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Thursday, July 28, 2011

Dinner with Glenwood wines at Knife

Knife Restaurant, Crystal Towers, Century City

Ed Saunders, enthusiastic as always

Grilled sirloin of beef on mushroom crouton, black pepper sauce, onion rings, French fries

Shiraz/merlot blend 2010

Sticky toffee pudding, caramel sauce and cream
Semillon noble late harvest 2006

Ed Saunders and DP Burger

DP Burger, Glenwood GM and winemaker

Joseph, from the Congo, who looked after us so well

Lynne, Chef Jonathan Japha, Ed Saunders and DP Burger

Waterford tasting at the Taj

Our notes on the vertical tasting of the 4 vintages of the Waterford flagship red blend, The Jem, can be found after the first 3 photographs.

Max and Benj poring Kevin Arnold Shiraz

Kevin Arnold

Tasting 4 vintages of The Jem, Waterford's Flagship red blend

Kevin Arnold always uses grapes from the same varieties in this wine, but he uses different proportions of the component grapes in the blend each year to get the integrated style that he wants.

We started with the oldest wine, the 2004 vintage, first released in 2006, which we had sold in the shop. Herbal buchu and basil notes on the nose initially, with soft wood and truffle aromas, it has a deliciously tempting nose. The age of this wine shows well and it is a soft ‘drink me’ wine with nice integrated fruit, wood and soft tannins, dark liquorice, earthy rich truffles with slightly sharp fruit making it a good food wine. It should have a few years life in it; Kevin Arnold says it should last another 10 years, but you can definitely enjoy it now. About 65% comes from the 5 classic Bordeaux varieties, with the remainder being Shiraz, Mourvedre and Barbera.

Next the 2005 with its cedar pencil, red berry, raspberry and balsam nose, showing expensive wood and incense too. On the mouth it first shows soft, soft chalky tannins, then sweet boiled fruit. The fruit is rather concentrated, with a tarry end and therefore together with the tannins. It is beautifully balanced but will benefit from being kept for a few more years. It was made from 58% Cabernet sauvignon, 12% Shiraz, 11% Mourvedre, 7% each Malbec and Merlot, 3% Barbera and 2% Sangiovese.

The 2006 has a softer nose than the 2007 with violets, vanilla, mossy forest floor but is full of fruit, which predominates. On the palate it is a beautifully balanced full-on barrage of fruit and warm alcohol, lots of rhubarb and red cherries, raspberries and mulberries with a lovely cedarwood end. We think this needs a few more years to settle, when it will reward the keeper. Made from 60% Cabernet sauvignon, 15% Shiraz, 7.5% each Malbec and Cabernet franc, 5% Mourvedre and 2.5% each Sangiovese and Barbera.

The 2007 Jem is just that. A blockbuster nose full of vanilla, incense, it is herbal, has lead pencils, minerality and spice with lots of sweet berry fruits. On the mouth, fruit starts the journey with lots of red and black cherries, rhubarb, mulberries from the Malbec and then licorice, basil, lead pencils and chalky tannins. Buy some now if you can afford to and wait for this to shine. Components are as per the 2006.

Sadly there is no 2008 Jem because of an uneven harvest, but there will be a 2009, which Kevin says should be the best yet. We do look forward to tasting it.

Lynne and Michael Pownall, Taj GM

Christmas in July with Warwick wines at 15 on Orange

Mike & Pip Ratcliffe with Lynne

Xolani Mankotywa, sommelier

Sole Paupiettes on cauliflower purée

Duck & Foie gras Crème brulée

Butter roast turkey ballotine

Christmas pudding parfait

Mike Ratcliffe and guests

Sunday, July 24, 2011

Wine Magazine's Brenn-o-Kem Shiraz Challenge Awards

Wednesday, July 20th 2011

Wine magazine's Shiraz Awards lunch, which had elements of a wake, was at Catharina's on Steenberg wine estate in Constantia. Garth Almazan's excellent food was paired with the winning wines. It was a beautiful, clear mid-winter day, the only sad note being the imminent closure of the magazine. Of the 165 wines tasted, only one wine received 4.5 Stars and was an outright winner. Eight faulty wines were not scored, which left 5.7% of the wines scoring 4 Stars, 8.3% scoring 3.5 Stars and 22.6% receiving 3 Stars. a five-person panel (Carrie Adams, Miguel Chan, Karl Lambour, Angela Lloyd and James Pietersen) tasted the wines blind and assessed them using the 20-point/5-Star scoring system. Carrie Adams, the co-ordinator of the judging panel, said that the overall quality of the wines was very good, but that there was too much brettanomyces infection in the submissions. The outright winner, Land's End Shiraz from Hidden Valley, made by Louis Nel, was well clear of the others. The Best Value Award winner was Obikwa 2010, which earned 2½ stars.

Steenberg manor house