Thursday, June 21, 2018

MENU's Iberian Exploit 12. Valdepeñas

John wanted us to stop in Valdepeñas in Spain to taste some of their wines, this being one of the largest wine growing areas in the country.  It was an adventure, but we were not successful in tasting any wine. They have not yet discovered wine tourism; you can buy wine at the wineries (well priced) but not taste any before you buy.  There was no AirBnB or Booking.com accommodation available for the night we needed, but Lynne did find a roadside motel in Santa Cruz de Modela on Hotels.com (we like them because you rack up a free night for every 10 bookings you make). We had stopped there for petrol and then discovered that it was where we would be spending the night.  However, this place did not initially look very salubrious. And it was right on the side of the busy motorway. You enter through the truckers' American style diner, as there is no m/hotel reception and you have to wait while the dismissive manageress serves the customers
Finally, one of the cooks took us to our room, which was fine. They are redeveloping the place and the clean and clinical rooms are well at the back with sound proofing, clean linen, and a bathroom 
Breakfast was included, so we had it in the dining room adjoining the Diner. Lynne got her Green tea. As they say in France, breakfast is Café Complète.  A small croissant, butter, jam and a beverage. John had an espresso. We think they could do better. But it was fine for just the one night
We set out to explore the area and find out what the wine was like. And had no success at all, despite driving many kilometers and stopping at two commercial wine plants
Lunch was necessary after that small breakfast, so we drove into Valdepeñas. It was raining and extremely cold; everything was closed for lunch
Pedestrian streets as we searched for a restaurant. We asked a local and were given directions to the central square - Plaza de España
with its huge church
And these historic buildings which house two separate (owned by the same people) restaurants. It was Monday and they were very busy, as most of the smaller places were closed
Bar Penalty was the one we saw first, we would probably have enjoyed the Enoteca more
Its a pub with food, and the owner has a passion for football, as does all of Spain and Portugal
Choices! in English and very reasonably priced
Our house white wine, which was a local 100% Verdejo from the Bodega Corcovo was assertive, grapey, perfumed and made from unnamed local grapes. It resembled Pinot gris, with a touch of muscat on the nose. Lively on the palate with fresh acidity, but just on the safe side. Vanilla on the nose so possibly American oak, but no wood ascertainable on the palate
Our starters of huge fat green beans with slivers of well flavoured ham - a bit overcooked but flavourful and Tiznao, a cold mix of tomatoes and fried onions, bacalao flakes (minute). Sweet peppers were supposed to be in this, as were pine nuts, but none were detected.  It was very fishy in the worst way possible. Not enjoyable. Fresh bread
A main course of Swordfish on the grill (Espada). Very fresh swordfish, well cooked and well seasoned, if a little thinly cut; impressive given the distance we were from the sea.  Served with a fresh salad and lemon
Oh, huge mistake. This is what they have done to Patatas Bravas. So shocking, so sad. Slap (under-cooked) chips, coated with a bottled sauce. It was like a hot, hot tomato ketchup with extra cayenne pepper. The two sausages were good but were they chorizo?!
The pudding that John rejected after one spoonful. He said it was like fermented yak milk (not that he has ever tasted yak milk!). Lynne tasted it and it was junket (boarding school horror!) made with tinned milk
Not at all sweet which is why they give you honey to pour on it. We left it.
Lynne had Pudding which is normally a flan with crème caramel sauce. This was topped with cream squirted from a can. Not too bad but with a very solid (bread?) base, perhaps there to support the custard and make it easier to cut into slices?
A good espresso
This memorial is in the Plaza
with an explanation - María Josefa Ruiz López (1960-2017) The first deputy mayor of Valdepeñas City Council and deputy for the province of Ciudad Real in the Cortes of Castilla-La Mancha from 2011 to 2014. She died of cancer at age 57. 
We resumed our drive through the ancient vineyards of Valdepeñas and took photos of these old bush vines. We've always thought of this type of viticulture as particularly South African, so this was an interesting find
So carefully planted in this stony clay soil, in precise rows
When we looked to the north, behind this olive grove, we saw this weather front heading towards us and we were going directly into it
It was the beginning of poppy season
The road before us

Lynne taking photos with her Kindle Fire
And then the storm hit us.  As we went through this small village it was snowing and had laid down a couple of inches of snow in a couple of minutes. On the exit to the town, there was no snow and the road was dry, so localised and so fierce were these storms.  We were off to Toledo
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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

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

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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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