.

Wednesday, September 09, 2015

A tasting at Uva Mira and lunch at Guardian Peak

Our wine club outing this month was a drive right to the top of the Annandale Road near Stellenbosch, to the heady heights and wonderful views of Uva Mira where we tasted some of their wines, after which we headed a little way down the hill to Guardian Peak for a really nice, relaxing and good value lunch

Winemaker at Uva Mira, Christiaan Coetzee

The Uva Mira price list. You can taste 3 Mira wines for R45, or 5 Mira wines for R75.

Christiaan very kindly added two more wines to our club tasting, the very elegant 2013 Mira Cabernet Sauvignon full of perfume, forest floor, cassis, black cherries with chocolate and liquorice on the long end. A beautiful quality wine. Also the 2013 OTV Bordeaux blend. OTV stands for Ocus Tobus Venter, the father of owner Toby Venter who is CEO of Porsche SA. This is a wine made to last made in 100% new oak barrels for 19 months is has good fruit, acid and heavy tannins to hold the structure through the years

A view of the vineyards and down the hill to the valley floor

One of their cheese & charcuterie platters for R175

A feathery windbreak of tall old pines

Guardian Peak at lunchtime. We had two tables of eight on the glassed in verandah

The very comprehensive menu

Slow cooked pork fillet on vegetables with creamed spinach and mustard mash

Grilled garlic and herb beef Espetada with salad and good crisp chips

A starter of crisp Tempura squid and prawns with a chilli dipping sauce, just lacked some salt. And a pear, gorgonzola and candied walnut salad

Rump steak, salad and chips. Apparently it was tender, flavoursome and perfectly cooked

Fresh fish of the day - yellowtail with chips and a salad

A huge hamburger topped with pineapple and cheese for John. We found the food to be good quality and value. With some glasses of individual wines and a bottle of their Sauvignon Blanc the bill for our table of 8 came to R190 per person with service. We will be back to try more of the dishes

The view of the Stellenbosch mountains and vineyards from Guardian Peak

RETURN TO MENU

Subscribe to MENU

Tuesday, September 08, 2015

Wine Concepts' Seductive Sauvignons at The Vineyard

We love this festival, held every year by Mike Bampfield Duggan and his talented Wine Concepts team at the Vineyard hotel. Where else can you taste through some of the best Sauvignons, white and red this country has to offer? There were also a couple of MCC bubblies made from Sauvignon and it was a great evening, with some small taster dishes served throughout the evening while you walked around sampling the wines. A pity if you missed it. Their next superb festival will be the Champagne Festival later in the year. Check the Wine Concepts website for current tastings

Mike with the Constantia Glen 2015 Sauvignon Blanc: Crisp dry and elegant, as befits a wine of quality from Constantia

Tania du Preez with the D'aria wine which had the most 'gongs' on the bottle

Margaux Nel and Leon Coetzee from Boplaas

John Collins and Marcha Cooke of JC Wines after a busy day

RETURN TO MENU

Subscribe to MENU

Blaauwklippen Blending Competition #32

Each year Blaauwklippen invites wine clubs to enter this competition and each year they select the varietals which will constitute a blend which they want the clubs to make. There are now clubs in five countries that enter and this year they were required to make a blend made to last from five classic Bordeaux varieties: Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Petit Verdot, Cabernet Franc and Malbec. Bottles of wine are sent to all the clubs and they come up with their own blend. We were invited to come and see the awards being presented last Friday on the farm and to taste the winning wine and to enjoy a really great lunch prepared by visiting Chef Craig Cormack.

This year's witty wine label designed by artist Frans Groenewald to celebrate the 32nd year of the competition

Canapés on arrival

Time for the welcome and information about the competition and the entries

We were seated at the very long table with other media and the two members each from the four top clubs in the running

Chef Craig Cormack tells us about the lunch he will be sending out to us. We eat of restaurant and function food, most of it superb, some of it insubstantial but very pretty and some of it average and some not so great, but we don't write about that. The food Craig cooks is always top standard. He present classic dishes, done the way they are meant to be done, every detail correct and tasting fantastic

The menu had a Burgundian theme. This is the starter of smooth, rich duck liver parfait with a sliver of wine jelly, on a rich buttery brioche (as it should be), topped with micro herbs and a slice of crisp apple

The team who do the work in the cellar, helping to make the wines

Winemaker Albert Basson

The well-known Stellenbosch artist who designed the label, Frans Groenewald

Rolf has been making Gin, unusually using fresh juniper berries. Lynne has tasted it and it is slightly sweet and fruity and aromatic. This is Craig's take on a Gin and Tonic sorbet using Rolf's gin. Very tart and very refreshing

We hear how the wines were made

The wines served with lunch

The main course. The best and most authentic Beef Bourguignon we have eaten in South Africa. And so clever in its presentation. The bourguignon was simmered for 14 hours, was meltingly tender with the beef still holding its cube shapes. Mushrooms were added, then Craig wrapped it in a crepinette and covered it with bacon pieces and the glossy jus from the braise. It was served on a silky pommes puree with some braised baby onions, a dab of butternut, leeks and carrots and sprinkled with parsley. Every detail added something to the dish

Rolf presented bouquets to the two members of staff who help to organise the competition

We thank the other staff involved

And the winners of the Newcomers award are: the team from Rindchen’s Weinkontor, Hamburg-Uhlenhorst-Germany

And they were also the winners of the Blending competition this year with their blend of 61% Cabernet Sauvignon, 19% Merlot, 10% Petit Verdot, 6% Cabernet Franc and 4% Malbec

The three running-up finalists for this popular competition are Club De Vin from KwaZulu-Natal, Digital Blenders from the Eastern Cape and Oude Akker Wijn from North West

We drank the wine with lunch. It is very powerful and full of vanillins from the wood, fruit, acid and chalky tannins to help it last a long time

Our dessert was a perfect individual Tart Tatin, served to loud applause

The winning blend is bottled under the Blaauwklippen Barouche label and recognition will be given to the successful wine club on the back label. The wine is sold in Magnum bottles from selected retail outlets, the farm’s Tasting Room and online via www.blaauwklippen.com

RETURN TO MENU

Subscribe to MENU

RisCura White Hot Wine Awards

The awards are given for the best white Bordeaux blend in South Africa. This is a blend of Sauvignon Blanc and Semillon. The ceremony was held at Tjing Tjing Torii in town and we were able to taste all of the winners. They are all, without exception, great wines. The top wine, the Mulderbosch Faithful Hound made by Adam Mason, is multi-layered, elegant and a clear winner. The prices vary a lot, but most are still available and all are ready for drinking now. They are scored out of 100, which is a method of scoring used overseas and here, but which we ourselves don't use, preferring the one we were trained to use, which is out of 20

Jacqueline Lahoud, Business Manager at Winemag.co.za

A word from the sponsor, Albrecht Gantz of Riscura

Editor of Winemag.co.za and Head judge Christian Eedes

Time to announce the awards

These are the winners

94 points out of 100 Mulderbosch Faithful Hound 2013 R145

93 points Constantia Glen Two 2014 R210

Nitida Coronata Integration 2014 R165

92 points Oak Valley Mountain Reserve 2011

Tokara Director’s Reserve 2014 R240

Vergelegen G.V.B. 2013

91 points Domaine de Chevalier Blanc 2011 R1300

Highlands Road Sine Cera 2013 R130

Gabriëlskloof Magdalena 2013 R120

Strandveld Adamastor 2012 R165

Trizanne Signature Wines

Sauvignon Blanc Semillon Reserve 2014 R165

90 points Constantia Uitsig Constantia 2013 R125

Strandveld Adamastor 2013 Wine Cellar price R165

As the overall winner, the Mulderbosch 2013 Faithful Hound made by Adam Mason won the new top of the range 225 litre Grand Reserve Chateau Tradition barrel from Tonnellerie Sylvain, presented here by Jean Daneel

We then were able to taste all the wines. The first four

The next four

and the final four

Relaxing with the wines in the bar

Mulderbosch Marketing manager Sean Griffiths and winemaker Adam Mason

John with Jean Daneel

(Photograph courtesy of Danie Nel)

RETURN TO MENU

Subscribe to MENU