.

Monday, June 04, 2018

Shiraz SA 2018 Awards tasting and lunch at Rhebokskloof, Paarl

We are great fans of good South African Shiraz; we believe that this cultivar is well suited to our climate and terroir. This year's Awards ceremony was held over lunch at Rhebokskloof wine estate in Paarl and we were able to taste the top 25 and ten blends before the awards. A total of 192 wines (36 blends and 156 single varietal wines) from every wine making region was submitted this year.

Shiraz, or Syrah to give it its other name (there is no difference in the wine, just a nod to whether it is in a certain Northern or a Southern Rhône style), can be made in many different styles. Do we make Syrah? Some think we are just being pretentious. Can you charge more if it’s called by a French name? We should make Shiraz in the many South African styles, and how closely those can and should resemble styles from France, Australia, California, South America, Italy, sunny Spain or even chilly New Zealand – or any other areas that grow this grape - is up for a long debate.

This year, we found that the panel awarded wines that were quite linear and elegant, yes, but tight and lean. Many did not show the terroir they came from, but were indeed mirrors of French northern style wines. Were there enough of the more complex, layered and rounded Shirazes that are full and have spice and pepper? And the other heavier or lighter styles that this versatile grape makes possible. Those that come from warmer climates and revel in it rather than trying to be something that, perhaps, they are not? There were a few - one was our wine of the week last week immediately after the competition - but not many of these won awards. Why do we not recognise that, like Chenin blanc, Shiraz has several different good styles, all laudable?

The top wines were offered at tasting tables in this room. 25 Single varietals and 10 blends were finalists. You had to be quick, as people were going back and re-tasting their favourites which, sadly, ran out before some of us could get to them.

The panel Chairman of Judges this year was Dr Andy Roediger (Cape Wine Master). Other members of the panel were Edmund Terblanche (SA Shiraz chairperson & Cellar Master at La Motte), Charles Hopkins (Cellar Master at De Grendel), Samarie Smith (Brand manager, Benguela Cove), Jeanne-Mari de Villiers (Odd Bins Checkers), Jac Borman (Cellarmaster and owner of Boschkloof), Klaus Fischer from Germany (Vinventions) and this year's Cape Winemakers Guild intern Gynor Fredericks

Standing outside was a pleasure as the day was sunny, if not very warm

Nick and Mariette van Huyssteen of Saronsberg. The Full Circle Blend and the Provenance Shiraz both took awards

Fairview Winemaker Stephanie Wiid made a cracker of a wine

The Lomond Conebush was complex and layered with soft fruit, spice, licorice and chocolate with a long finish

Boela Gerber and Anthony de Jager. Boela's Groot Constantia, a cool climate shiraz, was fruity and floral with a lovely nose. And the Eenzamheid from Anthony's team at Fairview really impressed, spicy on nose and palate, full of fruit and delight

The De Grendel Elim 2016 Shiraz deservedly made the top 12 and was our wine of the week last week

Pieter Badenhorst, who made the Lomond wine, sampling the De Grendel

Anel Grobler with JD Pretorius of Steenberg

The Ernie Els was lean on the nose with incense wood and spice and elegant and lean on the palate with mouth puckering tannins, so it needs a long rest in your cellar

Shiraz SA Chair Edmund Terblanche and Pinotage King Beyers Truter of Beyerskloof

The Roodeberg Dr Charles Niehaus is a big wine with good fruit but needs years. The KWV Cathedral Cellars was aromatic and woody, fruity, dark and lean on the end.

Sandra Lotz, who so ably organises the event

The three Saronsberg entries

Waiting in the garden for the dinner gong to go

The Spier Creative Block was one of the three champions in the blend category. Spicy, full of fruit this is, as always, very quaffable

Canapés were served before lunch. We were both still tasting wine, so didn't manage to taste many

Amanda Harlow and Braam Gericke of Wildekrans

Michael Bampfield-Duggan and LRJ enjoying a refreshing bubble after the reds

Time to take our seats in the marquee

Some of the competition entries

Maryna Calow of WOSA and Charles Hopkins of De Grendal

Entertainer Pietman Geldenhuys had us amused. For a good Afrikaans boy he does a good Scottish accent

The First Sighting Sauvignon Blanc 2017 was served at our table and is Menu's Wine of the Week this week. It went so well with the soup of the day and cut through the creamy cheesy flavours very well

The order of ceremony

Broccoli and Blue Cheese soup starter

Edmund Terblanche, SA Shiraz chairperson, said that quality always shines through. “It is easy enough to identify the top 20% and then, with a fresh palate, to choose the absolute leaders. Having twelve winning slots to fill enables us to acknowledge champs in the different styles”

This year, they implemented a new tasting format (developed in conjunction with the University of Stellenbosch) with good results. Previously, the panel tasted a few wines and discussed them. This year there was no discussion in between judging sets and every judge had a unique order of wines to be tasted, resulting in a more objective outcome

Jac Borman of Boschkloof

Nick van Huyssteen

Pieter Badenhorst

JD Pretorius

Beyers Truter

Stephanus Eksteen of Checkers, who told us of his imminent retirement. He has been one of the best corporate wine selectors and we wish him a very happy retirement

Stephan van Rooyen of sponsor Exceed Group

Johan Conradie of sponsor Vinvention/Berthomieu

The main course of Springbok shank served with mieliepap (local white maize meal)and a good red wine jus - Shiraz, we hope

The top 3 awards for Blends received engraved hand-blown decanters from Riedel; an interesting shape with an incorporated glass straw - or breathing tube

For those of us with Scottish antecedents, the rendition of Flowers of the Forest, the unofficial Scottish National Anthem sung by Pietman Geldenhuys was rather emotional. He did sing it very beautifully. One was almost transported to Murrayfield

Dessert was a chocolate pudding tart

All the winners with their awards. A dozen exceptional Shiraz wines are worthy of the 2018 Top Shiraz title: Alvi’s Drift Signature Shiraz 2016, Babylonstoren Shiraz 2016, Bloemendal Syrah 2013, Boschkloof Louis 57 Shiraz 2016, D’Aria The Soprano Shiraz 2016, De Grendel Elim Shiraz 2016 (the only 1,5ℓ magnum entered), Diemersfontein Shiraz 2017, Eagles’ Nest Shiraz 2015, KWV Cathedral Cellar Shiraz 2015, Oldenburg Vineyards Syrah 2014, Saronsberg Provenance Shiraz 2016, Wellington La Cave Shiraz 2016

The champions in the category for Shiraz blends are:
Babylonstoren Babel 2016, Saronsberg Full Circle 2016, Spier Creative Block 3 2015

RETURN TO MENU

Subscribe to MENU

Friday, June 01, 2018

This Week’s MENU. Lunch at Broadway; Sommeliers Awards; MENU's Iberian Exploits – Amorim Cork, Lisbon; Chicken & almond soup; De Grendel Elim Shiraz

Lion's Head sunset glow

Blessed rain! The Cape has been drenched in the past few days; we had 40mm last night. The drought is far from over but we delight in the sound of heavy rain on the roof. The Douro Valley in Portugal, which we visited in April, has just had a terrific storm. 80mm in an hour, and the main street in Pinhao was under water. Too much of a good thing and some Port vineyards have lost 80% of their crop. A tragedy. While we haven't had such extreme weather, there are several reports of flooding in Cape Town and we have much sympathy for the people who have been affected by it

A big “thank you” to all of you who responded to our request to affirm your subscription and allow us to conform to the new EU rules. It seems that the link on our website didn’t work for phones and Macs. We must try to fix that, but many of you sent us individual emails which we really appreciate. Your taking the trouble to do that also made us feel really special. Our email is only sent to people who have subscribed personally, so the request was a bit of a formality, but we are happy to have complied with the ruling and even happier with the response.

We enjoy sharing our experiences with you and are so pleased when you tell us that we’ve given you some pleasure

Lunch at Broadway Confectionery and Deli

Recently, at an industry-related party, we met a chef whom we have known for a long time: Wynand du Plessis, who runs a catering company called Extreem Kwizeen. He had been following our Portuguese travels on line. He asked us if we knew of the Broadway Café in Maitland, which is a Portuguese bakery and café. He told us that one can have very good Pasteis de Nata and authentic Portuguese food there and invited us to join him for a quick lunch there with him. How could we resist? We had not heard about this café and found the prospect very interesting. It is in Voortrekker Road…

The Gaggenau Sommeliers Awards 2018

This competition and awards ceremony was held over two days last week. On the first day, the Sommeliers who were finalists had to do a service test and a food pairing at the Test Kitchen. The second part of the competition was at the amazing Gaggenau BSH Brand Experience Centre in New Church Street, which we were invited to attend. This is the first year that Gaggenau have sponsored this competition in South Africa.

MENU's Iberian Exploit 5. Visiting the business of Amorim Cork

We left Porto early in the morning and drove down to another of the Amorim factories. This time it was to see the whole process of producing corks from the raw product and so see their museum, their flooring section and the champagne cork area. The factory is very large….

MENU's Iberian Exploit 6. Off to Lisbon in a new chariot

Because of the burglary in Porto the hire car we had needed to be repaired, so we were given a new car by the hire company. While it was a bit smaller than we had wanted, this one had SatNav. It so improved our life and the trip…

On the MENU this week. Chicken and Almond Soup

It is that time of year: Soups and stews to keep us warm are what we all start to long for. This week it’s a fairly traditional recipe, known in many lands, a simple chicken soup. But with a twist and a touch of luxury, and some class.

Also known as Feather Fowlie in Scotland, it is said that Mary Queen of Scots insisted that it was given a French touch and she added the cream. Perfect if you are Banting too. (Well not counting the breadcrumbs and croutons).

1 onion - 3 carrots - 2 turnips – 3 sticks of celery – 1 boiling chicken, 2 to 2.5 kilos in weight - 10 black peppercorns – 3 allspice berries - a bouquet garni – ½ level teaspoon of sea salt - 50g ground almonds – 30g fresh white breadcrumbs – 150 ml double cream – salt and white pepper

Roughly chop the vegetables. Put the cleaned chicken into a large soup pan, with the vegetables, peppercorns, bouquet garni. Cover with cold water and bring to the boil over a high heat. Make sure you remove any scum from the surface, then lower the heat to a simmer, and cover with a lid. Continue cooking until the chicken is tender. Lift it carefully out of the stock and let it cool. Take off the skin and remove all the flesh off the carcass. Remove any peppercorns or allspice berries you see and the bouquet garni. Put the chicken meat into a liquidiser with the drained vegetables and purée till smooth.

Put the purée into a clean pan and add the almonds and the breadcrumbs. Carefully strain about 600 ml of the stock and stir it into the soup. Simmer over a low heat for about 30 minutes. Just before you serve the soup, remove a cup of it and blend it with the cream, then stir this back into the soup. Adjust the seasoning to your taste. Serve garnished with chopped parsley or chives and with crisp croutons. Serves 6. It might be nice to serve this with a small glass of malt whisky....

Bouquet Garni: A small bunch of sprigs of fresh herbs, wrapped in a 5 cm piece of celery and a bay leaf and tied up with a long bit of string, so that it’s easy to remove from your dish. You can use rosemary, thyme, parsley, marjoram. It adds lovely flavour to soups and stews

MENU’s Wine of the Week. De Grendel’s 2016 Elim Shiraz

This was one of the Top 12 wines in the Shiraz SA Challenge 2018 and was our own highest scoring wine in the tasting. It is full of warmth and spice on the nose, silky soft, spicy and peppery on the palate, a real gem with lots of red berry fruit with a long finish of pepper and liquorice and a whiff of smoke. Bottled in Magnums only, and available from the Durbanville farm at R650 a bottle; very special and rare as only 1410 bottles produced. You need to join their Loyalty Club to be able to purchase this, details here https://degrendel.co.za/pages/loyalty-club. They are offering 10% off your first order. Magnums are a great idea for large dinner parties or special occasions.

1st June 2018

Subscribe to MENU

PS If a word or name is in bold type and underlined, click on it for more information

Phones: +27 21 439 3169 / 083 229 1172 / 083 656 4169

Postal address: 60 Arthurs Rd, Sea Point 8005

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. This electronic journal has been sent to you because you have personally subscribed to it or because someone you know has asked us to send it to you or forwarded it to you themselves. Addresses given to us will not be divulged to any person or organisation. We collect them only for our own promotional purposes. If you wish to be added to our mailing list, please click here to send us a message and if you wish to be removed from our mailing list