Thursday, October 28, 2021

Lunch and tasting at Glen Carlou

Invitations to visit wine farms have rightly been few and far between because of Covid, but we do hope things will improve, now that many people have been vaccinated and farms have learned to put the necessary protocols in place to protect their staff and visitors 

We were very happy to accept an invitation to visit Glen Carlou wine estate to taste their wines and enjoy a lovely lunch on the terrace last Sunday. The farm is situated in Klapmuts, on the Simondium Road, and has superb views over the valley to Agter Paarl. The winemaker is Johnny Canitz and the chef is Johan Stander

It’s a modern building, so well designed, with its large tasting room and restaurant and it also has an art gallery

Looking down over the vineyards towards the Agter Paarl area, everything is so lush and green at this time of the year

The terrace is well shaded by the large canopy and it was a very special place to have lunch
It is a popular place to eat; you do need to book a table, especially if you want to sit on the terrace

The thatch roofed interior makes it cool in summer and a lovely place to enjoy lunch in the winter with the open fire

and there are some relaxing spaces in which to taste wine

Our table was booked for 12.30 and the trip through was very quick, so we were rather early
We have to mention the superb service and kind attention we had from the staff who looked after us:
Manager Bronwin Adams, and his staff members Lizette Fortuin and Linda Solomons
They were all so attentive and accommodating to our needs

A glass floor view of the barrel cellar below; beware those who suffer from vertigo

The Taal monument in Paarl, which commemorates the Afrikaans language, on the hill across the valley

You can also look down towards the Paarl valley and the mountains beyond

We decided to do our tasting at the table rather than in the tasting room; first wine to taste was the Glen Carlou Cap Classique, a Zero dosage Blanc de Blanc Chardonnay. It is biscuity, with green and cooked apple on the nose with a little ginger spice. It has a fine mousse and some delicacy, with lots of long flavours of crisp apple and greengage plum. Minerality with a hint of salty licorice on the end. A fine example, very enjoyable. And a great start to our lunch

The 2020 Unwooded Chardonnay is made in concrete eggs and has quite a hint of orange and lees on the nose
Cooked apple, rich pastry and caramel on the palate make this the perfect wine to serve with a Tart Tatin! Very quaffable

The 2020 Chardonnay. A quarter of the wine was matured in each of 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th fill French barrels
The grapes are from the Simonsberg. Bready and yeasty with a hint of perfume,
which follows through on the palate with cooked apple and dark toast on the layered end

The 2020 Petite Classique is a 60% Malbec, 40% Merlot blend with cherries and cherry pips, a hint of herbs and good richness on the nose. On the palate, black and Morello cherries, some dark licorice wood and then the fruit continues with intense mulberries. Very drinkable

We then voted to continue the tasting with our lunch. While we generally chose the wines suggested on the menu to pair with each of our courses, we did both taste all the wines. Sadly, the wine we really wanted to taste, because we had tasted a very good one at Kranskop on our visit to Robertson, was the unusual Tannat 2018, which is now sold out

This is the menu, which suggests pairings with each course
In two cases, the pairing was ignored and a different wine was picked

A surprise Amuse Bouche from the kitchen was something we love and have missed
A tiny warm, deep fried truffle & cheese croquette served with aioli made from egg yolk, honey, mustard & wine vinegar
It came with a soft warm roll and some butter

As her starter, Lynne chose the battered squid with slow roasted aubergine and yellow peppers
Good flavours on the squid and the yellow peppers, but we like our aubergine cooked a lot longer; this was still rather raw

The pairing she chose was the 2019 Collection Chenin Blanc. It was a good choice with its classic Chenin nose of dust and tropical fruits and loquats, Yellow stone fruit on the crisp and golden palate. The wood shows quite strongly on the end so, possibly, this needs more time in the bottle

John chose the lamb croquettes on a beetroot chutney, with pickled pear. The croquettes were almost all lamb and, perhaps, needed a bit more white sauce to moisten the meat. John is NOT a fan of beetroot but surprised Lynne by saying how well it worked as a counterpoint to the richness of the lamb 

He chose the 2020 Pinot Noir as his pairing. It is quite shy and sophisticated at first, then the classic red berry fruit appears. Soft and silky on the palate then red, maraschino and morello cherry appear. Dark wood, mulberries and pepper complete the wine. Young, but well made

In between courses, we asked to taste the 2019 Syrah. Dark red and black berry fruit, spicy on the concentrated nose
The densely fruity and warm palate follows through with cassis and mulberry. It’s young and needs a little more time

Her main course choice was the rolled Lamb shoulder with a Vadouvan Masala lightly curried sauce, fruited and spiced couscous and spring onions. Very tender, very rich; it needed the excellent Cabernet Franc to cut through the richness

Very enjoyable

Lynne paired the 2018 Collection Cabernet Franc, one of her favourite grapes, with the lamb course
Classic savouriness on the nose, lovely berries, a hint of green leaves, with richness and complexity
Licorice, dark berries, layers of complexity, long, dark, deep flavours and an excellent mouthfeel. SO well made

John’s main course choice was the 400g Sirloin on the bone, served with rustic fries, pepper, and thyme cream
It was perfectly cooked to his specification of medium rare

His pairing was the 2018 Grand Classique Bordeaux blend, and it is a very special wine. Incense wood, very true to the Bordeaux style, with beautiful fruit in layers, a good kick of acidity and chalky tannins to aid its aging and long complex flavours with wood holding its own on the end. A wine to drink now and also to keep. A very good pairing, as expected 

A good double espresso completed the excellent meal for John


We were very impressed with the wines, the food and the service

Do go and experience it for yourselves. https://glencarlou.com/

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Thursday, October 07, 2021

In MENU This Week - The Food Barn, FYN lunch

 



 Tom, the older of our two cats, who'll be well looked after while we'll be away

After a very quiet month, we do, at last have two stories to tell. Two of the Cape’s best restaurants; one of them has just been awarded a place in the world’s Top 100. And then, tomorrow, with great excitement, we’ll embark on a road trip! Our first in two locked-down years – apart from a couple of year-end sojourns at the seaside. John’s mother and her antecedents came from the Camdeboo area in the Karoo. His grandmother was born in Graaff-Reinet and his mother in the tiny hamlet called Nieu-Bethesda. Lynne has not been to that part of the country, so it seemed like a good idea. We were in Stellenbosch today for the 60th anniversary of the first Lanzerac Pinotage, more about which later. Tomorrow we’ll have lunch on a farm in Calitzdorp at the beginning of a two week journey. Lots of stories to tell!

Breakfast at The Food Barn, Noordhoek



When some of our friends work during the week, we have to schedule visits to restaurants to the weekend. We all decided that breakfast on Saturday would be a great idea now that the weather was getting a little warmer. But where to go? Some of our favourite places have sadly closed so we started looking. Lynne discovered that Franck Dangereux is now doing breakfast at The Food Barn (in Noordhoek) and so we booked a table for four. Read on…


Restaurant Week lunch at Fyn



It is Restaurant Week now and, in fact, it is Restaurant Month, as it runs for the whole of October. We went into the website on the first day and saw that some of our favourite restaurants were on the list. Prices this year are very reasonable indeed. You can have lunch or dinner and you can see the menus on line. Sadly, as we will be away on holiday for two weeks of this month, we had time to chose only one and so it had to be Fyn Restaurant in Parliament Street in the City centre, run by Peter Tempelhoff. We went last year and absolutely loved it. Nothing about the service or the ambience has changed. Read on…



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Restaurant Week lunch at Fyn

It is Restaurant Week now and, in fact, it is Restaurant Month, as it runs for the whole of October. We went into the website on the first day and saw that some of our favourite restaurants were on the list. Prices this year are very reasonable indeed. You can have lunch or dinner and you can see the menus on line. Sadly, as we will be away on holiday for two weeks of this month, we had time to chose only one and so it had to be Fyn Restaurant in Parliament Street in the City centre, run by Peter Tempelhoff. We went last year and absolutely loved it. Nothing about the service or the ambience has changed

The entrance, which is quite subtly signaged
There is a parking garage opposite and, if you can get in, do; parking in the Centre of town is not easy
It is up to the restaurant’s concierge to organise it, as the garage is for rent paying clients only

After a good Covid check at reception desk on the ground floor, where you do a QR Code check in,
you proceed to the lift and go up to the 5th floor
Fyn Restaurant was built onto the roof of one of the old buildings in the street
It is rather sensational architecturally

A rope guard of honour greets you and then the welcoming staff. They do observe strict Covid regulations

You can sit at the bar or at a table; they are nicely spaced apart ...

... and you can see some of the well organised open kitchen

The food at Fyn is a combination of locally sourced food and is a mix of Oriental and Western cuisine

We had a really excellent meal, as you will read below and it is incredible value in Restaurant Week

The Restaurant Week lunch menu is almost identical to the Spring menu and is very good value
Do make sure to tell them that you are having the Restaurant Week menu
You can scan the menu to your phone or request a paper version if your phone will not oblige
You can also enjoy a wine pairing with your menu
You can order the wines by the glass (see below) or by the bottle
and, although compact, it is a very comprehensive and good choice of wines

Jennifer Huge, the Manager, remembered us and we were each given a lovely surprise -
a glass of Cap Classique from Boschendal

The views looking towards the mountain are lovely 

A busy bar

The first three dishes: On the left is a tiny bite of chicken parfait on a crisp, topped with a sweet pickled onion in a Tare gel; we could have eaten a plateful. On the right is a milky daikon radish and cabbage maki roll, fresh and delicious, topped with a ponzu gel. Below is the crisp tempura dune spinach which is indigenous to SA, served with a Tentsuya dipping sauce, dashi laced with soy sauce and mirin, with fresh-grated daikon and ginger. We love tempura and this was a good one. We each ordered a glass of white wine. Lynne had the 2019 Cape Point "Noordhoek" Sauvignon Blanc which is in the classic French style, crisp, dry, and long; full of elderflower and so true to the style that they produce. The Rijk's Chenin Blanc 2017 for John; rich, full and mature; it is lightly wooded, elegant and seductive

Jennifer also brought us a taste of something very different, the Daschbosch Skin Contact from Uniwines in the Breedekloof. It is an unusual white wine, a blend of 70/30% Chenin blanc/Muscat d'Alexandrie. We expected something with Muscat and slight sweetness? Not at all, it is herbal on the nose and tinglingly bone dry on the palate and, only on the very end, does it reveal a whiff of rose petal Muscat as you breathe out. An exciting food wine indeed from the Rawsonville area

Next course was the Milk Bun. Because of John's mushroom allergy he was served herb butter with his

The very light and warm bun comes solo on a warm pottery stand

It was then removed to the plate and the stand it came on was reversed, to reveal a crisp caramelised layer

You crack the caramel as if it were a crème brulée

... to reveal the superbly rich mushroom parfait in the style of a foie paté, which was eye wateringly delicious
APPLAUSE! Memorable and brilliant. And something new and innovative for us

Lynne was in raptures at its deliciousness and had to scrape the bowl

There was a choice for the next two courses, so we decided to order one of each and taste both. This is the melt in the mouth Iberico Pork Belly, tender and almost jellied in texture, as it was cooked sous vide, and very flavourful. Served on compressed, caramelised apple with mirin, a wasabi mustard oil and a white onion sauce and topped with a pork crackling. It all sings together

We were treated to three more tastes of some exceptional wine with the mains. First a Grenache from Piekenierskloof. Rich and velvety, with plums and raspberries and a little grey wood on the nose. On the palate, fresh cranberry fruit, then mulberries, lightly wooded and lightly pressed. Almost Pinot like in its delicacy

The second dish was served with a Kochi yuzu & aged Shoyu. It was a sashimi of the freshest, pale pink, best cut tuna on shaved daikon, perfect onigiri sushi rice, wasabi and ginger. There was another dish of tuna tataki on a parsley mayonnaise, and seaweed and carrot with pickles. A tour de force of excellence. This went so well with the Rijk's Chenin Blanc

Overhead are these strings of large wooden beads interspersed with the hanging lights which help to fill the void

We were also each given a taste of the Bartinney 2013 Cabernet Sauvignon with its layers of rich, red fruit on the nose: cassis berries and leaves, some spices: black pepper, cumin and nutmeg. On the palate, soft and gentle chalky tannins, then crisp black currant fruit, with cranberry and red cherry on the end

Well made by Ronel Wiid

Using his long lens through the window, John could capture the cable car entering the station at the top of Table Mountain

And another treat, the Morgenster 2010; a Bordeaux blend. It has the southern sun and an extraordinary depth of fruit on the nose, very complex. At first, it hints of Italy, then the Cabernet Franc shines. On the palate, there is richness and, if swirled in the mouth, it starts to unroll like a red carpet. Dark berry fruit, silky with lots of glycerols; beyond good. One of the best red wines we have tasted for a very long time, it reminded us of Chris Keet's legendary Cordoba Crescendo from the years around the turn of this Century

Now the main courses. This is the very tender Free Range Kalahari beef, served pink and full of flavour, with karaage (fried) sweetbreads; globe artichoke quarters, an unctuous onion sauce and ponzu braised and caramelised onions

The other main was Sustainable fish which, that day, was Silvers. Usually an unprepossessing and much ignored local fish, full of bones and not very expensive, but this had been turned into a poem. Beautifully filleted and cooked on the skin, it was accompanied by an aromatic yuzu seafood bisque with layers of flavour. It was nestled on a buckwheat risotto which was a good counterpoint to the dish, allowing one to use the risotto to sweep up all the sauce, It was accompanied by a shelled langoustine and an asparagus spear, with sorrel and kombu seaweed slivers

The plate of the Kalahari beef was wiped clean; it was so good that nothing was going back to the kitchen

The service was wonderful and, when we had a minor problem, it was sorted out very quickly
The menu will change in a week's time, so make sure you get your booking in soon

We had a short rest at this point. Then, there was suddenly a lovely smell of roasting popcorn that filled the restaurant and we were asked if we were ready for dessert. You bet. A rich and decadent Madagascan chocolate and Ethiopian coffee cremeux with popcorn beneath, sprinkled with grated chocolate and covered with shards of crisp meringue tuille appeared, accompanied by a scoop of salted ice cream 

and then some theatre as the waiter poured into the middle of the ice cream....

some fermented pear. It’s a very good mix of flavours, textures and richness
Lynne, who does not often do desserts said that, if more were as good as this, she would order dessert more often

and to accompany dessert, a small taster (in a beautiful thistle shaped glass) of Lammershoek De Swarte Strooi wine
made from Dark Syrah grapes left on the vine for three weeks. Lammershoek is in the Perdeberg wine district

It was fascinating to watch this chef painstakingly painting on layer after layer of something pink in her bon bon moulds

and then they were filled

Producing what looked like cherries or, possibly, small apples




A clever use of a large abacus as a room divider, which echoes the ceiling art

John went upstairs to get a view down over the kitchen

Upstairs, they have more abacus beads

The barman mixing a cocktail

- a pineapple Mojito - not for us!

and a final amuse to send us on our way; accompanying the bill, beautifully packed in origami,

two bon bons




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