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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 our website and ancillary works are © John & Lynne Ford, Adamastor & Bacchus. Our restaurant reviews are often 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

On the MENU This Week. Bailey’s Microwave Macaroni

As we are at home sheltering, we are using lots of ingredients from our stock cupboard. And we do feel the need for some comfort food occasionally in these trying times. We have shared this before, but thought you might like to try this again. Don’t make it in advance; it does go a bit soggy but, fresh from the oven, it is completely delicious. And for those of us with milk allergies or intolerance, the lactose free milk from Woolworths or Checkers works so well. You also need your greens so do make this with a good very mixed salad to get those vitamins. We had it with a good, rich and juicy red wine. See our Wine of the Week.

We are not great advocates of actually cooking in the microwave, that wonderful tool for melting chocolate and gelatine, heating things, defrosting, and making sauces. Lynne is always on the hunt for the perfect macaroni cheese and this recipe, given to her by her friend Denise, comes pretty damn close. We had to climb down off our high horses; this is delicious, and quick. It’s also a great dish to make if you are busy doing something else, like painting the lounge or making curtains….

60ml butter – 1 medium onion, chopped – 15 ml dry mustard – 30g flour – 1 tsp salt

500 ml milk, combined with 300 ml water – 250g macaroni

200gm grated cheddar cheese – extra cheese – Optional: 1 tomato – parsley

In a large Pyrex or Corningware dish, combine the butter and onion and microwave for 2 minutes on full power. Mix mustard, flour, salt and liquid, then pour this over the onion. Put in the macaroni and microwave uncovered on full power for 6 minutes. Stir. Reduce power level to 50% and microwave for 20 minutes, stirring twice during cooking. If necessary, add a little extra milk to retain a creamy texture. Add the cheese and mix well. Microwave on full power for 2 minutes. Garnish with tomato and chopped parsley if you like. You can put extra grated cheese on top and flash under the grill if you need the traditional crispy topping we like.

This is supposed to serve 4 (Ha! not in our greedy house).

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MENU's Wine of the Week. Groote Post The Old Man's Blend 2019

A merlot led blend with cabernet sauvignon, cabernet franc and shiraz; it is complex on the nose and palate, showing black cherry first on the nose, followed by licorice, chocolate, coffee mocha and dark cherry fruit. Very quaffable, easy to drink and a good food companion.

R69 at Get Wine

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A Harvest Experience at Klein Constantia and lunch with the Constantia winemakers

This may well be our last post for a while. South Africa has shut down because of Covid-9 virus and all our upcoming events are postponed or cancelled. In addition to all the embargoes which have been decreed, a Dutch tourist who spent three weeks touring the wine country in a large group tested positive for the virus on his return home. He had been in close contact with many people who work on wine estates and all those estates are now quarantined. This has further compromised our activities

We were invited by the Constantia Wine Route to choose a wine farm and winemaker with whom we could spend two hours for a brief harvest experience on the farm. This was followed by a harvest lunch with all the winemakers and some other media people at Nova Zonnestraal, the newest kid on the country's oldest winemaking block. An offer like this was hard to refuse

We chose Klein Constantia, a farm with which we have had a long history, but had not visited for a long time. Arriving at 10 am, we were met by winemaker Matthew Day and had a superb hour with him in the cellar and then an hour with Viticulturist Craig Harris in the vineyards. It was a superb experience

New vines near the entrance as you drive in and, behind them, the hillside vineyards

Past the Kramat (shrine) of Shaykh Abdurahman Matebe Shah in the estate's grounds

The last of the Malaccan Sultans, he was taken prisoner and exiled to South Africa, where he died

The entrance to the Tasting room and the Bistro

The tasting room area with views of the production cellar through the windows

Current vintages

A magnum of Cuvée Anabel Rosé. It is is named after the owner’s daughter; she designed the packaging

A view through to the Bistro

Winemaker Matthew Day showing us an aerial view of the farm and its vineyards

Matt joined Klein Constantia in 2008 and has been the winemaker since 2009

He has invested in some rather exciting equipment which we had not seen before

This is a new design of destemmer which is very gentle to the grapes

He showed us how all these pieces of equipment link to the process of sending grapes into the tanks

It’s a rather large and impressive cellar, fully active at the moment with Harvest still taking place

One of their Bucher grape presses waiting for the arrival of freshly picked grapes

We then did some tasting from the tanks, in which all the wines are fermenting

First a taste of the Anabel Rosé. It’s a secret blend, very sweet and aromatic at this stage, before the sugars are fermented out

They have to replicate the same pink colour every year too; it's cloudy with lees at the moment,

fizzy with fermentation and great fun

Then some different tanks of Sauvignon Blanc from different vineyard blocks. The 341, which is the top vineyard on the farm, has nothing added to it. Very aromatic, dry already; it reminded us of Sancerre. Matt's favourite block is 152, which is fully organic. You could taste the potential, a classic Constantia Sauvignon Blanc. Other tanks we tasted were block 271 and 261, from the blocks at the top left of the farm, and 372, a single vineyard which has the best grapes this year. A bottle of this, from a previous vintage, would follow us to lunch

We were also fortunate enough to taste the 2020 Riesling, so impressive already. And the second vintage of the Chenin Blanc, showing all the expected characteristics. The just picked Chardonnay, from very small young vineyards, is a classic with beautiful fruit. We also tasted the 2019 with white peaches and complex fruit flavours, including marmalade. The Blanc de Blanc white blend has good fruit and we suspect that it will be a good food wine when ready

Pumping over a tank of Shiraz to extract colour from the skins

A happy winemaker enjoying a good harvest

Unlabelled magnums of Vin de Constance

Could be a superb end to a banquet

Into the barrel cellar to taste some samples there. There are some foudres as well as the normal barrels

all new French oak barrels

Why is Matt bringing us coffee in that glass? Well, it isn't coffee, it is Vin de Constance, fermenting in the tank

He showed us the raisin grapes they use

No botrytis on these raisins, they don't want it

A small box shows what they have picked so far

Picking goes very slowly as the grapes stay on the vine

and dehydrate to the concentration required to make Vin de Constance

We left Matt in the cellar and joined viticulturist Craig Harris in his Land Rover, to examine the vineyards

Wallowing farm pigs, enjoying a nap

Driving up the hill. And up, and up, and up...

Sauvignon Blanc, just about to be picked

We tasted some of these grapes and they were intense

just enough sugar with good minerality and fruit acids to produce the classic Klein Constantia Sauvignon Blanc

These might need a day or two more of sunshine, but look so healthy

The leaves have been removed to allow air circulation and contact with the sun

Almost at the top of the farm, you can see False Bay on a clear day

Good sea breezes, from both Hout Bay over the mountains to the right and from False Bay in front, cool the vineyards

Craig Harris, viticulturist

The Muscat grapes turning to raisins on the vine

We were allowed to pick some too; we managed just a few

It is a hard task, each berry having to be judged as ready and then picked, one by one

Now you know why the wine has to be so expensive

One of the very focused and patient expert pickers

Waving goodbye to the pickers

Carlo Prins, a farmer in his milieu

Former owner Dougie Jooste's beautifully restored early 50s Jeep Truck

A far cry from a modern car interior

Then we were off to Nova Zonnestraal to join winemakers from all the Constantia farms for lunch

and the media members who had been visiting the farms

No more hugs and kisses, just lots of elbow bumps and clinking glasses. We are all paying attention

A very welcome glass of Steenberg MCC poured by Roger Burton, winemaker at Nova Zonnestraal

The Nova Zonnestraal Cellar is actually a tunnel under the M3 Simon vd Stel Freeway

It was built in the 1960s for access when the farm was divided in two by the freeway

This is where a long table was set for lunch

Jared Ruttenberg organised the whole event. Behind him is Justin van Wyk, winemaker at Constantia Glen

Nova Zonnestraal's Constantia Royale Sauvignon Blanc was on offer

A group photo of the Constantia winemakers

Back row: Jean Nel (Klein Constantia), Justin van Wyk (Constantia Glen, Elunda Basson (Steenberg), Danna de Jongh (Constantia Uitsig), Gregory Brink Louw (Silvermist), Megan van der Merwe (Beau Constantia)

Front: Roger Burton (Nova Zonnestraal), Duran Cornhill (Eagle's Nest), Boela Gerber (Groot Constantia)

Brad Paton of Buitenverwachting arrived later

Constantia wines to taste and drink with lunch

We take our seats

Platter of cheese, meat and chicken liver pate, with many accompaniments were served for lunch

with French bread, tomatoes, artichoke and roasted nuts

Salami, grapes, nuts, watermelon konfyt and fresh figs

Broadcaster Guy McDonald and Winnie Bowman CWM had spent the morning at Groot Constantia with cellarmaster Boela Gerber

On Guard, looking at the beautiful view

As a special treat there was a taste of Vin de Constance when we returned to Klein Constantia after lunch

We first tasted the 2016. Pure honey on the nose with some floral notes

Toffee caramel on the palate with sharp limes and lemons, long flavours very satisfying

Cellar door price is R1095 per 500ml bottle

The 2015 has honey, beeswax and vanilla on the nose, more complex than the 2016

Soft and sweet with milk toffee, crisp citrus, mango and lime on the end

Danica Prout-Jones, who works in the tasting room, and assistant wine maker Jean Nel

The Jeep Truck on display near the tasting room

Thank you Matt, Craig, Jean and all at KC for a great morning at Klein Constantia

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