First night impressions at Taste of Cape Town 2012

We had wonderful fun tonight at the opening evening of Taste of Cape Town.

Craig Cormack, executive chef & owner, Sofia's at Morgenster

The Heckshers enjoyed a break from Winchester Mansions

Craig Cormack (Sofia's) and Bertus Basson (Overture)

Busy chefs from Savour at 15 on Orange

Wayne Rademeyer discussing his award winning buffalo mozarella with Lynne

Pretty girls showing great wines from Dewetshof

Lynne with Rudi Liebenberg, Exec chef at The Planet at the Mount Nelson

Sample platters at The Planet

and their pork belly sweet potato bake

and All things Valrhona on a pastry stick

Roger Jorgensen, distiller extraordinaire

Richard Carstens with Wilhelm Kuhn and Jaap-Henk Koelewijn, the men from Tokara restaurant

All photographs © John Ford, Adamastor & Bacchus cc 2012

Tracy van Maaren wine tasting at Auslese

A good trade wine tasting at Auslese in Hope Street yesterday (pictures here) of wines distributed by Tracy van Maaren. Auslese is the tasting venue of Harold Bresselschmidt’s nearby Aubergine Restaurant. Harold had done two food pairings for wine on each table, see the blog for pictures and details. We started with Pol Roger bubbly, a rather lightweight Chablis and a Bourgogne Pinot Noir that didn’t shine as much as the local ones on show. Then on to taste John Loubser’s own 2009 Silverthorn The Green Man, lean mean, crisp and interesting MCC and his NV The Genie Brut Rosé, made from Shiraz. (John is the Cellarmaster at Steenberg). Kleine Zalze had three wines, all of which cried out for food and, serendipitously, we have had them matched with food today at the Winchester Mansions – see below. Their wonderful Vineyard Selection 2011 Chenin is rich and complex and many layered. Their classic 2009 Cabernet Sauvignon should be used as the benchmark for teaching students what a Cabernet grape should taste like when made into wine, as it is a very true expression of what the grape can do. Their Family Reserve Sauvignon Blanc made from Elim, Stanford and other bought in grapes is really lovely and shows no influences of hot climate sauvignon. Vin’s D’Orrance 2011 Simply White (Chenin Viognier) and 2010 Simply Red (Cab Franc, Cab, Malbec, Petit Verdot, Merlot, were interesting, but more interesting was the 2008 Cuvée Ameena Shiraz which was sophisticated, soft and ready to drink now. The Raats Family wines blew us away, starting with the many layered very elegant 2009 Chenin Blanc, which goes off in the mouth like a firecracker and then cries “NOW EAT!”. The Red Jasper 2010 has fruit flavours jam-packed into the bottle and ends with a lovely long salty licorice. Then came the long and lean Dolomite Cabernet Franc 2010, with incredibly intense flavours of hot cassis and more salty licorice. The flagship Mvemve Raats 2009 De Compostella, this year mainly Cabernet Franc, with Petit Verdot, Merlot, Malbec and Cabernet sauvignon, has had enormous accolades and the previous vintage was awarded 96 points by Neil Martin for the Wine Advocate and was Robert Parker’s highest scoring South African wine in November 2011. It has a very sophisticated nose, is already soft and ready to drink but filled with class, fruit, acids, tannins and we think will definitely be one worth adding to your cellar for future happiness.

Vriesenhof showed their smoky green leaf 2011 Chardonnay which has layers and layers of good fruit and then a surprising end with flavours of vanilla ice cream. Absolutely delicious and just the style we should be making. Their Pinot Noir is full of berry fruits on the nose and palate, lots of alcohol and then finishes with echoes of those long fruit flavours. The Pinotage is one for Pinotage fans, showing typical Pinot noir strawberry fruit with a rich, rounded, toasty vanilla base.

Why do we leave the best till last and then find she has already run out of wine? Next year we will be sure to taste first. Luckily Cathy Marshall managed to find us another bottle of her Pinot Noir, so we were able to enjoy a final tasting of this notable Pinot Noir and her very approachable Amatra Merlot 2011 soft and sweet Merlot, made for drinking now. It has absolutely no stalky green flavours, or mint or eucalyptus.

A few snapshots:

Rick Bennetts (Wine on Time) with Karen Loubser of Silverthorn

Pol Roger: a great way to start

Tracy van Maaren with Cathryn Henderson (Classic FM Wine Editor) and friend

Bruwer Raats (on the right) hears an opinion

The Auslese cellar

Superb food, perfectly matched to the wines

Bertho van der Westhuizen Kleine Zalze assistant wine maker

Jan Boland Coetzee (Vriesenhof) tasting the French

Allan Mullins loves Champagne

Lynne with Lidia and Linda Nobrega (Chapmans Peak Hotel)

More wonderful mouthfuls

Christophe Durand (Vins d'Orrance) and his wife

Perfect pairings

from Harald Bresselschmidt

Allan Mullins and Cathy Marshall

Bruwer Raats with Linda and Lidia Nobrega

All photographs published here are © John Ford, Adamastor & Bacchus cc 2012

Kleine Zalze Grapes Gourmet & Gallery at Harvey's in the Winchester Mansions Hotel

We were invited by Nils Hecksher, the General Manager of the Winchester Mansions Hotel to join a pre-tasting and wine pairing lunch with Kleine Zalze wines in their Harvey’s restaurant.

This was to assess the menu pairings for their very exciting Grapes, Gourmet and Gallery dinner on Wednesday, June 6th matched with 6 Kleine Zalze wines.

These dinners are held every month, prepared by the hotel’s Executive Chef Jochen Riedel,































and cost a very reasonable R345 per person for a five course meal with matched wines from that month’s selected winery. They will use the Chenin Blanc as their welcoming wine and follow with the delicious first course of a fresh and warm glass of pea soup with a soft confit Norwegian Salmon served with the Family Reserve Sauvignon Blanc.

The next course is Cinnamon smoked (in house) Chicken with poached pears, roasted walnuts, garden leaves and a vanilla blue cheese crème fraiche, served with the 2010 Pinot Noir.

If you can get all the flavours on one fork, a superb mouthful. The pears poached in red wine work very well with the cinnamon, the chicken and the wine.
Then a perfectly cooked Osso Bucco on a delicious saffron risotto with gremolata, served with the 2009 Cabernet which we so loved at the TVM tasting yesterday. How well this wine complimented the food and vice versa.

The soft veal, the aromatic risotto, the deep and delicious jus and the herby garlic gremolata were outstanding with this classic Cabernet.
The fourth course is a fillet of pork rolled in rough cumin and black pepper, served with a shallot jus, a Brussels sprout-sized serving of stuffed cabbage and a tiny interesting tartlet of white chocolate and avocado cheesecake in the most buttery short pastry case we have had for a long time, that went ‘poof’ and melted when you bit into it.

The jury is out on the sweetness of the white chocolate but some tasting around the table thought it matched the wine well, others (us!) felt it needed a more salty note. The spices and the pork went superbly well with the 2010 Shiraz Mourvedre Viognier 2010.
We had a short pause, a spoonful of a lovely lemon lime sorbet to refresh our palates

and then it was time for dessert. Surprisingly, they served the Gamay Noir Rosé 2011 with the Berry compote Pavlova and what an unexpected, but excellent, match that is.

The fruit in the wine clearly complemented the berries in the Pavlova and cuts through the cream and the crisp and melting meringue, which is not too cloyingly sweet. The menu will also include filter coffee or tea to finish and we think this is going to be a wonderful occasion to attend. Get your booking in soon, we think it is going to be very well attended.

All photographs are © John Ford, Adamastor & Bacchus cc, 2012