Friday, August 19, 2011

Cape Winemakers' Guild pre-Auction tasting

Chairman, Louis Strydom opening proceedings



















Whisky magazine editor, Fiona MacDonald




















Norman MacFarlane, concentrating hard while his chardonnay is poured




















The effort of keeping ahead of the pourers



















Boela Gerber, Groot Constantia, rescuing bottles for the public tasting




















Adi Badenhorst

































Jacques Borman, Boschkloof

































Flagstone's Bruce Jack

































Dawid Nieuwoudt, Cederberg, pouring for Dusan Jelic of Wine.co.za






















Michael Pownall, GM of the Taj with Johan Joubert of Kleine Zalze






















Cape Wine Master, Jeff Grier of Villiera

Sunday lunch with George Jardine at Jordan

The menu

Lunch on the terrace
The view, almost a Pierneef painting

Awesome braised rabbit terrine, lentil and smoked garlic dressing with kumquat 
Barrel smoked line caught gurnard, chick pea puree and sage butter
we were served a lovely amuse of a crisp deep fried rice Suppli ball
Herb crusted Chalmar ribeye, pumpkin, butter poached turnip and “bourguignon”
Honey and soy glazed pork loin rack, roasted baby beets, wilted bok choi and apple
Apple soufflé, confit apple tart and vanilla


Valrhona chocolate torte, vanilla chantilly, and poached pear
Lynne with Kathy Jordan

Vineyards and a bluegum tree
Lily, the farm sheepdog, who believes that her job is herding ducks

Wednesday, August 10, 2011

110804 Main Ingredient's MENU - Beer and Indian food at The Taj, High Constantia, Markets, restaurant specials and events to enjoy

MENU
Main Ingredient’s weekly E-Journal
Gourmet Foods, Ingredients & Fine Wines
Eat In Guide’s Outstanding Outlet Award Winner from 2006 to 2010
Click on anything underlined and Green to open a link to pictures or more information

We have searched our bird books, and can’t decide if he is a Cape sparrow, or if he is of another species. Perhaps one of you can help.

As many of you will know, we are having a most peculiar winter, with the temperature yo-yoing up and down the scale on the thermometer. Some days could pass for summer and then, as is happening while we write this, the temperature plummets and should hit a low single figure by tonight. It has been an exceptionally dry winter, so we are very happy to have a little rain this evening. One by-product of this strange weather is colds. We have had a particularly active few weeks, attending lots of dinners, tastings and events and meeting many interesting people. Great fun, indeed, but also a great way of being exposed to unwelcome microbes. Both of us have been afflicted this week, Lynne more than John, and she had to miss our wine club’s monthly meeting at High Constantia last night, more about which you can see here. David van Niekerk, the owner and winemaker, is a former banker who gave up the collar and the world of finance to make wine at the door of Groot Constantia, our oldest wine estate. He works in an immaculate small cellar, making wines with great depth and ability to mature, but which have soft tannins and can be enjoyed young. David and Karen, his wife, gave us a most informative tasting, with warm and enthusiastic hospitality. His Clos AndrĂ© Brut Nature 2008 Cap Classique sparkling wine is very clean, bone dry and bready. It is a blend of 70/30 chardonnay/pinot noir, with almost no sugar and no sulphur. He has two Sauvignons blanc, both less acidic than most, and a range of single varietal red wines made from the five Bordeaux grape varieties (Cabernets sauvignon and franc, Merlot, Malbec and Petit Verdot) and Sebastiaan, a very elegant Cabernet franc dominated blend, made from the famous five. The High Constantia Sauvignon blanc is particularly clean and delicious.
We Love Real Beers at the Taj     Last Friday, we had a most enjoyable evening at The Taj, with a tasting of craft beers in the Twankey Bar, followed by dinner prepared by the head chef of the Bombay Brasserie. All the dishes were paired with craft beers from five independent brewing companies: Brewers & Union, Camel Thorn Brewery, Darling Brew, Jack Black Beers, Mitchell’s Brewery and Napier Brewery. Each brewer provided a selection of beers (sometimes we were presented with more than one beer per dish), so the tables were soon covered with an impressive array of glasses. There was far more beer than one person could decently drink, so we still had glasses with a generous amount of beer in them at the end of the meal, but it was most enlightening to be able to pair the flavours of the different beers with the dishes, all of which were spicy, but not all of which were hot.
Our favourite combinations were Spicy tempered prawns and Darling Bone Crusher Witte, Tender lamb kebabs and Mitchell’s 90 Shillings ale, Broccoli in pickle spices and Jack Black premium lager, Chicken Tikka with vinegar shallots and Brewers & Union Versus Goliath amber lager, Stir fried potatoes with Pickle Chilli spices and Jack Black premium lager, Spiced lamb curry and Napier Brewery Ale and Black lentils and kidney beans with Camelthorn Fresh weissbier. The meal ended with Spanish CSG Touro Tripel Blond ale accompanying cardamom scented ice cream and brandy snaps. A huge feast taken over several hours. It was not only a demonstration of excellent Indian food but showed how delightfully varied real beers are, especially compared with the boring sameness of most commercial lagers. Pictures can be seen here.
They are planning more of these tastings. There is an encouraging number of real brewers in the Western Cape. In addition to the names who were at this dinner, try some of the others, like Boston, Paulaner and Birkenhead. They are well worth trying. You can find some of them at the markets, like the Biscuit Mill and Hout Bay and at places like the Waterfront.
MOROCCAN LAMB KEBABS FLAVOURED WITH RAS AL HANOUT
We sell lots of unusual spices and spice mixes. One of our most popular is Ras al Hanout – the quintessential spice mix from Morocco which is used in tagines and many other dishes.  This is a rub for kebabs and is very easy to prepare.
25g Ras al Hanout Spice - 1 clove of garlic - 1 t grated fresh ginger - 1 shallot - 1 T chopped flat parsley - ½ teaspoon of flaked sea salt -  800g lean lamb cut into cubes
Warm the Ras al Hanout mix in a dry frying pan for a minute to release the flavours, then add them to a pestle and mortar in which you have put the garlic, parsley, finely chopped shallot and the ginger and salt. Crush well together then spread onto lamb cubes and put onto wooden skewers. Put them into a Pyrex dish in the fridge overnight and onto the barbeque the next day. This will allow the flavours to permeate the meat. You can also put this mixture onto chicken, beef or goat. When the kebabs come off the fire, slide the meat off the skewers and wrap it in warm pita bread or tortilla wraps - very good finger food! Serve with salads, harissa, plain yogurt and preserved lemons.
Our products. New this week is something we have not sold for about 5 years: anchovy paste in tubes. Carnaroli rice continues to fly (for the creamiest risottos and rice pudding) and we have more of the Sense of Taste Chilli garlic paste, for those of you who want something hotter than the very popular Prego sauce. We have also sourced some more Kewra (Pandanus) extract, for those of you who want to make jasmine scented rice. Protea Hill Farm’s fabulous balsamic raspberry vinegar continues to sell very well. It makes a wonderful salad dressing when used with hazelnut oil. We also have more stock of walnut oil, after a brief hiatus.
We have a lot of fun putting MENU together each week and, of course, doing the things we write about, but making it possible for you to enjoy rare and wonderful gourmet foods is what drives our business. We stock a good range of rare spices and other ingredients and delicious ready-made gourmet foods. So, please have a look at our Product List and see what you need. You can contact us by email or phone, or through our website. We can send your requirements to you anywhere in South Africa. If you are following Masterchef Australia we have Carnaroli risotto rice and truffles, amongst lots of other strange and difficult things to find that they use.
Our market activities      The market at Long Beach will resume tomorrow. We won’t be there yet, but expect to be there in two weeks time, splitting ourselves between there and Cavendish. We visited the Bay Harbour Market, near Snoekies in Hout Bay, last Sunday. It looks very interesting, with a very good atmosphere and an interesting variety of crafts and food and drink to enjoy, but we don’t believe that it is ready yet for our sort of activity. There were not many people leaving the market with purchases. We believe that the organisers are interested in making a space for a produce/grocery market and we would be interested in that.
This week, you will find us at The Place at Cavendish (Woolworths underground entrance to Cavendish Square) tomorrow, Friday 29th July, from 10h00 to 17h00, where we will have our great selection of delicious treats and ingredients for you. We will be at the Old Biscuit Mill’s Neighbourgoods Market, as always, on Saturday between 9am and 2pm. Next Wednesday, we will be back at the Dean St Arcade in Newlands from 09h30 to 14h30. We expect to be back at Long Beach on Friday 19th August. We’ll confirm this nearer the time.
Good food and wine continues to grow as a focal point for many people in the Western Cape and, to an extent, in other parts of the country. As a result, our list of Interesting Food and Wine Events has grown so much that it was making MENU too long for some of our readers. So we’ve taken it online. Click here to access it. You will need to be connected to the internet.
Our  list of Winter restaurant special offers continues to grow. Click here to access it. These 2011 Winter Specials have been sent to us by the restaurants or their PR agencies. We have not personally tried all of them and their listing here should not always be taken as a recommendation from ourselves. When we have tried it, we’ve put in our observations. We have cut out the flowery adjectives etc. we’ve been sent, to give you the essentials. Click on the name to access the relevant website. All communication should be with the individual restaurants.





4th August  2011
Remember - if you can’t find something, we’ll do our best to get it for you, and, if you’re in Cape Town or elsewhere in the country, we can send it to you! Check our product list for details and prices.
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
Our Adamastor & Bacchus© tailor-made Wine, Food and Photo tours take small groups (up to 6) to specialist wine producers who make the best of South Africa’s wines. Have fun while you learn more about wine and how it is made! Tours can be conducted in English, German, Norwegian or Dutch flavoured Afrikaans.
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 these newsletters are © John & Lynne Ford, Adamastor & Bacchus. Our restaurant reviews are usually 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. Our Avast! ® Anti-Virus software is updated at least daily and our system is scanned continually for viruses.
This electronic 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 and keep our mailing list strictly confidential. If you wish to be added to our mailing list, please send us a message, inserting "subscribe" in the subject line. If you wish to be removed from our mailing list, please send us a message, inserting "remove" in the subject line

Sunday, August 07, 2011

Dombeya wines dinner at The Vineyard's The Square

The Menu
















The Square

Norwegian salmon wrapped in Parma ham, butternut puree, lime & apple jelly / Dombeya Chardonnay 2010

Oven roasted beef sirloin, braised oxtail & bone marrow ravioli, wild mushroom & fennel fricassee,confit vine cherry tomato, liquorice cream / Dombeya Samara 2006

Passion fruit cheesecake, litchi cream, passion fruit custard / Dombeya Sauvignon blanc 2011

Louis and Rianie Strydom, Vineyard GM Roy Davies

Francois de Sornay, Wendy & Craig Girdlestone, Maria Tierney

Restaurant manager, David Wibberley

Claire & Lee Wright, Lynne Ford


Friday, August 05, 2011

110729 Main Ingredient's MENU - Dinners at 15 on Orange & Knife, Waterford wines, Red Wine Review, restaurant specials and events to enjoy

MENU
Main Ingredient’s weekly E-Journal
Gourmet Foods, Ingredients & Fine Wines
Eat In Guide’s Outstanding Outlet Award Winner from 2006 to 2010
Click on anything underlined and Green to open a link to pictures or more information

 Sunset, Sea Point
Vergenoegd      On Wednesday last week, we were invited to a guided tasting of these Helderberg wines at Pigalle restaurant.  Held in the conference room, it was right next to their smoking room and, sadly, smoke filtered through and made the tasting a little difficult. We know this farm more for its wonderful flock of Runner ducks and its great restaurant Pomegranate and so it was a delight to get to taste all their wines.  They are mainly a red wine farm, with only one 2011 white blend of Sauvignon and Colombard and a 2009 Rose made of Merlot, Malbec and Cabernet Franc (both under their Runner Duck label), which we used to sell in the shop and drink quite often too. They now have a Runner Duck Red 2009 which is a very different blend of Touriga Nacional, Malbec and Cabernet Franc, which was not tasted that evening.  We tasted their minty Merlot 2005, which we don’t think is quite ready yet. We particularly enjoyed their 2003 Shiraz which is a great food wine and especially their 2004 Cabernet, which has great cassis on the nose and mouth, lovely soft fruit flavours and has almost a port-like character in its depth. Their estate blend Vergenoegd 2003 is a classic Bordeaux blend and tastes of expensive wood, licorice, spice and elderberries. The soft tannins overtake the fruit, so you can definitely put this one down in your cellar for a while. Our final taste was their Old Cape Colony Vintage Port 2004 which has sweet, sweet fruit with lots of vanilla.  This would make a great port jelly!  It also needs more time.
We were interested to see Pigalle for the first time. A large dinner and dance venue with live music and a huge and quite expensive seafood featured menu. We were surprised by two things:  how little people there had dressed up – lots of takkies and trainers and work shirts - and how little wine we saw on the tables.  But everyone was tucking into huge plates of seafood and there are two whisky safes containing personal bottles of Johnny Walker Black (and a couple of Blue), so perhaps their crowd is more into spirits than wine.
Waterford Trade tasting, last Thursday evening, held at Mint restaurant at the Taj. An incredibly social trade evening; Waterford obviously have the right list! We started with the Pecan Stream range. The Sauvignon blanc is juicy and refreshing and full of tropical fruit with a nice kick at the end.  The Chenin has loads of pineapple and is great with food, while the red, made of Shiraz and Mourvedre, perhaps needs a little more time. We loved the new branding and labels. On to the 2010 Chardonnay, which is cool and lean and then opens out with smoke and butter on the palate - just our sort of wine. The 2010 Sauvignon Blanc is crisp and dry, lean and mean and SO not the usual flabby Stellenbosch sauvignon. We were a little disappointed with the Rosemary, their very pretty pale ‘blush’ wine which has been our top favourite pink in the past, because we thought the flavour lacked a bit of depth. Waterford’s Kevin Arnold Shiraz is a stunner, juicy then thick, spicy and tarry in a very enjoyable way, with soft fruit and tannins and a very long finish. The Cabernet Sauvignon showed classic cassis with long deep layers of fruit, accompanied by good acids and soft chalky tannins, one to drink now but also one to keep.
The real treat of the evening came with a guided tasting by Kevin Arnold, the cellarmaster, of four vintages of The Jem, Waterford’s flagship red blend. Not often available for tasting and rather out of the price range of most of us, it was a very valuable opportunity. Click here to read all about it.
Christmas with Warwick      After the Waterford tasting, we went straight off to dinner at 15 on Orange to celebrate Christmas in July with Warwick wines. Mike Ratcliffe and his wife Pip hosted this lovely dinner and the tables were festively decorated with crackers and candles. The chef had done a pairing of some of the Warwick wines with the food. We started with their lovely tropical, crisp Professor Black Sauvignon Blanc and, having had one really awful cold sole paupiette in Franschhoek, we were served a perfect one, on cauliflower puree with confit of preserved lemon, olives and a beurre blanc which matched the wine perfectly. The next wine was the beautiful buttery chardonnay which was paired with an outrageously rich and unctuous duck foie gras brulĂ©e with roast quail breast and a walnut crostini.  It was superb BUT we didn’t think it went well with the Chardonnay and cried out for a good red wine. Then we had a very interesting palate cleansing litchi and ginger sorbet with a cinnamon tuille – one to copy for dinner parties we think. The main course was a traditional Butter roast Turkey Ballotine, with a sage and prosciutto stuffing, a fondant potato, citrus jus and caramelised tinned mini pear. It was served with the Warwick Three Cape Ladies (Pinotage, Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot) red blend. Sadly the turkey was (isn’t it always?) rather dry and disappointing. The wine, which has big, bold fruit flavours, made up for it, but it was not a perfect match for the food. The Warwick website recommends spicy tomatoes and black mushrooms as companion foods and the Chardonnay might have been a better match. Then came a dessert of Christmas pudding parfait, Italian meringue and eggnog crème anglaise. It was a bit soupy and oversweet for our palates and absolutely fought with the flagship wine from Warwick, the superb Trilogy which, we thought, was the wine that should have been served with the Duck brulĂ©e. Perhaps the Chardonnay would have been a match here, but the extreme sweetness of the dessert cried out for a sweet dessert wine. Lovely service from the staff at 15 on Orange as usual, they are very friendly and professional. They are doing a series of these Food and Wine pairing dinners. See their link for the next one you can attend.
Lunch with friends     Everyone we know seems to be following Masterchef Australia, whether they will admit it or not. We had a lovely Sunday lunch with friends this week and Marcelle did two stunning dishes from the show, the Ham terrine and the Osso Bucco. Recipes on their web site, apparently. And we have had two or three dishes out at restaurants recently which we think at least draw their inspiration from the programme if not the recipe!  We have had the potato chip with the parsley inside at two. If anything gives people new inspiration for good food, we fully support it.
Lynne tried their way of making risotto on Monday, no stirring, just agitating the pan using our Italian Carnaroli rice and prawns.  It worked, much to her surprise, and freed her to make a good salad at the same time. With all the activity we have been having lately, there hasn’t been time to develop a new recipe. Hopefully, we’ll have one for you next week.
On Wednesday, we joined a good crowd of wine lovers at the Westin Grand Hotel, next to the Convention centre, for Caroline’s Red Wine Review. There were 60 superb wines available for tasting, most of which would be beyond the pockets of most of us – only 5 were priced under R150, and a further 8 between R150 and R200; the most expensive was R994 per bottle. Several people we spoke to commented that they would not be likely to purchase the more expensive wines which, a winemaker told us, are aimed at the export market. This may be so, but the rest of the world is also experiencing financial unpleasantness, so we wish them success. Our favourites, jointly and severally, were Pinots Noir from Newton Johnson, Paul Cluver and Cathy Marshall, Bordeaux blends from Kaapzicht (Steytler Pentagon), Springfield (The Work of Time) and Hartenberg (The Mackenzie), Cabernets from Le Riche, Louis Nel and Cederberg and Shirazes from Boekenhoutskloof, De Trafford, Eagles’ Nest, Luddite and Jordan (The Prospector). After a most enjoyable evening of tasting (and spitting!) all these mostly young and tannic reds, we went home to a take-away shwarma and falafel, washed down with a cleansing Windhoek draught. We think food should be available at a tasting like this, not only to help soak up the wine, but to balance the palate. We would happily pay a bit extra for it. The cream crackers kept running out and tasting that many wines with nothing in one’s stomach is tough. These are after all wines made to go with food.
Knife and Glenwood     Last night, we had another great food and wine pairing dinner, (and a great deal of fun) this time at Knife restaurant, which is in Canal Walk and is situated behind the Crystal Towers Hotel, where there is lots of parking. Knife has a cool cocktail bar and is unashamedly a steak house, but one with a difference. We sat with the winemaker, DP Burger, and his wife and we had lots and lots to chat about with this charming couple, whose farm is in Franschhoek. We started the meal with DP’s 2011 Sauvignon blanc, paired with a huge beetroot and smoked goats’ cheese salad. Knife have their own smokery and both the cheese and the ribs which followed were smoked in house. The lovely Glenwood merlot accompanied a plate of their signature smoked sticky BBQ baby back ribs. On chatting to Ed Saunders, the owner, Lynne said they reminded her very much of those she used to love at the Rib Shack in Knightsbridge in London and, indeed, that is where Brit Ed used to work - for the brilliant Bob Payton who had a string of successful London theme restaurants. You get down and dirty, eating these ribs with your fingers, but huge tea towels and hot towels are provided to clean you up. Even John, who prefers to keep his fingers clean to avoid transferring sticky stuff to his camera, enjoyed them. Next, we had a round of good tender beef sirloin on a crisp mushroom crouton with a great black pepper sauce, crisp onion rings and proper French fries. There are so few restaurants who make proper chips/fries and it is a huge treat when we find one. This paired well with the soft fruity and spicy 2010 Shiraz/Merlot blend which, we were delighted to learn, costs only about R35 a bottle, so some will definitely be coming home with us soon. The dessert, a wicked sticky toffee pudding with lots of caramel sauce and cream, finished a lovely meal. DP served his Semillon 2006 noble late harvest wine, which he explained is not for sale to the public. He said it was a complete accident in the making, because a few rows of his Semillon, accidentally left on the vine, were discovered when they returned from holiday and successfully vinified. Knife are running these dinners regularly, check out their web site for details and do not hesitate to visit this fun restaurant with your friends for an enjoyable night out. We think it’s a great place for singles to meet.
This evening we have been at the opening of the Stellenbosch wine festival, meeting lots of friends and tasting some delicious wines. It runs till Sunday, so go and enjoy it. You can also enjoy special Wine Week cellar door attractions on participating farms until Sunday. The farms will, of course, continue their usual visiting and tasting activities after the show. There were some very good canapĂ©s on offer this evening, especially deep fried toast fingers with a prawn paste and covered with sesame seeds. These will probably not be on offer after tonight, which was the opening. One delight was a prawn risotto and a small sirloin dish from chef Michael Broughton of Terroir, delicious bargains at R30 per plate. We followed their recommendation and matched them with Kleine Zalze’s Chenin Blanc and SMV red blend.
Tomorrow night, we will be at the Taj for their craft beer and Indian food pairing, details of which you can find in our Events blog. Space is limited, but you may be able to get a place.
Our products. We have a lot of fun putting MENU together each week and, of course, doing the things we write about, but making it possible for you to enjoy rare and wonderful gourmet foods is what drives our business. We stock a good range of rare spices and other ingredients and delicious ready-made gourmet foods. So, please have a look at our Product List and see what you need. You can contact us by email or phone, or through our website. We can send your requirements to you anywhere in South Africa. If you are following Masterchef Australia we have Carnaroli risotto rice and truffles, amongst lots of other strange and difficult things to find that they use.
Our market activities      This week, you will find us at The Place at Cavendish (Woolworths underground entrance to Cavendish Square) on Friday 29th July, from 10h00 to 17h00, where we will have our great selection of delicious treats and ingredients for you. We will be at the Old Biscuit Mill’s Neighbourgoods Market, as always, on Saturday between 9am and 2pm. Next Wednesday, we will be back at the Dean St Arcade in Newlands from 09h30 to 14h30. We expect to be back at Long Beach on Friday 19th August. We’ll confirm this nearer the time.
Good food and wine continues to grow as a focal point for many people in the Western Cape and, to an extent, in other parts of the country. As a result, our list of Interesting Food and Wine Events has grown so much that it was making MENU too long for some of our readers. So we’ve taken it online. Click here to access it. You will need to be connected to the internet.
Our  list of Winter restaurant special offers continues to grow. Click here to access it. These 2011 Winter Specials have been sent to us by the restaurants or their PR agencies. We have not personally tried all of them and their listing here should not always be taken as a recommendation from ourselves. When we have tried it, we’ve put in our observations. We have cut out the flowery adjectives etc. we’ve been sent, to give you the essentials. Click on the name to access the relevant website. All communication should be with the individual restaurants.





28th July 2011
Remember - if you can’t find something, we’ll do our best to get it for you, and, if you’re in Cape Town or elsewhere in the country, we can send it to you! Check our product list for details and prices.
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
New postal address: 60 Arthurs Rd, Sea Point 8005
Our Adamastor & Bacchus© tailor-made Wine, Food and Photo tours take small groups (up to 6) to specialist wine producers who make the best of South Africa’s wines. Have fun while you learn more about wine and how it is made! Tours can be conducted in English, German, Norwegian or Dutch flavoured Afrikaans.
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 these newsletters are © John & Lynne Ford, Adamastor & Bacchus
Our restaurant reviews are usually 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.
Our Computer Associates® and Avast! ® Anti-Virus software is updated at least daily and our system is scanned continually for viruses.
This electronic 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 and keep our mailing list strictly confidential
If you wish to be added to our mailing list, please send us a message, inserting "subscribe" in the subject line
If you wish to be removed from our mailing list, please send us a message, inserting "remove" in the subject line

Thursday, August 04, 2011

Wine tasting at High Constantia

a range of single varietal red wines made from the five Bordeaux grape varieties (Cabernets sauvignon and franc, Merlot, Malbec and Petit Verdot) and Sebastiaan, a very elegant Cabernet franc dominated blend, made from the famous five


David and Karen, his wife, gave us a most informative tasting, with warm and enthusiastic hospitality 






We Love Real Beers at the Taj

We Love Real Beers at the Taj    
A quick taste in Twankey's




glasses ready for the dinner (glad we didn't have to wash them!)


Spicy tempered prawns and Darling Bone Crusher Witte, Tender lamb kebabs and Mitchell’s 90 Shillings ale and Broccoli in pickle spices and Jack Black premium lager, 


Chicken Tikka with vinegar shallots and Brewers & Union Versus Goliath amber lager, Stir fried potatoes with Pickle Chilli spices and Jack Black premium lager, 


Spiced lamb curry and Napier Brewery Ale and Black lentils and kidney beans with Camelthorn Fresh weissbier. 


The meal ended with CSG Touro Tripel Blond ale accompanying cardamom scented ice cream and brandy snaps













F&B manager James Boreland and wine farmer Paul Cluver manning the pumps


A room full of happy people


A wide variety of glasses and colours