Haskell Vineyards media tasting of Syrahs with lunch at La Mouette

We were invited to a pairing of Haskell wines with lunch at La Mouette. A summer lunch with great wines, which were very skilfully paired with the food

La Mouette (the Seagull) on a sunny midday. It is on Regent Road in Sea Point

We were taken upstairs for this event. We began with a glass of their Dombeya range’s excellent Chardonnay; buttery citrus, with depth and long fruit

Canapés served were a tuna tartare on a rye taco and the famous La Mouette Truffle croquette

PRO Nicolette Waterford and Greg Landman having a quick hug and gossip

A happy Dr Winnie Bowman CWM

Time to start lunch and taste the wine with the food

Writer Malu Lambert with Winnie Bowman

Haskell CEO Grant Dodd tells us about the Haskell wines to be paired with lunch

The menu

La Mouette is owned by Chef Henry Vigar and his wife Mari. Henry explained the menu. We have great respect for them. You may not know that they were the highest earners for StreetSmart SA www.streetsmartsa.org.za last year. How do they do it? Yes, they are very popular and have very generous customers who do not mind them adding R5 to every bill. But Lynne learned from Mari that she very generously adds another R5 to each donation. Well done!

Art on the wall - some old restaurant order slips!

The first wine is the Anvil 2015 Chardonnay. All Haskell wines served were single vineyard varietals. Full on the nose, with minerality and butter, elegantly full on the palate, citrus clean with wet stone minerality and a dry finish. Made to last and it will. French Burgundy in style, some malolactic character and 50% new oak

Service which was efficient and quick, begins

Winemaker Rianie Strydom tells us about the wine

Scribes tasting and writing

First course to pair with the Anvil were two Fontina filled raviolis with a tomato truffle dressing and crisp parmesan crumb. The creaminess of the rich Fontina cheese which made the wine taste richer and creamier and the crisp stony taste & texture of the parmesan crumbs made the pairing work so well

Three Shirazes followed. With the second course the Haskell Hades 2014. The rocky vineyard is hell to farm on, hence the name, but produces very rewarding wines. Wine is all about structure and flavour said Len Evans, the famous Australian wine maker. It has a blockbuster nose, spicy with mulberries, white pepper and a slight lactic note. On the palate it's a kick of spicy fruit and acid with cheeky tannins. Mulberries, plums and Rhubarb with Masala spices, long flavours ending in ground black pepper and coffee

Hades was paired with a Chalmar sirloin, tender and pink to perfection with crisp coated bone marrow, a creamy cauliflower puree, confit red onions

and a café au lait sauce

with a dusting of black pepper

We all had lots of catching up to do after the long summer break

Caught by surprise. Philip van Zyl Editor of the John Platter Guide.

Rianie talking to Christine Rudman and Wade Bales

Discussing the finer points? Richard Holmes, Chris von Ulmenstein and Fiona McDonald

The fourth wine was the Haskell Pillars 2013 Syrah, herbal on the nose and palate, with hot spices and lovely rich red berry fruit.  This was paired with a roasted loin of lamb with a rich aubergine puree, salsa verde that so echoed the herbs in the wine, good supporting potato gnocchi and house-made ricotta. Here is broadcaster Guy MacDonald enjoying the pairing. We were also given the 2007 to taste. Identifiably the same wine, but it was richer and deeper on the nose, redolent with spices, it powered down in the glass over time

The final wine was the Haskell Aeon 2013 Syrah, full of stony minerality and incense wood on the nose, rather cellar like too. Minty, with rich soft plum sweetness, the layers 'ping' on the palate as they develop. Chef Henri really depicted the wine on the plate of the last course. Roasted plums with a plum puree, a filo crisp and a port reduction with an Aged Dalewood Superlatif Brie. They sang in chorus together

Alan Mullins of Woolworths chats to Haskell winemaker Rianie Strydom

Clifford Roberts enjoying a last wine

Christian Eedes of winemag.co.za asking some questions

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© John & Lynne Ford, Adamastor & Bacchus 2017

This week’s MENU recipe. Lamb shanks in red wine

Lamb has become so expensive that we now reserve it for only special meals and the recipe needs to be good. We love Lamb shanks and sometime we find these more reasonably priced than other premium cuts of meat. Long slow cooking while we are working is something Lynne appreciates and this recipe was very good. We hope you like it. Do use a robust red wine. The quality of the wine will reflect in the dish

2 T oil or coconut oil - 4 whole lamb shanks - salt & freshly ground pepper - 3 carrots, sliced - 1 large onion, sliced - 2 T seasoned flour - 3 garlic cloves, roughly chopped - 2 bay leaves - 3 or 4 small sprigs of rosemary - 600 ml red wine - 2 cups good lamb or beef stock - 1 tablespoon soft brown sugar -

Preheat oven to 160⁰C

Season the lamb shanks with salt and pepper. In a large oven proof casserole, brown the lamb shanks on all sides in the oil; remove from the pan and put aside and keep warm

In the same casserole, put in the carrots, onions, garlic, bay leaves and rosemary. Stir and cook slowly until nicely coloured. Add the seasoned flour and stir into the vegetables so it absorbs the fats and juices. Then pour in the red wine, beef stock, and brown sugar and bring to a low boil, stirring all the time to deglaze the pan. Put the lamb shanks back into the casserole and top up with water; they should be submerged.

Cover the casserole with its lid and put into the oven and cook for 2½ to 3 hours until very tender. Check every hour to see that they are not drying out. Top up with more water and wine if they are looking too dry. Taste and adjust seasoning. Remove the lamb and vegetables to a serving dish. Reduce the sauce if it is a bit thin. It is great if served with mashed potatoes and peas. If you have leftovers, it makes a very good shepherd's pie topped with the left over mash

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© John & Lynne Ford, Adamastor & Bacchus 2017

A new menu for two at Kyoto Garden

We do enjoy being guinea pigs when restaurants want to try out a new menu or idea. This week, we were invited to Kyoto Garden to sample the new Menu for two people, which they are launching soon.

There are not many authentic Japanese restaurants in Cape Town. Kyoto Garden is very good. It is at 11 Kloof Nek Road, opposite Miller's Thumb

The bar, the sushi station with the sushi chef and the kitchen in the background. They have a good selection of Japanese beer, sake and whiskies as well as a good local wine list. Lynne enjoyed a glass of Steenberg Chardonnay and John a glass of Vrede and Lust Chenin with our meal. Both are wooded

First course was a nicely seasoned tuna tartare topped with spring onion; it is an amuse size and a palate delighter. The soy sauce dressing has a very light touch of wasabi, which adds a delicate accent to the umami of the soy, but avoids the typical wasabi heat. You get one each

Next was a shared dish of briefly seared salmon slices on a seaweed and baby spinach leave salad, with enoki and other blanched mushrooms, spring onion and wasabi. It comes with a rich sauce tasting of miso and soy with wasabi. You can use the sauce to dip or you can pour it over the salad.

Then you share a selection of sushi, nigiri and sashimi. All are delicious; the tuna was exceptionally fresh and pink, almost translucent. The platter comes with shaved daikon radish, wasabi and pickled ginger. The white fish is very fresh Cape salmon

The restaurant sometimes imports fresh wasabi root from Japan or Canada and we were lucky enough to be given some to taste and to grate on the authentic shark skin grater. Yes, that is real raspy shark skin. The wasabi was not as hot as we expected and quite creamy in taste. We liked it

Eating sushi at the bar

The restaurant is very light and airy, the decor simply, elegantly Japanese

Next a plate of mixed vegetable tempura to share. It is light, crisp and fresh, just the way is should be. It is accompanied by more daikon, a slice of lemon to squeeze and a dipping sauce. We found cauliflower, a bean, broccoli, yellow pepper, lotus root, sweet potato, aubergine and a basil leaf in the stack. The aubergine was soft and sweet inside its crisp coating, the sweet potato and the lotus root were both very special

Then a bowl each of Ramin noodles with prawns, leeks and green beans. Nice miso stock with the soup

The meal will finish with a dessert. We were given two to sample, a delicious fresh and creamy ginger ice cream accompanied by crisp Japanese wafer biscuits. And a sesame seed ice-cream, unusual but very good

We have not seen the menu yet and believe the price is going to be R780 for two, plus wine

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© John & Lynne Ford, Adamastor & Bacchus 2017

MENU's Wine of the Week. 2006 Nabygelegen Seventeen Twelve Merlot-led Bordeaux blend

This is the robust wine we used in the Lamb Shank recipe and there was enough left over to have two glasses with it. We are so pleased we have more because it was superb. It is a Bordeaux blend of Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon and Petit Verdot

We would not have expected an 11 year old wine still to be so fresh and full of ripe berry fruit. It has held everything, the fruit, the acid, the wood and the chalky tannin all melding together to make a very enjoyable wine. You can still buy it from the farm , the current release is 2014. Well done James. http://www.nabygelegen.co.za/our-wines/

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© John & Lynne Ford, Adamastor & Bacchus 2017