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Wednesday, November 16, 2016

Tasting new releases from Stellenbosch Hills with lunch at Panama Jack's

We always look forward to this annual wine event, as we never know what Stellenbosch Hills will come up with each year. Whatever it is, it is always enjoyable, as are the wines. This is an award winning co-operative wine cellar established over 70 years ago, in 1945, and is now a collection of 16 successful members making the best of their Stellenbosch grown wines, on a very wide range of terroirs. The winery is in Vlottenburg and you can visit the tasting room to taste for yourself. The wines are very affordable

This year, we were invited to Panama Jack’s in the Cape Town Docks to taste the new wines and meet the new wine maker. Panama Jack’s has been there since 1989, and not much has changed. It is known for its good seafood and fish and atmosphere. It started as a small shack selling food and drinks to people working on their yachts and grew into a larger, quirky windblown shack near the container port. All the women at the event wanted to take down the flags lining the ceiling and put them in the washing machine. It’s an original, and it works. A great time was had, good wine was tasted and good fish was consumed

We began with the Polkadraai Sparkling Pinot Noir. Refreshing, but a bit sweet for us

The canapés were huge trays of very good sushi, sashimi and nigiri which were demolished very quickly. Hint: the media LOVES good sushi and you must provide soy, ginger and wasabi

The event took over a large portion of the restaurant

Time to begin the tasting

These are the reds we tasted. The first 4 are 2015. The Merlot has coffee wood ,dark cherries, sweet fruit support by fruit acids, chalky tannins & along finish. The Cabernet is full of cassis berries and leaves with tight tannins and warm alcohol. Might be built to last. The Shiraz is spicy with shy fruit & vanilla wood. sweet berry fruit soft chalky tannins. The Bush vine Pinotage is rich, a little over-extracted, cherries and milk with mulberries added. The 2014 Red Reserve (a blend of 50% shiraz, 28 Cabernet, 11% Merlot and 11% Petit Verdot) was our best. Expensive oak, cassis berries, vanilla and violets on the nose. Soft sweet enticing fruit well supported by fruit acids. A pretty wine with very soft tannins and a background only of wood..

Three white wines and five red. The 2016 Chenin Blanc is tropical with grass, hanepoot and guava. It was refreshingly crisp. The 2016 Sauvignon Blanc has already gained awards. Its crisp grassy nose with some seaweed and herbal greenness in background. Warm alcohols and pungent flavours of Cape gooseberries and yellow plums on the crisp palate. The 2014 White Reserve a blend of Chardonnay, Semillon and Viognier delighted and was most people's choice to go with the rest of lunch. Its a great food wine. The peachy viognier shows on the nose with some butteriness from the oak. It spent 10 months in new oak and it is just there as great support. On the palate the richness continues and there are nice layers of flavour, starting and ending with white and golden peaches.

The new winemaker James Ochse, who joined earlier this year from Distell

GM & Cellarmaster PG Slabbert

catching up with Lynne

The menu. We were allowed to choose which wine we wanted with each course

A choice of starter: 6 large and plumptious oysters which, we heard, were fresh and excellent

or Calamari fried, or grilled Cajun style, served with tartare sauce and rice

The table after the tasting; just to show that we don't drink all the wine at tastings

Greek salads were served with the main course

which was perfectly cooked and just pulled from the sea fresh, no frills Kingklip, still moist in a light batter or grilled with a buttery sauce. Also served with rice

Oh, dessert. Lynne can often refuse but Banoffee pie is a challenge she fails and this was a good one. Served with the Stellenbosch Hills sweet dessert Muscat de Hambourg 2013, full of honey, sweet red berries, and roses

A lovely tasting and lunch, very gemütlich and friendly

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De Wetshof Celebration of Chardonnay 2016

Tuesday, November 15, 2016

Rosé Rocks Awards 2016

Another annual awards ceremony, showcasing top Cape rosé wines, was held again at the Radisson Blue Hotel next to the V&A Waterfront. The wind was howling, so it had to be held inside, but some lovely rosés were awarded the Top Ten accolade

Happy staff serving the samples. There was only one bottle of each to taste, so you had to be quick

Perhaps a rather generous portion, some of the wines did run out early and there wasn't more in stock

Clare Mack with head judge Allan Mullins announcing the winners

Anticipation in the audience of media and wine makers

It was a howling gale. Our legendary South Easter wind does whip up the waves. Robben Island in the distance

Allan talking about the entries and the judging. Click here to see the winners: http://www.roserocks.co.za/2016-results.html

Who knew! The wines we were sampling were winners

Marvellous views from the terrace of the Radisson hotel. This is why we are feared as the Cape of Storms. A small ship battling the wind and waves. Is that the pilot climbing off?

Allan enjoying a glass of rosé with Paul Gerber of Le Lude and an admirer

The three MCC rosé wines

Tatiana Marcetteau, Food and Beverage manager at the Cape Grace Hotel, with winner Joris van Almenkerk and his winning wine Lace, which was our favourite

Sea birds heading for safe harbour

Tweeting a picture of Allan

This was a guest at the hotel. He is obviously a wine connoisseur. Two different bottles and three separate wines by the glass

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Caperitif Cacophony - Adi Badenhorst launches Caperitif

This was a relaunch, not of a wine but of an historic aperitif: Caperitif, known since the early part of the 20th Century. It was held on Adi Badenhorst's Swartland farm Kalmoesfontein on Guy Fawkes day. Not a glass of wine in sight, we spent the day tasting first Rooibos Caperitea, listening to entertaining talks by Adi, Wim Tijmens, Dave Hughes and Lars-Erik Schmidt. Time then for a horizontal tasting of the five different batches released so far of this great aperitif and then five different expertly mixed cocktails. We just sipped, honestly. This was followed by a fun retro lunch prepared by Adi's rather well known mother, talented chef Judy Badenhorst, who used to run the River Cafe restaurant on Constantia Uitsig. What a celebration!

During the rambunctious, hedonistic eras when the South African Gold Rush took place and Johannesburg was founded in the 1880's, there was lots of spending, celebrating, dancing and drinking. Caperitif, a genuine South African product, was born. It's a vermouth-like aperitif made from wine, fortified with alcohol and infused with Quinchona bark and aromatics, which can be served on its own over ice, with a slice of lemon and a mixer or in cocktails. Back then cocktails named the Barney Barnato, the Modder Rivier and the Oom Paul were created. This aperitif also inspired barmen all over the world and it became an ingredient in many famous cocktails, written about and used in many famous cocktail books, like the Savoy's. But then in about 1910 it disappeared, along with the company who made it and more importantly, the recipe. It became known as the Ghost ingredient. But some ancient bottles do still exist

In 2014 Lars-Erik Schmidt, a Danish mixologist, approached Adi Badenhorst and together they have recreated a 21st century version. They use Chenin Blanc fortified with spirit, gently sweetened by the sugar of the grapes, bittered by Quinchona bark and flavoured with some 35 truly Cape ingredients such as fynbos, kalmoes and naartjies (tangerines) and they make a dry tonic, Swaan, to go with it. Its ingredients are spring water with natural botanicals – quinine, lime, cardamom and mint, with thankfully less sugar

Bread, butter and apricot jam , a traditional country starter served with the Rooibos Caperitea

Dave Hughes, Andre Badenhorst and Adi Badenhorst

In the cellar where they make the Caperitif

Every guest was given this box filled with some of the aromatics, essences and infusions that go into it. Plus a sample

Speeches about to start

Swartland winemaker Eben Sadie

Adie tells us about the journey

Dave Hughes gives us the history of Caperitif

A large audience

Wim Tijmens has travelled the world hunting for plants. He spent more than 35 years as curator of the Stellenbosch University Botanical Garden (1962 – 1999). He spoke very amusingly about edible plants, fynbos, and the ingredients that go into Caperitif.

He is quite a character. It was very informative

Lars-Erik Schmidt, the Danish mixologist, told us of the chance meeting with Adi Badenhorst and how they eventually got together to recreate Caperitif

The Swartland vines, wheat and barley fields at the beginning of summer, from the farmhouse

The cellar with its historic vats

Some of the different batches of Caperitif

The vat with one of our favourite wines made by Adi Badenhorst, his 2016 Secateurs SB? Yes, above all!

The children helped out collecting the empty glasses. Here Chef Margot Janse chats to her son Jan Hendrik (wearing the hat)

Nice smile!

Grandfather Badenhorst, André, supervising

Many of the ingredients are grown in the farm vegetable and herb gardens

Chef Margot enjoying the sunshine and the day

Getting to the cocktails under the grape arbour

The boys doing a great job shaving ice for the cocktails

One of the five cocktail stations

This was the Jabberwock: 1/3 Gin, 1/3 dry sherry, 1/3 Caperitif, 2 dashes orange bitters

The back of the bottle has a story

Lunch would be on the stoep. Herbs hung to keep away the flies

Retro canapés come out. Oysters Rockefeller. We also had Devils on horseback (bacon wrapped prunes), stuffed eggs and superb mushroom vol au vents with buttery crackly melting pastry. Time to bring some of these back. Perhaps not the pineapple cheese though

Another cocktail being served, the Barney Barnato

Dave Hughes amused at the pineapple and cheese porcupine from his past

We were given coasters with the cocktail recipes

A basket full of ingredients

Another cocktail recipe using Caperitif

The makings

This was the horizontal tasting of the 5 batches. Lynne tasted them all and they were quite different, but all good. 1 had notes of cinnamon and vanilla and lime. 2 Rose water Mum's face powder, cinnamon, marmalade , lime, sweeter and more bitter. 3. Citrus, cats pee, herbs, crisp juicy yellow berries, nice acidity and good bitter/sweet balance. 4. Herbal, fenugreek, curry leaf, sour citrus, cinnamon, clove, sweet with Noble Late Harvest characteristics, bitter wood and a toasty end. Very much the favourite of the day by most people. And very like sweet Vermouth. 5 is herbal with cloves, sharp citrus, and a nice buzz of alcohol

Sommelier Ewan McKenzie inspecting at the infusions

Very friendly farm dog with fantastic eyebrows, exhausted by all the attention

The front stoep. All the action was happening in the kitchen beyond

A beetroot jelly, coleslaw, potato salad topped with radishes

a cucumber jelly and super tender ham with pineapple rings, cherries and a soft mustard sauce. Very satisfying food

A pistachio and pork terrine - absolutely fabulous. Not sure we are ready for the savoury moulded jellies....

Help yourself from the buffet

Jan Boland Coetzee enjoying a Jan Smuts cocktail

The recipe

Lemons and cloves to keep away the flies

Adi explaining the cocktails and how the Caperitif was recreated

Barista Sasha Petras from Milk and Honey on the East Side in Manhattan NY showed us how to make a cocktail for the masses in a large enamel bowl. They want to grow the cocktail consuming crowd. In the 1930s, there were 1700 recipes. The definitive book is the Savoy Hotel Cocktail book