Thursday, November 10, 2022

A Drive through the Breede River Valley

On our way to the Breedekloof area for a lovely weekend away with friends,
we stopped off at the Florida Padstal near Wellington for some additions to our food boxes

They have some quite good temptations and we ended up with crisp syrupy koeksisters,
a huge jar of honey and some date loaf

Next was a stop to taste the wines at Bovlei which is the home of Wellington Wines
They had some on-line specials, but we all wanted to taste the wines first

A very impressive tasting room

Very traditional, lovely ceilings

and great views from the stoep. We shared two tastings and were ably helped by Nxolo
who has lots of information to impart about the wines. If you buy wine, you do not pay the tasting fee

The very tropical Duke 2022 Sauvignon Blanc (R70) has some elderflower on the nose
Warm fruit, high acidity with limes and elderflower follows through on the palate
The Cave 2020 Chenin Blanc (R150) took time to open up
Initially shy with tropical fruit, lots of litchi, lovely cooked quince and apple, long flavours and a good mouthfeel
The Duke 2019 Shiraz (R80) has expensive wood notes but, sadly, also had some Brett
which gives a smell and taste of Elastoplast
The 2020 Merlot (R80) is complex and spicy on the nose, drying tannins on the palate,
with good fruit and a lot of very dark oak, it needs time
The NV Frizzante Blanc Muscato with 4% Pinot Noir (R60) was light and fizzy and slightly sweet
The Frizzante Rosé (R60) has less muscat and sweetness
They also produce a bottled aperitif called Hari Kalahari Gold which they refer to as a cider,
made from Chenin Blanc and indeed it is rather like a good semi-sweet sparkling cider, and very fresh. R120 for 6 bottles

The La Cave Chenin Blanc 2020 impressed us the most

Wonderful views over the Wellington Valley

We were heading for the Bains Kloof Pass which goes over these mountains;
it was the quickest route to our weekend destination, Seven Oaks Wine Estate

Halfway to the top of the pass, we found that the road has been much improved
and the passing places have been widened and cleaned up. We were very impressed

Looking back to the Wellington valley below

Small farms with Groenberg in the background

Up and up you wind, taking in the breathtaking scenery

And, finally, you come to the next valley, where we stopped at Bergsig estate
They have superb proteas around the tasting room

Yellow Pincushion Proteas

The tasting room

and inside it is cool, comfortable and welcoming

Lots of different seating options

We opted to taste five wines which we chose from their list
The Chenin Blanc has a good nose, tropical with a hint of muscat
Crisp acidity with long flavours of lime, pineapple, guava and apricot (R62)
The Sauvignon Blanc has more zesty tropical notes on the nose, clean and crisp
Good flavours on the lovely full palate, easy drinking, a summer wine so we bought a case (R73)
 Then came the 2021 Chardonnay with a lovely classic nose, slightly leesy, full on the palate with apple and lime,
so another case was purchased (R99)
Nice to find some Gewürztraminer; so many farms have stopped making this charming wine (R85)
Lots of rose petals on the beautiful nose, easy on the palate and quite dry, as we like it (R85)
The Merlot was rather sanguine on the nose and palate with lots of green herbs

Friends Peter and Michele Roos, who accompanied us on our adventure weekend in the Breedekloof area

At the end of the weekend, on our way back to Cape Town, we called in at Du Toitskloof winery
to taste some of our favourite wines from the Rawsonville area

Their impressive new tasting room is now open

Tables all set up for tastings

We tasted the wines in the garden outside; it was a warm day and the shady tree was attractive

The Du Toitskloof 2022 Sauvignon Blanc is young, fresh and zesty on the palate,
with some tropical notes as well as some pyrazines

The 2022 Chenin Blanc has garnered several awards here and overseas
It is a wine we are quite familiar with; we take a 3 litre box in our suitcases when we travel abroad,
so that we have wine available for an aperitif before we go out to dinner, or for picnics along the way
It has a lovely tropical fruit nose, with apple, pear and pineapple on the well balanced palate,
very easy drinking and great with food

A new find for us, Du Toitskloof 2018 Dimension
a blend of Mulberry and cassis, chocolate, mocca and plum on the complex nose
a wine with great dimension and quality, layers of properly wooded wine, deep and luscious on the layered palate
a Shiraz-led bled with Pinotage, Merlot & Cabernet Sauvignon (R135)

Bougainvillea is in season and you see hedges of such vibrant colours all over the Cape now

Heat haze over the valley

and a young tree in the breeze

It was a great weekend
Click here to read our stories on Seven Oaks and see what fun we had there

All our stories can be seen in the Blog Archive near the top of the column on the right

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Thursday, October 27, 2022

In MENU This Week. Cape Wine, Veritas Awards, Wine Concepts Pinot & Chardonnay at The Vineyard, Charles Fox Soirée, Caroline’s White Review, Fyn lunch

 











A Bokmakierie (Telephorus zeylonus) also known as a bush shrike

We always try to publish in a short time after we have been to an event, but life sometimes gets in the way. Personal factors which don’t need explanation here have taken time and the sheer number of events has also taken a lot of time. For every minute spent taking photographs, at least five are spent at the computer, triaging to delete all the photographs that are not needed and then editing the chosen pictures, to ensure the best composition, contrast, colour and other factors. It’s not an excuse, but some of these stories are about events which took place a couple of weeks ago; we think you will find them interesting

Cape Wine 2022

The Cape Wine Expo is held every four years and is a very large event in the South African wine industry as many overseas buyers, representatives and media are invited to come to this superb showcase of South African wines. It was held in the Cape Town Convention Centre on 5-7th September. Organised by Wines of South Africa (WOSA), it was a very successful show this year. We hear that there were visitors from over 60 countries. Read on…

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. Read on…

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. Read on…

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. Read on…

Caroline's White and Sparkling Wine Review

This year's Caroline's White Wine Review was held at The View venue next to the V&A Waterfront. Visitors had a chance to taste Caroline's selection of the best South African white wines and to qualify they all have to have won awards. Read on…

Restaurant Week lunch at Fyn

Fyn is the top scoring African restaurant in the Top 50 World Restaurants, coming in at No 37. We have been several times before and really love the food that Peter Tempelhoff and his team produce. They title it “A Neoteric Japanese African Experience” and invite one to "Check your assumptions with your coats and join us on a journey of flavour discovery". A chance to go on that journey again came this month in Restaurant Week (which was actually running for the whole of October) which offers very good value special menus, so we decided to splurge and take up that exciting invitation again. Read on…

All our stories can be seen in the Blog Archive near the top of the column on the right

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Caroline's White and Sparkling Wine Review

This year's Caroline's White Wine Review was held at The View venue next to the V&A Waterfront
Visitors had a chance to taste Caroline Rillema's selection of the best South African white wines
and to qualify they all have to have won awards

It' s a large and spacious venue and the event was well attended
We wished we'd had the time to taste more of these impressive wines,
but attendance at the Charles Fox tasting before it kept our arrival a bit late
and John's camera focus was playing up, which resulted in a new lens shortly after this
We apologise for the poor quality of these photographs

A good place to start is always with a Cap Classique
and we loved the packaging as well on the L'Ormarins Private Cuvée 2014 from Anthony Rupert Wines
It is a very well made wine 66% Chardonnay and 34% Pinot Noir, pale onion skin in colour
and has spent 6 to 7 years on the lees
Lovely lemon citrus and stone fruit and surprising freshness on the palate, it was outstanding, top marks from us
Made by winemaker Zanie Viljoen

The bottle is as near to a good decanter as you could find and perhaps worth keeping
It was designed by internationally acclaimed designer and artist, Mark Eisen

Lynne tasted one of the best Semillons ever from Johann Fourie of Benguela Cove;
herbal, green, full and forthright, with green peas and asparagus and sunshine
So concentrated and true to the grape, it was utterly delicious

and another that impressed was Morne Vrey's White Reserve from Delaire Graff
a barrel fermented blend of Semillon and Sauvignon Blanc, green, waxy, steely and slightly tropical

Diemersdal The Journal was a classic rendition from the master of Durbanville Sauvignon blancs, Thys Louw
with 50% tank and 50% barrel maturation
Complex and layered with great fruit and good seamless support from the wood

The DeWetshof Bateleur, made by Peter de Wet, never fails to entrance and delight us
The farm's top of the range Chardonnay is always classic and impressive;
it is the way good Chardonnay should always be made

Donoval Rall with his very popular White blend of mainly Chenin Blanc and Verdelho
with, as he puts it, a 2% sniff of viognier to round out the palate
Matured in old oak
Layered and rounded on the palate. Very exciting

Black Elephant Vintners and CO in Franschhoek showed their Cap Classique Blanc de Blanc 

The winemaker Jacques Wentzel

The Jacques Bruère Brut Reserve 2013 has won many awards

Boschendal was showcasing the Jean de Long Brut 2009, made by Danielle Coetsee

and something different from Bruwer Vintners, a Méthode Ancestrale 2022, still slightly cloudy
but that is normal in a Pet Nat, as this lively wine is still undergoing fermentation in the bottle, hence the crown cork
Made from Pinotage grapes, it is lively, yeasty and zesty with good fruit
"A Pet Nat (short for the French 'pétillant naturel' meaning 'natural sparkling')
is a wine made according to the ancestral method
Developed in the 16th century, this is the oldest way of making sparkling wine,
and is the result of a single, continuous fermentation"

Elbe Nortje showed us Cuvée Clive, the top brand Cap Classique from Graham Beck
It has long been one of our favourites
Clean and crisp, it shows how classy, elegant and dry a good Cap Classique can be

Klein Constantia had their 2021 Sauvignon Blanc,
so true to the Constantia style of crisp, green and invigorating Sauvignon Blancs, with layers of flavour and freshness
Here presented by their Vineyard Manager Craig Harris

with his wife, Jacqueline, the estate's Sales and Marketing Manager

All our stories can be seen in the Blog Archive near the top of the column on the right

If you do not wish to receive e-mails from us, please email menucape@gmail.com with the word 'UNSUBSCRIBE' in your email

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