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Thursday, December 05, 2013

Launch of Mondiall restaurant at the V&A Waterfront

Mondiall’s entrance

It has a good deck for sitting outside

The bar, with mojitos and other cocktails lined up

Lots of space on the large covered veranda with doors that open up onto the deck in front
and to the terrace facing the bay

Double volumes and industrial decor, and a balcony area on the right
above the semi-open kitchen

View of the wine bar from the balcony above

Chef Oliver Cattermole

Canapés came fast and furious.
These were crayfish Vietnamese rolls

Moroccan chickpeas on chiabata

Josh Roland helping to feed the guests

A good jazz and bongo band

Organised activity, with the chef directing in the sparkling kitchen

The sommelier does not have to climb that high,
these empty bottles are for display

Good design can be a mix of modern and traditional

A wall of back lit wine bottles is part of the design

Coenie Visser, Ellen Raubenheimer, Dawn Jorgensen & Lynne

Christmas comes to the Waterfront

A visit to Tariro Masayiti at Springfontein

The well endowed barrel cellar

Today, they were bottling the Sopiensklip Rosé

Identified as a good barrel of Shiraz

Talking wine with Tariro and sampling out of the barrels (nowhere to put me hat, so it's on my head)

It’s an adventurous life, winemaking

We tasted a very special Petit verdot from the top barrel

In the upstairs tasting room

Tariro is passionate about his job and winemaking

A prestigious award received recently. This Pinotage received 4½ stars in the Platter guide

The new restaurant “Springfontein Eats”

The little fisherman's cottage on the property that forms the basis of their logo

A mural in the restaurant

The tasting counter

Lovely big open fireplace

We met the Chef, Jürgen Schneider, in his spotless kitchen

Putting up lights under the pergola for the restaurant terrace

The old farmhouse is now the restaurant

It has two tiny rooms where you can have a romantic dinner just for two

and a covered verandah in front facing the river

SAWi Awards at Grootbos

The SAWi trophies

Brett Garner was the able MC for the evening

A harvest of wine people

Hempies du Toit

Head Chef Benjamin Conradie

Michael Lutzeyer, co-owner of Grootbos

Listening intently and wondering “Have we won anything?”

First course: encrusted Salmon

Second course was completely decadent and, yes, some of us managed two. A whole freshly caught crayfish tail in a glass with a rich mayonnaise

Izak Smit, director of the South African Wine Index

More interested bystanders and participants, listening to the awards

Peter Finlayson of Bouchard Finlayson, his wife Gita and Anthony Hamilton Russell. Both won several awards for their wines

A very happy JC Martin and his wife, Carolyn, of Creation Wines hear they have won an award

Peter Finlayson also received the Special Wine Legend Award

There was a huge collection of the SAWi Ambassador wines open for tasting

Brett Garner of The Month publication

Carolyn Martin of Creation wines with Bennet, who helped make sure we had everything we needed

A very rich mushroom risotto topped with cheese

Hempies du Toit presents Peter Finlayson with his awards

Tender baby quail on a potato purée with a rich jus

Hempies du Toit is presented with a special award to Annandale for having been exclusively selected to submit a classic SA Merlot wine for the Royal Wedding in Monaco

Hamilton Russell winemaker Hannes Storm collects the Trophy for the White Wine of the Year for the Hamilton Russell Chardonnay

Dual awards went to two Tulbagh farms that tied for the Red Wine of the Year Trophy: Rijk's Private Cellar Pinotage and Saronsberg Full Circle Shiraz Mourvedre Viognier. Pierre Waal accepts for Rijks and Dewald Heyns for Saronsberg

Izak Smit and Peter du Toit phoning Cederberg winemaker David Nieuwoudt in China to tell him he had won the Trophy for the Winemaker of the Year AND Winery of the year (jointly with Bouchard Finlayson). They had to wake him up, as it was the early hours of the morning in China.

SAWi made a presentation to our hosts, Michael Lutzeyer and his wife, owners of Grootbos. Next to them is Sean, the General Manager

Final savoury course, peppered fillet steak brochettes on pappadums

Dessert was a layered panacotta topped with berries

And a really wicked chocolate mousse cake

We ended the evening tasting award winning brandies