Franschhoek Uncorked: to French Connection for dinner

Franschhoek by night! The outside of the French Connection restaurant on the main street where Jason Ratner, the manager, had invited us to come and have dinner.

Tonight’s specials. Wines come in a small pichet as in France or by the bottle. Lynne had La Bri Chardonnay and John Boekenhoutskloof Wolftrap red

We sat close to the fire.  The décor is very like most good French bistros

Starting to fill up at 7 pm

The menu has lots of options

Lynne ordered the grilled squid in chilli and garlic which was delicious, very tender and nicely chilli warm and garlicky. But she could have done without the large pool of olive oil on the dish. She wanted grilled because it is not oily.

John had the roast duck with a gooseberry sauce. Perfectly cooked duck with crisp skin, he found the sauce rather sweet but the counterpoint to that was the nicely tart fresh Cape gooseberries. Note the generous pichet of Boekenhoutskloof Wolftrap, which cost only R36

Lynne does not often do dessert but, if Tart Tatin is on a menu, she has to try it. This was quite wonderful. Soft and intense apples, beautifully crisp flaky pastry and a good sour cream to counterpoint the richness and sweet and sticky caramel sauce.  She( needed) wanted lots more caramel sauce…

Second chocolate tart of the week, but this was for John. The best thing on the plate was the chocolate filled deep fried spring roll.  When opened it oozed liquid chocolate all over the plate

© John & Lynne Ford, Adamastor & Bacchus 2013

Franschhoek Uncorked: Shiraz vertical tasting at La Bri

La Bri farm, nestled into the Franschhoek landscape and surrounded by oak trees

The bridge into the farm

The river in full spate after all the snow and rain of the last few weeks

We looked for trout as it comes down past the trout farm but didn’t spot any escapees

The wine cellar

You could have some burgers or pancakes

or really good sausages

Nice place for a family gathering

The essential teammate: GM & winemaker Irene Waller's PA

Time for a sit down, some wine and a bite to eat

We giggle about the industry

A La Bri barrel from Vicard containing lots of information and some very good wine

Great excitement as they have a pair of owls nesting this year in the hollow oak. This is the female sitting on the eggs which are soon to hatch.

Vines at rest but bud break is just starting to happen and the trees in the background are also starting to green

The walled herb garden

Winemaker Irene Waller pouring her wines. As you can see from Lynne’s tasting notes below, we really liked these wines and you can clearly see their progression. All have a small portion of added Viognier

We started with the 2011 Viognier which is lightly wooded and very much in the style of Condrieu on the Rhône. Restrained sweetness, white peaches, melons and elegant minerality

2005, 7, 8, 9, 10 and 11 La Bri Shiraz for tasting.  Brief notes read. 2005 Still full rich fruit, chalky tannins, licorice later.  20078 Incense and cherries on nose. Cherries, licorice, salt and prunes with a whiff of tobacco at the end

2008 Violets and rose geranium on nose. Sweet and sour fruit in balance. Much more elegance. Very much a food wine and at its peak right now. Serve with game, duck, anything with a rich jus

2009 Lemongrass oil mulberries expensive wood on nose then violets, rich cassis and basil on both. Hints of  coriander seed and lavender. Very complex , warm with quite chalky tannins, will go on and on. Ends with violets. Like eating a violet macaroon.  Cellar now

2010 (a hard vintage) Cola and mulberries on nose. Sweet fruit, very, very chalky tannins so won’t be ready for a while. Ends with cherries, red and maraschino

2011 Vanilla then mulberries on nose. They repeat on the palate. Ripe and hot off the tree. Juicy lots of dimensions, herbal references and rhubarb. Ends with peaches from the viognier, vanilla and nice dark toasted wood whiffs. This will be ready earlier than 2010

 Irene with some of the labels.  The 2011 is still unlabelled

The Lab Brie 2012 Shiraz was one the Top 12 in this year’s Shiraz SA Wine Challenge

The upstairs tasting room

View of the Franschhoek mountains across the vineyards

There is always one.  In their flower garden of golden clivias, an orange has appeared

© John & Lynne Ford, Adamastor & Bacchus 2013

Franschhoek Uncorked: Lunch at Maison

Maison is on the Franschhoek Uncorked route and we could taste their wines in the large tasting room.

or sit in the lounge area

Wine cooling in a bath of iced water

We took our table near the fire - the day was not warm  Very clean and uncomplicated decor in the restaurant

Lynne catches up with the Chef, Arno van der Westhuizen, whom we have not seen since last summer.

The restaurant is very light and airy, with a large window on one side and sliding glass doors on the other, which can be opened for an al fresco atmosphere on fine, warm days

More nice clean design for the menu. We ordered a bottle of their excellent Chenin to go with our meal.

Patrick, our extremely competent waiter, had everyone properly cared for

The daily specials

The menu

John chose from the menu - Tempura duck rolled in nori seaweed, dipped in batter and deep fried. The duck was soft, shredded and very rich, made even more so with the addition of the slices of foie gras. We shared this of course. In fact we shared all the dishes

Lynne likes to choose something unusual, and off the daily special menu came Tomato tartare – not raw, not sun dried (thank heavens), but somewhere in-between.  It had lost is tart freshness and was rather meaty in texture, but a full-on concentration of sweet tomato.  The brilliance was serving it with a small scoop of strawberry sorbet which was more than a match and a great compliment to the tomato favours. Who would have thought, but it works

Lynne’s next course, was also off the specials.  Firm, uncomplicated  perfectly cooked Red Roman tasting of the sea on a bed of carrot and ginger puree. She liked the crisp deep fried skins of the Jerusalem artichokes (sunchoke)  but less the rather undercooked ones beneath the fish

We both found the rib of beef very tender and full of flavour, perhaps rather too many tendons and sinews for John (Jack Spratt).  The parsnip with truffle was mind blowing but Lynne would have preferred a different vegetable to the sprouts – not wrong, she just doesn’t like them very much.  We meant to order chips but were not unhappy we forgot to as this was quite a filling meal

The beverage menus  

We did not have room for dessert as we knew we were going out for another meal that evening

The Chef on the pass. John took many photos of him - he is very, very active and busy

Our neighbours enjoying a glass of the Maison Straw wine

And their neighbours decided to have some as well

Our bill. It was not cheap, but it was worth it

Music on the terrace as we departed

being enjoyed by festival goers awaiting a table

 © John & Lynne Ford, Adamastor & Bacchus 2013