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MENU
Main Ingredient’s weekly E-Journal
Gourmet Foods, Ingredients & Fine Wines
Eat In Guide’s Outstanding Outlet Award Winner from 2006 to 2010
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Rivierzicht, near Robertson. Flooded accommodation in the Breede River
In this week’s MENU:
• Products
• Our market activities
• Taste of Helderberg
• Sea Point’s Backyard Grill
• Wacky Wine
• Dewetshof chardonnays
• New Robertson Restaurant, Mo & Rose
• Cape Port Producers’ Awards
• Events and Restaurant specials
• Wine courses & cooking classes
Products We have expanded the new range of tangy French mustards, which sold out
last Saturday. For those and any other products you need, you can access our product
list and see pictures in our website. If you can’t find what you need, let us know and
we will try to find it for you. Until our online shop is ready, drop us an email and we
will help you. We are very happy to see that traffic on our website is increasing and
more orders are coming from it.
We have a lot of fun putting MENU together each week and, of course, doing the
things we write about, but making it possible for you to enjoy rare and wonderful

2. gourmet foods is what drives our business. We stock a good range of ingredients and
delicious ready-made gourmet foods. You can contact us by email or phone, or through
our website. We can send your requirements to you anywhere in South Africa.
Our market activities Come and visit us at the Old Biscuit Mill’s brilliant, exciting
and atmospheric Neighbourgoods Market, as always, this Saturday and every Saturday
between 09h00 and 14h00. Tip: Some visitors tell us how they struggle to find parking.
Click here for a map. We will be back at Long Beach Mall on Friday 22nd June from
09h00 to 16h00. We look forward to seeing you there.
Sometimes, when people see the sort of week we have had (and often have) they ask us
“ How do you do it?”. We don’t know how, we just do. Except to say that we both have
a great deal of energy (long may that last) and, it seems, less need for sleep than other
people. And we absolutely LOVE what we do. There were two more events we were
invited to yesterday and today that we simply don’t have time to write about, so you
can read all about them in next week’s MENU.
Taste of Helderberg Festival This was held at the Lord Charles Hotel between 5
and 9 pm on Thursday. We always wonder why some areas put on such a short show
without an immediate follow-up on their farms, but we enjoy tasting the wines together
in one location and seeing if there is an area profile. We couldn’t detect anything
particular on Thursday at the show, but had a lovely time. Annareth Bolton, CEO of the
Stellenbosch Wine Routes, arranged a microbus for a few of us in the media and we are
very grateful indeed - traffic was horrible at that time of the day; major accidents along
the N2 caused the trip to take nearly 1½ hours instead of ¾ of an hour. And, because
the weather was so ugly, we were very relieved that we didn’t have to drive back. There
were several local restaurants showing their food, offering tasting portions for R25 to
R30 and we had a lovely supper tasting some of these and matching them to the local
wines which were associated with the restaurants. See the attached photos and blog.
We loved Eikendal’s wines, Grangehurst is always top of our list for the area and we
bought some of the very reasonably priced Sauvignon and Chardonnay from Stonewall.
Backyard Grill Local friends introduced us to this newly opened restaurant in
Regent Road in Sea Point, just opposite the Weitzman Centre and near New York Bagels.
They do indeed have an outside grill, an inside kitchen and, besides the indoor
restaurant, they have a separate relaxing room with a bar, sofas and big screen TV; a
great place to chill and meet your friends before enjoying the food. The outside area
will be lovely in summer but the restaurant is warm and comfortable in the current
wintry weather. The food is quite simple, very well cooked and nicely presented. You
choose your own meat or seafood from the display fridge and they cook it on the grill.
Salads, starches and vegetables are optional. The enthusiastic and friendly owner, Jason
Shaw, has moved from Durban where he had a restaurant called Fish and he is loving Sea
Point.
We thought the squid was marvellous and will be back for more. Our friends are
piscatarians and they had very good food, including a plate of 10 huge tiger prawns,
mussels in a cream sauce and yellowtail, which was well-flavoured but slightly
overcooked. We had steak and a half rack of barbeque ribs. The puddings are really
delicious, and the coffee dark and strong, as we like it. Definitely a find for Sea Point
and not overly expensive. We are very pleased to see quality moving in and attracting
good custom. Their wine list is good and has a well-chosen range of wines at a range of
prices. Click here for the photographs and descriptions.
Wacky Wine Sunday We hauled ourselves out of bed enthusiastically at 6 am for
the third day running in order to get to Dewetshof in Robertson for their very interesting
guided tasting where they compared chardonnays grown in different terroirs. We made
the 11am start by a hair’s breadth. Johan de Wet and winemaker Mervyn Williams
presented the wines.

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First, we tasted the just bottled 2012 Bon Vallon, grown on rocky hillside soils and
compared it to the Limestone Hill, which is grown on clay-based soils which add richness
to the wine. This area has the highest free lime in South Africa and it so shows in the
wines.
The Bon Vallon is currently fruity, almost jube-jube, tropical on the nose and full of
citrus and stones at the moment. The sweet fruit nose belies the crisp dryness of the
wine and there is saltiness on the end. When it settles a little more it will be superb.
The Limestone Hill tank sample was still a little spritzy and had much more minerality
and weight. Full of grapefruit flavours, it has more elegance and is less tropical. It also
has salt on the end.
Then the Finesse 2010 Chardonnay from a slightly south facing hill site on stony soil with
high lime content, compared to The Site 2011 single vineyard Chardonnay. The vineyard
was established in 1986, Finesse has a smoky vanilla nose and, on the mouth, toasted
oak - then long flavours of citrus including grapefruit and limes and then minerality. This
is a wine that goes with everything and is Dewetshof’s biggest restaurant seller.
Then we got to the main reason for our visit: to taste the Bateleur 2009 together with
the Joseph Drouhin Clos de Mouches 2009 to see how wines which originated from the
same vines compared. See the blog for the tasting notes and photographs.
LOTS MORE LIFE FROM STONE .... Next, we rushed off to Springfield to taste
the new vintages of their two Sauvignons Blanc: Life From Stone and Special Cuvee and
some of their other wines. We liked them both so much that we bought a case of each.
They are very different each year, the Special Cuvée is showing best now, we think, and
the Life From Stone will be marvellous in a few months time. The Wild Yeast Chardonnay
has always been a favourite and the Work of Time and Whole Berry red blends are also
wonderfully fruity and deep.
We had a lovely lunch of divinely fresh braaied yellowtail in a citrus grill sauce, caught
and cooked by Abrie Bruwer, the owner winemaker, the previous day and a good Prego
Roll with a nice mixed salad. We followed our usual procedure, ate half and then
swopped plates, so we each got to eat both. We had a glass of the Special Cuvée with
lunch, enjoyed the view of the dam, the music, the company and the warming sunshine
before driving off to Zandvliet to taste a selection of their wines and chat to Dan de
Wet, who was in charge of the salmon and steak braai. They have moved the tasting and
food tent this year from the stables to the front of the manor house. We think this is a
great move: the stables are a little hard to find in the dark when you go there for the
food and wine events in the evening!
The weather was getting colder and the light was fading, so it was time to go to our
accommodation at Rivierzicht in the Goree River Valley, near Graham Beck. Our friends
the Grobbelaars always insist that we stay with them and we are very grateful indeed.
They run the very successful Rivierzicht camp site alongside the Breede River on their
farm. However, they were devastated this year when the river came down in flood again
last week, after the heavy rains in the Ceres mountains, and many people had to cancel
because most of the site was underwater (See the pictures by clicking here). It was an
extremely cold night and the temperature the next morning was below zero.
ROBERTSON HAS A NEW AND EXCITING RESTAURANT We wanted to take our
hosts out to dinner but, as the Wacky Wine Weekend finished at 4 on Sunday, we were
doubtful that anyone would be open. Elizma Botha, manager of the Robertson Wine
Valley publicity, who organises the whole Wacky Wine Weekend, came up with a
solution which was to go to Mo & Rose on Soekershof, who were prepared to stay open
that evening, and we managed to get a booking. See the food and details here. We had
a marvellous evening and probably stayed much too late, but we so enjoyed the food
and the hospitality that we couldn’t tear ourselves away. We look forward to having an
outdoor lunch there the next time we are in the area.

4. Marvellous Monday We love staying over on Monday when most people have gone
home, as it give us a chance to see people who might have been rushed off their feet on
Sunday; go to the butcher in Bonnievale, the cheese shop and other favourite venues.
First we went to Arendsig in Bonnievale, where Lourens van der Westhuizen was so
hospitable; he persuaded us to stay for over three hours while he generously ignored his
lunch and took us through barrel and tank tastings in the cellar and at the tasting room.
He makes wines for many other people in the two valleys and they are becoming widely
recognised as great wines. The farm has wonderful views of the river and they can do
lunches. We bought his chardonnay and cabernet and are looking forward to the release
of his superb Sauvignon blanc later this year. We tasted a tank sample and loved it.
CAPE PORT PRODUCERS AWARDS This was held on Tuesday at Muratie, that
wonderful character filled wine farm in the Knorhoek valley in Stellenbosch which
doesn’t seem to have changed in centuries. We met on the terrace, chatted to many of
the port makers and discovered that, not only were they announcing the top ten ports,
but a new award has been made and they announced the top ten wines made from port
varieties. Then we proceeded through to the cellar where all the winning ports and
wines were available to taste. We tasted a few and then sat down to lunch. Very
traditional food was served and it was perfectly prepared. While the awards were
presented by Dave Hughes, we started with good bread served with apricot jam and
grated cheese, were then served a spicy tomato based soup and went on to eat a
chicken pastei (Pie) which had marvellous flaky and buttery pastry and was served with
sweet strips of carrot, which acted as a good relish for the pie, and a huge mixed salad.
Dessert was crisp and dripping syrup koeksisters. We drank Muratie’s own Laurens
Campher white wine, a blend of Chenin, Verdelho, Viognier and Sauvignon Blanc that
went perfectly with the soup and chicken pie and then some of their excellent Shiraz,
before we and other members of the media plundered the tasting table of wines and
ports just to get a full understanding of the judges’ decisions. What is so interesting is
that the wines smell exactly like port, but without any sweetness, and many are elegant
and distinguished.
Notable for us were Axe Hill’s smooth, soft and deep wine 2011 Machado (axe in
Portuguese) made from Souzão, Touriga Nacional & Tinta Barocca with 33% Shiraz, and
Vergenoegd’s Runner Duck red 2009. We expected the Boplaas Tinta Chocolat 2011 and
the De Krans Tinta Mocha 2011 to be overly full of the chocolate and coffee mocha
flavours and, thank heavens, they are not, just very subtly showing the characteristics
mentioned. Of the ports, the Calitzdorp Cape Vintage 2009, the Boplaas Cape Tawny
Show Reserve and the KWV Classic Tawny, which was also the overall Port winner, all
impressed. The De Krans 2002 Cape Vintage Reserve Port is absolutely Christmas in a
bottle. You taste the Christmas pudding, the nuts, the oranges from your stocking and
the lovely smoky flavour of the fire all in one delicious glass. However, they were all
great wines and ports; we would have loved to have done justice to more of them. See
the pictures and details of the awards here.
Regrettably, with all this activity, we have hardly spent any time at home, so there has
been no time to work on a recipe this week.
Food and wine (and a few other) events for you to enjoy
There is a huge and rapidly growing variety of interesting things to occupy your
leisure time here in the Western Cape. There are so many interesting things to do in
our world of food and wine that we have made separate list for each month for which
we have information. To help you choose an event to visit, click on our Events
Calendar. All the events are listed in date order and we already have a large number of
exciting events to entertain you right through the year. Click here to access the
Calendar. You will need to be connected to the internet.
Learn about wine and cooking We have had a lot of enquiries from people who
want to learn more about wine. Cathy Marston and The Cape Wine Academy both run

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wine education courses, some very serious and others more geared to fun. You can see
details here.
Chez Gourmet in Claremont has a programme of cooking classes. A calendar of their
classes can be seen here. Pete Ayub, who makes our very popular Prego sauce, runs
evening cooking classes at Sense of Taste, his catering company in Maitland. We can
recommend them very highly, having enjoyed his seafood course. Check his programme
here.
Restaurant Special offers. Some more restaurants have responded to our request
for an update of their special offers and we have, therefore, updated our list of
restaurant special offers. Click here to access it. These Specials have been sent to us
by the restaurants or their PR agencies. We have not personally tried all of them and
their listing here should not always be taken as a recommendation from ourselves. If
they don’t update us, we can’t be responsible for any inaccuracies in the list. When we
have tried it, we’ve put in our observations. We have cut out the flowery adjectives etc.
that so many have sent, to give you the essentials. Click on the name to access the
relevant website. All communication should be with the individual restaurants.
14th June 2012
Remember - if you can’t find something, we’ll do our best to get it for you, and, if
you’re in Cape Town or elsewhere in the country, we can send it to you! Check our
product list for details and prices.
PS If a word or name is in bold type and underlined, click on it for more information
Phones: +27 21 439 3169 / 083 229 1172 / 083 656 4169
Postal address: 60 Arthurs Rd, Sea Point 8005
Our Adamastor & Bacchus© tailor-made Wine, Food and Photo tours take small groups
(up to 6) to specialist wine producers who make the best of South Africa’s wines. Have
fun while you learn more about wine and how it is made! Tours can be conducted in
English, German, Norwegian or Dutch flavoured Afrikaans.
Recommendations of products and outside events are not solicited or charged for, and
are made at the authors’ pleasure. All photographs, recipes and text used in these
newsletters are ©John & Lynne Ford, Adamastor & Bacchus. Our restaurant reviews are
usually unsolicited. We prefer to pay for our meals and not be paid in any way by
anyone. Whether we are invited or go independently, we don’t feel bad if we say we
didn’t like it. Honesty is indeed our best policy. While every effort is made to avoid
mistakes, we are human and they do creep in occasionally, for which we apologise. Our
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