Amorim Cork Methode Cap Classique Challenge Awards

Every year Amorim Cork sponsors this competition in South Africa for the best Methode Cape Classique wines, wines that are made in the French Champagne method. The Awards ceremony was held last Thursday at the Twelve Apostles Hotel and there were some surprises and also some of the more familiar top names who received awards. Domaine des Dieux Claudia Brut MCC 2009, from the boutique wine producer in the Hemel en Aarde Valley near Hermanus, was crowned as South Africa’s best Cap Classique. The results are as follows:

• Best Vintage Brut and Overall Winner: Domaines des Dieux Claudia Brut MCC 2009
• Best Brut Non-Vintage: Lords Non-Vintage Blended Brut
• Best Rosé Non-Vintage: Graham Beck Brut Rosé
• Best Rosé Vintage: Graham Beck Brut Rosé 2009
• Best Blanc de Blancs Non-Vintage: Colmant Brut Chardonnay
• Best Blanc de Blancs Vintage: Laborie 2010
• Best Museum Class: Simonsig Kaapse Vonkel Brut 2004

Bottles chilling on arrival

Welcomed with a glass of Lord's by a member of staff

The first surprise was the quality and sophistication of the welcoming bubbly, Lord’s MCC blend from Robertson area.  It is lean and crisp and in the style of a Brut Sauvage, a style we really love. It was awarded Best non-vintage Brut, which is so deserves. It is so nice to see a wine come of age

The elegant all-white conference marquee in which we gathered

Pieter Ferreira of Graham Beck Wines with journalist Melvin Minnaar

Two absolutely stunning canapés: At the top a fresh asparagus spear in a jar with a beautiful mushroom and truffle paste, topped with a herb oil. In front, a whole fresh oyster in a cold lime broth topped the spherical, chef made, ‘caviare’

Three winning winemakers:  A representative of KWV with Hannes Meyer of Simonsig and Kobus van der Merwe of Laborie

Wayve Kolevsohn, sommelier at The Test Kitchen, with Pieter Ferreira

Best Bubbly on show was won by Sharon Parnell of Domaine des Dieux in the Hemel and Aarde valley

And the rain it raineth just on that day. And boy did it come in from over the sea!

Joaquim Sa, the Cape Town representative of Amorim Cork, announcing the awards

The chef at The Twelve Apostles is making superb food. This starter of gently smoked, flame grilled local salmon trout was moist and perfectly seasoned. And just too damned small. It was dressed with ‘pressed’ cucumber, a tartare of crisp vegetables, an impressive miso vinaigrette and some more of those lime spheres.

The Twelve Apostles talented sommelier Gregory Mutambe pours us another good MCC to go with lunch. It was hidden in a napkin as its award had not yet been announced

The lunch menu

The Beetroot ‘terrine’ was a thick slice of fresh beetroot with an unusual sweet goats cheese ice cream, a tangy apple gel and pickled baby pearl onions

Liezel van der Westhuizen was our Mistress of Ceremonies. Here, Pieter Ferreira of Graham Beck gets two awards - for the best Brut Rosé NV and the Best Brut Rosé Vintage 2009 from Joaquim Sa

Pieter also collected the award for the Best Blanc de Blancs Non Vintage MCC on behalf of JP Colmant, who was overseas

Two happy winemakers from Graham Beck with their awards, Pierre de Klerk and Pieter Ferreira

A beaming Sharon Parnell of Domaine des Dieux with her award for the Best Vintage Brut, Claudia.

Hannes Meyer of Simonsig collects their award

The Trophy for the Overall Winner of the competition is an impressive sword which is being collected here by Sharon Parnell

Listening to the speeches

All the tables had a good mix of winemakers, winners, industry people and media

Alan Mullins tells us how the competition was judged

Greg Mutambe, Head Sommelier and Bradley Isaacs, Food & Beverage Supervisor

Shante Hutton, Wine News editor of wine.co.za, tweeting the winners to her readers

A surprise award to Alan Mullins for his services to the Methode Cape Classique industry

We are poured a glass of Claudia, the Best Vintage Brut and overall winner, from Domaine de Dieux

Sommelier Gregory checking that the wines are worthy of serving

The winning lineup of MCC wines

Sharon Parnell with her daughter Megan

Siobhan Thompson, the CEO of Wines of South Africa, with Sharon Parnell

It is unusual to be served roast chicken at functions nowadays. This supremely tender sous vide breast was served on a delicious corn puree, with small fried potato gnocchi, forest mushroom ragout, oven roasted shallots and a hazelnut crumble for texture and flavour. There was also a very crisp and succulent confit’d wing

And then came dessert entitled When life gives you lemons…  A soft lemon cremeaux ( the French for panna cotta) topped with a lemon puree, with honey cake, a rooibos honey gel, a sharp lemon sorbet and plain Bulgarian yogurt and some roasted nuts. Was it lemon overkill?  No it was not. Just the right amount of citrus tang made this a fresh dessert light with lots of different textures which went so well with bubbly. The cremeaux was like eating a lemon meringue pie in flavour but a completely different texture.

Emile Joubert, the PRO for these awards

Francois Malan, Simonsig viticulturalist

Liezel van der Westhuizen winds up the Awards

The sun has come out to allow the winners to pose with their trophies

The informal picture!

Joaquim Sa, Peter Clarke and Sharon Parnell of Domaine de Dieux and Christophe Fouquet of Amorim Cork

And just in case you were still hungry there were some petit fours with coffee

RETURN TO MENU

© John & Lynne Ford, Adamastor & Bacchus 2014

140918 Main Ingredient's MENU - Klink bus to Constantia, Memorial lunch, Hermanus, Riedel glass at Creation, Muratie DuToitskloof cook in

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Sunrise on Walker Bay, Hermanus

In this week’s MENU:

 Klink Awards go to Constantia on the Red Wine Bus

 Memorial lunch for a friend - No sad goodbyes

 Down an Allée Bleue

 Off to the seaside

 Riedel Glass at Creation Winery

 Hermanus & the importance of Advertising

 Lunch at Bientang’s Cave

 Du Toitskloof vs Muratie annual Cookoff

 DOC Lamb for the Karoo

 Amorim Cork Methode Cap Classique Challenge Awards

 Wine Concepts Festival of Seductive Sauvignons

 Food and wine (and a few other) events for you to enjoy

 Learn about wine and cooking

To get the whole of our story, please click on “READ ON.....” at the end of each paragraph, which will lead you to the related blog, with pictures and more words. At the end of each blog, click on RETURN TO MENU to come back to the blog version of MENU.

This week’s Product menu    One of the sweet tooth delights we enjoy is Italian Amaretti biscuits, delicious little almond macaroons which can be enjoyed with a cup of coffee or as an ingredient in desserts, especially when drenched with Amaretto liqueur  See them here

Another week of contrasts, great experiences and some chilling out of town

Klink Awards go to Constantia on the Red Wine Bus     Friday's event was a ride on City Sightseeing’s Red Bus tour to Constantia. We started from outside the Aquarium with some of Klink’s staff, other media and Klink fans. www.winetourismsouthafrica.co.za/klinkawards/

After a late start, we headed off on the bus through the southern suburbs to Constantia Nek where we were served a lovely cold glass of Steenberg’s MCC (this is NOT part of the normal tour!) before boarding the Wine Bus, which ambles through this leafy suburb and takes you to visit several wine farms. We ended up at Groot Constantia, where a special event had been set up for us. You, too, can enjoy this tour; it is a great way to see our city if you don’t want to drive – http://www.citysightseeing.co.za/tour-timetables.php     Read More

No sad goodbyes     We lost another good friend to cancer recently and we so love the way he wanted to go out. He didn’t want a sad funeral, he left money to take a large group of his friends, here and simultaneously in Durban, out for a slap up lunch. As Richard was a huge bon viveur, this was such a happy way to give him a send off. The Cape Town celebration of his life was held together with members of his family at The Food Barn in Noordhoek which was booked out for lunch on Saturday and Chef Franck Dangereux did Richard proud. We know he would like you to see the pictures of what we ate and drank Read On

Down an Allée Bleue     On Sunday we packed up our overnight bags and headed first to Allée Bleue wine farm in Franschhoek, to which we had been invited to sample Craig Cormack’s pop-up month of Pizza and Pasta for September. It was the most beautiful day and we were given a lovely table on a small balcony apart from the main restaurant, with a view of the vineyards. Read on

Off to the seaside     We left Franschhoek late afternoon and headed over the magnificently heady Franschhoek pass to Hermanus via the very full Theewaterskloof Dam. We had been lent a lovely spacious and modern flat on the coast in Hermanus and were amazed to see that we were right on the rocks overlooking the bay and we could see many whales cavorting from the large glass windows. This was to be our home for the next two nights

We meet Georg Riedel of Riedel Glass at Creation Winery     This was the main reason for our visit to Hermanus. A lunch had been arranged at Creation winery by Michael Fridjhon and Michael Crossley of Reciprocal Trading, who are the distributors of this glassware in South Africa and they had invited lots of media and restaurateurs to meet him. Over lunch, we would sample Creation wines in Riedel glasses – the one designed specifically for that varietal and also in another. This does make it easy to see how well the correct glass showcases both the aroma, the taste and the enjoyment of each wine. We learned much more about Riedel Glass and how they formulate these special glasses for specific wines, based on very scientific methods. Read on

Hermanus. The importance of Advertising     Honestly, some people have absolutely no idea about how to promote themselves. We decided, on Tuesday, to go and see some of the wine farms in Stanford that we have never visited before. Almost there, we saw an impressive set of gates with a very small dilapidated sign saying wine tasting. But there was no name on the gate. It turns out it was Misty Cliffs who had their signage stolen a while ago. We were welcomed by Angela Kies in the tasting room, who gave us a tasting of their three wines, two Shirazes and one Pinotage, made by consultant winemaker Philip Costandius, who is now at Oldenburg in Banhoek. “No, they have not been busy” she said. With no signage outside, we are not surprised that everyone is driving right past.

It got worse. We could not find a tasting room on the Robert Stanford farm despite driving all over the estate looking for one and any signage and nearly took a road over a very rickety wooden footbridge that would not have held our car. There is building going on, so perhaps they are closed for a while. We left and then proceeded to Stanford Hills next door. You turn off the main road onto a smaller road and drive at least a kilometre to the small winery. It was lunch time and we were spurred on by the thought of the memorable pork pie they serve, mentioned by Christian Eedes in the Platter guide. When we reached it, we discovered that they are only open Thursdays to Mondays. It was Tuesday. We really would have appreciated this information at the turning from the main road. So it was not a successful trip to taste Stanford wines.

Lunch at Bientang’s Cave     We headed back into Hermanus to find some lunch. Lynne had met the owner of Bientang’s Cave the previous day at Creation so we decided to give it a try. And we were very pleasantly surprised READ ON

Du Toitskloof vs Muratie annual Cookoff     It was Du Toitskloof’s turn to host this competition this year and we were taken there in one of their small buses. It is in Rawsonville, just through the DuToitskloof tunnel, and they had set up a huge marquee and cooks from both farms were all busy cooking the lamb. This year they were to showcase Karoo Lamb and they had to cook some chops on a braai and larger cuts like the shoulder or leg in a pot. It was not great weather but we had a very jolly crowd of supporters and media and lots of wine from both farms flowed. Muratie were quite clever in producing a starter – they put an entire Brie on a tray on the braai till it got lovely and warm and gooey and you could scoop up warm cheese which was then topped with slices of fresh strawberry – unusual but it works. It certainly kept the wolf from the door while we waited for the lamb to cook. Read on

DOC Lamb for the Karoo      During the day Professor Johann Kirsten Head of the Department of Agricultural Economics, Extension and Rural Development at the University of Pretoria told us about how South Africa is trying to value, promote and protect our special regional foods,starting with Karoo lamb, as products of origin and quality, as we already do with our wines. It is rather like the European Commission has done with Welsh Lamb, Gorgonzola Cheese, Parma Ham etc. It means that identified foods are ethically produced, marked, numbered and this means their origins can be checked and authenticated. To explain this further we quote Wikipedia entry for DOC:

Denominazione di origine controllata ("Controlled designation of origin") is a quality assurance label for Italian food products, especially wines and various cheeses (Denominazione di Origine Protetta). It is modelled after the French AOC. It was instituted in 1963 and overhauled in 1992 for compliance with the equivalent EU law on Protected Designation of Origin, which came into effect that year.

The South African project will differ but basically it will be similar. We think this is a wonderful initiative and hope to see lots more of our special regional foods joining this programme. To learn more look at www.karoomeatoforigin.com

Amorim Cork Methode Cap Classique Challenge Awards     The results of the 14th annual Amorim Méthode Cap Classique Challenge were announced today at a lunch held at the 12 Apostles Hotel. Domaine des Dieux Claudia Brut MCC 2009, from the boutique wine producer in the Hemel en Aarde Valley near Hermanus, was crowned as South Africa’s best Cap Classique. The results are as follows:

Best Vintage Brut and Overall Winner: Domaines des Dieux Claudia Brut MCC 2009

Best Brut Non-Vintage: Lords Non-Vintage Blended Brut

Best Rosé Non-Vintage: Graham Beck Brut Rosé

Best Rosé Vintage: Graham Beck Brut Rosé 2009

Best Blanc de Blancs Non-Vintage: Colmant Brut Chardonnay

Best Blanc de Blancs Vintage: Laborie 2010

Best Museum Class: Simonsig Kaapse Vonkel Brut 2004

Congratulations to all the winners. We will be writing in much more detail about these awards, the wines and the food served with them next week, as we have only just got back from them.

Wine Concepts Festival of Seductive Sauvignons      Come and join us at this superb festival celebrating Sauvignons Blanc and Rouge at the Vineyard Hotel next Friday, 26th September. Always a glittering event, you can taste some of the best Sauvignons this country produces from 50 top farms. Bookings: Tickets cost R170 each and can conveniently be purchased via www.webtickets.co.za at Wine Concepts in Newlands or Kloof St or at the door on the evening, subject to availability. Telephone Newlands at 021 671 9030 or Kloof Street at 021 426 4401. And you could book yourself dinner at the Vineyard afterwards.

Food and wine (and a few other) events for you to enjoy

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 type of event for which we have information. To see what’s happening in our world of food and wine (and a few other cultural events), visit our list of wine and food pairing dinners, list of Special events with wine and/or food connections, list of Wine Shows and Tastings and list of special dinner events. All the events are listed in date order and we have a large number of exciting events to entertain you right through the year. Events outside the Western Cape are listed here.

Learn about wine and cooking We receive a lot of enquiries from people who want to learn more about wine. Cathy Marston and The Cape Wine Academy both run wine education courses, some very serious and others more geared to fun. You can see details of Cathy’s WSET and other courses here and here and the CWA courses here. Karen Glanfield has taken over the UnWined wine appreciation courses from Cathy. See the details here

The Hurst Campus, an accredited school for people who want to become professional chefs, has a variety of courses. See the details here

Chez Gourmet in Claremont has a programme of cooking classes. A calendar of their classes can be seen here.

In addition to the new Sense of Taste Culinary Arts School, Chef Peter Ayub runs a four module course for keen home cooks at his Maitland complex. Details here

Nadège Lepoittevin-Dasse has French cooking classes in Noordhoek and conducts cooking tours to Normandy. You can see more details here.

Emma Freddi runs the Enrica Rocca cooking courses at her home in Constantia.

Lynn Angel runs the Kitchen Angel cooking school and does private dinners at her home. She holds hands-on cooking classes for small groups on Monday and Thursday evenings and she has decided to introduce LCHF (Banting classes). The Kitchen Confidence classes, which focus on essential cooking skills and methods, have been expanded and are now taught over 2 evenings. She continues to host private dining and culinary team building events at her home. She trained with Raymond Blanc, and has been a professional chef for 25 years. More info here

18th September 2014

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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 and standard 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 and our blogs 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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