Tuesday, November 16, 2021

Caroline's Celebration of Champagne and Cap Classique

There was an afternoon session as well. We opted to go to the one between 6 and 8.30. Only 70 People could be accommodated in the hall and that included people serving, so good Covid protocols. It was wonderful to see so many friends from wine farms and the attending public. It is a challenge with so much to taste, so Lynne decided to try to sample just a mouthful of every Blanc de Blanc she could find, as well as the French Champagnes and the top wines of those who do not produce a Blanc de Blanc

Tarryn Thomas of Reciprocal Trading with Louis Roederer and Jacquinot Champagnes, both very popular at the tasting
The Jacquinot has good brioche on the nose and a lovely 'bite' of clean crispness

Graham Beck winemaker Pierre de Klerk with their excellent selection
A very good place to begin the Cap Classiques

One of our favourites, the top of the range Cuvée Clive from the 2017 vintage

Jane Ferreira Eedes with her Dainty Bess Brut Rosé,
which we do find on many restaurant menus, it is great with food

Marcha Cooke and Thea van der Merwe of Jordan were a joy to see
and the new Jordan Cap Classique Blanc de Blanc is about to be released, The very popular 2015 is nearly sold out

Hanri Ferreira from Kleine Zalze showed their well-priced Brut, Brut Rosé and Vintage Brut

Justin Corrans, Chief Winemaker at KWV, showed the Laborie range
Lynne was so delighted to see that they do still make the Laborie Blanc de Blanc
and that it is still as wonderfully dry and crisp as ever

Nicolle Frazer of L’Ormarins with their range. Their Blanc de Blanc is from Villiersdorp grapes and is the 2015 vintage

Tayla Vermaak and Takuan von Arnim of Haute Cabrière, Lynne's favourite Cap Classique of the evening,
the Pierre Jordan Blanc de Blanc, crisp and dry, layers of flavour and simply delicious

Stephanie Joubert of Saltare. A new brand for us and very enjoyable, some good salty minerality on the palate,
the grapes for the Blanc de Blanc come from Robertson

Dane Raath and Jason Steel were showing the excellent award winning Silverthorn
The River Dragon, made from Colombard, is proving very popular
We know, we have bought some and friends to whom we introduce it really enjoy it. Tim Atkin scored it 92/100

Terry-Ann Klink of Simonsig with their faultless large range. The Cuvée Royale is so rich and special

with a Jeroboam of Kaapse Vonkel, the original Cap Classique

Graham de Vries of Steenberg, Their 1682 Non vintage Chardonnay is just right, nice and dry and crisp

Dax Bailey and Sarah Revell of Vinimark on the Bollinger stand. More Bolly please daarling!

Karin Visser CWM of Great Domaines showed Lanson and Pol Roger champagnes. Lanson Black Label NV has been our favourite Champagne for many years, and it still is after this tasting. Shy at first on the nose, then it opens up and, on the palate, layered, complex and very satisfying. Always beautifully crisp and fresh, as the base wine does not go through malolactic fermentation

Linette Cox, who represented Universal Beverages with her husband Mike; distributors of Taittinger
The Brut Reserve NV was rather nice, more depth and flavour, very enjoyable

Michelle Stewart and Zelda Fox showing the Charles Fox range from Elgin, another popular, well-respected marque

Caroline Rillema, who organised the event, with a bottle of Taittinger
We so enjoyed the evening, with the great selection she had made of Champagnes and Cap Classiques
It did feel as though things were almost getting back to normal

and with her husband, Ray Kilian

We are delighted that Caroline is opening a new shop in Regent Road, Sea Point
We wish her much success. She will have the full range of wines and spirits

It is almost ready to receive you

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MENU visits the Karoo and the Garden Route 12. The Mountain Zebra National Park and Cradock

The next overnight stop on our journey was to be Cradock. It is only 2½ hours from Nieu Bethesda, on the N9 and N10. They are very good National Roads, so we could happily purr along at 120Km/h. We were now on the Highveld, about 1500 metres above sea level. Sheep became scarce; there was more dry grass, golden in colour, and it began to look more like the Pampas in South America, studded with cattle farms. The flat-topped mountains and kopjes were straight out of Pierneef paintings, with his same soft light and soft colours of greys, blues and mauves. And the geology changed; no more uplift, more erosion. Then, slowly, we started to descend and our ears kept popping. There were many huge juggernauts headed south to Port Elizabeth

The road was long and straight, marked with really interesting rock and mountain formations, like this Mesa

Just outside Cradock, at 3.30, we saw a sign similar to this and remembered that we had the Mountain Zebra National Park on our list of essential places to see. It is only 14Km out of town. We had said that we would check in between 5 and 6 at our next accommodation in Cradock and we had time to visit the park, so we headed straight there

Because we would be in and out of Addo and intend visiting other National Parks in the next year,
we bought the Wild Card, a season ticket which gives access for a year to all National Parks for South African residents,
and set off to explore the park

Day tickets cost a reasonable R60 for local adults and R30 for children

The Mountain Zebra National Park is not just for zebras; it has a wide range of animals, some that surprised even us
Our first sighting was grazing Mountain Zebras (Equus zebra zebra), standing in the hot Eastern Cape sun

They have stronger black stripes and do not have the Burchell's zebra's shadow stripe

The Mountain Zebra Park is dry, like most places in the Eastern Cape, but we saw lots of wild flowers
The park is very good but, because there is almost no water, the animals are quite widely spaced

A resting Blesbok (Damaliscus pygargus phillipsi)

Then a herd of Blesbok

Two baby Springbok lying low in the grass near their mothers
There are predators like cheetah, lion and hyenas

A young Springbok (Antidorcas marsupialis)

Cape mountain zebra with very impressive stripes, almost a licorice allsorts pattern

Red hartebeest (Alcelaphus buselaphus caama)

The park is set on several hills, so there are wonderful views as you drive around

We didn’t get out and, sadly, we didn’t see any lions

But we did see the interesting range of hills stretching to the horizon

A very good view of South African Karoo veld. The drive up to the top of the kopje is wonderful
and you have views of “miles and miles of bloody Africa”, to paraphrase some author, from the top

From this viewpoint you can see some of the park's roads and waterholes,
now mostly just round concrete dams with windmills pumping, because of the long drought
There are animals in front but they are well camouflaged

We hoped to see the lions. Sadly, we didn’t;
we saw the handsome zebras, lots of different antelopes, baboons and a few ostriches

And then on the way out, we stopped in shock as we turned a corner, something so rare. There, right close to the road, was a pair of black or hook-lipped rhinoceros (Diceros bicornis)! The information leaflet we had been given made no mention of them at all. It appears they have been there a while. They are quite different from the much less endangered white rhino we have seen in Kruger. Our Cradock landlord was pea green with envy; he goes often to the park and had never seen them

You don’t mess with Rhino, she is giving us a good stare

Then it was time to check into our accommodation, which was a huge disappointment as, frankly, was Cradock. It did not live up to the Booking.com description at all and was so cramped and small, dusty and uncared for. The towels and sheets were grey. We had to use the bed as a table to open our computers to read mail, save the day’s photographs and write the daily diary. Sometimes photographs on accommodation websites do not give the real picture

The only food preparation facility in the room was a simple microwave, a tiny fridge and a kettle, so we decided to make cheese and ham toasties on the braai! We had been promised a garden view (there was none from our room) and seating outside our room. The seating was one rusted steel chair with a tiny, round, rusted wire-topped table. So we moved out into the large garden on the other side of the large house. There was only one other guest. A few small twigs and branches gave John just enough fire to make respectable toasted sandwiches; what we really fancied after all the huge meals we had been eating. We were road weary and just fancied something light. Banting has definitely reduced our intake, but it is impossible to do it religiously when travelling like this. Salads and vegetables do not seem to be a regular Karoo menu feature. We would be self catering at Addo, so we would be able to cook better balanced food there. After the toasties and two cold beers, we went early to bed to read our books

Cradock is shockingly run down. The potholes are huge, the roads bad, and there are so many poor and unemployed on every street. It was not the highlight of our trip and we cannot recommend it. We needed to find a place for breakfast and friends had recommended The Shed, which turned out to offer a good, filling breakfast

We sat on the covered terrace and had to listen to a group of women at the other end
having a loud religious meeting for the entire time we were there

To go with the toast but charged extra

Toasted ciabatta, bacon, scrambled egg and a sweet tomato chutney

John had the brown toast

And so, back on the road - to Addo and River Front Estate (click here)

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