The most beautiful flowers in years at Postberg

We'd heard that the spring flowers up the West Coast were magnificent, possibly the best in many years, and we had the opportunity to take one day free last week, so we packed a picnic and off we went. If you get a chance to go on a sunny day (the flowers do not open if it is cloudy, so don't waste a trip), GO. It is absolutely superb. You do need to go right into the Postberg Nature Reserve to see them and you will be rewarded. Every spare inch of ground without bush is covered in flower carpets. We were told that there is free entrance to the park between the 9th and 14th of September. We also took the road to Darling, but that was rather disappointing. Perhaps those flowers will come out later in the season. Here are some of our photographs

A cheeky chappie welcomed us in

White and yellow daisies with orange in the background

close up

And in the distance, the blue sea

So dense they look like snow. This is on the way to Plankies Baai

A mole snake enjoying the warmth of the sun

Some of the daisies are so bright they fluoresce

A carpet of intense blue

As far as the eye can see

Sprinkles of colour in the snow white field

and either side of the road

Then a patch of purple vygies (mesembrianthemum)

It is like a watercolour

And in the distance some eland grazing on the daisies

an endless carpet of colour

The flowers go right up the hill

There was lots of game on show too

At Plankies Baai, different colours of vygies

The "tok tok" dung beetle (scarab), named for the sound his carapace makes as he hits it on the ground to find a mate. He was at least 3 cm long and shiny. We'd dropped a brown bread crumb and he feasted on it

The gulls wanted part of our picnic

And the mousebirds fluffed themselves out after a bath

That's what we do with our ham fat

A regal black backed gull surveys the scene

The flowers turn slowly during the day, always holding their faces towards the sun and as it starts to go down, they start to close from about 4 to 5 or if the clouds come over

Brilliant shocking pink sour figs

Little golden star flowers

One of our extraordinary plants that hugs the ground

A pick and mix of colours

Looking back down the hill towards where we have been, you just see fields of flowers

Wonderful colours

More and more as you climb higher and higher

until they turn into a distant haze

eland grazing the daisies

An industrious weaver bird with his long piece of grass

It may look untidy but he has lots to do, weaving each piece he brings into a hanging nest to impress a mate, still to be found. Pulling the grass

and weaving

Zebra in the background, Springbok in the front

The long view

As we left you could see the orange gazanias starting to close

The colours on the Langebaan lagoon

Flamingo fishing for shrimp

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© John & Lynne Ford, Adamastor & Bacchus 2015

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MENU recipe 15 July 2015 Spicy Moroccan cous cous

This week's recipe      We love Moroccan food with its different spice profiles and, this week, Lynne made some Moroccan chicken, covered in a Ras al Hanout spice mix and roasted in the oven. To go with this, she made some spicy cous cous. This recipe is for 2, but you can double it up for four or more people and it goes quite a long way. The recipe takes quite a lot of pre-preparation, but cooking it takes only a few minutes. And, as a meal, it can be served without the chicken to vegetarians, as it is quite substantial.

Spicy Moroccan Cous Cous

1 onion, finely chopped - 1 clove of garlic, chopped - 1 T olive or canola oil - 1 aubergine, in small cubes - 1 courgette, in small cubes - 1 red pepper or some jarred roasted red peppers (pepperoni) in small cubes - 1 cup of butternut , in small cubes - 1 T pine nuts or flaked almonds or a mixture of both - 2 t Ras al Hanout - 500 ml stock (vegetable or chicken) - 5 dates, stoned and chopped - half a tin of chick peas, drained - 1 cup of cous cous - salt and freshly ground black pepper - 3 spring onions, chopped - 1 T fresh coriander or mint, roughly chopped. Optional: preserved lemon and/or rose water

Do all the preparation of the vegetables and have them ready and waiting in small bowls. Salt the aubergine and leave it to sweat for about 15 minutes, then wash off the salt and dry it off. Dry roast the nuts in a small pan and set aside.

In a large table-ready casserole, fry the onions and the garlic for a few minutes until transparent, then add the aubergine and continue to fry until it and the onions are beginning to colour. Then add the courgette, red pepper and butternut and fry together for five minutes. Then add the Ras al Hanout spice and temper it in the pan with the vegetables. Pour on the stock and bring the pot to the boil. Add the dates and the chickpeas, and then the cous cous. Bring it back to the boil, let it simmer for 5 minutes, then turn off the heat and cover and leave it until the cous cous has absorbed all the liquid and swelled. Fluff with a fork, taste and adjust the seasoning. As you serve it, sprinkle on the nuts, the coriander or mint and the spring onions. You can serve this with chopped preserved lemon and a small sprinkle of rose water.

Kanonkop and Rijk’s make history with 10th Absa Top 10 Award win apiece

We were not able to attend this function because it was held at the same time as the Top 10 Chenin, and we had already accepted our Chenin invitation when the Pinotage invitation arrived. We do wish that all the PR people would consult each other so that there would be fewer clashes like this. Kanonkop and Rijk’s Cellars from Tulbagh made history by becoming the first producers to notch up ten Absa Top 10 Pinotage Awards each. 

At this year’s awards function, held at the KWV in Paarl on 28 August, the Kanonkop Pinotage 2012 and Rijk’s Reserve Pinotage 2011 won two of the Absa Top 10 trophies handed to the winning wines in the 2015 competition. The 10 winners topped a total of 154 wines that were entered into this year’s competition.

The Absa Top 10 Pinotage Awards is one of South Africa’s premier wine industry contests. This year’s competition marks the 19^th consecutive year of collaboration between Absa Bank Ltd (Absa), member of Barclays Africa Group Ltd (Barclays Africa), and the SA Pinotage Association in recognising wineries from throughout South Africa for their interpretation of the country’s famous indigenous grape variety.

The wine regions of Stellenbosch, Paarl and Durbanville each delivered two of this year’s Absa Top 10 winners. Neethlingshof joined Kanonkop in flying the Stellenbosch flag with its Estate Pinotage 2014. Altydgedacht Pinotage 2013 and Diemersdal Pinotage Reserve 2014 saw Durbanville staking a spot as a potent Pinotage region, while Paarl producers Windmeul and first-time winner Ayama won Absa Top 10 trophies for the Windmeul Pinotage Reserve 2014 and Ayama Pinotage 2013 respectively.

Groot Constantia, South Africa’s oldest wine farm, showed it can still produce the goods with a Top 10 for the Groot Constantia Pinotage 2013. Worcester-based Overhex Wines International’s Survivor Pinotage 2014 secured a trophy in its first Absa Top 10 outing, while Flagstone’s Writer’s Block Pinotage 2013 had the last word in this year’s event.

Beyers Truter, chairman of the Pinotage Association, said that two features stood out from this year’s competition: the milestones reached by Kanonkop and Rijk’s and the performance of wines made from the 2014 vintage.

 “When the Pinotage Association founded the Absa Top 10 Competition in 1997, we had a vision of not only honouring Pinotage wines but also to create legends,” said Truter. “By winning Top 10 awards ten times, Kanonkop and Rijk’s have now undoubtedly established themselves not only as legendary producers of Pinotage, but icons in the South African wine industry, too.

“As a producer myself I know how high the demands of the judging panel are, and to show the kind of consistency as Kanonkop and Rijk’s have done throughout the years is an affirmation of the winemaker's understanding of his terroir, the unique traits of the Pinotage grape and tremendous winemaking skill.”

Commenting on the four trophy winners produced from the 2014 vintage, Truter said that it was remarkable to see wines scarcely 18 months old standing on the winners’ podium.

“The vintage was late and cool, with a very wet pre-season and produced a relatively light crop,” he said. “But now we have four wines barely out of their nappies showing the quality and refined elegance to take Top 10 trophies, showing us how exceptional last year’s vintage actually was. Consumers can definitely tick off 2014 as a must-have year for red wine.”

Craig Bond, Chief Executive of Retail and Business Banking at Barclays Africa says:  “I would like to congratulate all the participants and winners in this year’s Pinotage Top 10 competition, especially Kanonkop and Rijk’s Cellars for re-writing the history books.  We wish all the finalists great success on their winemaking journey hope they continue to prosper.

 “At Absa and Barclays Africa we are proud of our partnership with the Pinotage Association, now in its 19^th consecutive year, as we continue to promote uniquely South African wines made from Pinotage grapes. Our continued involvement with and support of this competition is driven by our confidence in the new generation of South African winemakers – these winemakers are working hard to increase the prestige and sophistication of wines produced in South Africa.” 

The judging panel for this year’s Absa Top 10 comprised Duimpie Bayly, winemakers Neil Ellis, Fred Viljoen and Corlea Fourie, wine writer Samarie Smit, sommelier Georgio Meletio and viticulturist Stephan Joubert.

Here is the list of the Top 10 winners:

Altydgedacht Landgoed	2013	Altydgedacht Pinotage
Ayama Wines	2013	Ayama Pinotage
Diemersdal Wine Estate	2014	Diemerdal Pinotage Reserve
Flagstone Winery	2013	Flagstone Writer's Block Pinotage
Groot Constantia Wine Estate	2013	Groot Constantia Pinotage
Kanonkop Wynlandgoed	2012	Kanonkop Pinotage
Neethlingshof Estate	2014	Neethlingshof Estate Pinotage
Overhex Wines International	2014	Overhex Wines International Survivor Pinotage
Rijk's Cellars	2011	Rijk's Reserve Pinotage
Windmeul Kelder	2014	Windmeul Pinotage Reserve

 Copy supplied by Emile Joubert, Media Vision

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This week's MENU recipe. Flavoured Croutons

Flavoured Croutons     It is still soup weather, although spring is showing us its lovely face now and then. Lynne has made a huge pot of pea, lentil, vegetable and ham hock soup for tonight and we will have some croutons to accompany this for texture. You can buy croutons quite easily in supermarkets nowadays, but just a few for the price of two whole loaves of bread. It is incredibly easy to make them yourself and they can be stored in a lock-seal container for quite a long time. A perfect way to use up stale bread, but you can, if pushed, use fresh bread too. White, brown or rye, whichever kind of bread you like, all can be turned into croutons. Save the ends of your hard cheeses and use them grated on top. Or just use parmesan or your favourite....

4 slices of bread - canola or olive oil, you can also use a flavoured oil, like chilli, herb, garlic or even truffle - salt - pepper - a seasoning, barbeque or herb salt mix - fresh chopped garlic - - fresh chopped herbs - grated cheese - cayenne pepper for a hit of heat

Heat your oven to 200 ⁰C. Cut the bread into cubes about 2 to 3 cm square. Spread these on a lined baking tray and sprinkle them lightly with oil. Season and sprinkle over any of the above flavours you like, NOT all at once though. You could match them to the dish you are serving. Cover with a fine grating of cheese and pop into the oven until they are nice and golden brown. Turn them once if the bases need colour. Turn off the oven, leave the door ajar and let them cool and crisp there.

You can also turn these into flavoured breadcrumbs for coating fish or meat or for sprinkling onto dishes to add texture. 

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This Week's MENU - Rosé Rocks, Chenin blanc and Pinotage Top 10s, Concert at Nederburg, Tour to Elgin

Spring is in the air and the dragonflies emerge

In this week’s MENU:

  In the Pink - the launch of Rosé Rocks Competition

  The Top 10 Chenin Blanc Awards at Cape Grace

  The Top 10 Pinotage Awards at the KWV     

  Nederburg Classic concert

  A cool tour to Elgin

  This week's MENU recipe: Flavoured Croutons

  Coming events

  Learn about wine and cooking

We write about our experiences in MENU, not only to entertain you, but to encourage you to visit the places and events that we do. We know you will enjoy them and we try to make each write up as graphic as we can, so you get a good picture of what is on offer at each place, restaurant, wine farm, festival we visit. To get the whole story with photographs, 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.

To have two really good meals cooked by excellent chefs in one week is a terrific experience; to have them both paired with great wines is even better.

In the Pink - the launch of Rosé Rocks Competition      We've been told that this is the first ever competition for rosé wines in South Africa and it is hoped that it will raise the profile of the rosé wines that we can produce so well. Rosé wines have (sadly) been viewed in the past as wines only suitable for giving to your girlfriend or mother on Valentine’s Day or Mother’s Day. And, usually, they are seen as sweet and characterless. We think they are worth much more than that. Overseas, especially in the South of France, these easy drinking, fruity wines are enormously popular with food, especially at lunches, often in the summer. They are normally lower in alcohol and you can share a meal of fish, seafood and meat without having to order more than one bottle of wine, as most rosés pair excellently with all dishes. A few years ago, many farms upped their game and produced some really good rosé wines - we used to sell lots - but many have now disappeared. The supermarkets are selling too many characterless rather sweet wines, with one or two excellent exceptions. Do we blame their buyers or the uninformed public for excluding those dryer, more elegant rosés from their shelves? Perhaps this competition will bring the good rosés to the fore again.

What is a rosé wine? Officially it is made from the first free run juice of a red wine, bled off to increase the concentration of the juice used to make the red wine. To quote Wikipedia, rosé is "wine that incorporates some of the colour from the grape skins, but not enough to qualify it as a red wine". Very pale pink wines can be known as Blanc de Noir (white from red). It has all the nuances and flavours of its red grape, just few tannins and no wood. It can be made from a blend of white and red wines, illegal in France but not in South Africa. You might like to know that in the UK, they spend ₤1.8 million on rosé wines each year, so this could be a great market for our Rosés.

We were invited to lunch at Equus restaurant at Cavalli wine estate on Thursday to hear about the competition.  Read on.....

The Top 10 Chenin Blanc Awards at Cape Grace     We have said this before and no doubt will again. Chenin Blanc is the grape that defines the South African wine industry. We grow more of it than any other grape. It can be grown all over our winelands as it is not terroir specific and can produce many different styles, very well. We have vineyards of great age and elegance that continue to produce superb wine, Astoundingly, all the winners in this competition come from vineyards that are at least 25 year old, and many are 40 years or more. It is our best hope of overseas attention and respect. We are producing some absolutely amazing Chenins, at all price levels. And some are very affordable. In fact at the prices quoted below, all would sell in the UK for around or below ₤10 yet their international competitors would sell for much, much, more.

This week, we were at The Cape Grace Hotel to attend the award ceremony of the Standard Bank Top 10 Chenin Blancs for 1915. Read more, with photos, here

The Top 10 Pinotage Awards at the KWV     We were not able to attend this function because it was held at the same time as the Top 10 Chenin, and we had already accepted our Chenin invitation when the Pinotage invitation arrived. We do wish that all the PR people would consult each other so that there would be fewer clashes like this. Kanonkop and Rijk’s Cellars from Tulbagh made history by becoming the first producers to notch up ten Absa Top 10 Pinotage Awards each.  Read on....

Nederburg Classic concert     We love classical music and opera and, sadly, our busy life does not allow us enough time to go to as many concerts and recitals as we would love. So, when we were invited to an early evening recital at Nederburg on Sunday, we jumped at the opportunity to hear the Esperanza Trio play some excellent chamber music in the Manor House. The concert finished at 7 and was followed by a simple supper of soup and canapés, accompanied by some good Nederburg wines, all of which are included in the price. There are three more concerts in the series for which you can book: www. concerts@distell.co.za or from Webtickets. They are held on the last Sunday of each month, except for the last which will be on Saturday 21st November and will be the Picnic concert. Read on to see where we were.....

A cool tour to Elgin     Most of the tours we conduct go, by the clients' choice, to the most well-known (to foreign visitors) areas, such as Stellenbosch. As most of our readers know, we go there very often. Stellenbosch, in itself, can be seen as a generic term because it is a large area with many very different terroirs. While it has a huge number of wonderful wine producers, it is quite close to home and therefore convenient. It also claims a massive share of the South African wine industry limelight and some other areas get lost in its shadow.

Which is why we really enjoy taking visitors to some of those other areas. Recently, we had the opportunity to take a party of American and South African wine enthusiasts to Elgin. We started at Paul Cluver. Cellarmaster Andries Burger had to be in Johannesburg, but he put us into the very capable hands of their Sales manager, Shaun McVey, who showed us the cellar and their wines with great enthusiasm and knowledge of his subject. Read on…..

This Week’s Recipe: Flavoured Croutons     It is still soup weather, although spring is showing us its lovely face now and then. Lynne has made a huge pot of pea, lentil, vegetable and ham hock soup for tonight and we will have some croutons to accompany this for texture. You can buy croutons quite easily in supermarkets nowadays, but just a few for the price of two whole loaves of bread. It is incredibly easy to make them yourself and they can be stored in a lock-seal container for quite a long time. A perfect way to use up stale bread, but you can, if pushed, use fresh bread too. White, brown or rye, whichever kind of bread you like, all can be turned into croutons. Save the ends of your hard cheeses and use them grated on top. Or just use parmesan or your favourite....

4 slices of bread - canola or olive oil, you can also use a flavoured oil, like chilli, herb, garlic or even truffle - salt - pepper - a seasoning, barbeque or herb salt mix - fresh chopped garlic - fresh chopped herbs - grated cheese - cayenne pepper for a hit of heat

Heat your oven to 200 ⁰C. Cut the bread into cubes about 2 to 3 cm square. Spread these on a lined baking tray and sprinkle them lightly with oil. Season and sprinkle over any of the above flavours you like, NOT all at once though. You could match them to the dish you are serving. Cover with a fine grating of cheese and pop into the oven until they are nice and golden brown. Turn them once if the bases need colour. Turn off the oven, leave the door ajar and let them cool and crisp there.

You can also turn these into flavoured breadcrumbs for coating fish or meat or for sprinkling onto dishes to add texture.

Coming Events:

SEPTEMBER

Wednesday, 2nd September from 17h00 to 19h00  De Trafford will host an informal vertical tasting of Cape Winemakers Guild wines at the cellar, going back to the maiden vintage. They plan to have a few bottles of selected vintages for sale so you may leave with something special in hand. There is no charge, but space is limited, so please confirm attendance by email to info@detrafford.co.za

Thursday, 3rd September at 18h00 for 18h30  Alto Meet The Winemaker Dinner. Indulge in a three-course food and wine pairing L)inner with Winemaker Bertho van der Westhuizen at Alto Wine Estate. Dinner in the cellar. R395 per person (Limited Seating). For booking, please contact 021 881 8884 or info@alto.co.za

Thursday, 3rd September  Nobu Cape Town’s Wine & Dine 2015 Series. Conjuring Up a Magical Feast with Hartenberg Estate priced at R495 per person. To reserve your table at Nobu Cape Town, call 021 431 4511 or mail to restaurant.reservations@oneandonlycapetown.com

Friday 4th September 17h00 to 20h00 Wine Concepts Seductive Sauvignons Festival at The Vineyard Hotel. This popular annual festival gives wine lovers the opportunity to taste a selection of flirtatious latest release Sauvignon Blanc’s and captivating current vintage Cabernet Sauvignons from over 40 of the country’s top producers. This year we will be including Bubblies, Rosé’s and Dessert wines and there may even be an older vintage or two to savour in the line-up. Tempting and delicious finger snacks will be served with the wine throughout the evening. All the showcased wines will be available for purchase at special prices from Wine Concepts on the evening. Venue: The Vineyard Hotel, Colinton Road, Newlands, Cost: R170.00 per person – includes wine glass and light snacks Early Bird tickets @ R160.00. There is Ample Parking at the venue. The Vineyard Hotel is offering a special of a 2 course dinner in Square Restaurant, bed & breakfast for Single R1255; Double R1910. Tickets can conveniently be purchased via www.webtickets.co.za,   or at any of the Wine Concepts branches. Telephone Newlands at 021 671 9030 or Kloof Street at 021 426 4401. Email: admin@wineconcepts.co.za or at the door on the evening subject to availability http://www.wineconcepts.co.za

Saturday 5th September   The seventh Waterblommetjie Festival presented by Windmeul Cellar and Rhebokskloof Estate in Paarl takes place on with waterblommetjie dishes and wine pairing as one of its main themes. Waterblommetjies (Cape pondweed), like other plants, grow more slowly in colder winter weather and bloom in the middle of August. The dams in which the waterblommetjies grow are about 1 meter deep to make the picking process easier. For more information and the full programs, windmeul@iafrica.com or 021 869 8100 (Windmeul) and info@rhebokskloof.co.za or 021 869 8386 (Rhebokskloof)

Saturday, 5th September  Waverley Hills Green Fair. The day will start out with a farm walk to raise funds for CANSA; the market will open shortly after walk commences. There will be live entertainment, great stalls that are local/sustainable/green minded, plus 5 food and wine pods that will have fynbos infused foods paired with Waverley Hills organic wine, some speaker sessions (tbc) and a kiddies zone.  Registration at 9am. Start time 9.30 am fro Waverley Hills Cellar. Wear GREEN to show your support. Funds raised will go towards CANSA. Participation fee R30. R10 for children under 10. Adult supervision is required. info@waverleyhills.co.za www.waverleyhills.co.za

Saturday, 5th and Sunday,  6th September from 10am to  4pm  The annual Bot River Spring Weekend. Beaumont and its neighbouring wineries will once again open their cellar doors. The Beaumont family invites you to celebrate the budding vines, the arrival of new vintages and delicious food with family and friends. This year they also welcome the refreshed Beaumont wine label — a sincere expression of their rich heritage, traditions and passion for the vines, the land and their life as a farm family. They will celebrate with heart and soul, chenins and blends, sweet and savoury, walks and talks and warming hospitality. For a full list of what they offer on this weekend and to book your table for lunch, a bed in their cottage or a guided tour please visit www.beaumont.co.za/news-event/ or call 028 284 9194. 

Wednesday, 9th September Blu Bird Exclusive Winemaker dinner at Bistro Michel, Blubird Shopping Centre, Cor Atholl-Oaklands Road & Fort Street, Johannesburg. Tyrell Myburgh will lead guests through the wines produced by Joostenberg. Seats are limited to 30 only to ensure a social evening centered around good food and wine. To book, please contact Corlien on corlien@wineconcepts.co.za or 011 440 5498. Seats are limited and will be allocated on a first reply basis

Click here for details of more exciting events

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

In addition to his 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

Nicolette van Niekerk runs baking courses at La Petite Patisserie in Montague Gardens

George Jardine will be running a series of winter cooking courses and other activities at Jordan. Details here

2nd September 2015

PS If a word or name is in bold type and underlined, click on it for more information

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

Postal address: 60 Arthurs Rd, Sea Point 8005

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.

If you like the photographs you see in our publications, please look at our Adamastor Photo website for our rate card and samples from our portfolio

We apologise if MENU caused your phone to bleep in the early hours. To send to our huge list of subscribers takes a long time and many of them receive it in the middle of the night. Might we suggest that your phone should not be activated to receive messages from us or from other sources in the witching hours? If your boss needs to contact you at that time, (s)he’s intruding on your valuable personal time.

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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Nederburg Concert with the Esperanza Trio at the Nederburg Manor House, Paarl

We love classical music and opera and, sadly, our busy life does not allow us enough time to go to as many concerts and recitals as we would love. So, when we were invited to an early evening recital at Nederburg on Sunday, we jumped at the opportunity to hear the Esperanza Trio play some excellent chamber music in the Manor House. The concert finished at 7 and was followed by a simple supper of soup and canapés, accompanied by some good Nederburg wines, all of which are included in the price. There are three more concerts in the series for which you can book: www. concerts@distell.co.za or from Webtickets. They are held on the last Sunday of each month, except for the last which will be on Saturday 21st November and will be the Picnic concert. It was the perfect evening for a concert, wet and cold

The Nederburg Manor House, which houses the Red Table restaurant, in the rain

A view from the terrace of the huge marquee that has been erected for the Nederburg Wine Auction which will be held over the weekend of the 12th and 13th of September. We will be attending.

The interior of the restaurant with a nice fire burning in the fireplace

It is a lovely terrace on a sunny day

An old Dutch master hanging in the main room. It looks like it needs some restoration, the colours would come up beautifully if it was handled properly.

There were glasses of Monis sherry to welcome us, Pale dry (our choice) Medium and Cream. It is nice to see sherry served, it has slipped from people's attention very badly and makes a wonderful aperitif. There were also alternatives for people not wanting alcohol

The pianist's assistant waiting patiently

The Esperanza Trio. The concert began with Weber's Trio for Flute, Cello and Piano, Op. 63. Liesl Stoltz is the flautist, Polina Budukova the cellist and Kerryn Wisniewski is on piano

Flying fingers on the Yamaha grand piano. The next two pieces were Hans Andrè Stamm's Suite for Flute, Cello and Piano and Hendrik Hofmeyr's Notturno Elegiaco

At interval some bobotie spring rolls were served with a coriander chilli dip

And we enjoyed a glass of Nederburg Brut MCC

The cello was made by the internationally acclaimed South African luthier, Dawne Haddad, who was in the audience. It has a magnificent bronze sound

The trio take a bow for the next piece which was Three Watercolours by Philippe Gaubert which we enjoyed enormously.

The last piece was by Astor Piazzola: Four Season of Buenos Aires. He was an ambassador of tango music, but also wrote classical music like this

Two soups were on offer, a thick vegetable (John) and a creamy chicken and mushroom (Lynne)

And there was a huge selection of small bites. Of special mention were very crisp coated, succulent fishcakes, beef Carpaccio on small biscuits, and small smoked chicken salads

Everyone enjoying supper

We had met the chef Edmore Ruzoza last year and he remembered us and came to say hello

Chef with the organiser of the evening Annetjie Hopkins

Four of the 6 wines on offer. They were very good with the food, especially the 2013 Beautiful Lady Gewürztraminer with the soup and the Ingenuity white and red blends with the canapés.. A lovely evening. Driving home however, in pelting sheets of rain, was not much fun

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© John & Lynne Ford, Adamastor & Bacchus 2015

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