Friday, November 26, 2021

John Collins' Trade wine tasting at Den Anker

It is trade tastings like this that we have missed so much in the time of Covid
John Collins usually holds his annual tasting at this popular Belgian restaurant in the V&A Waterfront
and it was here again this year

The tasting tables were well spaced out and people attending were well spaced apart
The list of wine farms and producers that John represents is a fine one

And, of course, should you need a refresher, there is always good Belgian and local beer on offer at Den Anker

They produced some of the best canapés we have enjoyed at any event that we have attended this year (not that there have been many), but they were generous and circulated frequently. These were warm Bitterballen on a mustard sauce at the back of the board and small triangles of deep fried battered cheese. Divine

Huge tempura battered peeled prawns (YUM!) and squares of sirloin steak topped with a tarragon butter

Pretending to be serious were cellarmaster Sjaak Nelson and marketing manager Marcha Cook on the Jordan Stand. Jordan wines are always consistently good and enjoyable. However, we have to mention how good The Cold Fact 2021 Sauvignon Blanc is - classic blackcurrant leaf with fig; crisp and layered on the palate. The Nine Yards Chardonnay is superb and will reward keeping for a while. The Black Magic 2018 Merlot has raspberry leaves on the nose, then ripe cherries. It is soft on the palate, juicy and long with minerality and dark chocolate oak on the end. Just what we want from a Merlot. The Prospector Shiraz 2020; rose petals, spice and dark berries on the nose, full and spicy on the palate, with layers of fullness and fruit and lovely chalky tannins on the end. And one of our wines of the night was the 2017 Cobbler’s Hill, a classic Bordeaux blend with a hint of violets from the Petit Verdot. Layers and layers of fruit on the nose and the palate, silky and juicy, so satisfying and near perfect. Lynne gave it 19/20

Sisters Jenna and Emma Bruwer from Springfield, showing the wines from their family farm in Robertson. Jenna handles sales and marketing, while Emma is a winemaker. We had such an intense and super tasting with Emma when we were there recently; that report will be published a little later, at the end of our stories about our road trip. The special Springfield Sauvignons Blancs, Chardonnays and Pinot Noir are what we regularly buy and drink. Their new 2021 Albarinho is also very good, as are the other red wines, two cabernets and the Bordeaux blend, the 2015 Work of Time. Good to see that they now have the new vintage of Thunderchild 2020, a wine created as part of a worthy community project, all proceeds going to the Robertson Childrens’ Home 

A happy looking John Collins. Lock down and wine buying prohibition have been very, very tough for wine negociants
We are so pleased to see him back, doing good business in the trade

Wine shop owners Louise and Mark Herd whose shop, Sunset Beach Wines, is in Table View
Not an easy period for them either

On the Bruce Jack stand were horticulturalist Jason Snell and winemaker Thornton Pillay. There were a lot of wines to taste. Four collections - the Lifestyle Collection, The Reserve Collection, The Heritage Collection and Bruce Jack Estate Wines. Of special mention was the Boer Maak 'n Plan 2018 Chenin Blanc from 24 year old vines; lovely, classic, deep Chenin nose, it has that leesy character, exciting on the palate, full and crisp, with yellow stone fruit, limes, melon and long flavours. We also really liked the 2017 Moveable Feast, a very unusual blend of Malbec, Shiraz, Pinot Noir, Touriga National and Tannat. Notes of Armani perfume with cherries on the nose. All the different grapes appear on the palate, so it’s quite exciting initially. It is so soft and succulent to drink, quite delicious

Johan & Sofie Kruger with their Kruger Family Wines. We began with what was, for us, the best white wine of the day, the Sans Chêne (without wood) 2019 Chardonnay. Perfumed and full of ripe citrus fruit on the nose. Nutty, creamy on the palate, with good weight and lots of character with crisp, ripe citrus. There seems to be a trend developing again for very heavily wooded Chardonnays done in new oak barrels. We stay away from those; it is so unnecessary and this wine proves it. The 2020 Old Vines Palomino from Piekenierskloof was very interesting. Johan’s description of beeswax, brown toast and lemongrass flavours is absolutely right and it is good to see this once popular grape being used so well again. And we really enjoyed the Cap Classique Brut Rosé 2019, which is of the palest pink possible. The grapes come from the Hemel en Aarde and have that good splash of raspberry in a dry, summery bubbly

A toast to their partnership with John Collins

Winemaker Reynie Oosthuizen of Tamboerskloof/Kleinood in Stellenbosch is also the viticulturist of this very high wine farm. The Tamboerskloof Syrah 2019 has spice and wood on the fruity nose; layers of dark berry fruit, chalky tannins and wood and spice on the end. The 2013/15 John Spicer Tamboerskloof Syrah is similar but is several levels up. More, much more, fruit and concentration, chalky grippy tannins, good acid balance, dark wood and length. In another league, but also much pricier. One to put away if you have the income

On the Diemersfontein table, Lynne only had time to taste two wines. The Carpe Diem 2020 Malbec is quite dry, with layers of berries and dark plums, with licorice wood and chalky tannins. The 2019 Merlot impressed with ripe fruit, good chalky tannins, soft and sweet cherry flavours; a lovely wine which we will buy

Having a long chat about the state of the industry and life in the time of Covid with John C
It was a very good display of some excellent wines from distinguished wine farms and winemakers

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Posted by MENU at 7:03 pm 1 comments

MENU visits the Karoo and the Garden Route 14. Addo Elephant National Park

We took so many photographs during our three days in Addo that it would be impossible to show them all and it would also test your patience. If you are interested, there are more photographs at https://johnduncanford.picfair.com. Here is our selection of the best pictures:

Our hostess at River Front Estate, Lisa Ferreira, told us about a back entrance to the park, just across the road. However, once we were in the park, a ranger told us that it was an illegal entry point. It is actually an access road for traffic to the other side of the park and they log your car in as you enter and then out again on the other side. So we needed to go to the main gate and register with our Wild Card 

And, while spotting any game at first was slow, as the afternoon wore on we saw a large number of elephants, many with young, crossing the road. Such magnificent beasts. We also saw different antelopes, zebra, warthogs and, at Jack’s Picnic site where we stopped for a sandwich lunch, we saw lots of birds hoping for a crumb or two. We found our favourite hide, at Spekboom water hole, and sat for while, but nothing was coming to the waterhole at that time of day

We stopped for lunch in the reserved area at Jack's Picnic Site, which is closed off from the rest of the park

It was very hot. Luckily, we were under some shade
it was very quiet and we were surrounded by amazingly tame birds, hoping that we'd drop some crumbs

A southern fiscal, common fiscal or fiscal shrike (Lanius collaris). It is found through most of Sub-Saharan Africa
It is also sometimes named Jackie Hangman or butcher bird
because it impales its prey on acacia thorns for later consumption - rather grisly!

Cape robin-chat (cossypha caffra)

Spectacled weaver male (ploceus ocularis)

and his mate, a Spectacled weaver hen

Cape Francolin, aka Cape Spurfowl - Pternistis capensis

A young kudu cow (tragelaphus strepsiceros)

accompanied by a young kudu bull with newly sprouting horns

An elephant (Loxodonta africana), munching on a stick

The wrinkled skin of an African Elephant

An elephant using its trunk to reach for tender young leaves at the top of a bush

You will be driving slowly down a road, obeying the speed limit,
when suddenly the bushes part and a family of elephants crosses in front of you
A playful elephant calf lying down, seen through the legs of an elephant cow crossing a road

The baby elephant, about to stand up, next to an older sibling, while its mother grazes in the bush

An elephant gives another member of her herd a push at the Spekboom waterhole

A dung beetle rolling a ball of elephant dung. This is how life revolves
The elephants eat the seeds, drop them in their dung and the beetles bury the dung,
lay their eggs in it and so goes the circle of life

A small herd of elephants at the Spekboom waterhole

The cameras were red hot and, that night, John was busy transferring photographs onto the computer and editing
It was such a treat to be back at Addo. It had been a while
On day two, we rose at 6, had a quick, minimal, breakfast and by 7 we were off in the car and heading for waterholes

Leftovers at Domkrag water hole. The skull, spine and horns of a kudu bull. We didn't see any lions, but they are there

A grey heron doing its best to swallow a large fish

A Red hartebeest (Alcelaphus buselaphus caama) with her very new calf, umbilical cord still attached

They were part of a  group

of female Red hartebeest drinking at the Domkrag waterhole

The only jackal we saw, running away very quickly

A magnificent kudu bull browsing on a bush

A Burchell's Zebra mare

A herd of Burchell's zebra. They have shadow stripes between the black stripes

A warthog (Phacochoerus africanus) watches a Hadeda ibis (Bostrychia hagedash)

Burchell's Zebra mare

A female warthog (Phacochoerus africanus)

The early morning light is so clear and we certainly found photogenic subjects
We first visited the hide at Spekboom. It seemed very quiet
and then suddenly a bull elephant arrived and started to have a shower in the small waterhole

followed by a herd. It was immediately muddied as they frolicked and stamped and squirted water all over themselves
But as more joined in, it became very muddy, so they had a mud bath

Out of my way! An elephant gives another member of her herd a push at the Spekboom waterhole
There was lots of rumbling aggression

Baby Shower. A baby elephant bathing with its mother and the herd

mud bath

Bathing the baby - Another new baby elephant bathing with the family

Mud Shower - A bull elephant showers himself with mud

A warthog on its knees, feeding

Tortoise in a hurry. An angulate tortoise (Chersina angulata) making good progress along a road

Then we went off to the larger Hapoor dam and there were even more elephants having drinks and baths

We drove around to many of the key points and saw a couple more ‘must haves’ for our sightings list, until it was midday, when we came back to our accommodation, River Front Estate for some R&R and lunch

The animals tend to get lost in the thick bush in the midday heat and it is not worth staying
We had a great afternoon ‘at home’, reading, doing some washing

and just admiring the garden

Most of our photos were taken from windows in our car,
just a few are from viewpoints where, at your own risk, you can get out of your car

Move! One young bull elephant gives another a shove from behind at the Hapoor waterhole

Show some respect! A large female elephant looks at a calf which pushed its way past her

Going down the road to a waterhole, we suddenly saw a very large bull elephant walking up the road towards us, and we sat quietly. The boss! There was no way we could get past him, so John decided that it might be prudent to back away from him, as his ears were flapping a little – it can be a sign of tension or even aggression. And just us he was nearing us again, he veered off the road and disappeared into the bush

Friends - Two Burchell's Zebras

Stripes. A head on view of a Burchell's zebra

Big Ears. A baby elephant with ears extended, learning how to use his body!

Pachyderm Madonna. An elephant mother with her two children at a waterhole

We turned back to the Main entrance and did then see a few elephants heading up the hill,
but very little other natural life except a few ducks, aka Egyptian geese




A small herd of elephants in a very small waterhole

Home to make a simple Grabouw wors braai on our stoep, which we had with a very good Rhebokskloof red, The MGS 2012, which had been buried in our cellar and came with us on holiday. A blend of Mourvedre, Grenache, Shiraz, it improves as you enjoy it. There had been lots of cloud and we heard it might rain a little the next day. Mixed emotions on that one. That night, for the first time, it was cold

Next morning, we headed back to the park for our last full day, but, despite going back to all the popular places for animals, nothing was moving. John said they had gone away for the weekend; it was Friday after all. He was right, all the Ellies had packed their trunks and gone off to the beach for the weekend. Or, and this is Lynne's cockamamie theory, they can count to 7 so, every five days, they disappear when the weekenders descend on the park. We drove right down to the southern gate at about 11h30 and saw nothing, absolutely nothing, except bushes and a few animals in the distance, with the dunes and the Indian ocean in the background

then a red hartebeest bull browsing on a hill

And then we had a bit of an adventure. When we turned around to go back up the steep hill, suddenly there was an enormous brown bull elephant blocking the road with his bulk, moving his huge table top feet so, so slowly as he crept up the hill, it was almost a four time slow waltz he swayed so much. As the comic in the white VW van below, who had just come down, said to us as he passed, "you are now in for a long wait"

The ears were flapping and he kept turning round to see what we were doing. We were doing nothing, too timid to try to pass this beautiful beast! As he ascended, one footstep every 4 seconds, we allowed him lots of 'leg room' and followed slowly in fits and starts. It took us nearly 20 minutes to get to the top. You never want to anger or take on a huge elephant when driving a silver grey car. When he passed this blue car, he finally disappeared into the bush and we heaved a huge sigh of relief

We then visited several water holes and saw only a few zebra
Even at the hide only one elephant, not stopping, and a couple more on the road to the gate

Hartebeest, zebras and warthog at a Partial Exclusion waterhole,

designed to allow them safe drinking when elephants ravage their water sources

And the next morning we were off to Plettenberg Bay via Uitenhage

but before that we finished our visit with supper at the Cattle Baron in the Park (Click here)

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Posted by MENU at 5:59 pm 1 comments
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