Heritage Day Friendship Table at Avontuur

Avontuur in the Helderberg is one of South African premier racehorse studs, which also makes a little wine. Well, that’s what they told us on Heritage Day, on which we were invited to visit and taste their wines. It is hard to define “a little” when they tell us that they make 48 000 bottles of their best selling Estate red blend of Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot! They also make several other wines. The wines in the premium range are named after their prize winning race horses. The farm is owned by the Taberer family and the wines are made by Jan van Rooyen.

The entrance to Avontuur Restaurant and the new improved tasting room

We met a table of other media and bloggers

The restaurant was very busy and lively on the public holiday

Cobie van Oordt, PRO for Avontuur takes us through their wines. We particularly liked the Estate Sauvignon Blanc, good vale at R62 and the Estate Cabernet/Merlot. Many of the reds have very farmyard noses, is this influenced by the horses? John’s favourite was the Baccarat 2009, a Bordeaux blend, and Lynne’s was the Dominion Royale Shiraz from 32 year old vines

Lunch after the tasting was a shared platter of cheese, paté, droëwors and biltong with a few additions like fruit, nuts and preserved figs. These cost R120 for 2.

The restaurant menu for the day

Then we had a plate of dessert. One of the choices was a Cape classic, Melktert

We had the almond cake

A view of the paddocks at the front of the farm

The farm buildings

Spring vines breaking into bud as the weather gets warmer

A view from Avontuur of the R44 between Somerset West and Stellenbosch. We travel this road often and had no idea the hill was so steep. Of course, a long lens compresses the distance and makes it look much steeper than it is

Some of the dams with their very valuable new pedigreed foals

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© John & Lynne Ford, Adamastor & Bacchus 2014

Ten year vertical tasting of Neil Ellis Grenache on International Grenache Day

Grenache is a grape grown throughout Mediterranean France and Spain to make wines which show sweet warm fruit with spicy notes. In the Rhône, it is one of the component grapes used in Chateauneuf du Pape. It is being grown more and more in South Africa where our climate and terroir suit it well and we are producing some very interesting and attractive wines from it. Neil Ellis have been growing this for many years and we were very intrigued to be invited to take part in a vertical tasting of their Piekenierskloof Grenache dating from 2004 held, appropriately, on International Grenache day. 

Currently, these wines are made by Warren Ellis, who took over winemaking from his father Neil in 2006. Warren is also the Viticulturist. We started with the current vintage 2012 and while these newer wines are fresh and fruity they show great future potential.  As we got further back to the older wines you could see the character of the wine maturing and getting more elegant and full with softening tannins. They do clearly show their terroir and reflect the climate of the year they were made.  We enjoyed tasting these wines very much. We also did a small tasting of their Rodanos red blend where the base wine is shiraz but the other wines may vary every year.  In 2010 and 2011 Grenache was the blending wine, in 2012 it was Cinsaut. Many of these wines are very food friendly.

The wines we tasted

Neil Ellis welcomes us to the farm

A good way to display wine in a tasting room

Sommeliers, trade and media assemble for the tasting

Neil tells us the history of the farm and the wines

Warren Ellis tells us about growing Grenache. Why does he make it? He loves the grape

The very friendly Boerbul who rules the farm

A rapt audience learns about making Grenache

A very necessary log fire as the day was rather dank. grim and wet

Two braais being prepared for lunch – in the rain, so under canvas

Lots of seasoning for the lamb chops cooking on the coals

Neil adds some more, while Winnie Bowman records the moment

The science of braaiing

Neil with Winnie and Mel Minnaar

A view from the farm under the rainy Jonkershoek mountain. The vines have only just started bud break

Tatiana Marcetteaux, Sommelier at The Taj hotel in Cape Town

Mmmm, lamb chops nearing completion

and being transferred onto the platters

Looking crisp, juicy and perfectly cooked

Don’t feed the hound! But he gets to lick the lamb juices off the grid and finds every last bit of flavour

The chops were served with a good mixed salad and roast potatoes

And were followed by a cheeseboard and panforte to be shared by couples

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© John & Lynne Ford, Adamastor & Bacchus 2014

140925 Main Ingredient's MENU - MCC Challenge, Neil Ellis Grenache, Avontuur

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Spring brings the dragonflies back to our pond

In this week’s MENU:

•  Amorim Cork Methode Cap Classique Challenge Awards
•  Tasting Grenache with Neil Ellis
•  Heritage Day, tasting wines at Avontuur
•  Calling Woolworths to task
•  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

Amorim Cork Methode Cap Classique Challenge Awards     Every year, in South Africa, Amorim Cork sponsors this competition for the best Methode Cape Classique wines, wines that are made in the French Champagne method. The Awards ceremony was held last Friday at the 12 Apostles Hotel and there were some surprises and also some of the more familiar top names who received awards. Read On

Tasting Grenache with Neil Ellis     Grenache is a grape grown throughout Mediterranean France and Spain to make wines of sweet warm fruit with spicy notes. In the Rhône, it is one of the component grapes used in Chateauneuf du Pape. It is being grown more and more in South Africa where our climate and terroir suit it well and we are producing some very interesting and attractive wines from it. Neil Ellis have been growing this for many years and we were very intrigued to be invited to take part in a vertical tasting of their Piekenierskloof Grenache dating from 2004 held, appropriately, on International Grenache day.

These wines are currently made by Warren Ellis, who joined his father Neil in 2006. Warren is also the Viticulturist. We started with the current vintage 2012 and, while these newer wines are fresh and fruity, they show great future potential. As we got further back to the older wines, you could see the character of the wine maturing and becoming more elegant and full with softening tannins. They do clearly show their terroir and reflect the climate of the year in which they were made. We enjoyed tasting these wines very much. We also did a small tasting of their Rodanos red blend, where the base wine is shiraz, but the other wines may vary every year. In 2010 and 2011 Grenache was the blending wine, in 2012 it was Cinsaut. Many of these wines are very food friendly. Read more

Heritage Day, tasting wines at Avontuur     Avontuur in the Helderberg is one of South African premier racehorse studs, which also makes a little wine. Well, that’s what they told us on Heritage Day, on which we were invited to come and taste their wines. It is hard to define “a little” when they tell us that they make 48 000 bottles of their best selling Estate red blend of Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot! They make several other wines. The wines in the premium range are named after their prize winning race horses. The farm is owned by the Taberer family and the wines are made by Jan van Rooyen. Read on

Calling Woolworths to task     Woolies has not yet entered into the spirit of Banting. We hear from staff in the stores that they are about to but, yesterday, we bought something for supper that was rather shaming. It was the only salad on the shelf that did not visibly contain any carbohydrates. No pasta, no beans, no potato etc. Called a Crunchy Summer Salad it contained carrot, cabbage, tomato, spinach, onion and watercress. There was a small envelope of pumpkin and sunflower seeds included and one of salad dressing. Sounds perfect, until you discover that the salad dressing includes Maple flavoured syrup, honey and Balsamic vinegar with caramel, and ‘starch’. What were you thinking? It was completely unnecessary. These small additions took a healthy 150g salad to 15.6 Glycaemic carbs, it was horribly sweet and cloying. Try harder please. Oil and vinegar work well enough.

This week’s recipe      As we are writing this in our lovely room at the Lodge in L’Avenir, there will be no recipe this week. And next week you will read about why we are here: a vertical tasting tonight of L’Avenir Pinotage with dinner prepared by Bertus Basson, one of our favourite chefs.

Amorim Cork Methode Cap Classique Challenge Awards     We gave you the results of the 14th annual Amorim Méthode Cap Classique Challenge last week, but did not have time to edit the photographs.  See the full story here

Wine Concepts Festival of Seductive Sauvignons      Come and join us at this superb festival celebrating Sauvignons Blanc and Rouge at the Vineyard Hotel tomorrow. 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

25th September 2014

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Phones: +27 21 439 3169 / 083 229 1172 / 083 656 4169

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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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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

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© John & Lynne Ford, Adamastor & Bacchus 2014