Thursday, May 24, 2012

Concha y Toro Chilean wine and food pairing

Tuesday lunchtime at La Feta Fij Eatery in the High Street shopping centre in Durbanville.
We began the tasting with a good Italian Belstar Prosecco.
The purpose of the tasting was to match Concha y Toro wines with South African food. Concha y Toro is one of the largest wine producers in Chile; their vineyards are in many different climatic and geographical areas throughout the country.
Chef Anneke Burger, using guidance from chef Ruth van Waerebeek in Chile, put this meal together adding a South African slant.
The wines were presented by the effervescent Andy Barrett who represents the importers
and Moises del Rio Orrego, who has come from Chile to represent Concha y Toro in Cape Town.
First course was a smoked snoek burger on a sweet potato cake with a grapefruit infused cream cheese.
This matched the superb flavours of the Trio 2009 Chardonnay blended with Pinot Blanc, and Pinot Grigio.
You know a wine is a huge success when the media keep asking to see the bottle again, to examine the label one more time and to pour just a little more into their glasses. This happened a lot during this lunch as the wines were very good. This golden wine is buttery but crisp, dry and full of flavour and structure and is a very satisfying food wine. It is wooded but not at all smoky.
Our next course was an Empanada (a pastei) filled with roasted beetroot & aubergine, mint, goat’s cheese and gruyere béchamel.
The earthy flavours of the vegetables perfectly matched the savoury and minty Casillero Del Diablo Malbec 2010 which is full of sweet raspberries, cassis and violets and, like the pastry, is hot.
Then came a tiny portion of smoked springbok carpaccio with bobotie-flavoured stewed peaches and a huge slice of toasted mielie bread.
Given that mielies come from South America, this was a good idea and the spicy springbok and bobotie sauce, if not the peaches, enhanced the wine, Trio Cabernet Sauvignon 2009 - blended with Cabernet Franc and Shiraz.
Full of vanilla from the American oak, which slightly overwhelms the cassis fruit on the nose. Then the toasted wood lets the chocolate and spice break through to showcase the soft rich fruit and over-delivers. Our comment on the wine? Yum.
A deep fried breaded meatball of boerewors on a creamy black pepper pap with a rich berry juice
replicated the flavours of the Casillero Del Diablo Carmenere 2010 – the wine once thought to be Merlot but now known to be the historic Bordeaux varietal Carmenere, which Phylloxera exterminated in France.
It survived and is now the most widely planted grape in Phylloxera-free Chile. It tastes like a blend of good Merlot with Shiraz, as it has some spice and a savoury structure with deep dark fruit. Lynne had a theory on tasting it and asked if the chef would be so kind as to send us a slice or two of tomato, which she kindly did; we decided that yes, this wine is one of the few can stand up to the sweet-sour flavours of tomato, so it could go very well with Italian food.
The rather chewy Parmesan crusted ostrich medallions on a creamy mashed potato with a caramel fudge crumble were a little bland and sweet and cried out for something more robust, like olives or a berry sauce, to go with the wine, a Trio blend of Merlot, Carmenere, and Cabernet Sauvignon.
The wine does indeed smell faintly of vanilla fudge and, on the mouth, is a silky spicy mocha, cassis and cherry blend with hot pepper and chilli notes at the end.
Our last course was a warm Bourneville chocolate-chilli shot served with a walnut biscotto, topped with a piece of sticky marmalade. Rather too many chilli flakes but a good ‘dessert’ taster to go with the final wine: Casillero Del Diablo Riserva Privada 2009, a blend of Cabernet Sauvignon and Syrah.
Expensively wooded, so well-toasted and redolent of cassis, red cherry, herbs and white pepper on the nose. It is a very smooth mouthful, spicy and hot with a secondary flavour of raspberries, almost pinot noir like and ending in dark licorice and chocolate.
Our question: should pairings like this try to replicate the flavour of the wines in the food? Or should they pick ingredients which complement the wines? These wines are available at several supermarket chains and other retail outlets.
You, too, can go along and enjoy some wines and the food of 25 wineries and 20 food stalls in the centre at the 8th Winter Wine Festival on 21st to 23rd June. See http://www.blogger.com/www.winterwinefestival.co.za

Wednesday, May 23, 2012

Home cooking- a celebration dinner

For daughter Clare’s birthday, which was last Sunday, Lynne usually cooks a special meal and this year was no different.
She did try to replicate the Orzo and smoked salmon dish we had at the Vineyard for the starter,
and we had Life from Stone 2010 Sauvignon blanc from Springfield - fresh and lively and wonderful - with it. She followed this with duck breasts, bought from Salvin the Neighbourgoods Butcher at the Biscuit Mill, and served them in the classic Duck à l’Orange sauce. Yes, of course, we had duck fat potatoes with our duck and the obligatory butternut puree with green peas.
This went down a treat with a bottle of Mary le Bow 2004,  a cabernet sauvignon, merlot, shiraz and cabernet franc blend, made by Bruce Jack at Flagstone.

Later vintages are still made by Bruce, but are made independently of Flagstone for the Frater family trust.
 
For dessert, she made chocolate fondants, using the Nomu boxed product which they gave us last week. We did add 50g of Willie Harcourt-Cooze 70% dark chocolate (broken in pieces) to the batter and the recipe really works. John, enjoying the treat of not having to drive, was able to enjoy a glass of De Krans tawny port.

Autumn special at La Mouette

Last Friday was one of those raw days, where the temperature is not particularly low (9°C) but, because it is damp, the cold gets into your bones, so we were so happy when Mari gave us a table right in front of the fire at La Mouette. This local restaurant is going from strength to strength and was busy. They have opened up the top floor and everyone is flocking there for the good food and the impressive winter special - which was why we were there with friends for a catch-up evening.
They always spoil us, so we had a couple of extra treats and our friends, who don’t eat meat, were very happy with their substituted dish. Thank you, Mari and Henry and all your wonderful staff for a lovely warm evening. We drank our last bottle of the Woolworths Cape Point Sauvignon Blanc 2008. If you have any, drink now but it is still good with food. Our red wine was a Solms Hegewisch Africana 2005, made from shiraz grapes desiccated on the vine by twisting the stems – rich and concentrated flavours. Both of these from our own cellar. Corkage is R60 per bottle.
First course is a very smooth and unctuous savoury Sweet Potato Soup with spiced yogurt and a crisp lavoche biscuit. The surprise is the warming dollop of spicy tomato Harissa at the bottom of the bowl. Wonderful on a cold evening. Next came a winter vegetable salad where Henry Vigar, the chef patron, makes a ‘ravioli’ from slices of beetroot to enclose some rich goats cheese and accompanies this with lovely citrus jelly squares, walnuts , croutons, sliced radish, marinated mushroom and herb leaves. Delicious, fresh and full of different textures.

 Then came Roasted line fish (Panga) on braised lentils, with crispy gnocchi, butternut puree, cauliflower truffle foam topped with a crisp onion ring. So delicious, this small course packs loads of punch on flavour, the truffle really working with the very fresh fish.
Main course for us was Braised shoulder of (salt) beef on its own rich jus, glazed carrots (too sweet for Lynne) sage, mash, parsnip puree and mushroom powder. Basically a very fancy version of a favourite, braised boiled beef and carrots. We missed the dumplings!
Our friends were served a very creamy sweet corn and rice risotto dressed with zucchini ribbons, rocket and baby tomatoes, which they said they liked very much.
Not one but two tiny desserts, both little bits of fun. ‘Apple crumble’ came in a shot glass, and was a green apple foam on top of lots of crumble with a custard panacotta below with muscadel raisins. Then our ‘coffee’ was a Hazelnut latte dessert topped with coffee ice cream and then meringue and served with absolutely divine miniature salted caramel macaroons. We were very lucky to have more sent to us from the kitchen as a treat.
The courses are all small portions but, by the end, you have had a full meal and feel replete. And all this for R165 per person. However, everyone at the table must order the special menu to qualify.

Tuesday, May 22, 2012

a sick boy's mother cries for help

A little boy named Kyle has a serious medical challenge and needs help. We have put his mother’s story onto this blog in case anyone who reads it will be able to to assist in any way. 
Lanita recently joined the staff at Buitenverwachting restaurant; Lars Maack has very kindly agreed to give her the space to organise a function at Buitenverwachting to raise some much needed funds for her son's medical attention. 
The story contains details of the function Lanita plans. Here it is:
My name is Lanita, mother to 6 year old Kyle who was a healthy and happy little boy until he was 2 years old. Since then we have had a nightmare experience with Doctors and Kyle's health which continues to be very serious.  Expenses are huge and we can't cope.
I work for Buitenverwachting and mentioned my problems to them. They have generously sponsored the venue etc for a fund raiser (see attachment) on the 2nd of June 2012. We need sponsors that can assist in making the event truly GREAT. Sponsors will be listed on all tickets, websites promoting the event and advertising that goes out. We are also fortunate to have the support of a radio station.
We will also be selling “stand space” @ a rate of R350.00 for the day, for you to sell your items and promote your own company. We can however only have 20 stands, so first come, first served.
If there is any way you can assist us with anything we would greatly appreciate it. Should you have any queries you can contact me on 079 584 9515 or bbm 22CC660E for more information.
Kyle's story:
Kyle was born via emergency c-section on the 6th September 2005.
He was the perfect angel with no illnesses in his first 2 years of life – then it all went downhill from there. He started getting a lot of colds and terrible ear infections, we soon discovered due to a bad reaction that he was allergic to penicillin and after seeing a doctor every 2 weeks for the infections we were sent to an ENT specialist
In September 2008 he had his first operation, grommets inserted and adenoids out.  This helped with the ear infections and we were able to go 3 months without ear infections before it all started again, this time with the added complication of tonsillitis in the mix.
However, we soon discovered another problem and Kyle had another op in Sep 2009, a circumcision. During this time we carried on treating the ear infections / colds and tonsillitis.
We managed to get through 2010 without any problems, consulting the doctor every 3-4 weeks.
In January 2011, we were advised again by our ENT to have operations done on his ears, the op was done on a Monday, a replacement ear drum was inserted and as he was going to be under anaesthetic, I requested that they remove his tonsils.. The op went well apart from the fact that he had a bad reaction to the anaesthetic. After a long stay in hospital we were allowed home. After a few days Kyle was complaining that his stomach was sore and he was extremely unwell. I thought it was a reaction to be the op and the fact that he hadn’t eaten much since the Monday. By Saturday he was still very ill and I took him to Constantiaberg Emergency, they said he was fine – he just had an ear infection again and a temp and after some antibiotics would feel much better. That evening I made him a bed on the lounge floor while I watched TV. He was terribly restless and I tried to soothe him when suddenly blood started running out of his nose and mouth. I rushed him to hospital leaving my house unlocked in my panic..
I fetched his grandmother on the way to Constantiaberg. When a doctor saw us, he told me that Kyle was fine and that it was just a little residual blood from the operation but that he would admit Kyle for the night for observation. I phoned his father, Johan, who was at work and told him to come to the hospital. This was at 24.15. At 24.25 Johan walked through the door – Kyle was much calmer after seeing his dad. He told his father that he felt sick and started vomiting blood. I ran for the doctor who was sitting relaxing in the lounge... We were still in the emergency room. I then asked him (not so politely) if this was normal. The doctor went pale and there was a hive of activity around my son's bed. He couldn’t breathe as every time he breathed the blood came up. We were then told that Kyle needed to go back into theatre as he had internal bleeding.
At last they took the situation seriously and by 2.30am Kyle was in theatre again and Johan and I were pacing the room waiting for our son. We then saw a nurse run from theatre and bring back the “rhesus” machine. I kept saying to Johan “he is the only one on the table so it can only be for him”. After 2 hours they brought Kyle out and we were able to see him in recovery. Once he was awake he was transferred to ICU. Johan left the hospital at 5.30 to go home and sleep and I sat by my sons bed. I didn’t realise how close we had come to losing him until the nurses started telling me what had happened. There had been internal bleeding for +-2 days and his stomach was filled with blood – he had lost a lot of blood!
After discharge Kyle continued to complain of a sore stomach and by November the pain was so bad he wasn’t even able to walk.  His Paediatrician admitted him to hospital for tests. They discovered that Kyle had nodes in his stomach and more antibiotics were prescribed and allergy tests done. The paediatrician asked me to see him immediately.... he had 4 pages of allergies... – Nuts, egg, cows milk, wheat, soya beans, fish, apples, kiwi fruit and various other plants, animals etc. This caused major stress in our house and our whole diet had to change and this costs an extra R3000.00 a month. A huge expense to alter the diet for the whole family!  Yet if it isn't done my child cannot survive.
By January 2012 we were back at the ENT for another ear infection. I mentioned to him that Kyle was struggling at school and that I had to put him into a new school as he just wasn’t coping – he struggled with speech and counting. I was advised to take him to the audiologist for a hearing test so off we went.
My world was shaken when she told me that Kyle had very bad hearing and that he was technically deaf and that we needed to consider a hearing aid. She sent me to the ENT and the very next day my son was back in theatre for more ops on his ears. We then had the hearing tests repeated and there were was only a slight improvement. I was told Kyle needed speech therapy and needed to be constantly monitored and that he would definitely need a hearing aid at a later stage. I was also told that we weren’t out of the woods and still had a long road to walk and that I should be prepared for the hearing aid that he would eventually need.
In April he complained of stomach cramps again and he was clearly not well.  We took him to see the Paediatrician, this time,  he had severe flu and was diagnosed with asthma – more suffering for Kyle, more medication and more expense.
His ear drums burst again over the weekend and we were back at the ENT on Wednesday – he did a whole lot of tests on the “pus” in his ears and he has been put on chronic medication, we have also been told to come back in 2 weeks time to discuss the way forward and more surgery options.
We got the results back last week and Kyle has a water born bacteria in his system at the moment and all his meds have had to be changed – we have to get rid of the bacteria before we can move forward with anything.
We battle his asthma and allergies on a daily basis and the problem of the ears and his lack of hearing...
The question I ask now is this – will it ever end????
Our medical aid is finished and we are sitting with a mountain of medical bills and more are coming in daily. He goes weekly for speech therapy which we must pay out of our pockets as the medical aid is finished. In rough expenses for his medical requirements and schooling we are looking in the region of R10 000.00 per month.
As a mother I feel hopeless because I cannot give my child what he needs. You feel terrible as you want to be able to help your child and give him the best of everything, but how can you do that when the cards are stacked against you?
Kind regards,
Lanita Bredenhann

Thursday, May 17, 2012

10 May 12 Main Ingredient's MENU - Old Mutual Trophy feedback, Mother's Day, Buitenverwachting tasting room changes, Chicken wings in sherry vinegar & smoked paprika, Wine courses, etc

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 underlined and Bold words to open links to pictures, blogs, websites or more information
Buitenverwachting’s magnificent avenue of ancient oaks

In this week’s MENU:
*     Products
*     Our market activities
*     Old Mutual Trophy feedback
*     Mother’s Day
*     Buitenverwachting tasting room changes
*     Chicken wings in sherry vinegar and smoked paprika
*     Wine courses, Events and Restaurants
Products     Despite its high price, argan oil has been a consistent seller, to the extent that it has exceeded the importer’s expectations. We have one bottle, earmarked for a customer who says he’ll collect at the market on Saturday. If he doesn’t, it’s up for grabs. There will be no more till July. Italian products are also a bit short and our supplier of Carnaroli and other risotto rices and of Italian stock cubes is waiting for two containers. We still have a little stock of stock and a couple of kilos of Violone Nano rice and are holding thumbs for the news that Carnaroli and stocks will be here soon.
We do have more of the wonderful Valrhona Guanaja couverture chocolate “beans” in 200 gram jars, which amazed us when they disappeared so fast. For those and any other products you need, you can access our product list and see pictures in our website. If you can’t find what you need, let us know and we will try to find it for you. Until our online shop is ready, drop us an email and we will help you. We are very happy to see that traffic on our website is increasing and more orders are coming from it.
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 ingredients and delicious ready-made gourmet foods. You can contact us by email or phone, or through our website. We can send your requirements to you anywhere in South Africa.
Our market activities    Come and visit us at Long Beach Mall tomorrow, Friday 11th May from 09h00 to 16h00, where we hear that there will be a wide range of gift solutions for Mother’s Day. We look forward to seeing you at the Old Biscuit Mill’s brilliant, exciting and atmospheric Neighbourgoods Market, as always, this Saturday and every Saturday between 09h00 and 14h00. Cape Talk Radio’s Kieno Kammies and Africa Melane will be presenting a special Mother’s Day event, which should add to the fun. Tip: Some visitors tell us how they struggle to find parking. Click here for a map
Old Mutual Trophy competition, a golden day for SA wines    Today, we enjoyed, once again, the privilege of going to the Grande Roche in Paarl for the Old Mutual Trophy Wine Show competition feedback. The international judges, this year, were Brian Croser (Winemaker and industry icon, Australia); Anthony Rose (UK and Asian wine columnist) and Tom Cannavan (online wine guru:  http://www.wine-pages.com/ and UK wine broadcaster). The South African judges were Ginette de Fleuriot CWM (Marketing Manager, Vinimark), Gary Jordan (proprietor-winemaker, Jordan Wine Estate), Christian Eedes (wine writer and bloggerwww.whatidranklastnight.co.za), Angela Lloyd (wine judge and writer), James Pietersen (head sommelier of Belthazar and Balducci restaurants) and François Rautenbach (Head, Premier Wine Programme, Singita Lodges). 
The news from this year’s competition is that this was a great day for South African wine. We have heard judges in the last few years tell us how much progress this country is making and how encouraging it is to see the progress. This year, we heard them display real excitement when they talked about the quality of the best wines. This doesn’t mean that they knocked the quality of the older wines. Of the 42 gold medals awarded (up from 32 in 2011), seven were in the museum class, proving us right when we say that our wines do age. As before, the largest number of gold and silver medals was for white wines, with Chardonnay, Chenin blanc and Sauvignon blanc picking up the majority of the accolades. Chardonnay was a big performer, more than one judge commenting on the precision of the winemaking, comparing it to the great improvement we saw in sauvignons a few years ago. Michael Fridjhon quoted the English wine writer Pamela Vandyke Price who said, about 15 years ago, that (to paraphrase) there was no hope for our chardonnay. Now we hear that visitors to this country, who profess boredom with chardonnay are getting excited when they taste our wines, “lightness of touch” being the secret. Sauvignons continue to show very well, but the most enthusiasm appeared to be (thank Heavens) for our chenins blanc. We, and other enthusiasts, have said for a long time that this is one of our national treasures. Brian Croser described it as “profoundly good” and Angela Lloyd said she found great pleasure in the quality, the variety of valid styles and the personalities of these wines. Overall, the improvement in quality was such that wines which would have earned gold medals a few years ago would now be awarded silver.
Reds did not perform as well. There was, as usual, a large number of shiraz entries, the best being excellent, but there were too many with out-of-balance sugars and alcohol and too much evidence of poor winemaking and vineyard practices. Excessively high residual sugar was a problem with too many wines. Pinotage did very well (John says another national treasure, when it is done well) earning two gold medals. “When she was good, she was very, very good, but when she was bad she was horrid”. The best cabernets and Bordeaux style blends showed well, but there was still disappointment with the bottom end. This was especially true of the other red blends. As one judge commented, “taking one bad wine and blending it with another bad one does not make for an improvement”.
For the first time, there were two gold medals awarded to Cap Classique sparkling wines. They will never assume the character of Champagne, any more than Spanish Cava can, but, at their best, the quality can rival the best sparkling wines from any other source. We look forward to seeing which they are and to tasting them.
A discussion which gave us pleasure was about “burnt rubber” which a British journalist (Jane McQuitty of The Times) said she found in our wines a few years ago, creating a bit of a storm in our wine glass. There was no evidence of this in the new wines or in the Museum class entries. A comment from one of the judges was “British wine writers need a story”, the inference being that when they need one, they invent one. Perhaps Messrs Murdoch (News of the …) would care to comment.
A countrywide road show will follow immediately after the results have been announced on May 30th.  Public tastings take place on Friday 8th June at the Sandton Sun (18h00 – 21h00) and on Friday 15th June at the CTICC (17h00 – 20h30).  Tickets are available via Computicket at www.computicket.com and cost R100 if purchased by 27th May or R120 thereafter or at the door. Visit the Old Mutual Trophy Wine Show website www.trophywineshow.co.za for judges’ profiles, information and historical statistics.  The 2012 results will be available on the website from 15h30 on Wednesday 30th May after the awards have been announced at a function at the Mount Nelson.  Twitter: @trophywines. As usual, we took some photographs. Have a look here.
LUNCH ON THE TERRACE AT BOSMANS     Following the Old Mutual Trophy press briefing, we were invited to have lunch at Grande Roche’s restaurant, Bosman’s.  Because the weather in Paarl was absolutely balmy we were lucky enough this year to be able to eat on the terrace under umbrellas. The company was sparkling and the wine flowed. Our sommelier, Michael Gabagas, was very attentive, knowledgeable and encouraged us to taste many of the very good wines on offer. We found we agreed on many of the wines.  We started with a very humble table salad of leaves dressed with olive oil. We thought it was probably for the benefit of the tasters and judges who had been there all week and got to eat a lot of rich food.
We began with Jordan’s delicious Nine Yards chardonnay (the first time we have seen it with a screw cap), The Muratie, which was very lean and clean, and went on to taste Hartenberg’s The Eleanor and then Neethlingshof 2012 Sauvignon Blanc, nice and crisp and the first 2012 of the year for Lynne. The next small course was a duo of prawns, a quenelle shape of yellowtail tartare and some yellowtail ceviche slices with a teaspoonful of mango corn salsa and some interesting dots of avocado crème. The flavours were absolutely delicious and all complemented each other, but a few more prawns would have been appreciated...  Our wine adventure continued with a very enjoyable deep & elegant De Morgenzon Chenin blanc.  The next course was some slices of honey glazed duck breast, meltingly tender, served on a flash of sweet and sour butternut puree, an amazing confit of duck spring roll and a ginger jus.  We went to reds at this point and loved the Delheim 2009 Cabernet Merlot, which was a serious match for the food. Cedarberg’s 2009 Shiraz was full of blood, cassis, cherries and black current leaves. The Koelfontein Shiraz was incredibly elegant and showed careful winemaking and had a soft delicate silkiness on the edges, as if a small amount of viognier had been added, but we were assured by Christian Eedes that nothing had been added.
Dessert was a poem of a light chocolate nougat mousse gateau with a sour dark berry ragout and crème. We were drinking the Hartenberg Cabernet Sauvignon 2004 which is a cassis driven fruit bomb, soft and mellow. If you have some, drink now, it is at its peak. Unexpectedly, this serious wine matched the dessert to a T, its cassis and chocolate flavours being the perfect meld. Great coffee followed and then back to town to write this.
Mother’s Day. We salute our mothers, those who are perpetually busy with their children (however old the children or the mothers are) and who never stop caring for their progeny, and those who helped to make us what we are and have now departed. Sunday will give us an opportunity to thank them and tell them how much we love them and to spoil them. We have a list of special meals and events to help you. Look at it here.
Buitenverwachting tasting room. Last Thursday (it seems an age ago) we visited Buitenverwachting to learn about the changes being made to their tasting room. They are in the process of refurbishing their tasting facility. The refurbishing programme should be complete by the start of spring. We were invited to try some of the wines with Tapas, Winzer Platters and Cheese Platters, which are served in the Tasting Room, and to hear about the plans. We took some photographs. You can see them if you click here.
Spanish flier?     We get lots of queries about how to use some of our products. Here is a recipe that uses two of them in a dish from Spain which is really quick and easy to do. Try these chicken wings when you next have friends around. We took a dish to our wine club meeting yesterday evening.
Chicken wings in sherry vinegar and smoked paprika
16 Chicken wings - 2 T sherry vinegar - 2 T honey -  2 T extra virgin olive oil - 2 t smoked paprika - 2 cloves garlic, finely chopped – 1 T fresh thyme or 1 t dried -  salt and pepper
Use the Sweet Smoked Spanish Paprika, but if you want some heat in the dish use the Hot Spanish paprika.
Slash the wings on both sides. Mix up all the above ingredients and marinade the chicken in them for a couple of hours.  Then bake in the oven for 45 minutes at 180°C until they are sticky and well cooked, basting once or twice. 
30 Roma baby tomatoes – sherry vinegar – olive oil, salt and pepper
Halve 30 baby tomatoes, put on an open roasting tray and drizzle them with the sherry vinegar, olive oil, salt and pepper and bake in the same oven for 30 minutes.
2 red peppers
Grill until blackened on all sides. Immediately put them into a plastic bag, seal it and allow to cool. Then rub off all the black skin, remove seeds and slice into strips.
Serve the chicken wings on a bed of drained tinned chick peas, the roasted tomatoes, roasted red pepper, de-pipped black and green olives and rocket leaves.  Drizzle over some good extra virgin olive oil just before serving.

There is a huge and rapidly growing variety of interesting things to occupy your leisure time here in the Western Cape. There are so many interesting things to do in our world of food and wine that we have made separate list for each month for which we have information. To help you choose an event to visit, click on our Events Calendar. All the events are listed in date order and we already have a large number of exciting events to entertain you right through the year. Click here to access the Calendar. You will need to be connected to the internet.
We have had a lot of enquiries from people who want to learn more about wine. Cathy Marston and The Cape Wine Academy both run courses, some very serious and others more geared to fun. You can see details here.
Some more restaurants have responded to our request for an update of their special offers and we have, therefore, updated our list of restaurant special offers. Click here to access it. These 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. If they don’t update us, we can’t be responsible for any inaccuracies in the list. When we have tried it, we’ve put in our observations. We have cut out the flowery adjectives etc. that so many have sent, to give you the essentials. Click on the name to access the relevant website. All communication should be with the individual restaurants.
Winter is coming in with a bang, but we can still expect some wonderful clear and sunny days. Make the most of them and enjoy a picnic on a wine farm; several wine farms offer picnic facilities. We have put together a list of wine farms who can provide you with a picnic, We haven’t put in much detail, just where it is, phone number, email address and a link to the website. The latter is where you will find all the important information. Go and check it out.








3rd May 2012

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.
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.
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Sue Anderson’s trade wine tasting at Burrata Restaurant

Sue Anderson’s trade wine tasting at Burrata Restaurant in the Old Biscuit Mill precinct was held on Tuesday. Neil Grant, formerly the sommelier at Rust en Vrede, opened this restaurant with a Southern Italian theme recently, in the tunnel which leads to Luke Dale Roberts’ two restaurants. The head chef is Annemarie Steenkamp, who has spent the last 5 years at Quartier Français. We were served very good canapés and some slices thin crisp and smoky pizza during the tasting so it is definitely a place to try if you like good Italian food and great pizza. We might be tempted to have one for lunch when finished working at the Neighbourgoods Market on Saturdays. If we are not watching carbs...
Sue has a nice compact list of wine farms and it was a delight to start our tasting, as we love to do, with a bubbly, in fact three from Colmant in Franschhoek.
We especially loved his seriously sauvage Blanc de Blanc which spends 45 months on the lees and if JP could afford to leave it there, would spend a great many more. His lovely Brut Rosé has intense flavours of caramel strawberries and would be amazing served with dessert.
Then on to have a laugh and a chat with Duncan Savage of Cape Point and to familiarise ourselves again with some of our favourite Cape wines. The 2011 Sauvignon Blanc has just been released and completely lives up to its reputation as one of the best. It needs a little time to settle but now is the time to buy it.
The 2011 Reserve Sauvignon Blanc, full of grapes, figs and blue cheese nuances, was made in very old barrels so wood is not apparent. Their Chardonnay 2011 is just to our taste, being lean, mean and has great minerality. It certainly needs some time but we loved the crisp fruit and melted butter notes.
And then there is the Isleidh 2011. It is, without doubt, one of the best white blends we have tasted this year. It has a shy figgy nose, crisp and creamy fruit with well balanced acidity of limes and lemons and lovely almost jelly-like glycerols from the Semillon that so beautifully finish this elegant wine.
John asked Lynne lately why he hadn’t yet heard those magic words “Birthday wine” and she said she would have loved to have asked for a case of the Stork Shiraz from Hartenberg, but the price is just out of our range. But Isleidh is her definite choice for 2012 and John has now placed an order for 6.
We tasted Howard Booysens’ 2011 Riesling again and still love it. We are delighted to see that he is being stocked by Caroline.
Joubert-Tradeau have a good woody chardonnay, not shy at all; its good acidity and complexity make it a good food match.
We think one to watch is the R62 white blend, which has white peaches on the nose and is a bit unsettled at the moment but, when everything finally comes together, may be a very good wine. Their 2008 Shiraz also shows aging potential.
We found Andreas Shiraz full of flavour, deep and full of sweet fruit, spices and black pepper it is long and hot with a peppery end.
Finally to Louis Nel’s excellent wines. His 2011 Sauvignon Blanc is full of fruit and lean acidity with a classis Sauvignon end.
The Black Forest Cab Merlot blend is very good value at an average trade price of R60 and friends in the trade tell us they sell lots of this popular wine. We found sweet and sour fruits with chalky tannins and green mint in the Cabernet Sauvignon/Merlot blend and the 2008 Cabernet Sauvignon has lots of cassis, expensive wood on the nose and the cassis stays on the mid palate as well as leaves of the black current plants. It is still young and needs to meld a bit more but is turning into a very good wine.
Stephen Digby and Morné came all the way from Manuka at Southey's in Somerset West
Michael Schoeman (Pick n Pay, Constantia) with JP Colmant
Neil & Sue Proudfoot and daughter (Wine Concepts, Kloof St) with Elsie Pels and Melvin Minnaar
Howard Booysen talking to fans of his wines
All these photographs are ©John Ford, Adamastor & Bacchus cc 2012