handtomouth

Perhaps my memory is errant, but this seasons seems to have had more fires than usual, certainly more fires across areas that are planted to vine. In the valley where I live, the scent of smoke has re-prioritised many a day’s plans, with neighbours dropping everything and rushing out to help.
Having seen a couple of these fires from closer quarters, with a wind rushing the flames across the tinder of dry vegetation, the destructive wonder of a brush fire is truly fearsome. Continue reading ‘Fire in wine’

Christian Eedes recently wrote an account of a new releases tasting at the winery Clos Malverne in his online wine column, Gulp. Proprietor Seymour Pritchard’s comments led Eedes to observe that the cellar had made a decision to back down from picking their grapes quite as late as they used to. While the style of wine made from these riper grapes seemed to have brought the winery successes in the short term, Pritchard came to the conclusion that they were not doing the label any good in the medium term. Continue reading ‘When is a grape ripe?’

The latest good news is that hanging out in bars is good for your health. British researchers have found that. It’s like having a hobby that helps you relax, helping those stress manacles to slip from your weary wrists. Continue reading ‘Good bar, sit!’

Bafferts, Boodles, Broker’s, Dirty Olive and Old Raj. What the hell am I talking about? If you know, you can proudly go around telling people that you are a sophisticate. Continue reading ‘Martini truths’

For a witty but walloping account of a Brit food writer’s visit to the Cape, read this.

We have become thrill-seeking eaters when it comes to food and wine. As our foods become more and more saturated with fats, sugars and salts (which mask the underlying flavours) we need more and more flavour enhancers or flavour substitutes to balance these and make our food taste like something.
We are all familiar with the black pepper-wielding waitress, we usually accept her offer – but does the food really need it? Continue reading ‘Sweet thrills’

If you’ve always wanted to participate in wine-making, try the virtual harvest that’s offered by the Vilafonte vilafonteharvest blog. It’s an all-star cast of wine-makers and marketers and the wine is firmly trained at the USA market, so some good technical info mixed into the sheer hard work and lunacy of chasing the ripening berries. I’ve tried both current release wines and they are very plush babies. The “M” which is merlot-driven is my favourite, the “C” is more about cabernet.

A new restaurant on the Cape scene is almost open, with Bruce Robertson at the pots. The name is now out in the open – it’s called “The Showroom” for a couple of reasons. First, it’s a very visual affair, with food on translucent plates and glass between triple volume spaces. Also, one of the walls of the restaurant shows the neighbouring luxury car showroom. But mainly because Bruce will be on show, cooking in front of people. There is also an interesting twist to the menu (it’s a concept menu, yes) – more on this later. The header is a clue…

Perhaps I am spoilt by all the splendour of the Cape winelands (in fact I have no doubt I am) but these days a winery must have something extra to strike me as truly beautiful. As precociously attractive as many of the new wineries are, and as obviously scenic as sweeping vineyards are, there is little that can replace the harmony of history.
Diemersdal is a case in point. Continue reading ‘Diemersdal wines’

Not just launched, but website just up, is the Green Mountain Eco-route – the world’s first wine and biodiversity route. What does this mean? Simply that wine and food exploration are linked to eco-activities like hiking, biking, birding and general fun in the mountain. There is also a sustainability and preservation angle, and a jobs angle. What’s fun about it for me is that this is where I now live, in the curious town of Bot River, part of the route. Here, the wines of Beaumont are the vins de table, and the Bot River Hotel has great music on weekends and an eccentric restaurant.

Again tonight reminded of the fact that we so often drink our wines far too warm – not so much the whites which come in the standard ice buckets – but the reds, which are served from the shelf. Hopefully this shelf is not above the griller (though this is known), but even so, with daytime temperatures of over 35 degrees centigrade this (and every summer), a red wine is well above optimal drinking temperature. “Room” temperature is 16-18 degrees, not 25 plus! So ice bucket your reds, even if the staff think you’re eccentric.

Now living in a wine growing part of the Walker Bay, there are moves afoot to splinter this region into smaller wards. The Hemel en Aarde Valley, home to illustrious wineries like Hamilton Russell and Bouchard Finlayson, have petitioned and tramped on a few toes to demarcate their valley as a separate ward. Meanwhile, where I stay, the Bot River Valley, there are ideas to form a ward for this area. In the meanwhile, it strikes me, the best known (if any can be considered well known) is Walker Bay – so why not trade on that? Any comments from those not immediately in the wine scene? Which of the names have currency?

I am a fan of BYO. Restaurateurs don’t like it because they make exorbitant mark-ups on wine and booze in general. But the truth is that it is only in cities that are close to wine regions that this is even considered normal. So perhaps we should think of it as a privilege? How much are you willing to pay for this privilege? I say R25 is fine, even R30 – that way everyone should be happy. The restaurant is paying for its “washing” and “stemware” costs (even though places that bleat tend not to have decent glasses, never mind a useful wine list). A place that is not obviously using wine as an easy cash-cow will more often encourage me to order from the list too… It always sparks debate, like this conversation on Vinography.

Although considered a natural pairing, matching these two is surprisingly difficult, some would argue impossible but don’t tell this to thousands of book clubs and the legions of people that love a little cheese with their wine.

The reason is simple – they are both organic foods, they are both living, changing, slightly wild foods. Continue reading ‘More truth about cheese & wine’

We are thrill-seeking eaters. As our foods become more and more saturated
with fats, sugars and salts (which mask “true” flavours) we need more and
more flavour enhancers or flavour substitutes. We have all experienced the
black pepper-wielding waitress, we accept the offer – but does the food need
it? Or does our palate need the spike? Same with salt, with chilli sauce (or
Tabasco on oysters), wasabi, mustard sauce, dressings. Our plates are now
accustomed to more and more salt, sugar, fat; these mask the original
flavour of ingredients. Saturation also masks distinctions of subtlety and
difference. What is the real flavour of vanilla? Do you remember it? Or,
more likely, you know vanilla as that sweet extract that goes into “vanilla”
cake and ice-cream.
Why also do restaurants have to continually change their menus? A good dish
should be enjoyed over and over, like the sound of a favourite piece of
music, it changes according to your knowledge and your mood, and there are
subtle changes according to the particular ingredients’ variation. But we
always want something new.
Along the way, we also seem to have forsaken the taste of bitterness – the
unsweetened coffee, the dry tannin of a classic red wine. We prefer our
coffee with milk foam and sugar, our wine with residual sugar and lashings
of new (sweet-tasting) oak – all this reduces bitterness. But bitterness
adds complexity to the palate, though it is an acquired taste. Our palates
are in too much of a hurry, the quick fix is in order. And yet we miss
something and replace it with more, and more.