The Wine Show is excited to announce our Resident Chef for 2010 is Paul Gindra from Vivace at the Radisson Blu in Sandton.
Inspired by chefs such as Thomas Keller; Gordon Ramsay; and Marco Pierre White, Paul has spent the past two years refining his art. He has adopted a gastronomic approach of simplicity with uncompromising quality. "I believe that you should allow quality produce and the freshest possible ingredients to speak for themselves. I don't think dishes should be over-complicated - you just need to get back to the basics and let great ingredients combine to offer huge flavour," explains Paul.
Chef Gindra will bring this philosophy to life during his sessions in the Friends for Dinner theatre when he'll demonstrate dishes from the Radisson's Vivace Restaurant and pair it with exhibitors' wines.
According to Gindra, the contemporary Italian menu of his restaurant will be a perfect pairing partner for the wines. "Italian food is about so much more than pizza and pasta. It is about the produce and the flavour combinations.
One of my favourite dishes is artichoke stuffed with basil and mozzarella served with a watercress salad and lime sauce and I think this typifies the style of the restaurant and my food. During the demonstrations I'd like to match the subtle flavours in the dishes to those of the wines in such a way that they complement instead of overpower," explains Paul.
Chef Gindra: Not just his
food that's "Dish De'lish" apparently
Ommi Berg & Palmiet Valley
It would seem that the Paarl Valley wineries still take a major back seat when compared to Franschoek or Stellenbosch. I recently attended the Ommi Berg festival (‘Round the Mountain) hosted by several of the Paarl wine farms to show off their young wines and had an absolute blast!
The day started off at Fairview where we tried out their Ega juice, which is a really refreshing combination of green grape, pomegranate and rooibos. On the wine side Ruzanne, which is a fairly new cultivar in South Africa, so watch this space.
The Chenin Blanc, which due to fermentation, tasted somewhat like Appletizer and the Primo Pinotage, which was astonishingly tasty with vanilla accents, considering it had only just harvested.
On we moved to Seidelberg Estate where I was totally blown away by the Rosé, which had the most stunning muscadel flavours and was equally delicious even though I must add that it isn’t a sweet Rosé. And if you aren’t familiar with Seidelberg, I also highly recommend a visit to their amazing glass blowing factory and shop where you can buy the most beautiful glass ornaments, bowls and goodies.
Our final stop for the day was Rhebokskloof. By this time we were already well on our merry way with all of the young wine we’d consumed (high yeast and alcohol levels tend to have an interesting effect on the human brain, I’ve learnt) so we decided to pick up a couple of picnic baskets. I must admit, we didn’t even think of pre-booking one, but when we got to the restaurant, the chef managed to put the most amazing baskets together especially for us.
You’re on your way to a dinner party and you’ve left the bottle of wine on your kitchen counter and have to pray there’s something respectable in the bottle-shop on the way.You’re off the beaten track on holiday, or it’s a friends’ birthday and whilst the choice of restaurant is cool from a food point of view, the wine list leaves a little to be desired. We’ve all been there.
All the above scenarios tend to involve the “Bigger Brands” of wine. They’re widely available and often heavily advertised and promoted. But do they taste nice and are they value for (not very much) money?
This months Taste Task was to look at some of the bigger (and often cheaper) players in the hopes of finding a few gems to either please the pocket during hard times, or just to save the day when higher-end wines simply aren’t available.
The idea was to pitch “3 of the Best” from the Douglas Green portfolio and place them up against another 3 from The Company of Wine People’s offerings. Each of the producers chose which three wines they would field into the taste-off. Unfortunately, the neighbours took delivery of the COWP peoples’ wines and they haven’t been seen since! So, last minute changes were required, and the Taste Team showed fabulous “Dunkirk Spirit” and set off to their local bottle store to buy 3 wines from the COWP stable with just minutes to spare.
So, whilst the “taste off” we envisaged didn’t happen, it’s worthy of note that the 3 COWP wines (Versus x2 and Welmoed Pinotage) were indeed exactly what was available in a “wine emergency” and that in itself is fun and worth investigating.
The Douglas Green wines all hail from the Boschendal stable and have RRP’s of R72. The COWP “team” is more of a motley crew, and it should be pointed out are at very different (lower) price points to their adversaries in this tasting.
Tickets are ON SALE for The Wine Show Jo’burg 2010! Save money and avoid the queues on the door buy buying your tickets in advance from computicket click here
Win wine for a year with Clos Malverne and Woolworths TASTE magazine! That’s right, there’s a 12 bottle case of wine every month up for grabs to one lucky winner via a special promotion in Taste magazine. Click here to enter and make sure you stop by Stand C3 to sample their excellent wines at The Wine Show.
Don’t drink and drive when you come to The Wine Show, there’s never an excuse and now there's absolutely no need. Goodfella’s have joined forces with The Wine Show to ensure everyone gets home safely. To make sure you are safely chauffer-driven home click here
Could this be your dream job? An online recruitment site is carrying an advert looking for an MD for a wine estate in Vredendal. Whilst the job of “wine taster” is probably slightly more desirable, the MD’s lot is probably not too shabby either! We don’t know which estate it is, but if you’re applying you might want to check that the estate is an exhibitor at The Wine Show… if they’re not then you’ll be inheriting a marketing nightmare. Click here
Rumours abound that “hunk” Ryk Neethling is going to produce his own wine, or at least lend his endorsement to it. The specific farm involved is not known, but speculation points to Paarl’s Val de Vie. Regretfully they aren’t at The Wine Show, so no tasting or buying (Extra’s been told the farm won’t even talk to The Wine Show, shame) but there’s a snazzy photo of Ryk sans shirt. Read more
Taste Team’s Robyn Saul touches upon it in her reviews this issue, but other than recycling, what are the uses for empty wine bottles? As always the power of the internet showed us many sites ram-packed full of ideas, and one even has a Top 7 list! Wine bottle garden ornaments anyone? Read more
Time, patience and waiting are three things that prison and wine have in common. Or is it? UK wine hack Tim Atkin found and visited a very rare winery indeed… one housed in an Italian Prison with wines being produced by the prisoners! Perhaps an idea for the Victor Verster in Paarl? Read more
Emile Joubert is raising some important questions about drink-driving in SA and putting forward some interesting ideas on how to curb the problem. Read more
Tim James over at grape.co.za has been polling top wine professionals to gather a list of the top SA wineries from an industry perspective. An interesting read with plenty of “new blood” emerging compared to similar polls in the past. Read more
Do you have R1.2 million to spend on a bottle of wine? Brendan Shaw at thecru.co.za found that a bottle of Chateu Lafite 1787 (so it’s probably “peaked” already) sold for that amount way back in 1985. Read more
Neil Pendocks times blog seemed to be down at time of going to press, but those in need of a monthly dose of Neil can find him sporting what appears to be a smashing new “bob” whilst getting to grips with some blending with fellow Swartland wine-makers and Cathy Marston. Read more
