We are celebrating some lovely rainy weather, which was put
into context by an image on Instagram showing the week’s forecast in the south
of England with not a cloud in sight. We are not swimming yet, but the Western
Cape dam levels are now at an average level of just over 40%, with
Theewaterskloof, our most important reservoir, having reached 29% from being
almost empty in early April. From water to wine, the wine tasting season
continues. There have been some lovely highlights, both at the small Morvino
trade tasting and at the Public Tasting of the Old Mutual Trophy winners at the
CTICC. We continue our Spanish narrative, this week telling you about our time
in Granada and Valdepeñas. So click on the links below and read the stories
There
were all the Trophy wines to taste, then the Gold Medals, and the Silvers. But
there is never enough time to taste that many wines. Where do you start? Well, after lots of
hellos and hugs and congratulations, with the Trophy wines of course. The wines
are laid out alphabetically around the room, so this entails a lot of dotting
about. And we started with the 2011 Laborie Blanc de Blanc which won the Trophy
for the best Méthode Cap Classique and has always been right at the top of our
list of favourite Blancs de Blanc
This small and rather classy Pop Up tasting of the products of some of 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
It’s Waterblom season at the moment with the dams filling
up. We bought a pack of nice plump waterblomme this weekend and Lynne made this
easy Bredie. It’s spicy, but not too hot. Don’t cook all of them at once, you
want different textures.
2 carrots - 1 t corn
flour - 500 g waterblommetjie - salt & pepper
Remove all the fat and skin from the chicken thighs, Fry the
onion and the leek in the oil till soft and transparent then add the chicken to
the pan and brown slightly. Remove the chicken and set aside. Add the spices
and chillies and fry for a minute, then add the verjuice, the stock and the
carrot to the pot and cover with a lid. Simmer for half an hour then add the
chicken, pushing the thighs down into the stock, and half the waterblomme. Cook
for 15 minutes, then add the rest of the waterblomme. Taste and adjust the
seasoning, add the corn flour and cover and simmer for another 15 minutes.
Serve with flavoured rice and a good Chenin Blanc
Menu’s Wine of the Week is from Bellingham. The Bernard
Series 2017 Whole Bunch Roussanne. Made by Niel Groenewald
before he left to become the Head Winemaker at Distell.
Roussanne is certainly capturing our attention at the
moment. This white wine was much discussed and enjoyed at the Old Mutual Trophy
wine tasting last week by other wine makers and trade. Suddenly the SA plantings are becoming
noticed. It certainly captivated Lynne
with its floral notes and hints of herbs and tea. Its depth and length with
hints of tropical fruit, peach and a little honey on this dry wine made it
something to explore and enjoy now, as it has the freshness of youth. It has
the legs to indicate that it will reward being kept for a few years. A white
wine that should be on restaurant menus as it is very versatile.
21st June 2018
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© John & Lynne Ford, Adamastor & Bacchus 2017
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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
