Tag: <span>wine</span>

Cds 2017 10 01 07 28 33

The Constant winelands

Last Sunday was one of my favorite races in Cape Town. The Grape Run is a half-marathon (21.1k) race through the vineyards of the Constantia wine farms. The scenery is spectacular, and for a total elevation of over 420m, for a half marathon it’s a pretty tough run. Note I say run and not race. While of course you can race it, this is an opportunity to enjoy the route, take a few photos, and of course stop for the mid-race wine-tasting. Yes you heard correctly. There is a 10k wine table, serving Klein Constantia wines.

While you almost never get wine on a race, this particular wine-tasting is a Grape Run tradition, it wouldn’t be quite the same without it!

Cds 2017 10 01 07 25 05
Running around one of the farm dams

Cds 2017 10 01 07 28 42
At least the farm dams still have water, so if we run out of water in Cape Town we can still drink Constantia wine

Cds 2017 10 01 07 29 50
Mid-race fuel

Cds 2017 10 01 08 02 38
Because its on the farm roads, there are almost no supporters, except for the occasional overprotective cow and calf.

Cape Town Running

Cds IMG 2641
This is how you get a carafe of wine in Aegina – a simple copper cup and a small glass. While the cup may not look very big, it holds a healthy 500ml wine. And the Greek wine is surprisingly good; very light and refreshing. And unlike South African wine the alcohol is only around 11% or so, not the crazy 14-15% of our red wines. I could get quite used to this wine!

Travel

On Friday evening, Lois and I went to the Taste of Cape Town festival. It was an amazing mix of great food, fantastic wines, and a massive selection of micro-beer. In short, a great evening!

I think that the best part of it was that most of the vendors were small independent companies making and selling great produce, and there was so much to choose from. Several restaurants were selling starter portions of their signature dishes, so both Lois and I filled up on a selection of small meals.

Spices

Fresh Spices from the Jewel of India; their curry was amazing. Lois had the vege and myself a chicken curry.

cds-IMG_6275

Some of the the beer from the Craft Beer Project; mostly sourced from micro-breweries. We shared a lovely pear and then apple cider.

cds-IMG_6302

French Onion Soup and Muscles.

The festival is spread out on a field at the Green Point Cricket Club, and you can park in the Stadium just across the road. This is the first time that we have been to the fair, but it was a lovely way to spend a Friday evening, and I am sure that we will both be back next year.

Yes there are loads of people, but it is so spread out that you hardly feel crowded at all.

Here are a few more pics.

Cape Town Food and Drink

Buitenverwachting manor house

Living in the Cape, you are surrounded by beautiful old Cape Dutch houses. This is the main residence at Buitenverwachting in Constantia. Imaging waking up every morning to that wonderful view of the Constantia vineyards?

Of course while you are there, visit the tasting room, and stock up on their wonderful wines. Or stay for a picnic or a meal in their excellent restaurant.

If you are lucky you might even be able to visit the cellar and see the wines quietly maturing in the barrels.

Cape Town

Wine barrels

In the distant past, I was very lucky to make wine at Buitenverwachting wine farm in Constantia, so it was great to be back in the cellar at the weekend (even if just for a few minutes to collect some stuff ). While I was there I grabbed this photo of these barrels in the maturation cellar. Each barrel contains 225l wine. At a rough estimate, this room contains about 200 barrels, which is 45,000l wine.

That should be enough to keep anybody quiet for a few days.Buitenverwachting , which means  “Beyond Expectation”, makes some of the top wines in South Africa. Get a bottle of the Christine if you can find one, truly amazing.

Cape Town

Last Sunday, we decided to drive to Wellington for lunch and some wine tasting. What we had completely forgotten is that small towns like Wellington close on a Sunday. Absolutely nothing was open. Well almost nothing…

Dunstone wines

Dunstone wines

But, it was still wonderful weather, so we were not going to let that stop us. So with the help of some friends who live in the area (thanks Doug from PT Productions and Dawn from Jorgensen Distillery), we managed to find what was probably the only open place in Wellington, but also one of the nicest restaurants I have ever been to. It is called The Stone Kitchen, and it is found on the Dunstone wine estate. At about 2 hectors of vines, it is a tiny little estate but with some fabulous wine. But the restaurant was great, the food was simple, fresh and tasty.

When we arrived they were full, but after a quick wine tasting at the bar counter (we finally got our wine tasting), they found us a table. The chef came out to introduce the menu, and we made our choices.

Warthog burger

Warthog Burger

I had a grated warthog burger, with onion marmalade and cheese, and Lois had the goat’s cheese salad. Now for Lois to eat goat anything is pretty amazing! But at the chef’s instance she tried some of the goat cheese, and she loved it. She actually asked where they got such good goat’s cheese (that does not taste like, well…goat). I could tell you the answer but I will save that for a future post.

The amazing chef

The chef

So two suggestions. Firstly if you want to go wine tasting on a Sunday, stick to the well-known areas like Stellenbosch or Paarl, and if you want a fantastic meal, goto the Stone Kitchen (but best to book – they were very full). And their sauvignon blanc and merlot are both brillant wines. We took a few bottle of each home with us.

Cape Town Food and Drink

Welmoed wines

Yesterday we took some friends winetasting and to lunch in Stellenbosch. We started off at Welmoed, an old favourite of ours. I love visiting this farm because they have a great selection of wines at great prices, and because the staff are always helpful and friendly. I have only had good experiences there, and I almost always have some of their wine in my fridge.

Hartenberg picnics

Then we went to Hartenberg for lunch. They also have some wonderful wines and a great tasting room (you actually sit down at tables and the staff come around and describe the wines and let you taste them). But Hartenberg wines are clearly of a different quality (and at over double the price of Welmoed wines) clearly in a different price range.

Hartenberg make a lovely picnic lunch which includes breads, cold meat, chicken, cheeses and dessert for R120 per person. You can sit outside the tasting room, or at one of the many tables scattered around the gardens. I have had a few picnics at Hartenberg and it is also a lovely experience.

A very civilised way to spend a Saturday.

Cape Town

The vineyards in Constantia are looking beautiful at the moment; the landscape is green as far as the eye can see. This is not really surprising considering that the earliest of the grapes will be harvested in less than two months.

Constantia is the oldest wine region in South Africa, and this particular vineyard is on Klein Constantia, home of the famous Vin de Constance, the wine of Charles Dickens, Jane Austen and Napoleon Bonaparte.

It is a privilege to live in Cape Town; it takes me two minutes to get to the beach, and 10 minutes in the opposite direction to be tasting wine in Constantia.  So grocery shopping this morning, followed by a quick winetasting. A very civilised Saturday.

Cape Town Travel

Rory Braai Dec 2008 065The braai is probably one of South Africa’s most traditional meals. It is practised by all cultures in South Africa, and as often as possible! Probably the only thing that will prevent a South African from having a braai is a rugby game, in which case they will probably simply braai before or after the game!

If you drive through any suburb in South Africa on a summer weekend, you will smell the delicious smell of grilling meat.

Braaing is a very casual and social affair, but there it is taken quite seriously by the cook. You simply NEVER interfere with somebody else’s braai without asking them very politely first (even if the meat is burning!)

So, what exactly is a braai?

Very simple really, it is a South African BBQ. However, it is almost always cooked on wood or charcoal – very seldom on gas. A braai will typically consist of one or more of the following:

  • lamb cutlets (chops)
  • sausage (boere wors – literally farm sausage made from beef)
  • traditional pork sausages
  • beef steak
  • chicken pieces or kebabs
  • beef or pork ribs

Let’s get going

You will need a braai (in which to make the fire). Many public picnic sites have brick braai’s available, or a Weber will do. You will also need wood or charcoal – we often buy “brikettes”, which are small round compressed pieces of charcoal.

Blitz, which is a paraffin-based firelighter, helps to get the fire going, but if you are a boy scout, matches and an axe will do!

Rory Braai Dec 2008 041

Put a few pieces of the blitz (firelighter) onto the grid
Rory Braai Dec 2008 042

Light the blitz. and give the coals a few minutes to start burning. Note that with the braai, you will always use “direct heat”.
Rory Braai Dec 2008 043

Lighting the wood fire
Rory Braai Dec 2008 049

Some nice coals starting to burn – it should take about 40 minutes to get good coals.
Rory Braai Dec 2008 053

While waiting for the wood to burn, cook some garlic bread on the fire.
Rory Braai Dec 2008 054

Garlic bread ready to eat – yummy!
Rory Braai Dec 2008 057

From top to bottom – wors (beef sausage), chicken, and chicken kebabs in the front. You can also see some ostrich kebabs at the top on the far right.
Rory Braai Dec 2008 055

Braaing is thirsty work – you will need plenty of liquid refreshments
Rory Braai Dec 2008 060

When you can hold your hand above the grid for three seconds, you are ready to cook. Put the meat onto the grid, turning every few minutes or so.
Rory Braai Dec 2008 062

Looking good – almost ready to eat.
Rory Braai Dec 2008 065

After about two beers (40 minutes or so), you are ready to eat, so dig in!
Rory Braai Dec 2008 066

Ready to eat – looks great, doesn’t it?
Rory Braai Dec 2008 070

After a good braai, the plates will be empty!
Rory Braai Dec 2008 072

One more think, we often have “bring and braai’s”, in which the host supplies the fire, rolls and salads, and the guests all bring their own meat and drinks. Simple and easy.

Cape Town Food and Drink

We could not drive through the village of Chateauneuf du Pape without stopping for a wine tasting of their world-renown wines. While the village itself is very small, there are many wine farms and tasting ‘caves’ (cellar) in and around the village.

We tried to use the local version of the Platter’s wine guide, but without any success. So we parked in the village and walked into two caves at random. In France, you do not taste wine according to a varietals, but rather according to a vintage. Each farm in an area makes basically the same blend of wine, according to a set of very complicated appellation rules’. This means that when tasting, you will not taste a cabernet or a shiraz, but rather a 2001 or 2002.

The first cave turned out to be the local tourist centre, and while the wines very good, I did have a sense of ‘shunting the tourists through’ without much attention.

Cds 2005 07 02 12 57 01 OLYMPUS IMAGING CORP X450 D535Z C370Z

Our experience at the second was very different. The proprietor did not speak any English, and we spoke very bad French, but this did not seem to be a problem to any of us. We had a lovely tasting of some superb wines. We learned all about the ageing process, what goes into the blends, and even ended up discussing the use of sulphar in the wine – all in French! This was with much gesturing and scribbling on paper. It was a fantastic tasting, and we even managed to buy some non-appellation wines at a really good price.

While the wines we tasted were really fantastic, the good French wines are very expensive, even in France. The cheaper Chateauneuf du Pape wines started at about 20 euros, which is about R160. For R160 you can get some really fantastic wines.

Of interest is that in France the farms pay tax on the wine depending on how many capsules are used. So when you taste wine there are no capsules on the bottles. These are only added when you buy the wine. Hence the farm does not pay tax on wine used for tastings.

Travel