Caroline's Red Wine Review at The Table Bay

Tasting some of the best Reds the Cape produces at the Red Wine Review

Caroline Rillema of Caroline's Fine Wines holds two of the best wine tastings every year: her Red Wine Review in July and the White Wine Review on Wednesday, 19th October. She selects wines that have four and a half or five star status which she judges to be great wines. It is an incredibly well attended tasting, held this year at rather hot Table Bay Hotel

Giorgio dalla Cia on their stand with Jan . Giorgio was the winemaker behind the Meerlust brand for years and was the originator of their iconic Rubicon red blend.  Now, with his son George, he makes their own special wines, grappas and chocolates

Constantia Glen’s Dr Horst Prader with their winemaker, Justin van Wyk

Catherine Marshall was presenting her special Pinot Noir and everyone we spoke to said it was their favourite of the evening. We agree

Caroline with her nephew and niece

The warm hearted Wallace family all together in wine. They have the farm Wallovale in Elgin and Paul Wallace is a renowned viticulturist working with many top brands. His two sons Mark – a qualified winemaker, currently working at Hamilton Russell and Bobbie (in his final year at Elsenburg) have followed him into the wine world. Nicky Wallace is "the dynamo behind the family brand" and works tirelessly on the farm marketing the wines, running the tasting room and the newly completed guest cottages

Two stalwarts of the South African wine industry, Ken Forrester and Jeremy Walker, here with Johann Reyneke

Constantia was well represented. Gus Allen handles the sales and marketing for Constantia Glen, Stuart Botha is the Eagle’s Nest winemaker

The future of wine making: Elsenburg and Stellenbosch University students attending the tasting

Someone wanted a picture of John with the Wallaces. Suspect is Bobbie Wallace

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© John & Lynne Ford, Adamastor & Bacchus 2016

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This Week's MENU. Angala, Tuk Tuk Brewery, Societi Bistro's Tour de France, Sunday lunch at Bertus Basson, The Sommeliers Selection Awards, Spanish Braised Pork Cheeks, Wine of the Week

The view across the valley from Spice Route in Paarl to the Simonsberg

In this week’s MENU: 

 Tuk Tuk Brewery in Franschhoek launches the beers brewed in house    

 Overnight at Angala, a luxury boutique hotel near Franschhoek

  Societi Bistro's Tour de France

 Sunday lunch at Bertus Basson, The Spice Route, Paarl

 The Sommeliers Selection Awards at The Stack, Leinster Hall

 This week's recipe. Spanish Braised Pork Cheeks

 Wine of the week: De Krans Touriga Naçional 2014

 Coming events

July winter weather in the Cape can be violent. On Monday night and Tuesday we had one of our epic storms, storms that would have frightened the life out of sailors in centuries past. The gale force wind hits us full on, the sea roars and this is followed by pelting rain. The temperature drops fast and we are so thankful to be inside, warm and dry, and our hearts go out to those who are not. But we do welcome the rain as the dams are slowly filling up. Hopefully, this will ease our drought. Since Sunday, here in Sea Point, we have had nearly 100mm of rain, and Sea Point generally has lower rainfall than other parts of the Western Cape. Has El Nino stopped at last?

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Tuk Tuk Brewery in Franschhoek launches the beers brewed in house     Tuk Tuk Micro Brewery, which is part of the Leeu Collection, opened in February this year and is already a very popular venue on Main Street in Franschhoek, on the next corner above Quartier Français. They have been selling CBC beers on tap and, this week, they introduced their own beers, brewed in the in-house 250-litre capacity brewery which you can see as you walk into Tuk Tuk. The beers are a Pale Ale, a Weiss (or Weizenbier (wheat beer) beer and a Dunkel made by brew master Dewald Goosen. We enjoyed these with a rather good selection of classic Mexican street food served family style from the Tuk Tuk Taqueria

Overnight at Angala, a luxury boutique hotel near Franschhoek

Another visit to the Place of Angels – Angala. We loved our first stay at this chic small Boutique hotel on the slopes of the Simonsberg in April last year and were delighted to be invited back to see the new Spa and have dinner and stay the night. We had a marvellous time in this peaceful and tranquil place. Angala is surrounded by Vrede and Lust and Rupert and Rothschild vineyards. You enter through Vrede and Lust gates and then drive 2 k up the mountain till you come to this lovely guest house with superb gardens and view. They have recently installed a spa and they also have a special Winter Spa package for two. http://www.angala.co.za/

Societi Bistro's Tour de France     Enjoying good French food at Societi Bistro with some well paired wines. Having had a successful 10 weeks of Italian food and wines Societi invited us to come and try their Culinary Tour Through France -10 Weeks. 10 Regions. 10 Exceptional Wines. A different region and wine every week. Despite a cold and miserable Saturday afternoon, we so enjoyed sampling the dishes from the menu with many great local French style wines. Now you can too. http://societi.co.za/france/ It's a lovely way to enjoy eating out in winter

Sunday lunch at Bertus Basson, The Spice Route, Paarl     Who doesn't enjoy Sunday lunch if someone else is cooking for you? And it appears, from the full restaurant with lots of large parties, that Bertus Basson's generous offering of a four course lunch for R290 is attracting lots of you. We were very impressed at the variety on the menu which is served family style. And, of course, the restaurant is up on the Paarl mountain with superb views across to Franschhoek on the left, then looking right across past the Simonsberg, Stellenbosch, Klapmuts and, in the distance, Table Mountain. Lions Head rides like a shark through the Durbanville Hills and beyond is the west coast

The Sommeliers Selection Awards at The Stack, Leinster Hall     This is the second year these accolades have been awarded. Suppliers can enter their wines and these are judged by professionally trained Sommeliers who chose their 'Wine list 2016' selection. Suppliers are asked to submit their wines in various categories, NOT by varietal or blend. The Sommeliers say they prefer to make listings this way rather than by cultivar as it makes wines easier to recommend to customers and pair with food. All wines are tasted blind and judged by taste alone. There were some surprises when the wines were revealed. We love it when these surprises appear. We so approve of blind tasting and no sight of labels which can lead to predictable expectations

This week's recipe. Spanish Braised Pork Cheeks

We finally found some pork cheeks at Joostenberg this weekend. We have heard how good this cut of meat is (beef cheeks are supposed to be even better) and Lynne wanted to try out this recipe with the Spanish ingredients. They were succulent. Do use good stock and check halfway through the cooking that the liquid is not evaporating, add water if it is. You serve this with rice rather than potatoes, but the choice is up to you.

1 1/2 T olive oil - 2 large onions, finely chopped - 3 garlic cloves, chopped - 600g pork cheeks, excess fat trimmed and cut in half - 1 tbsp flour, seasoned with salt and pepper and mixed dried herbs - 1 tsp ground cumin - 2 tsp sweet smoked Spanish paprika - 300ml medium dry sherry - 500ml beef stock - 3 carrots, chopped in rings - 1 celery stick, finely chopped - 1 fennel bulb, sliced - 1 turnip cut into 2 cm cubes - 1 bay leaf. To finish, 1 T flat-leaf parsley, roughly chopped and 1 T flaked almonds

Heat your oven to 170 ⁰C. In an ovenproof casserole with a lid, fry the onion in the oil till soft and beginning to take on some colour. Add the garlic and cook for about a minute. Dip the pork cheeks into the seasoned flour and, adding a little more oil, brown them on all sides. Add the spices and stir for one minute. Remove and set aside. Add the sherry to the pan and quickly stir to deglaze the pot, to incorporate all the good brown crusty bits. Put back the pork and onions and pour on the beef stock. Add all the vegetables and then add a lid to your pot and transfer to the oven. Cook slowly until the meat is tender. This should take an hour or two. Just before serving, scatter over the parsley and the almonds. Serves four

Wine of the week: De Krans Touriga Naçional 2014 

Current farm price is R65. Its a Platter four star wine

We had this with the Pork cheeks and it was a serendipitous match. This robust wine has mulled wine spices, black pepper and cranberries on the nose, luscious red and blue berries with brandy and milk chocolate notes and those lovely soft tannins one expects from the Portuguese and Spanish grapes

If you have missed any previous issues of MENU and would like to see them, they are here

Catch up with previous stories from Hong Kong and Vietnam here

Click here for Events you can enjoy in July

28th July 2016

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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.

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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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This week's MENU recipe. Spanish Braised Pork Cheeks

We finally found some pork cheeks at Joostenberg this weekend. We have heard how good this cut of meat is (beef cheeks are supposed to be even better) and Lynne wanted to try out this recipe with the Spanish ingredients. They were succulent. Do use good stock and check halfway through the cooking that the liquid is not evaporating, add water if it is. You serve this with rice rather than potatoes, but the choice is up to you.

1 1/2 T olive oil - 2 large onions, finely chopped - 3 garlic cloves, chopped - 600g pork cheeks, excess fat trimmed and cut in half - 1 tbsp flour, seasoned with salt and pepper and mixed dried herbs - 1 tsp ground cumin - 2 tsp sweet smoked paprika - 300ml medium dry sherry - 500ml beef stock - 3 carrots, chopped in rings - 1 celery stick, finely chopped - 1 fennel bulb, sliced - 1 turnip cut into 2 cm cubes - 1 bay leaf. To finish, 1 T flat-leaf parsley, roughly chopped and 1 T flaked almonds

Heat your oven to 170 ⁰C. In an ovenproof casserole with a lid, fry the onion in the oil till soft and beginning to take on some colour. Add the garlic and cook for about a minute. Dip the pork cheeks into the seasoned flour and, adding a little more oil, brown them on all sides. Add the spices and stir for one minute. Remove and set aside. Add the sherry to the pan and quickly stir to deglaze the pot, to incorporate all the good brown crusty bits. Put back the pork and onions and pour on the beef stock. Add all the vegetables and then add a lid to your pot and transfer to the oven. Cook slowly until the meat is tender. This should take an hour or two. Just before serving, scatter over the parsley and the almonds. Serves four

MENU's wine of the week is De Krans Touriga Nacional 2014

The current farm price is R65. Its a four star Platter wine

We had this with the Pork cheeks and it was a serendipitous match. This robust wine has mulled wine spices, black pepper and cranberries on the nose and luscious red and blue berries with brandy and milk chocolate notes and those lovely soft tannins one expects from the Portuguese and Spanish grapes

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© John & Lynne Ford, Adamastor & Bacchus 2016

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The Sommeliers Selection Awards at The Stack, Leinster Hall

This is the second year these accolades have been awarded. Suppliers can enter their wines and these are judged by professionally trained Sommeliers who chose their 'Winelist' 2016 selection. Suppliers are asked to submit their wines in various categories, NOT by varietal or blend. The Sommeliers say they prefer to make listings this way rather than by cultivar as it makes wines easier to recommend to customers and pair with food. All wines are tasted blind and judged by taste alone. There were some surprises when the wines were revealed. We love it when these surprises appear. We so approve of blind tasting and no sight of labels which can lead to predictable expectations

The awards event took place on Monday at The Stack at Leinster Hall. It was a really wet day, so we all convened in their bar area where we had two 330 ml Brewhogs Red Lagers at a cost of R76

Then it was time to go upstairs for the awards. There were welcoming drinks of Graham Beck MCC

The two organisers, Ann Ferreira and Darielle Robertson. http://www.thesommeliersselection.co.za/

Darielle tells us about the awards. Not all the categories entered were selected for the list. This changes every year. If you are interested in the categories, click here: http://sommeliersselection.typepad.com/files/2016-categories-and-descriptions-1.pdf

They were joined by Higgo Jacobs, one of the judges

And then some of the judges joined them. Not all could be present. The judges were Neil Grant, Pearl Oliver, Joakim Blackadder, Tinashe Nyamudoka, Greg Mutambe, Ewan Mackenzie, Spencer Fondaumiere

Higgo commented on how they had tasted and judged the wines that were entered and how they selected the wines for the list

Anticipation as winemakers wait to hear who'd won what

Rickety Bridge winemaker Wynand Grobler, looking elated

Peter Bubbles Ferreira of Graham Beck. They made the list with 5 MCC bubbles, along with Villiera with Monro Brut and Le Lude with their Rosé

The floor was then opened for comments from the judges. Here Ewan Mackenzie comments

Peter Ferreira had lots of interesting questions

Very good canapés were served. These were small potato and onion cakes

Moist beetroot rolls topped with cream cheese

Mushroom and rosemary stuffed choux buns. Everything was just bite sized, which we love. We hate struggling with something that needs three bites and goes down your front and all over your face

Tuna paté on toast

Smoked salmon rolls filled with gherkin cream and topped with salmon caviar

Attie Louw from Opstal in the Breedekloof picks up his stickers for his Carl Everson Chenin Blanc 2015. Always a great wine and we will be so pleased to see it on more good wine lists

Paul Kruger of Villiera and Peter Ferreira poured their bubblies

And then we got to taste most of the wines. Louis Strydom of Ernie Els Wines with Wynand Grobler of Rickety Bridge

Writers Anel Grobler and a friend

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The 2016 Sommeliers Selection wine list. The list is both comprehensive and quirky, classic and new, interesting and strange, expected and unexpected. There are surprises and lots of deserving wines. It should certainly ginger up a trade which can be boring and limited when wine lists are from one source only and cost a fortune...

 

Sunday lunch at Bertus Basson, The Spice Route, Paarl

Who doesn't enjoy Sunday lunch if someone else is cooking for you? And it appears, from the full restaurant with lots of large parties, that Bertus Basson's generous offering of a four course lunch for R290 is attracting lots of you. We were very impressed at the variety on the menu which is served family style. And, of course, the restaurant is up on the Paarl mountain with superb views across to Franschhoek on the left, then looking right across past the Simonsberg, Stellenbosch, Klapmuts and, in the distance, Table Mountain. Lions Head rides like a shark through the Durbanville Hills and beyond is the west coast

The restaurant is right in the centre of the Spice Route complex

The pergola will be covered in vines come summer

Inside the busy restaurant

The Sunday lunch menu we sampled. It does change according to the seasons and what is available. There is also a Saturday special running on Saturday 13th August. when Albert Frost will be performing at Bertus Basson Spice Route. There will be a 2 course menu for R245, 3 courses for R295pp. Book soon

We began with a bowl of savoury butternut soup topped with tangy creamy goats cheese and sprinkled with pumpkin seeds

Olive bread, olive oil emulsion and an olive paste accompany it

The next course was missing - at our request - the pickled fish, which neither of us likes; we don't like wasting food. It was replaced by a lovely fresh selection of roasted (not pickled) baby beetroot with a coriander emulsion (we couldn't detect coriander and suspect that parsley had been substituted; it was great). On the same platter, crisp baby yellow carrots, olives and radishes. There was a cos lettuce salad with shaved fennel in the bowl alongside, sprinkled with parmesan cheese and a few shreds of wet biltong. It was very well dressed. In front was a platter of shavings of rare roast Chalmar beef with small dabs of aubergine puree. But the singularly best thing on the plate was tiny slivers of dried tomatoes preserved in oil, topped with roasted garlic. They gave everything the most wonderful flavour. We didn't detect any sesame dressing

This bowl was what one of us selected

Then the main course: there are two. Top left is the crisp skinned confit duck legs on a rich spiced sauce with (Puy?) lentils, a butternut puree, moist dried figs, some lovely confit garlic, forgotten carrots ( left in the bottom of your fridge they become soft and concentrated in flavour) and rocket. Next to it is the Sticky, oh so tender braised short rib of beef with really good roast parsnips, parsnip puree and shaved beetroot crisps. Large roast potatoes, which Bertus likes to serve with a very light hollandaise sauce, a new experience for us and a good one. This course nearly defeated us and we confess to taking a doggy bag with the short ribs home. It was too good to leave, but we had little room and new dessert was to follow

Constantia Uitsig had sent us a bottle of their new 2013 Red Horizon dry red blend to try and this seemed like the perfect occasion to try it with food. It has lots of smoky bacon on the nose from the first fill 60% new oak, and a mouthful of cassis, rhubarb and red cherries. It goes very well with this sort of food which is full of many contrasting flavours and textures

Dessert was a hefty portion of Malva pudding with a very vanilla ice cream, with a jug of fresh cream on the side. This was followed by two excellent double espressos

Manager Louise Starey, who was at the Bakery at Jordan and is now managing this restaurant, had invited us to come and write about the food. Who can possibly turn down a chance to taste Bertus Basson's interesting and innovative fresh food. We loved her staff, very quiet but very attentive and polite. Our waiter’s name is Everton and yes, it is his father’s favourite soccer team

They also have some products on sale in the restaurant

WHAT a view! This is the Simonsberg, under whose shelter we spent the night on Friday

A long view to Table Mountain and that shark!

People enjoying the sun and the afternoon

Our table had a view into Red Hot Glass, the glass blowing factory and shop

Resting vines and time to head home. Thank you Bertus and Louise, a lovely experience. We will be back, probably in the summer when our visitors start to arrive

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