Tuesday, October 25, 2022

The 2022 Veritas Awards

The 2022 Veritas Awards presentation was rather different this year from the black tie event we have been invited to for the past few years. And we so enjoyed the difference. The event was held at Nederburg in a large marquee on the lawn in front of the Manor House and the weather played ball with a perfect windless day. It was rather reminiscent of the fashionable days of the Nederburg wine auction, which is, sadly, no more. We were summoned to arrive at 10h30 as there were quite a few award presentations to get through

and we then discovered that the Chefs in charge of the food were Craig Cormack and Beau du Toit of Goose Roasters
We always know that they will produce really great food at any event at which they cater

They had a breakfast feast ready for us; very welcome as we had an early start to get there
Crisp freshly baked croissants, slices of tender gammon, soft brie slices and a sweet mustard sauce were delicious

and a choice of some very good Cap Classiques, served chilled or with orange juice
Good coffee was also available

Sout tert (salt tart) is the South African interpretation of a French Quiche, here topped with caramelized onion
and there were also Vanilla Pannacottas topped with muesli and berries

The first Spanspek (Cantaloupe) melon of the year served en brochette with Palma ham

A lovely dry L'Ormarins Blanc de Blanc Cap Classique

Craig with Lynne

This was phenomenally good, an almond macaron filled with smoked salmon and cream cheese

Belgian waffles topped with southern fried chicken, a paprika emulsion and maple syrup

Nick Pentz of Groote Post, Sommelier Georgio Melitou and his wife Journalist Samarie Smith and Johan Jordaan of Spier 

Vondeling winemaker Matthew Copeland and his wife Yolandi with Johan Wegner of Get Wine and his daughter

Michael Fridjhon with Philip Jonker of Weltevrede

Tables all set for the awards to be followed by a late lunch

The band played really good soft jazz music at the beginning of the day;
unfortunately, it became seriously loud during lunch, killing conversation

We take our seats

Bennie Howard was our MC for the day and told us this was the 32nd year of these awards, and told us that there are three new financial partners joining Veritas. They are KykNet’s Ontbytsake TV, Nashua and BlueNova – in addition to the established sponsors SA Litho and Deloitte. It was also National Pinotage day and we would find a bottle of Pinotage to celebrate with on the table. He told us that this year there were 1312 entries. They have 70 judges who are put into panels of 3 to taste different categories of wines over 4 days. The wine is tasted unsighted and 2 different panels taste the same wines in different order on another day. A score of 90 - 92 wines a gold medal and 93 - 100 a double gold. There is no discussion on the first round of tasting. They then bring back all wines scoring 86 or more and the wines can be tasted two, three and even four times. There will be public tastings of the wines which will be held on 21 October in Cape Town, 25 October in Johannesburg and 10 November in Durban. All the tastings will take place at the Deloitte premises in each city. See further information at www.veritas.co.za

Then it was time for the Living Legends Awards to be presented
You can read about the winners in detail here https://veritas.co.za/veritas-living-legends-awards-2022/
Christo Pienaar, the Chairman of Veritas, presented the awards

First, to this year's nine Living Legends. Here Christo Pienaar presents the ward to Peet Englebrecht, an Agricultural Inspector

To Michael Fridjhon, wine writer, wine educator and wine merchant

To Johan Krige, head of WOSA and owner of Kanonkop wines

To journalist and wine judge Angela Lloyd who has tasted for the Platter Guide since 1986

To Andries (Olla) Olivier of Swartland Wine cellar and the Young Wine show

Beyers Truter, maker of great Pinotage and owner of Beyerskloof

Johannes van Willing, retiring organiser of great wine shows

Bennie Howard and Elsabé Ferreira, the excellent organisers of the Awards, with the scrolls

An English rose amongst the other worthy winners

PRO Yolandi de Wet and Photographer Andrew Gorman

Then came the Veritas gold and double gold awards; a record number was awarded this year, 103 Double Golds and 136 Golds. Click on this link to see who won awards for their wine this year. https://user-hpa96tt.cld.bz/VERITAS-2022

Unrelated winemakers Stuart Botha of Tokara and RJ Botha of Kleine Zalze

and then it was time to present the final award, the top trophy, now named the Duimpie Bayly Vertex award, for the best wine entered for Veritas. It was won by the 2019 Tokara Reserve Collection Cabernet Sauvignon. Collected by Stuart Botha

The Top Achievers award for the winery with 10 entries or less went to Flagstone


The Top Achievers award for the winery with 10 entries or more went to Kleine Zalze


Marlene Bester, Brandy Master at Van Ryn with their three Double Gold medals

Other winners of multiple double golds were RJ Botha (Kleine Zalze), Johan Jordaan (Spier), Izele van Blerk (KWV),
Daniel Slabber (Wellington) and Zinaschke Steyn (Nederburg) shown here with Christo Pienaar

Time for lunch, which was served Family style

Roast Sirloin of Beef served with a horseradish cream and deep fried potatoes in duck fat

Blush tomato salad, wasabi mascarpone, pesto, crispy onions, sunflower seeds and fresh tomatoes

The beef came perfectly cooked, just beautifully pink in the middle and very tender

Bobotie Jaffles, with a mango atchar dip

We were able to select wines for the table and managed to find these three very special wines. All were superb 

and afterwards on the lawn, it was time for dessert, heavy on the dairy, a Dom Pedro Brandy milkshake

Home made caramel nut ice cream in sugar cones 

and some choux pastry buns stuffed with cream 

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Charles Fox soirée at the Sky Hotel Roof Bar

An invitation to celebrate their 10th year in the wine business at the Blinged up Skyway Hotel on the Foreshore
with Charles Fox and his wife Zelda, specialist producers in Elgin of Cap Classiques

Part of the restaurant on the 18th floor, which you walk through to get to the gallery on the 19th floor

where we found a large open space perfect for this sort of affair, with wonderful views over the city

Ethan Fox, Charles and Zelda's son, was there to welcome us

Michelle Stewart with a 10 year old Brut Rosé. Salmon pink, with fresh red raspberry, blueberry and a hint of strawberry,
so easy to drink and also to pair with food, perhaps rich dishes or, especially, classy desserts

Product placement! We really liked the 2017 Blanc de Blanc, golden in the glass with crisp fine mousse,
a hint of almond brioche then layers of lemon and lime with some creaminess and a hint of white peach on the clean finish

Andrew Gunn of Iona tasting the range

Charles and Zelda Fox. Zelda makes all the Cap Classique wines
Charles had a surprise Coeur de Cuvée Brut for us to taste:
degorged and bottled in 2010 but kept on the lees for five years
It was very like a lovely pale dry sherry with a mousse

A view over the V&A Waterfront, the Duncan Dock and Table Bay

The range of wines. The vintage 2016 Brut has a fine mousse on the palate,
hints of citrus with grapefruit, lime and a little marmalade then biscuity flavours on the end
The Reserve Gold is gold in colour too, with a good quick mousse
On the nose, lots of biscuit and brioche notes with hints of tropical fruits, which follows through on the palate
with hints of guava and ripe peach and a clean acidity to balance out the residual sugar from the fruit

Craig and Kim Ray with Lidia Nobrega of the Chapman's Peak Hotel

A good place for a chat

Glynis Crook and Neil Pendock

Golden Girl Pamela Cunningham

and, as the evening drew on, people continued to enjoy the tasting

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Wednesday, October 19, 2022

Wine Concepts Chardonnay and Pinot Noir on Garden Day at the Vineyard

What else can you do on a relaxed early summer Sunday
but go to the Vineyard Hotel for the Chardonnay and Pinot Noir Festival
held in their beautiful garden by Mike Bampfield-Duggan of Wine Concepts with his selection of superb wines?
Well, "stay in bed with a cold", said Lynne, so that she wouldn't infect anyone
So John went on his own

Good to see the previous General Manager of the Vineyard, Roy Davies, revisiting his old workplace

The tables were arranged round the perimeter of the top lawn



Douglas Swanson showed the De Grendel Proposal Hill MCC

 as well as the Op Die Berg Pinot and Chardonnay

Margaux Nel Coetzee showed The Fledge wines and Arco Laarman showed his own

Greg and Marcha Cook with Jordan Unoaked, Barrel Fermented and Nine Yards Chardonnays


Three Chardonnays from Journey's End

John Collins and Johan Kruger with Johan's Chardonnays and Pinots


The joy of early summer

Desmond Binneman tells the story of the first Pinot Noir in South Africa, planted at Muratie in the 1920s
Muratie Pinot noir was crossed with Cinsault by Professor Perold when he developed the Pinotage cross

Dave Swingler takes another look at Bouchard Finlayson


A continuous supply of well-matched canapĂ©s was brought by cheerful Vineyard staff 

Chloe Nimmo showed Steenberg's Cape Classiques and Chardonnay

Sue and Neil Proudfoot of Wine Concepts in Kloof Street
 enjoying Paul Cluver Chardonnays and Pinots with Liesel Cluver Rust

Anne Gleeson and Renee Bampfield Duggan enjoying the wines, the gardens and the sunshine


and the food kept coming



Oh, how Lynne wishes one of these Hoisin Duck Baos had been brought home to help nurse her cold

Brothers Bobby and Mark Wallace with the Paul Wallace wines

Nico Breytenbach showing the Mooiplaas Chardonnay from Stellenbosch

Sales and Marketing Manager Lourenza Terblanche with Mont Rochelle Chardonnays from Franschhoek

Chardonnay can handle mild spices very well

Dan Perrins of Siris Vintners showed the Newton Johnson wines from Hemel en Aarde

Fabio Turilli and Sarah Shamley with Oak Valley's wines

Ewen Wilson and his son Lawrence with their Lothian wines from Elgin

As the shadows started to lengthen, it was time to relax on the lawn with a favourite

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Wednesday, October 12, 2022

In MENU This Week. Stellenzicht, Blaauwklippen Blending Competition, CWG Auction, Rosa Kruger Award, AirBnB overnight

 Per Ardea ad Astra. A grey heron (Ardea cinerea) taking off from a rooftop

Busy! Suddenly, there are so many things happening that there has barely been enough time to manage all the editing and writing. So we have five stories in this edition with some more for the next, including one of the biggest events, the three day Cape Wine exposition at the Convention Centre. So click on the titles or pictures to open the stories and Read on…

A re-introduction to Stellenzicht wine estate

Stellenzicht wine farm, in the heart of Stellenbosch's Golden Triangle, has gone through a kind of renaissance since it was bought by Baron Hans von Staff-Reitzenstein from Distell in 2017. The Baron is also part owner of Alto and Ernie Els Wines. L'RĂ© Burger is the winemaker; she has worked under MD Louis Strydom, winemaker at Ernie Els, for several years before taking over here. They have gone through a huge programme of replacing and digging up some of the seriously virus-ridden vineyards and only plan to replace some of them now. L'Re said they are also very keen on biodiversity on the farm and have planted quite a lot of fynbos in designated areas between the vineyards. We were there to be introduced to those new wines and to meet the team. We met at the newly expanded Wine Pod. Read on…

Blaauwklippen Blending Competition Winners' lunch

We have had a very busy two weeks with several large and important events. We attended the Blaauwklippen Blending Competition lunch on Thursday, before the Cape Winemakers Guild Auction, great fun for all and we enjoyed it.. Welcomed by their friendly waiting staff and a glass of the Blaauwklippen Brut RosĂ©. Read on…

The 2022 Cape Winemakers Guild Auction

The 2022 Nedbank Cape Winemakers Guild Auction took place over two days this year, 30th September and 1st October. The auction was conducted by auctioneers Strauss and Company on-line and physically at the Lord Charles Hotel in Somerset West. We had been invited to attend and decided to go on the second day.  However, we did watch the first half of the auction on line at home on Friday night, drinking some rather good wine and getting very excited by the bidding, which came from all over the world. Strauss certainly had all their on line and phone connections working seamlessly. Read on…

Decanter Award for Rosa Kruger at Old Vines tasting

An invitation from Andre Morgenthal of the Old Vines Project to De Warenmarkt in the centre of Stellenbosch to come and taste some of the excellent wines made from vineyards that are registered with the Old Vines Project. And we certainly did taste some really fine wines as we wandered around the different stalls. Read on…

An AirBnB overnight at Kronendal Street in Stellenbosch

Having an all-day Cape Winemakers Guild Auction to attend in Somerset West, followed by an evening event in Stellenbosch, meant that we needed to find somewhere to sleep, as we do not ever attempt to drive back to the city on the N1 or N2 after an evening event with wine. Luckily, AirBnB came up with this gem which includes a full breakfast in their daily rate. A lovely large and very comfortable bed in the small bedroom. Read on…

 

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