Thursday, May 17, 2018

MENU's Iberian Exploit 2. The Upper Douro Valley; Vila Nova de Foz Coa and Quinta de Castelo Melhor

Day four in Portugal and time for our trip in the Douro region, where port (and other wine) is made. We had to book and pay for all our flights, transport, and accommodation before we could start the trip or the Portuguese would not give John his visa, VSF the visa agency told us, despite Lynne being an EU citizen. On the application form it says that family of EU citizens do not need all this. VFS said that this does not apply to Portugal. 
As we have detailed before, VFS told us right up to the time of our departure that John's passport was at the Portuguese Embassy in Johannesburg. Lynne found out that it was at the Consulate in Cape Town and we collected it there. VFS sent us a mail on the day we returned to say that the visa was ready for collection. It expired less than a week later. He was given a 34 day visa. The shortest ever before that was a year.
John had booked a Renault Megane with a large boot and, more importantly, with SatNav as standard equipment. This Opel Astra was the only car we were told we could have when we arrived at the  InterRent office near the airport in Porto. We rented an Opel Astra estate in Holland last year and it had SatNav fitted. No sign of the Renault we had booked and paid for. First they tried to palm us off with a car with no spare wheel, and given we were going to be doing a round trip through Portugal and Spain for nearly a month, we insisted on a car with a functioning spare. They also tried to charge us another 20 a day for a Garmin, even though we had paid for one. Lynne filmed the woman who was being so intractable and difficult and then suddenly someone else took over and this car was produced. It had a full-sized spare wheel, not a “Marie biscuit” emergency wheel. But no SatNav. We were going to have to rely on Google Maps on John’s phone. And thereby hangs a long and sad tale which nearly ruined our trip to the Douro. InterRent is owned by Europcar
We were close to the Porto IKEA, so we had lunch there first before we started the trip. Duck Rice, a Super Bock beer and we shared the divine Swedish chocolate layered dessert. This IKEA is located in a huge shopping centre and we needed to buy warmer clothes. Lynne flew around the shops and came back with four new sweaters, one for John, and a pair of leggings to wear under her thin trousers. Prices were very reasonable, as they had spring sales on to clear the winter clothing
Onward to the Douro to find its port and wine. The trip was quick and the A roads are very good, but they are tolled. We stopped along the way to see the roadside spring flowers and, unexpectedly, found several orchids. (Lynne is an amateur botanist)
Olive trees on spring grass
and lovely hill towns
One of the orchids growing alongside the road. We are sure a friend who knows these things will help identify it
A rare straight section of road. Roads in the Douro Valley are narrow and follow the topography, so they wind up and down
Rain and sunshine accompanied our journey
We went to the very far end of the Douro as, the following day, we had an appointment at Duorum wines in Castelo Melhor, which is near the Spanish border. Hotels and AirBnBs were very scarce in the area, so we stayed in a Hostel  in Vila Nova de Foz Coa for the night, to be near the Quinta
Raining and bitterly cold, but with lovely views across the valleys
Our room was warm and comfortable and very cheap. It was well away from the dormitories filled with a school soccer group. It had its own bathroom and included breakfast. Through Booking.com it cost R556 for the night. Not what we would normally stay in, but very adequate and fine in a pinch
We tried to find a restaurant for supper but this one, recommended to us, was closed …
… so we ended up in the Sunset Bar,
ate hamburgers and chips – the choice was this or pizza
and joined the locals watching another football match as we ate
Breakfast the next morning with that school group, quite well behaved
The queue for breakfast moved quickly. Breakfast was cereal, bread rolls, jam, butter, ham and cheese and a hot drink
We encounter the hairy hill roads of the Douro
Freezing fog
and, after a while and twice retracing our steps, we arrived at the Quinta de Castelo Melhor. We had met the one of the owners of Duorum wines, João Portugal Ramos with his wife and son at an excellent tasting of their wines at Muratie in Stellenbosch recently and he very kindly invited us to visit this part of their wine growing operation in Portugal
They are very high in this part of the Douro and have vineyards facing in different directions to get the best out of the terroir and the different grape varieties
This is the building in which we tasted the wines
Early Spring, and not yet much bud break
Muddy hoofprints - of goats or deer?
We hope this small snake was hibernating; it had obviously been attracted by the warmth of the light
A lovely view from the farm house, the Douro River is below. Far below
We were there to meet João Perry Vidal who is the Oenologist (winemaker and viticulturist) for this Duorum farm. He gave us a very good tour of the vineyards, a perspective on what it is like to make wine in such a difficult area and a wine tasting. And they do make very good wine here
Beautifully furnished with a small vinoteque in the breakfront bookcase
An illustrated map of the Douro River. Porto is on the left; Castelo Melhor is far to the right
Risking vertigo, the magnificent Douro River far below the vineyards
The effort, extreme engineering, skill and bravery needed to break the ground for these near vertical vineyards in these shale soils is amazing. This is the top of the hill, with the water reservoir. They pump the river water all the way up here and that also requires extreme engineering
Old sleepers from the now extinct railway line, made into a pathway
No mechanical picking on these slopes
and future slopes for vines
Bad weather coming in, it did bring snow to the high hills and mountains
The farm has biodiversity status
The start of bud break
on well-established vines
An old olive that was brought up here and transplanted. They are planting trees so that the vineyard workers will have shade in the hot harvest time
The bees were buzzing in the lavender …
and John’s camera was getting them in fine macro detail on the rosemary
We then climbed into João’s 4x4 bakkie and travelled down the road to the riverside
Amazing vineyards
João told us all about how the farm was found by José Soares Franco, then bought and developed by him and his partner Jose Portugal Ramos. They took a risk on land that was not under vine and it has certainly paid off
You can see a tributary joining the main river
A Griffon vulture searching for a meal (or is it a Lammergeyer?)
Magnificent dry stone walls, some are new but others are centuries old
The shale is quite friable on certain planes
Down we travelled to the old station house
A young fruit tree, probably from a fruit pip discarded by a grape picker, we were told
The railway line was taken away several years ago, the tunnels remain
Down on the riverside at last. It was quite a ride down!
Another orchid
Derelict, but soon to be renovated
White Iris
We found lots of wild asparagus growing here and picked some for supper
So peaceful
A natural rock wall made by uplift
Duorum Wines
Climbing back up the slope in the car. The camera does not do justice to the steepness of the slope
Back to the farm house
They make excellent olive oil and we tasted some on arrival
The 2017 Duorum Tons white blend which had just been released. Made from five different grapes: Rabigato · Viosinho · Verdelho · Arinto de Bucelas · Muscatel, some grown here and ‘across the road’. 300 000 bottles. It is aromatic and floral from the 10% muscat. Fresh, grapey with elderflower hints, it is a crisp refreshing food wine full of limes and lemons with some minerality and a little drying chalk. 4.
Then we tasted the Tons 2016 Red. It is full of fruit, mulberry, cherry, raspberry; young with fresh fruit on the palate, light with a little soft chalky tannin on the end. Good with red meat. Touriga Nacional, Touriga Franca, Tinta Roriz 7
The 2015 Duorum Colheita made from Touriga Nacional, Touriga Franca and Tinta Roriz. Partly wooded with no new oak, elegance with black plums and cherries, a beautiful nose, with incense wood, sharp crisp fruit on the palate, blackberries, mulberries, then some salty licorice; it finishes on plums, soft chalky tannins and minerality. A good year. 14/15
We really enjoyed our visit but then it was time to go and seek some lunch
Duorum co- owner José Soares Franco recommends his guests try the Foz Coa Museum restaurant and it turned out to be a very good recommendation. In a square concrete building, it has great glass windows with lovely views and an outside terrace for good weather, which we did not have. It was 2.30 pm but we were welcomed
Great views
The winding road we had to take to Pinhao after lunch, where we would be staying for the next two nights
We ordered the Prato del Dia and while we were waiting we were encouraged to try their excellent Chousas Nostras extra virgin olive oil. It was superb, fresh, green and young, served with green olives and good bread. You do need a small mortgage for a bottle
We ordered a bottle of the house wine, Douro D.G. Tinto 2015. Robust and fruity, it went well with the dish
Pork neck steak, topped with herbs and a garlic paste, almost a chimichurri; great flavour, tender meat if a little fatty. We excavated the nuggets of meat. Boiled potatoes which had been kept in a fridge, as they had that sweet flavour. There was lots of garlic on this plate, we love it. It came with a cooked cabbage and ham ‘salad’ and a sausage of note! Crisp on the outside and creamy in the centre. It’s called a Farinheira, (literal translation is a flour sausage). We were told its history goes back to the Romans who had to provide meat for the locals. They mixed flour and pork fat with herbs and spices to save meat and it satisfied them. Absolutely delicious. So much better for you than polony
They provided a complimentary dish of seared potatoes that were much better 
Dessert was an almond tile with an almond ice cream with the texture of a semi freddo and some chocolate sauce. With this they offered us a complimentary glass of their home made port. Spicy raisins, cinnamon and cloves - young. Hot, thick and very fruity, almost mince pies. Not a keeper but satisfying. We had a great waiter/sommelier by the name of Carlos Videda, who spoke good English and explained the food to us. The bill including wine (Portugal doesn't tip) was €27.50
The ruined hilltop castle of Castelo Melhor above the village which shares its name
The winding road
Orchards and farmland with snowy mountains in the distance
And a rainbow as the storm swept East
Another castle
More steep valleys and vineyards and early blossom
And after a disastrous session with Google Maps where we got totally lost for hours, we just could not find our AirBnB Quinta. Lynne got totally freaked by a near car accident, and the vertiginous narrow streets in the high hillside village and preferred to walk. We met the village inhabitants and half of them in procession led her down the hill to our Vila Branca (means White house) and the code worked on the door. Trade Descriptions Act applies to this small house, nothing in the description was true. Somehow these people have engineered this house to be the most photogenic house we have ever seen. Honestly, it looks nothing like this, it was furnished in the 1950’s by Granny, now deceased, and the relatives have just let it out as is, tatty furniture, plastic flowers and all.. This bed had nylon sheets on it, so we chose another with better linen, and furthest from the cellar opening. Each bed had four heavy blankets on it. We needed them all
In reality it was small and pokey, and freezing cold. The wine cellar with open concrete kuipe was in the basement, down those stairs on the left, no door, so open totally to the ground floor. We had a fire but could only find wet wingerdstokkies (vine branches) in the garden, which smoked and took ages to light. Then the fire gave all the heat to the heavens
It was the sensational views from the balcony that had made us book this house. But it was so cold and rainy we couldn’t open the shutters or go outside. Luckily we’d had a good lunch in Foz Coa and had brought some food with us for a light supper. In the kitchen NOTHING worked: kettle, microwave, stove, oven, two coffee machines, toaster, hot plate - all were broken. Oh, the electric braai grill did! Breakfast water would be boiled on that. But how would John make real coffee? We retired early, almost fully clothed, with our books and two screw capped wine bottles full of hot water to warm the damp sheets and our feet. It had to get better…. We collapsed into giggles at the whole situation
And, next morning, there would be a surprise….

Wednesday, May 16, 2018

WADE BALES WINE & MALT WHISKY AFFAIR

AFRICAN PRIDE 15 ON ORANGE HOTEL, CAPE TOWN
17 & 18 MAY 2018 
6-9PM

NOTHING BUT THE BEST 

The Wade Bales Wine & Malt Whisky Affair once again takes place in May. This annual experience is hosted at the opulent and edgy African Pride 15 on Orange Hotel. Currently in its 8th year, the affair delivers the ultimate in indulgence and showcase of sought after, limited release wines and rare malt whiskies from around the world. 

“We handpicked a selection of interesting and distinctive wines and whiskies, which are all available for tasting within a stylish and sophisticated setting, to ensure discerning guests have an exceptional experience. What makes this event unique from most others, is not only premium products but the calibre of the passionate and knowledgeable people who present them.” says Wade Bales, well-known wine and spirits matchmaker.

Leading off from the main showcase, the newly refurbished Murano Bar will become a bubbly bar activated by South Africa’s first producer of MCC, Simonsig Wine Estate. Known for their cultivated excellence and art in a glass, pop your senses with delightful tastings of their award winning Methode Cap Classique range. 

Listen out for the HALF-TIME Bell – halfway through the evening and for a limited period of 15 minutes taste extremely rare and limited editions of wine and whisky from “under the table”.

Look out for some of these exciting vintages and expressions: 

Avondale Navitas 2009 - Flagship red of Avondale’s premium collection (Robert Parker 95/100)

Delaire Graff White Blend 2015 – Delaire Graff’s Icon Range is an exclusive range of the Estate’s finest single vineyard wines and select blends, awarded Five Star John Platter rating as well as Tim Atkin Report 2017 – 93 points

Vilafonte M 2015 – Release date 1 November, a wine that is usually sold out in the first 6 weeks, Greg Sherwood MW (UK) 96 pts, with previous vintages being voted as TOP 100 International wines 

Bruichladdich Black Art - 4th Release of a unique and pioneering cult cask exploration series.

The Macallan Rare Cask: Crafted to showcase complexity and depth, Rare Cask is drawn from broadest spectrum of casks, 16 different types making it a limited and very rare whisky. 

Midleton Premium Irish Whiskey : Each vintage differs, and is only released in very limited quantities, with each bottle individually numbered and signed by the Master Distiller.

All wines and whiskies will be available to purchase on the night. Wines can be ordered for delivery directly through the wine farms.  Whisky will be available for purchase through the WhiskyShop powered by Whisky Mag portal.  Look out for some great specials including select gift sets and one or two whisky gems! 

TICKETS AND INCLUSIONS

Limited availability of tickets available at R290 per person and include all wine and whisky tastings, a complimentary glass and selection of gourmet cheese, antipasti deli and artisanal breads on offer. 

Due to the popularity of this event, this is an experience you don’t want to miss: Book your tickets today through QUICKET

TAKE ME HOME SERVICE! This year we have teamed up with GOOD FELLAS, who provide solutions for members and non-members to get home safely in their own car. Receive your first 10km trip for free as a non-member. Redeem your next discounted trip by downloading their mobile app (available on Google Play and App Store) and use the code: WBgf 

For further information please contact Wade Bales Fine Wines & Spirits
Telephone number: 021 794 2151
Email address info@wadebales.co.za
Twitter @WadeBales #winewhiskyaffair
IG: @wade.bales
Facebook: WadeBalesFineWines&Spirits
www.wadebales.co.za

Sunday, April 08, 2018

This Week's MENU. Portuguese visa challenges; Eating in Sea Point: Knead, Three Wise Monkeys; Druk My Niet, Tuna Crêpes, Buitenverwachting Sauvignon

Don Quixote and Sancho Panza statue in the Cervantes Monument, Plaza de España in Madrid
Scanned from a Kodachrome slide, photographed by John in 1971 - with an iconic Nikon F, not the camera in the picture
Perhaps significant as we prepare to embark on an Iberian Odyssey
The media season goes very quiet over the whole Easter period, so this week's MENU is very brief. We will be off on a month of adventure in Portugal and Spain next week and will be posting brief updates on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Instagram as we travel and giving you the full story in episodes on our return in early May. So, no MENU for four weeks, but we do hope that you will keep in touch on the other media. If you remember our road trip through northern Europe and Scandinavia last year, the format will be similar.
This is the ideal time to go to Europe; it is spring, but the expensive tourist season has not quite begun. We will of course be writing about the wine, food and accommodation on our travels and have already made some good contacts there. If you know of any, we would be very grateful for the contacts, recommendations and 'don’t do’s’! This is our route map, for our road trip from Porto up the Douro Valley, and to Lisbon, then south-east into Spain, through Andalusia and up to Madrid, then back to Porto and home after 4 weeks. We have hired a car and all accommodation has been booked on AirBnB or Booking.com
All we require now is to receive John's Visa, the process of acquiring which is being very frustrating. Travel in Europe for South Africans is becoming very complicated; the amount of information you have to produce for the visa is staggering, they insisted on all accommodation, flights etc. being booked and paid for beforehand and documented with both our names on all the accommodation bookings; this despite an invitation to visit from Amorim Cork. Lynne spent days on line researching and booking and paying for all the accommodation. The days of just getting there and exploring are GONE. They have no idea how much money they are losing in restricting tourists this way. And WHY? We don't want to live there, just visit as we have done to many countries over the years. Insurance, medical insurance, receipts, tickets, bank statements, Passports, ID's, municipal bills and even pension statements were demanded and some rejected because they were "not quite correct", so they had to be replaced. Bureaucracy gone mad. And you don't deal direct with the Embassy any more, you have to pay an Agency to do it all. We suspect they get paid for the number of visits the visa seeker makes, so they keep sending you away for more Bumph. It used to be that if your spouse was a citizen of the EU, as Lynne is, none of this was required. Not anymore. Lynne wonders whether the same will apply to people with British passports when Brexit is complete. And it appears that no one at the Portuguese Consulate has any concept of the urgency when one is waiting for a visa and, indeed, one’s passport with only a few days until we are due to fly.
However, we are really looking forward to the trip, flying on TAAG Angolan airline to Porto from Cape Town with a brief stop in Luanda to pick up more passengers. They have very good fares. We booked with TravelStart who have great specials on lots of flights. Our house sitters are ready to spoil the cats.
Portuguese Visa Postscript: Thank Heavens for a persistent wife! While John was fruitlessly struggling with VFS (Visa ?Facilitation? ?Services?), Lynne phoned the Portuguese Consulate. Sounds like an obvious thing to do, but all enquiries are directed to VFS. Phone calls, emails, web enquiries and, eventually, another visit to VFS in Strand Street all came up with the information that his passport was with the Portuguese Embassy in Johannesburg awaiting action. No information about progress or timescale. This was Thursday, we fly on Monday. Lynne’s call to the Portuguese Consulate brought the information that the passport had never been sent to Johannesburg. It was at the Consulate in Cape Town and the visa was ready for collection from a lovely, helpful lady named Sandra.
This poses the question: Why do they use VFS, an organisation which does everything it can to obstruct efforts by potential visitors to obtain a visitor’s visa? Friends who have acquired Schengen visas for other countries tell us of similar experiences. We had similar problems getting a Schengen visa last year from the Netherlands and a close friend who works for Foreign Affairs in the Netherlands Government – and wrote a supporting letter for our application – found the whole process quite strange. It seems that VFS is based in India and works all over the world. They make dealings so difficult that one wonders if the Guptas are involved

This is a restaurant we pass at least twice a week on our shopping trips to Checkers. There were some negative comments recently on the Restaurants Good, Bad and Ugly site on Facebook about it lacking in atmosphere. Lots of our friends go there so we decided it was time to try it. We have always loved their almond croissants, so rich that one is enough for two people; we thought that breakfast might be a good way to sample their wares.
is another place we have been dying to try out in Sea Point. It's on Regent Road, diagonally opposite Checkers. A friend made a reservation a few months ago, but when we got there they knew nothing about it so we left and went somewhere else. This time we went for lunch on a quiet weekday. We love Asian food, and Three Wise Monkeys specialises in Ramen, Sushi and Poke bowls. A Poke Bowl has recently become quite trendy; they describe it as deconstructed sushi. It is a bowl with a sushi rice or spinach base topped with Tuna, Salmon, avocado, edamame beans, mixed vegetables, season fruit, sesame seeds, nori seaweed, firecracker/Japanese mayo/soya and sesame house dressing. Might have to try Poke another time


The historic wine estate was hit by a devastating bush fire last year. It destroyed the historic farmhouse which was built in about 1700. The owners, Georg and Dorothee Kirchner and Jens-Peter Stein, had lovingly restored it over 6 years. They also lost guest cottages, their wine tank, cellar and other outbuildings and all their possessions. They have now rebuilt and we were invited to visit this week with other media to see the new buildings, taste some wines old and new and have lunch with the owners
This is an easy canapé recipe. Lynne made this for our wine club meeting. No cooking required, unless you are going to make your own pancakes. You need about 20 small pancakes - luckily Woolworths sells them in a box, interleaved if you are really pushed for time, as she was. But of course you could make them yourself. If you do, you already have the recipe. Please use real cream cheese, with a high butterfat content, the 'creamed' cottage cheese will not work.
500 g cream cheese - 50g cream - 1 tin of tuna in water, drained (but keep the liquid aside) - the finely grated rind of one lemon- 1 teaspoon lemon juice - 1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper - 1 Tablespoon of finely chopped lemon verbena - 100g rosa baby tomatoes - 2 Tablespoons of chopped black olives - salt to taste - 20 small crêpe pancakes
Blend the cream cheese, cream and tuna together with the lemon rind, lemon juice and cayenne pepper. You may need to add a little more cream or some of the liquid from the tuna if the mix is too stiff. You need a spreading consistency, the cream must not be runny. Finely chop the tomatoes, salt them and put into a strainer to get rid of some of the juice. Pat them with kitchen roll to dry them out a little more. Add them and the chopped olives to the cream. Taste and season to your taste, adding more lemon, salt or cayenne. Take the pancakes and put a good heaped dessertspoonful in the centre of each, spread it out and roll up neatly. To serve, cut them down the middle so that they are easier to eat. Sprinkle with fresh basil.
This has been one of the finest expressions of Constantia Sauvignon since the varietal first appeared in South Africa. The 2017 has a pale straw colour, an elegant nose with all the expected aromas of Constantia Sauvignon Blanc: fig, quince, gooseberry, elderflower and a little green pepper.

It is crisp, long and delicious, a food and quaffing wine. Fig and gooseberry flavours dominate the long finish, with a hint of green pepper at the end. Tasted nearly a year after it was picked, the early acidity has tempered, but it retains enough crispness to be a great match with a creamy dish. In the USA, where they cannot pronounce Buitenverwachting, it is marketed as Bayten and it sells very well at $19 a bottle. R100 from the farm in Constantia


6th April 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