay

And two pottery Amphorae made in Italy from a special clay

This as Mike says, chews wine and gives a more oxidative character to wine made in it

The sample of the barrel fermented Chardonnay certainly showed promise. They use the very best French barrels

Mikes' lovely dog Addison on the barrels, she has a very sweet nature and is very much at home in the cellar

Back in the tasting room we began tasting their current releases. Weather Station 2019 Sauvignon blanc is very aromatic with green pepper. Crisp, lean and herbal with long flavours, it has undergone slow cold fermentation
The 2018 Haystack Chardonnay is their entry level unwooded, made with whole bunch press and tank fermentation. Orange on the nose, crisp and lean with some butter and lemon lime flavours
The 2018 V1 Chardonnay has heady floral aromas with a hint of honey. Round on the palate, then crisp lemon lime and hints of wood, honey and buttered toast. They do whole bunch press, cold stabilisation, put free run juice into 300 litre barrels, 30% first fill. They avoid malolactic fermentation on all the wines
Next the single vineyard 2018 Destination Chardonnay with Chanel Cristal perfume and incense wood on the nose. Mature softness first, then very crisp citrus, grapefruit & lime with chalky tannins and butter on the end. Wood supports almost invisibly. The wine has a lanolin fatness on the end palate
The 2017 Huntsman Shiraz Mourvedre Viognier has smoke and dark berry fruit, some richness and has a slight medicinal note on the nose. Dark berries, then dry grippy tannins take over. It needs time. It spends 6 months in tank and 6 months in barrel
The 2018 Pastor's Blend of 60% Cabernet Sauvignon, 20% Merlot and 20% Cabernet Franc is slightly bruléed on the nose with very ripe dark berry fruit. Grippy tannins on soft strawberry raspberry juice, good grape acidity and is quite reminiscent of a Beaujolais

Winemaker Mike would like to make most of the wines by Carbonic maceration

Winter had arrived in full force. It rained heavily on and off during the day and was extremely cold that weekend

The view from the tasting room. Sadly, too misty to see the bay below

V2 2016 Merlot has a good characteristic Merlot nose, richness of cherry and cassis, which follows through on the palate with lovely ripe fruit. Some lactic flavours chalky tannins and dark toasted wood on the end but it is not intrusive. Made with carbonic fermentation with skin, pip and stalk contact gives the chalky tannins. The 2016 V3 Shiraz is naturally fermented. Spicy sweet fruit, incense wood with cinnamon and vanilla on the nose. Grippy tannins, and sharp red mulberry fruit with rhubarb and more chalk on the end. The final wine will be called Identity 2018 and is a Shiraz which has gone through 100% Carbonic maceration in the tank. Very spicy, herbal and balsamic. with mouth gripping tannins, mulberry and rhubarb fruit

The 2018 V1 Chardonnay is priced at between R150/165. 92% of Journeys End wines are sold overseas

The Gabb family from the UK took control of the farm in 1995

and Roger Gabb was Founder and Managing Director of Western Wines,

which has now been now sold. His son Rollo is now in control of the farm

Outside we found some very attractive Coprinus comatus (Shaggy Mane) Ink cap toadstools

This is when they are more mature and you can see the ink caps

A beautifully planted indigenous garden ...

... with lots of winter aloes flowering

We then drove up to the manor house for lunch

The more mature Journey’s End 2015 V5 Cabernet Sauvignon had been decanted

Rich and complex on the nose, dark cassis; fruity with long, rather crisp cassis flavours

The 2016 had green leaf cassis which follows through on the palate

We also drank the Cabernet Franc which is savoury on the nose, herbal and aromatic,

lovely savoury fruit, dark mulberry with licorice wood

Just right for the chilly day was this warming butternut soup with nutmeg, served with crisp herb croutons

The main course was perfectly cooked chicken pieces in a good gravy with courgettes, carrots, butternut

and caramelised red onion and accompanied by boiled potatoes with herbs. A simple but very good dish

We could also taste the 2017 Journey's End Chardonnay which has matured nicely, with lovely golden fruit, very enjoyable

And dessert was vanilla ice cream topped with chocolate sauce and cranberries on a bed of chocolate soil and nuts

We so enjoyed the day and the very good hospitality. Winemaker Mike Dawson is one to watch

All content © John & Lynne Ford, Adamastor & Bacchus

Raath Promotions Trade Show

This year's Raath Trade Show was held at The Athletic Club and Social on Buitengracht in Cape Town

They took over the entire place

Didn’t see a single item of gym equipment thankfully; we were worried that we would have to work out

Johan and Sofie Kruger of Kruger Family Wines

Marika Donohoe, PA and Office Manager at Raats Family Wines

Jaap-Henk Koelewijn of Tokara Restaurant in serious conversation with Gavin Bruwer of B Vintners

Enthusiastic Amoré van Zyl with Bouchard Finlayson wines

Amoré van Zyl and Danél Theron with Bouchard Finlayson wines, pouring for Faye of UnWined

Van Zyl du Toit, Allée Bleue winemaker

A canapé of, we think, duck. John went to the kitchen to photograph them coming out

A tray full of them was snaffled very quickly

Crostini

The chef was kept very busy as the venue was filled to the gunnels with trade

Brian Smith of Raath Promotions and a surprised looking woman...

And a wave in the distance

Sebastian Beaumont pours for Keize of Grub & Vine and Aimee Beaumont (no relation) of The Wine Cellar

Lynne spent the evening ducking and diving through the crowd and managed to taste one wine from a few of the stands

Being small does not help in a scrum so she decided to concentrate on the spirits upstairs. No, not in heaven

Sebastian Beaumont with Chef Alex and Ruth Grahame of SeaBreeze restaurant

Karin Loubser of Silverthorn welcomed us with a lovely glass of The Genie

Upstairs to explore the spirits. Lynne asked some questions of the gin makers about what the base spirit of each gin was and got some strange answers: vodka, cane or a white spirit (no, not the stuff that removes paint). She was told that one had been made from a batch of beer that gone wrong and had then been fermented and turned into gin. It did have notes of beer in the gin, which was quite sharp. Lynne tastes a splash gin neat and then with a block of ice and then with a dash of tonic. But only a tiny sip. And many people are adding liquid extracts after fermentation to flavour the gin. Not the traditional way

Kobá and Jan Solms of Muti Gin

Storm trying to read the back label on the Knut Hansen gin bottle. It is from Hope on Hopkins

And it tastes of cucumber and mint, so reminds one of a good Pimms. Cant wait to try it in summer as a long drink.

Bonita Malherbe, of Van Loveren with their range of alcohol free wines

There is a growing market for these wines, especially among Millenials

Although not for us, it did give Lynne something to drink in a Spritzer during her dry January

Calmness on the balcony

Some beer as well, from Franschhoek Beer Company

We tried the Pale Ale and enjoyed the flavour with that hint of orange

Heike Victor and Olaf Morgenroth, Franschhoek Beer Company

James Copeland and winemaker Adi Badenhorst on James’ stand. We really, really enjoyed James' Rum and Pisco. Made with skill, we think these are going to be big sellers in the SA market. And hopefully, eventually, abroad