Wednesday, September 28, 2016

This Week's MENU. Nederburg Auction 2016, Amorim Cap Classique Challenge, 1821 Grand Constance comes home, Asian Style Beef salad, Durbanville Hills Rhinofields Sauvignon

A bee harvests the delights of an orange blossom
We wish all our Jewish readers Shanah Tovah and well over the Fast
Another great week of wine and some good food. Our car came back to us just in time for a period of intense travel. The festival season is beginning and we are having to visit Franschhoek, Stellenbosch, Durbanville, Darling and Robertson all in the next couple of weeks. Our petrol bill goes sky high and we really appreciate it when the event organisers arrange transport for us. This is the height of the media season and the diary is rather full, so we will have lots to tell you about

We are having a problem sending MENU by email. When we called our service provider, MWeb, to ask why we could only send out to about 20 addresses per hour, we were told that they have a new policy which means that bulk mailing is no longer possible from any account and that this applies to all service providers. They said that the only way round it is to re-jig our mailing list of over 5000 addresses into groups of 20 instead of the 250 or so we've used up to now. Eveb that isn’t working, so we are looking at alternative ways of sending the email version to you

What we need to ask of all our subscribers is to follow us on Twitter, Facebook or Google+, so that all our stories and MENU can be accessed as they are published, so that we can all get round this obstacle
The Nederburg Auction 2016      This year's Nederburg Auction had 146 items, 1034 lots, 10 506 litres of wine to auction and made a final total of R7 593 200 with total sales increasing by 23% over last year, in spite of a slightly lower volume on sale of 4% from the 2015. Tsogo Sun was the top buyer for 2016, with a total of just over R1 million, followed by the SPAR group and the Singita group of luxury lodges. We attended on Saturday and had an interesting and enjoyable day. We didnt buy anything this year, the high prices were daunting
A total of 18 lots were sold at the exciting annual Nederburg Charity Auction taken by Roland Peens during lunch, which raised just over R500 000 for two community-based organisations, the Breytenbach Centre in Wellington and the Hope Through Action project in Paarl. The highest price achieved was R70,000 paid for a single 750ml bottle of Petrus, 1988, signed by Christian Moueix that was donated by auctioneer Anthony Barne MW. If you would like the see the results in details go here https://www.nederburgauction.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/2016-Results.pdf
A Historical “Home Coming” at Groot Constantia     Groot Constantia brought home an 1821 bottle of its famed Grand Constance. Groot Constantia was the successful bidder recently in an overseas auction for a 195 year old bottle of Grand Constance 1821, a wine that was produced in the Groot Constantia Cloete Cellar. They were so delighted at acquiring the wine and returning it to its origin that they invited a group of us to celebrate its return last week. They also promised a surprise event during the day
The 15th year of the Amorim Cap Classique Challenge     The awards ceremony for this prestigious competition, sponsored by Portuguese cork producer Amorim, was held last Wednesday at the Twelve Apostles Hotel. There were 113 entries for the four categories: Blanc de Blancs, Rosé, Blended Brut and a Museum Class for wines including and before the 2008 vintage. And there were a few surprises this year. The labels usually at the top were not up there and two producers both took home two top awards. The wines are tasted blind by a panel of experienced judges and this year there was a change in judging procedures in that categories were narrowed, with judging no longer being done separately on vintage and non-vintage wines. And to promote inclusivity among producers, entries were open to non-members of the Cap Classique Producers Association. The winners are: Best Brut and Overall Competition Winner: Anura Brut 2011; Best Rosé: J.C. Le Roux Pinot Noir Rosé 2010; Best Blanc de Blanc: Colmant Brut Chardonnay NV; Best Museum Class: J.C. Le Roux Scintilla Vintage Reserve 2008; Frans Malan Legacy Award: John and Erica Platter
On the Wine Menu this week: Durbanville Hills Rhinofields Sauvignon blanc 2013     Lees and pears on the nose complemented with vanilla. Layers of crisp clean fruit delight in their complexity. Pears, apricots, pineapple add to the tingle. Such a good wine to pair with food
This is an easy to assemble salad using left over-beef. You can add lots of other different things like blanched mange tout peas, or thin beans, baby corn, bok choy, baby spinach, pea shoots, radishes or whatever edible items you have in the garden or in the fridge. Lynne used spekboom, nasturtium, and huge oxalis leaves
300g cooked beef from a roast, cut in thin slices - Sesame oil - Ponzu sauce - Tamari sauce - watercress - rocket - carrot strips - celery thinly sliced - one small bulb of fennel, thinly sliced - 8 baby tomatoes , sliced in half- herbs and assorted foraged leaves from your garden - basil leaves, torn - pumpkin seeds - sunflower seeds - black and white sesame seeds - light soy sauce - sweet chilli sauce - hot chilli sauce - soba noodles
Dress the beef with a dessert spoonful of both Ponzu and Tamari and set aside
Salad dressing
1T Ponzu - 1 T light soy sauce - 1 T sweet chilli sauce - 1t sesame oil - 1 t freshly grated ginger - 1 t hot chilli sauce
Cook the soba noodles, drain and while still hot pour over a teaspoonful of sesame oil, 1T sesame seeds - 1 T light soy. Allow to cool.
When the noodles are cool, put them into a wide dish. Mix up the salad ingredients and layer them on top of the noodles, arrange the beef slices on top and when ready to eat, pour over the dressing
1 T = 1 Tablespoon 1t = teaspoon




27th September 2016
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