Caro Alberts will manage the kitchen for Tafelpraatjies, giving her the opportunity to showcase her flair by taking traditional Afrikaans cuisine and re-inventing it with ‘nuwe maniere en idees’. From humble pumpkin fritters with salted caramel sauce to delicacies such as koeksisters with lemongrass and ginger syrup, Soutribbetjie, Waterblommetjiebredie and biltong – it’s all about ‘wat ís nuut op die rak’. (What’s new on the shelf)

The presenters will be personalities from the recently established Smile90.4FM radio station.

Tickets to the Show cost R110 for adults for R55 for children. This includes entrance to many free theatre events and visitors will also receive a coupon book that will allow for substantial savings and special offers.

26/04/2013: Modern packaging plays an enormously important role in the marketing of our products. It’s the silent salesman that beckons to the customer from the shelf of the store. This is why the labels of wines are so vitally important. They have to convey so many messages in such a short time. As the prospective customer walks past, the label must tell whether the wine is a serious one or a frivolous “braai”  or “poolside” wine. It must indicate whether the wine is sweet or dry, expensive or cheap.
No wonder wine producers spend thousand of rands hiring professional label designers.
The same goers for everything from potato crisps to cameras and cellphones. They’re swathed in packets, foam padding, cardboard fillers, promotion leaflets, written guarantees and plastic seals.
Are we drowning the world in packaging material? Is it really a blessing or a curse?
Every day thousands of tons of packaging material are added to every city’s garbage mountain. Aluminium foil, styrofoam, glass, many kinds of plastic, cardboard and metal finds its way on to the dump.
Much of it could be recycled, but people are lazy. When provision is made for the collection of recyclable material people go for it in a big way. In Fish Hoek, where I live, the recycling bags are collected every week and are usually packed to the brim. Our wheelie bins are relatively empty.
But ask us to take our recycling to a collection point on the other side of town and it’s just too much effort. Into the garbage bin it goes.
While we’re drowning our planet in packaging, we have to admit that modern packaging has contributed a great deal to the general standard of health. In the old days when groceries came in bulk bags and barrels and were weighed out for customers there were always flies buzzing round the sugar bags and nothing to stop a passing dog peeing on the sacks of flour stacked on the floor. You never knew who had fingered the food you selected.
Today the food is not only hygienically sealed, but every package is printed with details of the contents.
We know what we’re buying (or we should) and how long it will remain fresh. The packaging is part of the deal.
Somewhere in this mad commercial world there has to be a compromise. We all need to spend time deciding how to reduce the amount of garbage we add to the city’s trash mountain.
Modern packaging has saved lives. It could also destroy our environment unless we use it responsibly.

Waiting on tables is a real job

One of the things that impressed me during my recent brief visit to Italy was the professionalism of waiters and sommeliers.

Here in South Africa waiting at tables if often regarded as a ” stop-gap” occupation while the waiter looks for a ” real ” job. As for sommeliers, there are not many around. Most restaurant just leave it to the waiter to serve the wine. Sometimes their wine knowledge consists of “red or white?”

At local wine events they often employ students to pour the wine. It’s obviously a way for them to earn a few rands of pocket money, and I guess that’s a good thing.

At the judging of the Vinitaly competition all the wines were poured by professional and highly trained sommeliers. They’re wore the uniform of professionals – black jackets and aprons, white shirts and black bow-ties. They all wore the silver tastevin on a chain around their necks with pride.

The sommelier who poured wines for our panel was an elegant woman called Dorina, owner if the Gucci Cafe in Florence. She probably knew as much about wine as many of the judges. She was proud to be a member of the Vinitaly pouring team. There was certainly nothing part-time about it.

In the restaurants I visited I was served by obviously professional waiters who could discuss each dish and make well considered recommendations. Sommeliers asked what dishes you had ordered and made wine suggestions to match them.

I’m not suggesting our waiters and sommeliers should be quite as formal as those in European countries, but maybe a little more formality would not be amiss.

When your waiter and sommelier obviously regard the food and wine as important, you tend to value it a little more too.

And maybe you feel less resentful about paying the bill if you know everything on it has been prepared and presented by a professional who obviously cares about your dining experience.

Dine on the healthy weed

You may think Babotie or biltong is the Cape’s favourite food, but waterblommetjie bredie was around way before that.

Waterblommetjies, or Cape Pondweed, was one of the favourite items in the diet of the old Khoi people who were here long before any of the present settlers arrived. I am told it is very healthy and full of essential nutrients, although it does need a good helping of mutton to bring out the full flavour.

They’re holding a Waterblommetjie Festival in Agter Paarl on October 6 and it might be great fun to attend.

The local chefs at Rhebokskloof Estate and Windmeul Winery will cooking up a waterblommetjie-based storm, DIY chefs are invited to submit their favourite pondweed recipes and there will, of course, be a potjie competition among the devotees of this form of culinary art.

For city folk these country events are an ideal way to get a feel for the simple cameraderie of rural communities. There’s always music and fragrant smoke and chatter and the smell of good, diet-free food.

And of course as the event takes place at two wineries, there will be plenty of the product of the grape to enjoy.

For more details and information you can contact windmeul@iafrica.com or call 021 869 8100, or alternatively info@rhebokskloof.co.za, or call 021 869 8386.

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Wacky 2013 charity drive for winter
Festival-goers are invited to join the Robertson Wine Valley in supporting their local charities. Help take the chill out of winter by donating blankets and winter clothing, for all ages, for those less fortunate. In return the Valley will reward you with wine, according to the weight of your donation, with a maximum of a 6-bottle case of wine that weighs about 9kg. Donations that weigh less than a bottle of wine will be rewarded with vouchers for wine purchases at La Verne online wine shop (www.lavernewines.co.za). All donations are please to be handed in at the Robertson Wine Valley office, corner of Voortrekker and Reitz Streets, Robertson.

 The Wacky Bag Project
As part of the 10 years celebration, members of the local community have been commissioned by the Robertson Wine Valley to produce the ±18 000 Wacky ‘goodie bags’, thus providing much-needed employment and the opportunity to learn new skills for the future. The inspiration came from Khaya Power (www.khayapower.co.za) who are empowering communities all over the Western Cape by offering them an energy source powered by solar energy: 5 litre containers that are safe, portable and rechargeable. No more paraffin and candles! These power units are beautifully packaged in colourful, varnished, recycled cement bags with rope handles. The Robertson Wine Valley has teamed up with Langeberg Doulos Trust who provide the homeless with physical, mental and spiritual care, employing them to produce the 2013 Wacky ‘goodie bags’ from recycled cement bags. These eye-catching bags, ideal for gifts and function, will be available for order via the Robertson Wine Valley office: email manager@robertsonwinevalley.co.za

The Wacky Wine Weekend will embrace the usual line-up of As part of the Robertson Wine Valley’s commitment to ensure a safe festival, a Zero Tolerance Policy is implemented towards ‘drinking and driving’. Visitors are requested to make use of the Buddy Bus or appoint their own designated driver.  The Buddy Bus facility enables groups of seven or more visitors to hire a chauffeur-driven mini-bus.
Wacky Wine Weekend Bus-In Packages and Fly-In Packages for those who live further afield are also available.

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PUBLIC TASTING DETAILS:
Johannesburg: The Cape Town: The Old Mutual Trophy Wine Show Public Tasting in Cape Town takes place on Thursday, June 13 2013 in the  CTICC (Ballroom East), Convention Square, 1 Lower Long Street, Cape Town from 5pm to 8:30pm.
Light meals are for sale at the tastingsand tickets (R150) are available through Computicket or or call 0861 915 8000. They will also be available at the door.

Photograph: OutSorceress Marketing

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Morgenster 2010
02/05/2013: There’s something rather nice about a wine that just calls itself an estate wine, with no fancy title. It’s not a “Glorioso Rouge,” or a “Fantastique de Casa” or anything like that.
Just “Morgenster 2010”.
It’s like saying: “This is what we produce here on our estate and it carries our name proudly.”
And Morgenster has every reason to be proud of this delightful red blend. It’s made from the classical Bordeaux varieties, Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Cabernet Franc, very nicely woven together to create an accessible wine ready for drinking now, but capable of lasting a good few years more. There’s a very subtle undertone of oak vanilla, some soft, but definitely evident tannin and a lot of lively fresh red berry flavours. The layers of flavour are smoothly integrated, so no single element dominates.
I plan to keep this one until the winter of 2014, when I believe it will be a perfect match for a warming winter roast on a very special occasion.

Simonsig Labyrinth Cabernet Sauvignon 2009

01/05/2013: Cabernet is King, they say in wine circles, and Chardonnay is Queen.
Whether you agree or not, there’s no doubt Simonsig’s Labyrinth Cab wears its crown most regally. It greets you with wafts of spicy blackberry aromas with a suggestion of dark chocolate and maybe a touch of smoked bacon. All these aromas follow through on the palate, together with a clean tannic bite to add freshness and a nice little flick of ripe black plum juice for generosity. The finish is clean and slightly spicy and lingers for a good long time.
The 2009 vintage is drinking well now, but it still has a considerable life ahead of it. If you can bear to wait, put it aside until 2015 and you’ll be well rewarded.
I’d like to drink this wine with a rich beef stew or an oxtail casserole on a winter’s evening.
I wonder whether we’ll still be able to afford meat in 2015. Possibly not.
What the hell! Let’s open it now and enjoy it while we can. It’s a great wine. If you can find it for less than R100 a bottle it’s a bargain.

Diemersfontein Chenin Blanc 2009

28/04/2013: I’m not usually an enthusiastic white wine drinker for one simple reason – acid. Far too many of the white wines we produce in South Africa are searingly acid, mean and thin. Maybe our winemakers pick the grapes too young, or perhaps somebody has told them our hot climate calls for ‘crisp’ wines. There’s an awful lot of battery acid out there on the wine store shelves.
However, when a white wine is nicely balanced, full of ripe flavours and elegance it can be a real treat.
Such a wine is Diemersfontein’s 2009 Chenin Blanc. It’s a big, full-bodied wine packed with ripe tropical flavours poised elegantly on a slightly biscuity, understated oak platform. It has a creamy softness to it that keeps you coming back for another sip and before you know it the bottle is depressingly empty. The acid is there, but so nicely balanced you’re hardly aware of it. It’s dry without being harsh.
This wine shows just how great a South African Chenin can be. It’s a grape that can achieve greatness in our climate and soils. I just wish more winemakers would take the trouble to find out how Diemersfontein manages to get it right vintage after vintage.

Ernie Els Proprietor’s Blend 2010

23/04/2013: I’m sometimes a little wary of wines that come with big reputations – and big prices. It’s all too easy to be fooled by the hype (“This costs R600 a bottle, so it MUST be great”).
I can’t be accused of being blinded by hype in this case, because I tasted the Ernie Else Proprietor’s Blend in a blind tasting of blended reds and had no idea what I was tasting. There were wines ranging from R30 a bottle to more than R300 in the line-up.
I just know I scored this wine very high – as easy gold medal as far as my rating went. And when the covers were removed, there it was: Ernie Els Proprietor’s Blend, big and bold and assertive.
It’s a blend of six different grape varieties, but mainly Cabernet Sauvignon and Shiraz. The others, Merlot, Cabernet Franc, Malbec and Petit Verdot, account for about 20% of the blend.
It’s not a voluptuous, juicy fruit-driven wine by any means. At this stage of its life it’s almost austere, with a rigid tannic backbone and some serious, dark fruit notes with hints of black pepper.
But it’s undoubtedly destined for greatness. Lay this down for a couple of years and your patience will be richly rewarded. I believe it will achieve charm and great dignity.
Buy some if you can afford it, and keep it for an important occasion.

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Courtesy of NedAuction July 19, 2011

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South African wine has an impressive history and it’s good to see that some wine producers are marketing it.

You can buy history in a bottle in the Constantia valley.

Back in the days of Napoleon the Cape was famous for the “sweet wines of Constantia.” In fact Napoleon is said to have called for a glass of Constantia wine when he was on his death-bed on St Helena Island.

Jane Austen wrote about it. King Frederick of Prussia enjoyed it. But alas, nobody knows exactly what it tasted like or how it was made.

Fortunately the winemakers of Constantia valley are great respecters of history and have spent a great deal of time and research trying to re-create those great Constantia wines.

Until recently the closest anybody has come was Klein Constantia’s delicious Vin de Constance.

Now Groot Constantia’s cellarmaster, Boela Gerber, has produced the historic estate’s own version, labelled Grand Constantia.

It is the result of several years of research, both into the wine and its packaging.

A fragment of a wine bottle was discovered during the archeological research into an 18th century shipwreck in the Delaware Bay. It carried a moulded seal with the words “con stantia wyn” on it. This seal has been reproduced on the elegant, long-necked bottle in which the new Grand Constantia is now offered.

The bottle itself is a copy of the hand-blown bottles typically used in the 1700s, sealed with scarlet wax.

Of course, each of those early bottles would have been slightly different.

The wine is rich, amber coloured and honey-and-apricot sweet, but beautifully balanced by natural acidity that prevents it being cloying. A really delicious treat.

To add to the historical connection, each bottle of Grand Constantia comes packed in oak shavings in an elegant oak casket made from old barrel staves.

This is certainly a wine for the serious collector. The only problem is that it looks too good to open.

I suppose the obvious answer is to buy several bottles. At R295 a bottle that may not be possible for some.

Diemersfontein is a delight

What a treat it was to attend the 10th anniversary celebrations of winemaking at Diemersfontein in Wellington.

Apart from producing wines of a very high quality (including some of the finest viognier I have tasted) the farm is a model of what the new South Africa could be.

Owners David and Sue Sonnenberg have established a fine school on the farm for children of the area (an even racial mix of pupils), farm workers who have been on the staff for a year are offered shares in a progressive BEE project that produces wines for export and runs guest cottages, artists and musicians are sponsored and encouraged and several of the farm’s protegees have gone on to win international acclaim.

After being shown some of the projects and experiencing the joyful atmosphere of the farm I came away wondering why our politicians get it all so wrong.

Diemersfontein shows it can be done without fuss.

Maybe we should leave the running of the country to our winemakers.

Photo: Harvest time, courtesy of Diemersfontein Wine Farm

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In Reasonable Taste

In Reasonable Taste is available from good book stores around the country for roughly R180. However, if you have difficulty getting hold of a copy, feel free to contact me. The book is also available on Amazon.com

Photograph: davidbiggsonline.com

Wine Book for Beginners

David Biggs joined forces with Colin Collard (founder of the Wine-of-the-Month Club and editor of Good Taste magazine) to compile this useful beginners’ guide to wine. The pocket-sized “How to Enjoy Your Wine”, covers many of the questions newcomers regularly ask.
Written in simple terms, the book gives helpful hints about pairing wines with food, selecting and storing wines and understanding wine labels.
As with any interest or hobby, the more you know about it, the more enjoyable it becomes.
It’s priced at just under R90 and is available from good bookshops, or from the club.
It makes a good stocking filler at Christmas time, so you might like to buy a couple of copies and tuck them away in your gift drawer.
To read more about this book, click on Biggs’ blog: The View from my Rock.
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I was born in the Karoo and grew up on a sheep farm, where I developed a love for the area and all its creatures, human and animal.
For more years than I can remember I’ve been writing a daily column about the this and that of life for the Cape Argus newspaper, but the call of the Great Karoo has remained as strong as ever and I often find myself tooling along the N1 Highway – often on my Vespa scooter – to my old home on the family farm, Grapevale. You can read more about this in my book Karoo Ramblings (see below) published by Moonshine Media.
In addition to writing about wine I have also produced several books on cocktails. I hope you will enjoy these as much as I enjoyed … writing them.

Karoo Ramblings by David Biggs

Karoo Ramblings

Reprinted: Now Available

David Biggs was born in the Karoo and grew up on a sheep farm, where he developed a love for the area and all its creatures, human and animal. For many years he has worked as columnist for the Cape Argus newspaper, but the call of the Great Karoo has remained as strong as ever and often finds him wending his way along the N1 Highway to his old home on the family farm, Grapevale. Here he can allow the dust and smoke of the city to blow away and enjoy the wide open spaces, the gentle humour and the sound sense of country life. How could anybody resist a place where meerkats watch soap operas on TV and sheepdogs ride on motorcycles. Join him in this little book on a whimsical ride through this fascinating country.

Click Here To Purchase: or contact me directly if you are in South Africa.

David Biggs

Let me introduce myself…

I stumbled into wine writing, more or less by accident, back in the 1970s and produced a weekly wine column for the Cape Argus newspaper for about 30 years.

It’s a funny thing, wine. I hadn’t really considered it much until I was given an assignment for the newspaper and decided to do some background research in wine.

After a one-week wine course, offered by the Gilbeys Company, I was hooked.

I attended more courses with Gilbeys (this was before the Cape Wine Academy had been formed) and read up everything I could find.

In 1998 I wrote my wine judging examination and was frankly surprised to pass, but I did. It was by far the most terrifying examination I had ever entered — two days of intensive tasting and analysis under the watchful eye of Professor Joel van Wyk.

I was invited to be on the judging panel of the first Stellenbosch Bottled Wine Show, and later the Robertson Bottled Wine Show. Before that there were only regional young wine shows, of interest mainly to wine producers. The bottled wine shows were the beginnings of what developed into the annual Veritas Wine Competition, which is the biggest wine contest in South Africa. I’ve served on judging panels in every Veritas competition since its inception, usually judging the sweeter wines and fortified wines in particular.

I’m also a founder member of the very successful Wine-of-the-Month Club tasting panel, and have helped with the judging of the annual Muscadel Competition.

All this involvement in wine is rather odd, really, because I came from a family that didn’t regard wine with much respect. We were Karoo sheep farmers and mostly beer drinkers. My mother enjoyed a glass of gin and tonic every evening, but wine was for special occasions and usually very ordinary plonk, which was all that was available in our local Karoo villages.

Wine prompted me to write books, too. I felt there was a need for a really basic book on wine, so I approached wine guru Dave Hughes and we co-operated on a little book called Enjoy Wine, now long out of print, but I believe still a very practical guide.

I followed this with a series of annual pocket books called the Plonk Buyers’ Guide, which was produced for about 10 years until the wine industry became too big to handle.

In 1998 I produced a little book on port, brandy and fortified wines, called Any Port in a Storm, published by Ampersand Press.

It the intervening years I’ve produced several books of cocktails of all kinds …all readily available from Amazon. Feel free to click and order.

Apart from the wine and booze books, my collection of Karoo stories titled Karoo Ramblings, is once again available, after being out of print for two years.

But there’s more to life than wine, of course, and I find great joy in producing a daily column for the Cape Argus newspaper, under the heading of Tavern of the Seas. The column has been part of the Argus for many years and was started by the great South African author, Lawrence G Green.

(His books are out of print now, but if you should find one in a second-hand book shop, buy it. He wrote in a delightfully gentle style that has lost none of its charm over the years.)

The Tavern column gives me freedom to write about any subject that crosses my mind.

I like to think it’s an on-going public debate and it’s pleasing to see how many readers send me suggestions and comments on the stuff I write.

I hope readers will use this website as a public debating forum too.

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