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Wednesday, June 20, 2018

Morvino trade tasting at Villa 47

This small and rather classy Pop Up tasting of the products of some of Morvino's smaller clients was "to take away the noise" of the big farms and let the trade see how good these smaller brands are. It certainly worked for us. We were very impressed with some of these brands

The wines that Ginny Povall of Botanica produces just become more impressive with each vintage. She is now getting overseas attention and awards. Lynne loved her Cabernet Franc Bubble, it so reminded her of good Beaujolais Nouveau with lively, fresh berry fruit; a good food wine too. Her Chenin is intense with great fruit and future. It has 5 stars in Platter and a score of 96 from Tim Atkin. This also will be good with food. Her classic Semillon has lots of oak but that will soften with time

Beautiful new labels, these paintings are by Mary Delany, a botanical artist who painted these in the late 1700's. We particularly liked her Merlot, which has a lovely nose and is soft, fruity, complex and layered. The 2016 Pinot Noir from Hemel and Aarde grapes is floral, rich and sumptuous on the nose, silky and lush with red berry fruit on the palate. The Cabernet has classic cassis and is perfumed, rich with dark berries on the nose, more rich cassis berries and leaves on the palate. Dry chalky tannins, and dark toasted oak suggest a long life. The Cabernet Franc is spicy, herbaceous and meaty; smooth, silky, rich and full of fruit. A knockout wine, our favourite of the evening

A happy winemaker

The Cab Franc has yet to be labelled

The tasting was in the 'garden' area of Villa 47 in Bree Street and they supplied good platters of meats and cheeses, huge green olives and some pickles

Those giant green olives had lots of 'meat' on them

Rianie Strydom was showing her own Strydom wines. Her Rex Cabernet Sauvignon has great potential; an intense nose with expensive oak, white pepper and cassis, on the palate soft berry fruit, spice & balsam. We will be interested to see how this matures. Her Retro blend of Merlot, Cabernet and Shiraz was impressive; perfume of violets and herbs, lovely soft and savoury on the palate. An exciting food wine. Her Rock Star Shiraz is spicy, meaty with dark fruit on the nose; hot and spicy on the palate with a long, tarry licorice end

Her Daniele 2017 Chenin is dusty on the nose, hot, spicy and full on the palate with wood on the end

Callan Williams with her Garajeest wines, which we tasted last week

Clark Truter of Morvino with some trade customers

Christelle Grobler with Eikendal winemaker Nico Grobler's own The Valley and La Brune Pinots Noir - which we tasted at Wine Concepts' event at the Vineyard last week

Made from Elgin fruit, The Valley is light and easy drinking with lovely fresh fruit. La Brune is more serious, a classic Pinot made to mature, although it is drinking well now

And then two interesting Gins. Called A Mari (of the sea) they are named for the two oceans that reach the Cape, the Indian and the Atlantic. Only Lynne drinks gin in our house, so she tasted them and was very impressed. They are made with sea water and there is a definite note of the sea from both of them. The Indian Ocean is warm and spicy & fragrant, with spice and cardamom and long flavours with salt and minerality on the end. Herbs appeared with the addition of ice. The Atlantic is more herbal with cardamom and cumin spice and citrus peel. Gentle as a kelp sea breeze at the end of the day, it has a lovely full mouthfeel, slightly sweet with herbs appearing on the end. The one to buy for her birthday, hint to John

Jess Henrich and Niel du Toit of A Mari

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Friday, June 15, 2018

This Week’s MENU. Siris Vintners Trade tasting; Latest wine releases by David & Nadia; Wine Concepts Chardonnay & Pinot Noir Celebration; MENU's Iberian Exploits. Jerez de la Frontera, Córdoba; Broccoli and Blue Cheese Soup; Backsberg Family Reserve White 2017

A courtyard in the Sandeman winery, Jerez de la Frontera

We apologise to those of you who are not wine fanatics. We’ve had a week of wine tastings and we’ve even held two over until next week. But we do have two more Spanish stories for you, Jerez and Córdoba, two lovely places in the Spanish south which started to ease the tensions which developed in Portugal with visa issues, misguided Satnav and, of course, stolen equipment. On a lighter note, we are having some beautiful rain; still not enough to take away the pressure, but the dams are starting to fill and, if we have a wet July (a lot of our problem is because we had a dry one last year), we might see the drought broken

Siris Vintners Trade tasting at the Mount Nelson

Once a year, Siris Vintners holds a trade tasting for their commercial customers. This year, it was held in the Ballroom at the Mount Nelson so there was plenty of space for the many brands they represent

Latest wine releases by David & Nadia

A trip to the Swartland this week to taste the wines of David and Nadia Sadie at their (soon to be opened) new venue in Malmesbury called Bill and Co. which will become a market when the building works are finished

Wine Concepts 8th Chardonnay & Pinot Noir Celebration

Last Friday evening saw us at Wine Concepts' annual celebration of Chardonnay and Pinot Noir, held at the Vineyard Hotel. We decided that it was time to emulate the Burgundians and begin with Pinots Noir and then go on to taste the Chardonnays. They say Chardonnay muddies ones palate for Pinots. It was a good exercise for us, as we normally don't have time to taste many Pinots after so many Chardonnays. And there were a lot of wines to taste in the three hours we were there; we could only do a selection

MENU's Iberian Exploit 9. Jerez de la Frontera

If you are planning to travel in this area you need to know that from Seville to Cadiz, our next stop, it only took one and half hours driving. We wanted to see this famous port on the coast, but our experience can be summed up in just a few words from Lynne's notes: motorway tolls, SatNav doesn’t work, reverse, reverse, reverse, green roads, too many roundabouts, council estates, no access, dizzy, stress. They do have a seafront like Sea Point, but not a single café or place to have lunch. We left and headed straight for Jerez, where we had booked an AirBnB for a night - 3/4 of an hour away. We eventually found these 2 competing cafés, five minutes’ walk away, to have some sherry and some supper! One had food, the other football, it was Liverpool 2, Roma 0

MENU's Iberian Exploit 10. Córdoba

The next city on this adventure was Cordoba and our apartment was unusual but lovely. The streets in this old area of Cordoba are narrow, cobbled and ancient. They have very confusing one way systems which are almost impenetrable to those who are not familiar with the area but using our phone we managed to find the place, guided by the voice of our landlady, Arantxa

On the MENU this week Broccoli and Blue Cheese Soup

Quite an easy soup to make and great for dinner parties. One thing that is different about this is that it doesn’t contain any milk or cream. You can add some at the table if you wish.

1 tbsp canola oil - 1 medium onion , finely chopped - 1 stick celery, finely chopped - 1 leek, sliced - 1 medium potato, diced - 1 knob butter – 1 litre chicken or vegetable stock - 1 large head broccoli , roughly chopped, core and stalk removed, chopped and put aside - 140g of good blue cheese, crumbled

Heat the oil in a large saucepan and then add the onion, and fry gently on a medium heat until golden. Add the celery, leek, potato and a knob of butter. Stir and allow to sweat, covered with a lid, for 5 minutes. This really improves the flavours. Remove the lid.

Pour in the stock and add any chunky bits of broccoli stalk. Simmer for 10 – 15 minutes until all the vegetables are soft.

Add the rest of the broccoli and cook for a further 5 minutes. Don’t cook for too long or you will loose the lovely green colour. Carefully transfer to a blender and blitz in batches, until very smooth. Be careful, hot soup can be dangerous in a blender, don’t overfill. Stir in 100g of the blue cheese and liquidize till smooth. Season with black pepper and serve. Taste and adjust seasoning if necessary.

We accompanied our soup with three things, bagel croutons, the other 40 g of blue cheese to sprinkle and crisp dried onions. We served a Sauvignon Blanc Semillon 2009 from KWV’s The Mentors range. The Strandveld Sauvignon Blanc would also be a perfect match

Menu’s Wine of the Week. Backsberg Family Reserve White 2017

This wine won the Grand Roche Old Mutual Trophy for the best white blend. It is an intriguing blend of three grapes, two very well-known: a Chardonnay and a Sauvignon Blanc, more often found as single varietals, and nestled in the middle of those two is a Roussane, a grape probably unfamiliar to many, found in the Rhône valley in France, often dry land and very rarely used alone, as it is a very good blending wine. They use it in Crozes Hermitage and in the red Chateauneuf du Pape.

Roussane pulls the other two together and adds something very special. Fresh fruity, layered and with a summery attitude, do try it with food or just on its own. An excellent companion to duck or other poultry, rich creamy sauces or with soft, complex cheeses. We hope it will delight and charm you as much as it did us. With aromas and flavours of rich ripe peaches and apricots, vanilla oak and some spice, it is a wine that just keeps on giving, and will do so for a long while

15th June 2018

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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

Thursday, June 14, 2018

MENU’s Wine of the Week. Backsberg Family Reserve White 2017

This wine won the Grand Roche Old Mutual Trophy for the best white blend. It is an intriguing blend of three grapes, two expected: a Chardonnay and a Sauvignon Blanc, more often found as single varietals, and nestled in the middle of those two is a Roussane, a grape probably unfamiliar to many, found in the Rhône valley in France, often dry land and very rarely used alone, as it is a very good blending wine. They use it in Crozes Hermitage and in the red Chateauneuf du Pape

Photograph courtesy of Backsberg

It pulls the other two together and adds something very special. Fresh fruity, layered and with a summery attitude, do try it with food or just on its own. An excellent companion to duck or other poultry, rich creamy sauces or with soft, complex cheeses. We hope it will delight and charm you as much as it did us. With aromas and flavours of rich ripe peaches and apricots, vanilla oak and some spice, it is a wine that just keeps on giving, and will do so for a long while

Postscript from John:
I thought we had the Wine of the Week in our cellar. This is the 2015 Backsberg Centenary Cape White Blend. Our WotW is the 2017 Backsberg Family Reserve white blend. But we had its 2015 predecessor. Also brilliant. The 2017 was tasted at the Old Mutual Trophy tasting at the CTICC

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MENU's Iberian Exploit 9. Jerez de la Frontera

Before ordering supper, we ordered a Palo Cortado sherry as an aperitif - what else would one choose in the home of sherry? Palo Cortado is a rare variety of sherry that is initially aged under flor to become a fino or amontillado, but inexplicably loses its veil of flor and begins aging oxidatively as an oloroso. The result is a wine with some of the richness of oloroso and some of the crispness of amontillado. Only about 1–2% of the grapes pressed for sherry naturally develop into palo cortado. Interesting! Dark amber, we concluded that, had this been from a better house, the quality might be better. €2.50 a glass

When in Jerez.... After the Palo Cortado apéritif, what else to accompany your Salmorejo but a glass of Fino with a lovely nose, nutty and dry, lean, very typical of the style, and hot with alcohol. €1.40 a glass. Sherry should not be something your Granny keeps on the sideboard for when you visit

Our choices for supper

Bad choice: We ordered Chicharrones de Atun Rojo (pink tuna). It was not tuna, but very overcooked pieces of dry pork belly, also Chicharrones but not what we ordered. (Pity, the tuna may have come fresh from Cadiz). The pork was fatty and full of skin and John does not do those

Just billed as Tapas: Salmorejo is a version of Gazpacho found in every restaurant or bar we saw in Andalusia. Lynne makes it often in Summer, as we love it. Base ingredients are tomato, garlic, sherry vinegar, white bread and olive oil (see our recipe at https://adamastorbacchus.blogspot.com.es/2018/01/this-weeks-menu-recipe-is-cold-soup.html). It is delicious and very refreshing, especially in summer

A dish of potato salad, which was another tapa, rather good

Tempura boccarones (flattened anchovies). This suited John down to the ground, but not Lynne, who hates fish bones and small fishy fish

The bill. Lynne had a tonic water

Up bright and early next morning to visit Sandeman Sherry. We wanted to visit Gonzalez Byass (Tio Pepe) but they don't open till noon. Fortunately, Sandeman opens at 10, so we had a very good cellar tour and sherry tasting there. It is time for Sherry to become fashionable again. It is a wonderful apéritif and a good accompaniment to food. South Africa used to produce some really good examples, but the few that remain cannot compete with the Spanish, sadly

First a tour of the cellars; rows of 600 litre American oak barrels of sherry

The shop

Atmosphere

And Lisa, a guide who spoke excellent English and was very informative, wearing the traditional Sandeman cloak and hat outfit. She knew we were informed, so she added to our knowledge

A Sandeman winemaker drawing sherry from barrels for the inspector, using his "wine thief" to pour with incredible skill to give the wine a bit of air as he pours - sorry it's unsharp, but we came round the corner in the dark cellar and John just pointed and shot! Yes, they do this so expertly, no drips

George Sandeman set up his Port and Sherry business in 1790. These, we were told, are his original tools. Not for torture, for marking the barrels

Some more sherry winemaking tools

A lovely courtyard

Lined with flower pots

The vine pergola in spring, just breaking into bud

Murals with the story of sherry

An illuminated glass fronted barrel where you can see the flor yeast floating on top of the sherry. It is this yeast which gives sherry its special character

A Criadera or Solera system of sherry. The top barrels are the youngest wines; a portion of wine is drawn from the oldest barrel at the bottom, replaced from the younger barrel above and that replaced from the younger barrel above that. So there will never be a vintage sherry; they are all made from a combination of vintages. There can be many layers of barrels

We had a tasting, of course. It costs €15. First a three year Fino, grapey, nutty, dry, soft and crisp. Then a 5 year dry Fino which had more maturity and was warmer and nutty. Then a medium dry, complex Amontillado, shy with nuts and spice on the nose, richness and layers of warm flavour. A 3 year old Oloroso sherry followed with a sweet nose with notes of wood and nice warmth on the palate with nut and apricot flavours; full on the palate, more nuts and Christmas mince pies. Next, a 5 year old Oloroso, raisins, dried fruit, & nuts. Sticky and thick on palate, a dessert wine, with an amaretto biscuit character, to pair with blue cheese, cheese cake and Christmas pudding. And, finally, Pedro Ximenez with raisins, brandy plums, nuts, sweet, velvety rich, perfect for desserts or to add and marinate strawberries or whip into cream (rather like an aged red Muscadel). We bought a bottle of the young Fino because we love it and it is very difficult to find in Cape Town. Sherry has been rather in the shadows and out of fashion in SA. Perhaps we should take another look at it - and do try the real thing

Our companion tasters, Janet and John, were British. They added tapas for another €8 each

The two younger sherries

We were hungry and needed a good lunch rather than Tapas so we stopped for lunch at a bar across the street from Sandeman

Beer is always a good refreshment after sherry, or any other wine tasting

Simple menus like this can deter one as you don't know what the quality will be like

Really good olives and bread came first

Volaores Rellenos - It doesn't look too appetising, but the flavours are great. Squid stuffed with more squid, onions, herbs lemon was quite sour and came with chips

And the herbs were a little bitter

Somehow, Gambas al Aillo sounds more exotic and romantic than Shrimp scampi. Becoming a favourite, shrimps rather than prawns in olive oil and lots of garlic. So good to use the bread to soak up the juices. Lunch with a beer and a tonic cost about €14

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About us

MENU, our weekly email newsletter, started as an advertising medium for Main Ingredient, our specialist retail grocery business. We opened our Sea Point shop in December 2002 because realised that there was a place in South Africa for a grocer catering to people with sophisticated tastes and needs. We moved the shop on line in 2010, but discontinued it in 2015, having decided that it is time to “retire” and concentrate on our writing, photography and tour guiding. MENU has a wide circulation and is read nationally and internationally.

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