Tuesday, November 25, 2014

Delaire Graff's Sunshine - a new Loire style Chenin Blanc MCC

There is a need on Delaire Graff for their own MCC and, this week, they released it. Named after the 118 carat Delaire Sunrise, the largest square emerald cut yellow diamond in the world. Morne Vrey has used mainly Chenin Blanc, making this more like a Crémant de Loire. It is a blend of Chenin Blanc (58%), Chardonnay (34%) and Cabernet Franc (8%). All the grapes come from the estate. It is intensely crisp and has quite a crackle on the palate. Given time, this will be a beautiful wine, but it will only be available at Delaire. Then it was time for a tasting of some currently available Delaire wines, followed by lunch on the terrace. It’s a hard life and, yes, the weather and the view were perfect.
A warm welcome with a tray of smoked salmon ‘sandwiches’
And another of choux gougères, filled with paté
A jar of gazpacho
or a cornet of beef tartare
and then some mini fishcakes
The lovely 2014 Cabernet Franc Rosé flowed and went well with the canapés
We are introduced to the Sunrise. Note the background decoration on the label is a depiction of the emerald cut of the yellow diamond after which the wine is named.  It is in the style of a Crémant de Loire blend, bready and leesy on the nose, has nice crisp bubbles and with lots of lime and pear drop flavours.  It has spent 15 months on the lees, has an RS of 5.9 and the acid is 8.
The view looking towards Paarl with the Banhoek Valley in all its early summer glory
Canapés and conversation on the terrace
Then taking our places for the tasting in the restaurant which was followed by lunch on the terrace
Wines we tasted were:
The 2014 Sauvignon Blanc is in the style we prefer with figs and green pyrazine notes, with crisp minerality  Then the Coastal Cuvée 2014 SB  which has a touch of Semillon added, Its slightly tropical in style with the detectable Semillon melding the acids and add richness. 2013 wooded  Chenin Blanc  from Swartland grapes is grassy guava and yellow peach on the nose and buttery with a lot of wood on the palate.  The  2013 Chardonnay: Umami on the nose then rich buttery limes with gentle soft wood, nice minerality. Also needs more time to gather itself together but will be a great wine. The 2013 Reserve White is 66% Sauvignon Blanc and 34% Semillon  Bready and leesy on the nose, there is a tingle on the tongue with the nice richness of the Semillon supporting the pineapple passion fruit and gooseberries of the Sauvignon. And finally the Laurence Graff Reserve 2011 red . It’s a single vineyard cabernet  with 5% Bordeaux varietals added.  The nose is full of cassis red velvet maraschino cherries and on the palate dark liquorice, cassis, brambles and warm wood. We loved it
Johann Laubser, Estate General Manager of Delaire Graff
Winemaker Morne Vrey
Fiona MacDonald, Annareth Bolton and her brother Higgo Jacobs
The beautiful Sunrise
The lunch menu
Trout Tartare, using good quality smoked salmon trout, on a blini with cucumber ribbons and savoury squid ink blots
Second course was almost too pretty to eat. A mosaic of lightly pickled octopus tentacles, topped with a perfectly cooked sea flavoured langoustine, artichokes and beetroot slices and a creamy foam
Main course was rather rare seared prime beef on yellow and red beets in a good wine jus and accompanied by a dish of those oh, so wicked truffle and parmesan crispy chips

Dessert looked like a disparate collection of separate ingredients but when you mixed them together on a spoon, they combined into pure heaven.  A panna cotta made with coconut cream, a tangy pineapple and mango sorbet, fruit jellies and rosewater pearls with crumpled fruit crisps and crunchy honeycomb and meringue pieces.  Brilliant, just too small.....
© John & Lynne Ford, Adamastor & Bacchus 2014

Baleia Bay launches their new winery & deli in Riversdale

We wrote about these wines when Baleia Bay Chardonnay appeared from nowhere to win The Discovery of the Year trophy at the Old Mutual Trophy awards in May and when they appeared at the good Food & Wine show later that month, we tasted and bought some, as well as their very creditable, but young, Pinot Noir. So we were delighted to receive an invitation to the Grand Opening of the winery in Riversdale. They were very intelligent and arranged transport from Cape Town and overnight accommodation for media

We were to meet at 5pm at the farm, which is at Dassiesklip, about 30 Kms south of Riversdale and, following the instructions, we drove down the good dirt roads but missed the rather shy farm and ended up in Vermaaklikheid which, literally, translates as “entertainment”! Yes, it was; certainly a diversion. Turning back, we eventually arrived at the farm ‘gate’, at the same time as the bus from Cape Town, where the winemaker /viticulturist Jacques Geldenhuys was waiting for us.
Jacques shows us the layout of the farm in the late afternoon sunshine
Rows and rows of different vines. They are the first to plant grapes in this area, but we suspect they wont be the last. If the area can produce beautiful grapes and not suffer from summer rainfall and droughts, it will be a success
They also grow wheat, farm Brangus cattle, olives and Dohne Merino sheep on this large farm of many hectares
The wheat has been harvested, now they wait for the grapes
We had a tour of the vineyards and olive groves on the back of the farm trailer pulled by the tractor. And we sat on sprayed hay bales
One small farm building which is the old main house, but it is not occupied by the family
Media travelling in a style which suits them
The vines are in small berry and are very lush
Lots of birds on the farm dam
Trundling through the olive groves
Another old farm building, sadly in ruins, with the magnificent mountains behind
Olives in flower and in berry at the same time
After the tour of the farm, we were delivered to our bed and breakfast, Oakhurst in Riversdale. We had these small self catering apartments leading into the garden. A rather nice place if you need to make a stop on the road down to Cape Town. Not luxurious, but comfortable and serviceable
A quick change of clothes and we met for a drink before dinner. Thank heavens Jan and Anel had remembered to bring some wine along
Oakhurst’s main house
Arrival at a function is always so much nicer if greeted with bubbly and oysters! We do get spoiled
The inside of the winery with the tasting counter and lots of art and comfortable chairs and sofas. This is a very green building with convection air control, solar water heating and rain water saving; it has no chlorine in it or bugs
A view of it from on high. Through the glass doors on the left you can see the wine tanks
Isak Nieuwoudt, Baleia’s sales manager, with glasses of their rather good Sauvignon Blanc for us
We could taste several tank samples of the new wines with winemaker Jacques in the cellar. Memorable was the Spicy full Shiraz which has 10% of their Tempranillo added. It has a lovely licorice woody end. The Tempranillo is wild mulberries on the palate, but needs time. The unwooded Chardonnay (the wooded is currently out of stock) is lean clean and in a very Burgundian style with lots of minerality and citrus. And the Pinot Noir is soft and perfumed on the nose and palate with rich cherries and a soft wood background, definitely worth layng down for a while and is very affordable. Their red blend contains 40% Tempranillo, 40% Shiraz and 20% Pinot Noir. It is soft and sweet with salty ‘drop’ liquorice on the end. Initially, the wines were made by Jan Joubert with Newald Marais of Kranskop Winery supervising
Winemaker Jacques takes us through the tasting
We were entertained by a singer who also played an electric violin
Oysters were popular
Shante Hutton and Jeanri-Tine Van Zyl enjoying a glass of the Chardonnay
Owners Fanie and Jan-Hendrik Joubert, Lindi Joubert with Jacques Geldenhuys 
We then moved next door to dinner in the Deli. This was the starter: salmon on a layered salad including tomatoes, avo, red pepper, cucumber and pineapple
Time for introductions by Sales Manager Isak. He told us that, in future, the wine will just be known as Baleia, they are to drop the word "Bay"
And then came the speeches
The menu was on the blackboard
A refreshing, tart lemon sorbet came next
Madam Mayor Emor Nel of the Hessequa/Riversdale Municipality was present and made a speech about what the area as a whole was doing to improve it and people’s lives. It sounds like a good place to live
A few words from Fanie
Fanie introduces us to his daughter Lizeth, who is the owner of LaBella Restaurant & Deli
Jan-Hendrik tells us why he decided to grow grapes and make wine on the farm
Then it was time for the main course of Pork belly on garlic mash, topped with good fresh vegetables, although the carrots were a little unyielding
Three desserts on one platter. A smidgen of crème brulée, a dark chocolate brownie and a mini lime cheesecake.
We just had time for a quick tour of the Deli before retiring to our beds. A long but interesting day
Next morning we had time to stop for breakfast in Robertson and who wouldn’t be tempted by the offer at Spur. All this, including the toast and marmalade for R24.95. The bottomless coffee costs R14.95
or you can have the scrambled egg variation. We didn't need the chips!
© John & Lynne Ford, Adamastor & Bacchus 2014