Spring flowers near Darling

As we were in the area last Saturday, we were able to drive from our appointment at Ridgeback through the very green countryside through Malmesbury and Darling, looking for spring flowers which we had heard were spectacular this year. They were good, but perhaps the best are inside the Postberg Nature reserve

A blindingly acid yellow field of daisies

And they stretch almost as far as the eye can see

There is also a lot of oxalis about

A close up of the first field of daisies. We have not seen this kind in such profusion before

More round the bend

It is also the season when rape seed is in bloom

This is sign that summer is on the way, our sour fig succulent Carpobrotus edulis, also know as pig face, blooming. And next to it Cape Snow Bush or Kapokbossie, often called wild Rosemary, though not related

Misty mountains and more yellow daisies with a blue flower

Nice contrasts of Cape fynbos, probably Renosterveld up in this area, wheat fields, resting vines, spring flowers and Cape thatching reeds (restios)

Blue flowers with yellow centres, we have looked but cannot identify them, growing alongside the yellow daisies

A shiny black beetle on an Arum lily

Another blue flower, rather like a harebell

John was standing near this kiewiet’s (crowned plover’s) nest and he was the beneficiary of a lovely display of GO AWAY! with loud warning noises from the breeding pair

Those blue flowers in profusion

These were growing in the Tienie Versveld wild flower reserve near Darling

Colourful Mesembryanthemum - locally known as vygies (fairies)

Up close they glow

More star flowers, Cape Star or Spiloxene

 Ornithogalum thyrsoides, known here as chincherinchees, just beginning to bloom. There were acres of them

It seems to be a predominately yellow year in this region

The yellow daisies laced with blue flax Heliophila

Romulea Rosea

Bright orange gerbera daisies

Such pretty colour mixes

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© John & Lynne Ford, Adamastor & Bacchus 2016

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A visit to Ridgeback Wines

We hadn't visited Ridgeback since 2013 and they invited us to return and taste their wines recently, so we decided to combine the visit with a trip to see the Spring flowers up the West Coast last Saturday, which was a lovely sunny day. The tasting was followed by lunch on the deck and then a chat with the owner Vernon Cole and his daughter. They are originally from Zimbabwe where the Ridgeback dog is famous.. It was a very friendly tasting and we were ably led through the wines, which are made by Toit Wessels, by Pieter van Straaten. Then we motored off through the Malmesbury and Darling countryside to spot the daisies

The rustic tasting room. They have about 14 wines on their current list, we tasted many of these. We bought a box of the good Lion Hound 2015 White for drinking this summer, it was on special at R300 for 12. It is a blend of their rather tropical Sauvignon Blanc and Viognier - crisp, clean full of peaches and limes so refreshing. We also rated the Ridgeback 2015 Chenin R80 and the Ridgeback 2014 Viognier 2014 quite highly. Both are well made and drink well. the Viognier is wooded but this has softened with age. Both are 4 star Platter wines, as are the 2 reds below.

We sat inside as it was a bit windy on the deck initially. Then it was time to taste the reds. The well wooded 2013 Cabernet Franc, R110, impressed with lots of savoury umami, red fruit and black olive notes with plums and rhubarb. A food wine. The His Master's Choice 2013 R150. a blend of Shiraz, Mourvèdre and Grenache also had us talking: Rich intense fruit with cherries, pomegranate and cassis and salty savoury liquorice from the Mourvedre, this Rhône blend finishes with white pepper on the end. We also liked the spicy Shiraz 2013, R110

The restaurant and tasting room are built on stilts over a huge pond filled with water birds and koi fish

Just one duck awake

An unusual duck. There are also white swans and a pair of New Zealand black swans

Lots of huge koi carp, in gleaming colours

They all look the same size but apparently the smaller ones swim deep

The wind had dropped, so we moved outside for lunch on the deck under the trees

Owner Vernon Cole and his daughter Vanessa

Pieter chose this sweet and sour pork dish for his lunch

Lynne had two starters instead of a main: Calamari was on special and the other was spicy Thai fish cakes with a sweet chilli sauce. The portions are very generous.

John chose the rump steak with a Teriyaki dressing, pepper cream sauce and chips. We had no room for dessert and finished with coffees. Thank you all at Ridgeback 

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© John & Lynne Ford, Adamastor & Bacchus 2016

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Wine Concepts Seductive Sauvignons at The Vineyard

This annual opportunity to taste some of the best newly released Sauvignons Blanc and the current vintages of the Cabernet Sauvignons was hosted last Friday by Mike Bampfield Duggan of Wine Concepts at the Vineyard Hotel. It always is a serious and fun tasting. We attempt to taste as many as we can on the evening, but there are many new wines to taste and, even if we did speed tasting (which we don’t), there are lots of questions one wants to ask the winemakers 

There were many interesting wines; we're not sure if some of the newly released Sauvignon Blancs are showing their best frocks at the moment. Many are shy and retiring, one or two were a bit flat and bottle shocked, but we wait to try them later next year. Those we expected to be good, are. It was a difficult harvest with the drought. The few Reds we tasted were superb. Also included this year were some Bubblies, Rose’s and Dessert wines and a couple of older vintages which impressed

GM of the Vineyard Hotel, Roy Davies enjoying the evening

The Bloemendal crew: Etienne le Roux, cellar door manager, and Michelle Moller

Thinus Botha of Buitenverwachting

On the Cape Point stand, we found winemaker Riandri Visser, Jeanne Roosendaal, Jenna Bruwer of Springfield and Charles Pohl of Rust en Vrede

Sue Proudfoot of Wine Concepts, Kloof Street converses with Ian Corder from Corder wines in Elgin

Old friends Anne and Kevin Gleeson chat to Mark Lester of Tokara

Two fun wine people: John Collins, who represents several good wine farms, but was showing Springfield wines on this occasion, with Sarah Revell of Vinimark

Klein Constantia wines on offer. Winemaker Matthew Day has just been recognised by international wine writer Tim Atkin MW as his choice of Young Winemaker of the Year

At last a great picture of my old man, instead of him always being behind the camera. With Sarah Revell. You rock John Ford

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This Week's MENU. CWG Auction tasting, Bottling Vineyard Hotel wines, Pruning vines at the Vineyard, Young Wine Awards, Smak, Chenin Blanc Top Ten, Vinimark Trade Tasting, Catherine Marshall Pinot, butter

Ducks on the dam at Waterford Wine Estate, Stellenbosch

In this week’s MENU:

 2016 Cape Winemakers Guild tutored tasting    

 Bottling the Vineyard Hotel wines and tasting four vintages

 Pruning the vines at the Vineyard Hotel

 The South African Young Wine Awards at The CTICC

 A birthday breakfast at Smak

 Chenin Blanc Top Ten Challenge Awards at Delaire Graff

 Vinimark Trade Tasting

 On the Wine Menu this week: Catherine Marshall’s 2013 Pinot Noir on Clay soil

 What's on the Menu this week? How to make your own butter

 Coming events

Last week was extremely busy, as you will see below, and we faced a few challenges. We still don't have our car back, it's been more than a month but are eternally grateful for friends Pamela and James who have lent us a car while James is travelling. The rand is again in freefall due to bad judgement and management by our Government and we see inflation knocking at the door, with recession threatening soon after, if something is not done to stem the flow. Lynne popped into Shoprite this week to buy two things: 500 g of ordinary local butter and 3 cloves of garlic. She came out reeling, they cost R75. So if you add a good loaf of bread, garlic bread for dinner will now cost you R100. WHAT! Garlic bread a luxury? We will be planting some garlic this week. Now, are milk cows allowed in city gardens?

Last week was extremely busy, as you will see below, and we faced a few challenges. We still don't have our car back, it's been more than a month but are eternally grateful for friends Pamela and James who have lent us a car while James is travelling. The rand is again in freefall due to bad judgement and management by our Government and we see inflation knocking at the door, with recession threatening soon after, if something is not done to stem the flow. Lynne popped into Shoprite this week to buy two things : 500 g of ordinary local butter and 3 cloves of garlic. She came out reeling, they cost R75 rand. So if you add a good loaf of bread, garlic bread for dinner will now cost you R100. WHAT! Garlic bread a luxury? We will be planting some garlic this week. Now, are milk cows allowed in city gardens?

2016 Cape Winemakers Guild tutored tasting and Auction Showcase     This is, without doubt, always our best wine tasting experience of the year. We had the opportunity to taste 38 of the 54 Guild 2016 Auction wines and one brandy, at speed, hear what each winemaker has to say about the wine he or she is entering in the auction, make notes, empty a glass for the next wine and move on quickly. Some winemakers are great and talk up their wines giving the tasters time to do all the above. Others just say the name of their wines and move off at speed, which adds to the frisson of the event, but leaves us breathless

The wines are extraordinary. If you love and buy wine, register now to attend this year's auction which will be on the 1st of October at Spier. It is open to the public. Registration for the Auction and sales of VIP Lounge tickets will close on Wednesday, 16 September 2016. Contact CWG for details. http://www.capewinemakersguild.com/auction We will see you there

Bottling the Vineyard Hotel wines and tasting four vintages with lunch at Waterford     This year, we were also invited to Waterford wine estate for a tasting of the last four years of the wines that have been made. Waterford, who are one of the four wine farms which sponsor a row of vines, vinified the 2015 vintage. We were to taste the wines and have lunch together

Pruning the vines at the Vineyard Hotel      Once a year, we are invited by the management of The Vineyard Hotel to join them and help prune the vines in the small vineyard on the side of the Liesbeek river in the gardens of the hotel. They have, kindly, made us custodians of one vine. As some of the other people who have been granted a vine are unable to come, we often find that we do a good part of a row, which we enjoy immensely

It is great to be taught a little more technique on pruning methods each year by a different winemaker or viticulturist ,although some do differ widely in their methods. Last year, after we had pruned, one the viticulturists came and did a really hard prune back which may have resulted in the smaller crop in 2016. This year, we were told that the intention was to be not quite so rigorous

The South African Young Wine Awards at The CTICC     Why do we love going to this awards presentation? It's not really to taste the young wines; they are still very young and need to develop their spurs but at these occasions we get to meet the young winemakers who are involved in making these wines and they are the future of the wine industry.

A birthday breakfast at Smak     We don't often get out for breakfast, much as we would like to. Mornings at home are precious, especially after a long week of work, and some late nights. But last week a dear friend had a birthday and we decided to take her out for breakfast to celebrate. She chose to introduce us her favourite breakfast restaurant, SMAK in Bree Street. A first for us; she and her husband have grown fond of this newish venue, opened by two young entrepreneurial chefs Devin Hogan and Katia Scherf in February 2016

They bill themselves as a delicatessen, patisserie, restaurant and coffee bar. It’s light, modern and open six days a week for breakfasts and lunch and take-aways. They are closed on Sundays

Chenin Blanc Top Ten Challenge Awards at Delaire Graff     This annual awards ceremony was held at Delaire Graff this year. We always know that we are going to taste some amazing Chenins with lunch and what a good lunch it was. If you want to see who is in the top 10 this year, click on this link www.chenin.co.za. This is the third year in which the awards have been held and seven of this year's winners have previously been winners, showing how consistent some of these farms are at producing superb Chenin Blanc

Vinimark Trade Tasting     Back in the Ballroom at the CTICC for the third time in a week, this huge trade tasting is overwhelming in its depth, variety and scope of the wines available to taste. There is no way you can consciously even contemplate tasting all of the wines, we usually manage a wine or two at about a third to half of the farms. And it is a very social evening as they also invite some of their customers and we know many of them.

On the Wine Menu this week: Catherine Marshall’s 2013 Pinot Noir on Clay soil

This gentle fruity Pinot has evolved into one of the most delicious Pinot Noirs currently available. It was the talk of two recent trade wine tastings we attended and we so agree. It is Cathy in a glass, friendly, complex, strong, independent but wonderfully feminine. Drink now or squirrel away for special occasions. About R210 at good wine outlets. or direct from Cathy http://cmwines.co.za/range/

What's on the Menu this week?

How to make your own butter:

Yes, we are serious.

2 cups (500 ml ) double cream will make one cup of butter, leaving you with 1 cup of buttermilk. You need cream with a butterfat of at least 35 %. Chill a sieve in the fridge.

Put the cream into a food processor and blend. You need to continue until you have overbeaten the cream and keep going. The cream will start to clump and give off some liquid. That's the buttermilk. When the cream clumps together in one mass, turn off the processor and using the cold sieve drain off the liquid. Keep it, you can use buttermilk in your cooking. What remains in butter.

Now wash the butter in cold water until it runs clear. Transfer it from the sieve into a bowl and using cold hands (run them under a cold tap) or a spatula, knead it to remove any water. Pour that off and add a little salt, this helps to preserve the butter. You only need about a quarter to half a teaspoon, according to your taste. Form into a roll and wrap in parchment paper. Store in the fridge. You can of course add flavours like herbs, paprika, garlic or lemon if serving with food or bread.

1st September 2016

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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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