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Thursday, August 22, 2013

Wine tasting at Annandale with Hempies du Toit

Annandale has more character in its gate post than some of the large modern wineries will ever have. And it has another attraction, the warmth of its owner - Hempies du Toit, legendary Springbok front row forward and sixth generation winemaker

Here he comes to greet us with his warm, friendly welcome

The farmyard is full of old and new winemaking equipment, and the buildings have an aged charm. Hempies adores his horses and his much loved pregnant mare comes trotting at his call.

She looks as though she is having fun

Inside the very rustic tasting room, filled with Springbok rugby memorabilia, we tasted through their extremely good range of red wines and port with a large tour group of young people from all over the world. Hempies keeps his wine back, so you can enjoy wines that are properly aged and ready to drink. Current vintage on sale is 2004

This wine is going to Australia and Hempies signed both bottles

Magic in the cellar in front of a roaring fire

When the sun comes out you see more of the charm

Dornier Wednesday seafood special

The bright interior of Bodega, Dornier’s restaurant. A new experience for us, as we have always been there in summer when we sat on the terrace with the wonderful mountain view.

We were given a Monis medium sweet sherry as an aperitif to warm us up on arrival, as it was a very dank, cold, wet day. This is the view of the awful weather through one of the restaurant doors to the presently empty terrace.

Wednesday’s special menu for August.. We had come especially to share two Royal platters. We love these specials which make luxury ingredients more affordable. We are pensioners after all.

And the stupendous dish arrives. The crayfish and the langoustine were amazing. Well-cooked in a lovely buttery garlic sauce. The king prawns were less exciting and the polpetti calamari were tender and also in a good sauce. The mussels usually on the plate were not available, so we were given extra calamari. We think the very moist and juicy fish fillets were gurnard as they were neither gamey and dry, nor firm like kingklip. The small herb salad was well dressed and the rice and egg pilaf was the perfect accompaniment, as it soaked up the juices on the plate.

We drank a bottle of their best white, the Dornier Donatus - a blend of Chenin blanc and Semillon to start and then our budget insisted we switch to the Dornier Cocoa Hill Chenin. Both were perfect foils to the rich seafood.

This is their normal winter menu and good value at R180 for two courses. We saw some of the food on other tables and it certainly looked worth returning for!

Do go and taste this special, we think it is worthwhile offer and bought it. The wine is not ready to drink yet, but it will be in a couple of years. It has lots of fruit, good tannins and great acid structure to support it in the future

We met the Chef, Daniel Kotze, who was sous chef under Chef Neil Norman, who has just moved to a restaurant in Camps Bay. Daniel is waiting for his new tunics

A very pretty window above the door to the kitchen

Wines to taste in the tasting room with some souvenirs, most made locally from recycled things

The roof of the Dornier Winery in front of Bodega restaurant is inspired by the shape of an aeroplane wing, a reference to the Dornier family’s aviation history

The waterfalls on the mountain were huge due to all the rain we have had recently and all the local dams are overtopping

A glade of tall pines on the mountainside hides small buildings

And another, with a telecommunication tower

Wednesday, August 21, 2013

A Celebration of Jordan wines in Woolworths at Jardine on Jordan

A rare sunny winter day in the winelands. We gathered outside the restaurant. Members of the media and PR enjoy a welcoming glass of Sur Lie Chardonnay and the sunshine.

Emanuel Mlotsha and Benedict Sithole, two of our friendly and efficient servers

The Exclusive selection unwooded Chardonnay has golden delicious apples on the nose and crisp dry green apples on its multi-layered palate with a distinct marmalade end.

Juanita Jolly, Maggie Mostert and Louise Genis enjoying the wine, the sun and the landscape

The menu for the lunch

Our rustic hors d’oeuvre was the kitchen’s freshly baked bread, parsley butter, cauliflower salad, tiny roasted baby tomatoes with a lot of wonderful garlic slices and chives and some rich aioli.

Tom Orpen, sales and marketing manager for Jordan, Lynne, Alan Mullins CWM, wine consultant to Woolworths, and Cathryn Henderson, Editor of Classic Wine Magazine discuss the wines and the industry

Next we compared the Jordan 2004 Chardonnay and the 2012 ‘Specially for Woolworths’ lightly wooded Chardonnay which were served with the starter.

The starter. What a beautifully presented plate. On a broad bean purée base, a coin of buffalo mozzarella with chewy and intense grilled baby fennel, fresh broad beans, orange cream, and winter herbs: baby nasturtium leaves, sorrel leaves and flowers, chickweed, jasmine blossoms, and a sprinkling of crisp beef ‘kaaiings’ or crackling. Each one of these flavours appeared in the wine and as a whole the dish was intense, sharp, citrusy, herbal and delicious

Co-owner/winemaker Gary Jordan tells us about the wines and the relationship with Woolworths

Woolworths’ wine buyer Ivan Oertle tells us about the Exclusive for Woolworths history

Chef George Jardine tells us about the food and how they did the wine pairing

The next course was a fillet of East Coast hake wrapped in crisp pancetta, tender red wine braised octopus circles, which some of us first thought were scallops, in a rich smoked marrow jus topped with watercress. This was served with two Jordan Merlots. The very good value No Added Sulphur 2012 Merlot (R59.95) and the Woolworths Exclusive Selection Merlot 2010 (R99.95) and it had a remarkable effect on both wines. It amplified the smoke on the first wine and softened and enriched its slightly sharp acidity. And it brought out and enhanced the rich flavours of the cherries and mulberry fruit on the second wine.

The next course of Confit duck leg with porcini boulangère (translation: cooked with sliced onions in a casserole) sauce, poached turnip purée and marinated sultanas, was the best duck confit we have had since France. Crisp skin, soft flesh falling off the bones, counterpointed by the mushroom jus and the sweetness of the sultanas. The plate was dressed with chickweed, which is a weed we will be foraging for from now on. Served with two versions of Jordan Cobbler's Hill Bordeaux blend: the Jordan 2004 and the Jordan Exclusively for Woolworths 2010 (R210.95).

These wines are full of expensive wood on the nose with cassis, rhubarb and cherries and with some savoury notes from the addition of the Cabernet Franc. They have rich, deep fruit flavours. The 2010, while young and needing a little more time, was especially good with the duck and, yet again, everything on the plate added to the experience of the wines. As Lynne said in a tweet, George Jardine is indeed a food alchemist.

Winemaker and co-owner Cathy Jordan tells us a little more about the wines and how they did the pairings

To finish the meal, we were served a selection of great local cheeses from their cheese room with home-made jams. This was partnered with the richly sweet and elegant Jordan Mellifera NLH

Job well done, Chef George Jardine on his way home to his family. Do go and sample his food, Jordan’s wines and enjoy that amazing view from the restaurant.

Media launch of Gentleman Spirits Eau de Vie and Grappa at Blaauwklippen

A selection of canapés was served to show us how each was improved by a spritz of a particular eau de vie or grappa:

Smoked salmon with an orange flavoured cream cheese and a sprig of dill was sprayed just before eating with an Orange Eau de Vie

A delicious duck parfait with candied beetroot and a miniature plum half was sprayed with Pear William Eau de Vie

Venison Carpaccio was spritzed with a Zinfandel grappa.

One of the spotless stainless steel column stills. The ‘mash’ of fruit is cooked in the bottom copper’ and the spirits are distilled up the column and into the cooling chambers.

After several hours in the column still, being refined and refined, we see the final product of undiluted spirit.

Rolf Zeitvogel, Blaauwklippen’s MD and winemaker, is also one of the 3 Gentlemen partners in the Gentleman Spirits distillery

Urs Gmür, Duimpie Bayly, Sales Manager Billy Martin and Master Distiller Hubertus Vallendar listening to Rolf’s description of the distillation process

Multi-award winning and acknowledged master distiller Hubertus Vallendar explains his philosophy and how it and his process differ from others to produce really fine Eau de Vie and Grappa

The media makes notes while we listen to the presentation and sip on Graham Beck Brut laced with the Orange Eau de Vie

Now-retired industrialist Urs Gmür tells us what he brings to the business

Rolf translates some of the finer points of Hubertus' talk on distillation from the German

The tasting table set up in the new distillery on Blaauwklippen

A metal mural which shows the distilling process graces a wall in the distillery

A display of the range we are about to taste

Natalie Campbell, Events organiser and Rolf's PA, with the range of spirits

Six small glasses that pack an enormous punch

Tweeting, writing and tasting take place at the same time while we listen to the presentation

The small correct tulip-shaped tasting glass of powerfully aromatic and warm liquor made from Pear William (Actually local Bon Cretien pears from Elgin are used)

The glass is capped to keep in the volatile aromas and alcohols

We tasted six Spirits; Pear William Spirit, Lemon Eau de Vie and an Orange Liqueur and 3 Grappa’s made from Zinfandel, Malbec and Shiraz. The intensity of the flavours from the fruit were remarkable and the different grape varieties are also very notable in each Grappa. They intend to produce many more flavours, but will use only ripe, pure local organic fruit for distilling. At the moment most of the fruit comes from Elgin.

Rolf tells us about the aromas and shows us how to taste the spirits

This still was cooking up a mash of Malbec grapes to make grappa and we then discovered that it was at the perfect temperature of 65°C – to cook the main dish ‘sous vide’ for our lunch after the presentation. A very clever way to do two things at once.

And when they released the mash, out came four wrapped parcels of slowly braised pork neck

We then proceeded to the Blaauwklippen restaurant

to enjoy a three course menu paired with some of the Gentleman Spirits

First course was a rather leafy green garden salad with a few baby squid spritzed with the Lemon Eau de Vie, one of our favourite spirits. We drank Blaauwklippen’s new vintages with the lunch and with this course we really enjoyed the 2013 Sauvignon Blanc, full of green figs and tropical notes, crisp and dry; it went well with the dish. And we tasted the Cultivar Selection 2013 Chenin Blanc

These are the Spritzer bottles for the spirits to add aroma and a little extra taste to the dishes.

The main course was the extremely tender Malbec braised Pork Neck. This was in quite a sweet sauce of peach and Malbec Grappa, sauerkraut, and potatoes three ways: Potato salad, potato wedges and a rather undercooked butternut and potato dauphinoise. A very Teutonic styled dish. This was served with the Cultivar Selection 2010 Malbec and its savoury flavours completely matched the rich sauce and the spirit in flavour profile.

Dessert was a perfectly made crème brûlée. (Photo courtesy of Nicolette Waterford). We have had some horrible curdled versions recently; this was silky and creamy with a good crack of caramel on the top and a dollop of vanilla ice cream and finely chopped Pistachio nuts. Spritzed with the (soon to be released) Hazelnut Eau de Vie, it went into another dimension. Wicked

This is a very clever pourer they use to make sure everyone gets the same quantity. We all finished the meal with some of the best coffee we have tasted in a long time from the Roastery on Blaauwklippen. This is what to have with your grappa digestif at the end of a meal.

The restaurant floor is a parquet of oak barrel staves

They were most generous and we were given several sample bottles of the spirits and the wines to take home with us, plus sample packets of ground coffee. Lynne cannot wait to use the Pear William and Lemon in and on future desserts.