Thursday, September 28, 2017

Heritage Weekend in the Hemel en Aarde Valley

Escape to Heaven!
We took off four days last weekend. It was Heritage Day on Sunday and thence a long weekend, so we escaped to the Hemel and Aarde valley with good friends to relax, eat good food, try out some fine wineries and just kuier. Oh, and catch up on some sleep. Kind friends who are travelling abroad had lent us their cottage. The weather was not good, it was mostly bitterly cold with a little sunshine on Sunday; we burnt a lot of wood on the open fireplace but came home very ready to get back into the mad media season
We left at 10 on Friday morning and headed first to Oak Valley Winery and the Pool Room where we tasted some wines with Cape Wine Master Brad Gold, their keen young marketing manager and the lovely Steph, who is behind the tasting counter should you call in
We loved the new label on the Groenlandberg 2016 Pinot Noir. It is the mountain range behind the farm and the Pinot is grown on the highest slopes. This Pinot has finesse, is deep with good fruit and so enjoyable. They also have the 2014 Sound of Silence Pinot Noir, different, more mature and full of flowers and berries, also very good
Oak Valley have just rebranded their wines with some lovely new labels, each which has a story about the farm. You can buy this box with each of the six wines in it, and they are all wrapped in a tissue paper map of the farm. The Stone and Steel Riesling has no terpenes in it and is a very good Riesling
The previous labels were classic; these are softer and more modern and it has increased sales a lot
Time for some lunch. A chilly day meant we sat inside; on a better day, it is lovely eating around the pool
Chef Gordon Manuel has put together a good menu with many of the ingredients sourced from the farm and local suppliers and farms. It changes regularly. The farm has its own free range pork and beef. He sent us an amuse of his fresh mussels in broth. Such plump mussels in a really good creamy wine broth with some chilli and coriander green oil, served with sourdough bread and olive oil. Lynne is cautious with mussels; she was converted
Our friends are vegetarians, so they had the grilled vegetables with the savoury chocolate mole sauce as their starter
and beetroot gnocchi as a main course
Lynne ordered the deep fried calamari as her main course and was surprised when they came in a leafy salad
John ordered his favourite Pool Room dish, the huge Oak Valley Beef Burger with superb hand cut chips. We helped him a little with them
and for dessert was a Crème Brulée
or a very good mini tart tatin, followed by Espressos
The bright yellow weaver birds were waiting for us on the lake side at de Werf
and the yellow-billed ducks
The next day, Saturday, we ventured out to Newton Johnson and did a tasting of their splendid wines. Our friends were so impressed with the quality of all of them. We love making converts to the valley wines
The Tasting menu
They are also making beer, so Lynne decided we needed three of each for the weekend. The brand name is quite naughty; say it out loud. The Enlightened Ale is very well made, light and quaffable. The Dutch Courage IPA is quite dark and malty, more like a stout than an IPA for Lynne but a good beer, easy to drink. These cost R30 a 450ml bottle
We had not booked for lunch as they were full, but chef Rickey Broekhoven wanted to cook something for us while we were there
and made these deep fried wings of yellowtail. These are the fins and the meat from just behind the gills which are usually cut off and put into stock or discarded. Rather like pig or beef cheeks, behind the fin is a lovely nugget of fish, soft and gelatinous and so good. He made an aioli dipping sauce to go with these. Wow
For our vegetarians, he made some cauliflower popcorn with a spicy coating
The trees in the valley are all bursting into leaf and blossom
A young yellow bishop weaver "in transitional plumage" according to an experienced birder friend of ours. He does look a bit fierce with that huge sharp beak!
Lavender time
In the trees next to the house are bird feeders so we see a lot of lovely birds. This Cape weaver had just been indulging
It is such a beautiful valley
And then the clouds came in
The daisies all closed up
The watsonias were looking beautiful
High in a yellow flowering tree
On a nature walk we found these perfect little flowers. Like faces with frilly hats. Only about 4mm across
And sterretjies just beginning to flower
Relaxing with the crossword on the stoep
Arum season too
And hundreds of waterblommetjies in the lakes
Looks so pretty here and would be good in a lamb potjie too
Everything is bursting into flower
Sunset over the sea at the end of the valley
Next morning Lynne spotted this spoonbill landing and sent John off with his camera
The Hadidas led it away
Sunday, despite the gloomy weather, we ventured out to Domaine de Dieux which has fantastic views. That is Ataraxia's Greek chapel styled tasting room on the hill on the right, with Creation below the dam
Domain de Dieux's little pavilion makes a perfect tasting room
We had a great tasting of all their wines, starting with the award winning MCC Bubbly. Megan Parnell sowed us the 2016 Chardonnay, made by Kevin Grant
and the delicious, Bandol-like Petit Rosé
 Sunday was National Braai Day, so we did mainly vegetarian things, with a little Boerewors on the side for us two. Stuffed mushrooms, grilled aubergines and courgettes, braai broodjies stuffed with two cheeses and spring onions, not forgetting the sweet corn. We drank rather a lot of wine. In fact we must confess that we drank nearly all the wine we took with us. But we weren’t going anywhere that day
Monday dawned brighter after all the rain overnight and off we went to Ataraxia which had been closed on Sunday. We drove through his immaculate vineyards
Geometric patterns in the trees and vines
Owner/winemaker Kevin Grant built this quirky tasting room to resemble a Greek church on a hill. The views are almost as spectacular as the wines. Ataraksi in Greek means "a state of serene calmness"
We tasted all his wines and bought some Serenity - our wine of the week this week. He has a just-released 2017 Sauvignon Blanc which is unwooded and has classic notes with good finesse; a 2016 Chardonnay, as Kevin says "unapologetically" wooded and full; and a classic, lightly wooded, elegant Pinot Noir. We suspect his wine at the Cape Winemakers Guild this weekend - Under the Gavel Chardonnay 2016 will do very well indeed and it deserves to. We tasted it in August and were very impressed. We will be there on Saturday
Another view of the glorious Hemel and Aarde valley in spring, this time looking from Ataraxia over Creation wine estate toward Caledon. It really is a beautiful place. We went to Creation next for a paired tasting with lunch. We will write about it in full next week
RETURN TO MENU
Posted by MENU at 11:23 pm 0 comments

MENU's Wine of the Week. Ataraxia Serenity 2015

Kevin Grant at Ataraxia makes this interesting red blend which he calls Serenity. We have been fans for many years and bought many bottles, some still in our cellar. But until now Kevin kept us all guessing as to what was in the blend

With this new release he has finally let us know that it is a blend of Pinot Noir, Cinsault (aka Hermitage) and Pinotage. We were at the tasting room on the holiday Monday, tasted it and, again, could not resist buying some. The concept of blending the two grapes that were crossed to make Pinotage and then including Pinotage in the final blend is amusing


The wine is full of berry fruit, lots of sophistication in the making; layered and complex, it gives a lot on the nose and the palate. Did we spot the Pinotage? No, because not many Pinotages are made in this excellent style - we wish there were more. Yes, drink it with good food, now, and yes, you can keep it for many years, as we have in our cellar. This year it is friendly too, with lighter tannins and wood
Posted by MENU at 9:06 pm 0 comments

The launch of Woolworths' Allan Mullins all-new Signature Series of cultivar wines at De Morgenzon

We have some good news. We were invited to join Allan Mullins, renowned Cape Wine Master and wine selector for Woolworths and the rest of the team at the launch of the six all new Signature wines - selected and blended by Allan in conjunction with six of our best wine makers/wine farms. The venue was the beautiful old Cape Dutch house which is used as De Morgenzon's tasting venue. They are all superb and will be available in Woolworths in mid October. The whites will sell for R129.99 and the reds R159.99. We were very impressed and will be in the long line on the day they are released
Allan enjoying the day
The launch was held at De Morgenzon in the tasting room which was beautifully decorated with orchids
With Allan is Rebecca Constable, Woolworths Wine product developer who talked us through the wines and their making
Danie and Peter de Wet of De Wetshof wines. They have produced a superb chardonnay with Allan. Peter, who is the wine maker, told us that they had taken samples of all their wines and blended them until they got to this blend. It is completely different from everything they currently make. It is lightly perfumed, rather Chanel like with vanilla wood and jasmine and ripe golden berries on the nose. Full and rounded on the palate with new apricots, white peaches and English gooseberries on the palate. Very satisfying and so good for quaffing and with food
The new labels bear both the winemakers and Allan’s signatures. These are the Chenin Blanc from Kleine Zalze signed by R.J. Botha and the Shiraz from De Morgenzon signed by Carl van der Merwe. The Kleine Zalze Chenin Blanc is tropical with golden fruit and vanilla wood, a wonderful mouthful of sweet berries with a nice kick of fruit acid as one expects from Chenin. So satisfying. Nice minerality too
The tasting in full swing
Frans Smit of Spier ducking the camera as Carl van der Merwe watches, amused
Frans Smit introducing his Spier wine, a Merlot from Darling grapes. St Émilion on the nose, so seductive. Incense wood, cherries and some almonds. On the palate a sappige wine with sour sweet mulberries and cherries, long flavours, with some nice grippy tannins and warm alcohol. Small production with a triage of berries
Duncan Savage of Duncan Savage Wines. Very exciting Sauvignon Blanc, in Duncan’s inimitable style, we loved it. In your face Elderflower and cats pee rendition on the nose, clean and crisp with long flavours of layered fruit, racy limes, a little salt and minerality. Good value too. You wont be able to keep this
Giles Webb of Thelema has produced a classic Cabernet Sauvignon. Good wood, herbs, cassis and vanilla; deeply perfumed on the nose. On the palate, Wow! juicy Cabernet with no faults and lots of structure, cherries cassis and mulberries. Drink now and in the future
Carl van der Merwe of De Morgenzon has produced a fine Syrah, with lots of Incense wood and spice on the complex nose. It is soft and silky with warm berry fruit, lots of spice on the palate too, with hints of black pepper and nice complex wood. Sappig, lovely with food
When the tasting was over, the Woolworths team produced these large platters of cheese, fruit and meats
On the wine counter was good bread, olives, pesto and salsa . One of our favourite tasting room managers, Richard de Almeida
We are trying to eat healthily and this selection was good. There were also large salads
Duncan and other winemakers had collected and produced this fun surfboard for Allan, who loves to surf. It is enormous, but can be blown up in an instant, so will be easy to transport to the Vintners Surf Classic, an annual surf contest held at Stilbaai or Jongensfontein each year. Allan was absolutely thrilled with it. Here comes summer
The winemakers with Allan. L to R: Danie de Wet of DeWetshof, RJ Botha and Alastair Rimmer of Kleine Zalze, Carl van der Merwe of De Morgenzon, Giles Webb of Thelema, Frans K Smit of Spier and Duncan Savage of Savage Wines
De Morgenzon's tasting room
Enjoying the afternoon with lunch and the new wines
The view over De Morgenzon's vineyards in the Stellenboschkloof toward the Helderberg
Posted by MENU at 4:48 pm 0 comments

The WineMag Tonnellerie Saint Martin #PinotNoirReport 2017

What does the future of Pinot Noir in South Africa look like? Very bright, given the results of this competition. This difficult grape to grow is the fragile diva of the wine world; she refuses to be tamed and keeps changing her clothes. If correctly handled she can be superb. The judges in this competition termed it "The most romantic grape". We do have to take into account that Pinot generally needs a cooler climate, she is thirsty and we have a drought. But we were so impressed when we tasted the top wines in this competition this week
This Noble grape has reached such heights in Burgundy that Pinot Noir is aspirational in many other wine areas of the world and some do indeed produce rather excellent examples. South African Pinot was first grown on Muratie in Stellenbosch by George Paul Canitz in 1927 and they are still making it. Canitz worked closely with Professor Perold on the Pinot Noir and we all know where that ended up when Perold crossed Pinot with Cinsaut, which resulted in Pinotage. And some old Pinotages do show Pinot Noir characteristics. Now that we have the correct clones, the popularity of this wine has grown
There are two distinct styles of Pinot Noir in South Africa. Dark and extracted, lots of wood, minerality, heavy tannins, dark berry fruit; these are built to be long term wines for putting down. The style we prefer is the elegant style that is supple and textured; with perfume and pure red berry fruit, good minerality and the wood supporting but not overwhelming
The Awards were held nearer to some of the producers this time, in Somerset West at the Proof Wine Bar in Drama Street
What? You again? Christian Eedes Editor or Winemag.co.za and Derek Prout-Jones; a former Rand Merchant Bank executive, he is a minority shareholder
A happy crowd, mostly Pinot Noir wine makers
Jacqueline Lahoud, WineMag’s Business Manager, begins proceedings
Next to Christian Eedes is Garry King of Tonnellerie Saint Martin, the sponsor of these awards. The top scoring wine wins one of their 228 litre barrels
Phones and cameras at the ready
Garry King of Tonnellerie Saint Martin from Lot-et-Garron in France
Christian Eedes told us that there were 52 entries from 33 producers the largest line-up in recent time, (Growing and making Pinot is becoming popular). They use the 100 point system of voting and 14 Pinots scored 100 points or more; the average score was 88.1. They included two Burgundy ringers in the group to keep the team on their toes. The spread of growing areas is intriguing: four from Elgin, two each from Hemel-en-Aarde Ridge, Napier and Upper Hemel-en-Aarde Valley and once each from the Ceres Plateau, Hemel-en-Aarde Valley and Stellenbosch as well as a multi-regional blend, The Fledge & Co. Katvis 2016, made from a combination of Langeberg and Klein Karoo fruit. There are no prizes, only certificates and kudos, unless you get the top wine; then you win the French oak barrel
The top wines were as follows:
93
Creation Reserve 2015
92
Dabar 2014
Dabar 2015
Newton Johnson Family Vineyards 2016
Paul Cluver Seven Flags 2015
91
De Grendel Op die Berg 2014
Shannon Rockview Ridge 2015
90
B Vintners Reservoir Road 2016
Creation Reserve 2016
Hamilton Russell Vineyards 2016
Newton Johnson Walker Bay 2016
Oak Valley Sounds of Silence 2015
The Fledge & Co. Katvis 2016
Vrede en Lust 2016

90 B Vintners Reservoir Road 2016 has a typical Pinot nose, sweet soft fruit, chalky tannins, good fruit acid and light toast
90 Creation Reserve 2016
With violets and incense wood on the nose, wild berry fruit, silky, long flavours and only whiffs of oak wood at the end, with soft chalky tannins
 90 Hamilton Russell Vineyards 2016
A very French Burgundian nose, sophisticated. Very wooded, with licorice and chocolate predominating at the moment, a hint of salt, with shy fruit. Needs lots of time
90 Newton Johnson Walker Bay 2016
Raspberries and strawberry fruit on the nose and palate, with a hint of salt, nice soft supple tannins, a juicy food wine with great balance
90 Oak Valley Sounds of Silence 2015
Their entry level Pinot. Smoky wood, nice sweet and sour fruit
90 The Fledge & Co. Katvis 2016
Shy raspberry fruit, salty drop liquorice and good minerality
90 Vrede en Lust 2016
Pale in colour, mulberry cranberry lots of fruit and vanilla oak on the nose. Some lactic flavours, deep red and black berries, warm and long
91 De Grendel Op die Berg 2014
Dusty at first then pretty fruit and some strawberry ice cream on the nose. Silky soft on the palate with lots of sharp berry fruit, with dark toast on the end
91 Shannon Rockview Ridge 2015
Classy, quite French on the nose. Sweet berry fruit with some crispness and good tannins. Built to last and improve. Wood supports
92 Dabar 2014 grapes from Napier. Made by Rianie Strydom. Stewed plums on the nose, intense fruit and wood in concert with a dark ending
92 Dabar 2015 Wood and shy berries on the nose. Chalky tannins, crispness, dark cherries and plums, ends dry. Needs time.
92 Newton Johnson Family Vineyards 2016
Perfumed fruit, cherries, raspberries and soft smoky wood. Light fruit, long flavours, chalky tannins with a bit of grip of the end. Complete
92 Paul Cluver Seven Flags 2015 The big boy of the bunch. Complete nose with all the right components. Elegant. Perfume, berries and cherries and incense wood all beautifully integrated. Soft tannins; a food wine
93 Creation Reserve 2015 Herbal fynbos incense wood on the nose, with cherry fruit. On the palate silky soft, warmth from the 14% alcohol, huge fruit, nice soft chalky tannins, some grip and oak wood on the end
Jean-Claude Martin of Creation with his two certificates. His wine was the top scorer in this competition for which he received the 228 litre Tonnellerie Saint Martin barrel
Dabar was new to us, this is their back label
Generous platters of food were brought round after the presentation
Posted by MENU at 4:22 pm 0 comments

On the MENU this week. Asparagus Soup

Winter seems to be lingering this year, so soup is not off our menu yet. When we have fresh asparagus, Lynne snaps off the harder stalks and saves them in a box in our freezer. When we have enough, she makes this soup. It is easy and quick and delicious. If you want to make this much richer, cook it in milk rather than stock and add a stock cube
1 large onion, finely chopped - 1 stick of celery, finely chopped - 1 T butter - 1 T olive oil - 1 T flour or corn flour - 1.5 to 2 cups asparagus stalks, defrosted - 1 litre of vegetable or chicken stock - salt and freshly ground pepper - a dash or two of cream - Flat parsley or chervil to decorate
Fry the onion and celery in the butter and oil till soft and transparent, do not brown. Add the garlic for the last minute. Add the flour and stir well to incorporate it. Then slowly add the stock and stir well. Then finally, add the asparagus stalks. Simmer for 10 minutes covered. Allow to cool slightly then liquidise or blend with a stick blender till smooth and creamy. Taste and adjust the seasoning (If your stalks were a bit woody, you may need to put the soup through a sieve). Serve hot with a swirl of cream in each bowl and top with a sprig of flat parsley or chervil. Lovely with a good chilled Sauvignon Blanc

Posted by MENU at 3:24 pm 0 comments
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