Friday, December 05, 2014

Keermont Single Vineyard Series Release

Another venture this week was up into the top of the beautiful Paradyskloof valley to visit this winery. Agriculture in the Upper Blaauwklippen Valley can be traced back to 1694. In 2003, the Wraith family moved to the Western Cape from Gauteng and bought two adjacent farms. These two farms are now farmed as one Estate known as Keermont Vineyards. We were warmly welcomed by Mark Wraith and his wife, Monica and their winemaker Alex Starey, who is in charge of the vineyards and of making the estate’s wines. Alex studied Viticulture and Oenology at Stellenbosch University and graduated in 2002. He has travelled and worked in wine regions including Maipo Valley in Chile, Penedès and Priorat in Spain, St-Emilion and Côte Rotie in France. You can read more about this interesting winery on http://www.keermont.co.za/
They are blessed with some very special and unique vineyard sites and the farm is bisected by the Blaauwklippen river, which is also the boundary between the Helderberg and the Stellenbosch Mountain Range. This means that some of the vineyards are on the warmer north-facing Helderberg slopes and others on the cooler west-facing Stellenbosch range. They took us up onto the mountains in 4 x4’s to see their vineyards and this was then followed by a tasting of their three Reserve wines and a good buffet lunch prepared by Chef Andrew Jordaan from Wild Peacock
Arrival in the tasting room, welcomed by Kyle Martin, who markets their wine through his company, Cabo Esperança Wines
The Single Vineyard Series of wines
Mark Wraith poured us all a glass of their Rosé, made from Shiraz
Finding out about Keermont and their wines
Fresh oysters for lunch
Then it was into the LandCruisers and up the mountainside to see the vineyards. This is a view of the “right bank” vineyards
First we drove up to the Steepside vineyard on the ‘left bank’ to see the Shiraz
They are changing these from trellis to the “Stok by Paaltjie (Sur Échalas or single pole viticulture), better for the vines with the height of the vineyard and the wind
A view of the other vineyards and the valley below
Some of the Chenin comes from extremely old vines down in the valley on sandy soil and goes into the Riverside wine
Mark Wraith's home has a wonderful view of the Paradyskloof
They also have a lovely view of Table Mountain and from the high vineyards they can see both oceans
Young vine tendrils
Some of the very high vineyards are old and terraced. Mountain grysbok love to feed on the grapes
False Bay and its coastline from the farm
Off to visit another vineyard
Lunch was waiting our return: oysters and smoked salmon blinis, with smoked ham and parmesan toasts
Salmon and avocado on crisp toast rounds
Ditto on Banting slices, with aubergine and tomato on small toasts
Another delicious selection
The Pork and mint meatballs were moist and delicious
They came with a sweet chilli dip
A chilled green avocado and watercress soup
A very good camembert, nice fresh bread, chicken liver pate, taramasalata and some other good cheeses
We tasted the 2013 Riverside Chenin (R250 cellar door price) and two of the Single Vineyard red wines, the 2012 Topside Syrah and the 2012 Steepside Syrah, Both sell for R350 at the cellar door. All were awarded 4½ stars in Platter
A serious tasting!
The three wines
The three bottles
Lots of discussion and debate
Two other wines were served with lunch: the 2010 Terrasse blend, mostly Chenin with some Chardonnay, Sauvignon and viognier and the 2007 flagship Keermont, a Bordeaux blend with a dash of Shiraz
Enjoying some lunch with the wines
And finally we tasted a bottle of their 2012 Fleurfontein, a honey sweet vine dried Sauvignon Blanc which went with the dessert Valrhona chocolate brownies and strawberries
Chef Andrew Jordaan of Wild Peacock
The barrel cellar
A well camouflaged skink basking in the hot sun
© John & Lynne Ford, Adamastor & Bacchus 2014

Thursday, December 04, 2014

The Franschhoek Cap Classique and Champagne Festival ‘The ‘Magic of Bubbles’

Held, as usual, at the Huguenot monument in Franschhoek, this was a huge success this year as they were totally full on both days. We love this festival, but don’t love the heat that arrives in some years. We chatted to many of our favourite producers to find out what they were doing with their MCCs and tasted several new releases. Several of our friends were also there, enjoying the day. With your entrance ticket costing R200 you were given a champagne glass and a MasterCard sponsored card, loaded with points. It was ‘tapped’ at the various stalls to pay for tastes, usually one per generous tasting. Food had to be paid for with cash. Sadly, Franschhoek has not embraced Banting, almost all the food was with or on large amounts of bread.

One thing we just don’t understand. WHY can you not taste the French champagnes at the show? This surely is the place and time and more importantly the perfect target market to introduce their wines to? But no, you could only buy an expensive full glass or a bottle with cash, they don’t all take the card which was provided. We think that it looks rather snobbish and puts people off who have not yet experienced these lovely bubbles. Many told us that they wouldn’t mind giving up more points to taste the champagnes.
The queue at the entrance. Black and white theme yet again this year
Every seat and umbrella was taken
What a great place to start with - Rickety Bridge’s Rosé MCC and a chat with marketing manager Andrew Harris
Two Foxes on the Charles Fox stand with their lovely crisp Brut
Nicolas Feuillatte Champagne were creating real bubbles
Takuan and Christiane von Arnim on the Cabrière stand
A happy lady
Peter “Bubbles” Ferreira celebrating with some fans
Champagne Jacquart stand
Would Monsieur like a glass or a bottle?
The Simonsig barrel looked good enough to climb into
Lots of elegant well dressed people tasting Champagne
A bottle of Veuve Clicquot on ice in the carrier cost R500
Gold card sir? Lots of takers
Shade in the Pongrácz tent
If you bought a bottle of Piper Heidsieck, it came with a ‘glass’ slipper to drink it from. Demonstrated here by brand manager Tamika Sewnarain
And, as we are media, she gave us a taste of it. Lovely Champagne, dry and elegant
Ross Baker of Wild Peacock and his team spent two days shucking oysters. They sold a boat load
Grand Brut MCC from Plaisir de Merle on ice
And the lovely ladies from Weltevrede in Bonnievale with their three special MCCs
Weltevrede’s Philip Jonker Brut, The Ring, a Blanc de Blanc. It has won so many awards because it is a really good MCC
Happy festival goer and some stilt walkers to entertain us
Ivan Oertle on the Woolworths stand was showcasing the Comtesse Champagne with Chef de cave Alain Pailley and marketing manager Gerard Rafai of Alexandre Bonnet champagne
One of Lynne’s all time favourite Cape MCC’s Silverthorn. So lean, so dry, so sophisticated
Sharon Parnell of Domaine des Dieux with their Claudia MCC
Another busy stall was Genevieve
Leon Engelke, Daisy Verburg and Melissa Nelsen. They always have great branding
Winemaker Anneke du Plessis with the MCC we are drinking most at home this year, the Laborie.
“I am hot and I like eating ice”
She didn’t want any MCC, only ice

© John & Lynne Ford, Adamastor & Bacchus 2014