Coffee Craze Reaches Jonkershoek
“We can’t compete with La Motte financially,” admits Oude Nektar owner Hans-Peter Schröder “so we do things differently. We let our environment do the talking.” Which this Sunday morning was shouting in a raucous dialect of frog. For we w...
Feasting in Franschhoek
The amaretto panna cota with blueberries and almond was served at 1am this morning. But not to me, as cosmopolitan blogger Clare Mack had issued a bread and dessert fatwa against fat and as the Monkees sang, “I’m a believer…” ...
French Finesse with Fruit
Off to Muratie at lunchtime to plant trees in honour of octogenarian Spatz Sperling, of Delheim fame. As a warm up, Kim and Rijk Melck (pictured below, together with Hans-Peter Schröder from Oude Nektar) treated the tree huggers to oysters from Sue B...
Changing of the Pinotage Guards
They’re changing guards at Pinotage Palace. The news was relayed by Absa bank at their Top Ten function this afternoon: Stellenbosch had only two wines in the Top Ten (Danie Steytler’s Kaapzicht 2007 and a University of Stellenbosch wine called Di...
Cullinan Gems
The world’s biggest diamond was found in the Cullinan mine outside Pretoria over a century ago but the Cullinans are still pulling out gems. This time in Johannesburg, at the annual Juliet Cullinan Wine Festival, which attracts the glitterati of the...
Pinotage @ 39,000 feet
Ever wonder why in a metric country like SA, pilots still announce the flying height in imperial units? Perhaps 39,000 feet sounds safer than 12 Kilometers. Flight SA362 from Cape Town to Johannesburg was flying at 39,000 feet when the steward asked ...
It’s Raining Swedes
As Grande Roche head sommelier Josephine Gutentoft poured me a glass of Paul Cluver Noble Late Harvest 2009 as accompaniment to my topfenknoedel dessert at Bosman’s Restaurant last night, conversation turned to why three of the perhaps half-a-dozen q...
Stieg Larsson and Systembolaget
For a country that didn’t allow its womenfolk to drink at all in the 19th century, Swedish ladies are certainly catching up. Two svelte Swedish sisters turned in a sterling performance at the Nederburg Auction this morning: Marie Nygren and Sara Nor...
