GREAT WINES FROM SOUTH AFRICA

BEST VALUE WINE 2007

Each year Wine Magazine selects South Africa's best wines valued at under R50. This year 280 were selected.

Amongst these is Lindsay's Whimsy 2003 obtainable from the vineyard for R27.00

** By looking at some of the names given to his wines you can see that the owner Lindsay Hunting has a sense of humour. Wines like Shatot Plinque and Shatot Planque and now this one. The Whimsy comprises 60% Pinotage and 40% Cabernet Sauvignon. It is an excellent example of a Cape Blend. A year in third to fifth-fill barrels gives maturation without much oak pick up. Ripe and plumb filled with mature tones. Bone dry.

Restauranteers in Gauteng can purchase Lindsay's Whimsy from Five Oceans Exporters.

FIVE OCEANS Quality Service Speed Delivery
Glen Greenway Five Oceans Exporters P.O.Box 4808 Cresta 2118 South Africa glen@fiveoceans.co.za www.fiveoceans.co.za  www.winestyle.typepad.com tel: fax: mobile: +27 11 475 4543 +27 11 675 1962 083 674 9112

OFF THE BEATEN TRACK

South Africa is quite a large country and when one travels from Cape Town and the wine-lands, back to Johannesburg, there are various methods of getting there.

One of the most painful is to travel by car, get up at 04:00 and drive straight through - a long journey of about thirteen hours without stopping - madness! A much more civilised method is to travel until eventide and then call in at a friendly inn.

This year we  decided to go off the beaten track and visit a place we hadn't been to before. We left Cape Town at 06:00 and drove in fairly leisurely fashion to as far as Colesburg and the Gariep Dam. Thence we turned eastwards and headed for Bethulie and our final destination, Smithfield on R701. This is a little bit out of one's way but the Free State scenery in the late evening more than makes up for the extra 40 Kms. One huge compensation is that the volume of traffic dwindles dramatically, resulting in a far safer ride.

In Smithfield we pulled in to a delightful bed and breakfast establishment called the Artist's Colony (051-683 1138) run by Robert and Susan Jewell. It is most tastefully furnished and the cottage we stayed in was a National Monument. We were able to walk around the town before dinner and were very interested in the historical graveyard, with many Boer War graves.

That night we walked about 100 meters up to Luigi's Bar where we were able to have drinks and a splendid supper, put on by the new owners Jill and Paul Hopper . They also run a superb restaurant called the FAMOUS PIGOUT COUNTRY KITCHEN RESTAURANT. It is rustic, vibey and full of character - try their "MOERSE BURGER". Smithfield is known for it's goats milk cheese, which is served with homemade bread and fig preserve!

The next morning a superb Ulster Fry-up saw us on our way out of Smithfield, relaxed and refreshed, with an easy stint to Johannesburg ahead of us!

PERFECT DAYS IN THE WINELANDS

Every year Johannesburg seems to empty after 16 December and the entire country slides into a sort somnolent slumber, with the result that one can get nothing done. A vast throng heads off to the Cape and it seems to be coming customary for me to join them there, for a bacchanalian feast with dire consequences. Whilst in the Cape I visited Franschhoek, which in many ways can be regarded as the gourmet capital of South Africa.

There I was able to taste the fine food produced by Margot Janse, executive chef of le Quatier Francais. Now in her 12th year at le Quatier, she has recently won the Rising Chef Trophy from the Relais & Chateau Association. The Restaurant Magazine, UK adjudged Margot's restaurant as the best in Africa and the Middle East in 2005, during which year the Diner's Club gave them an Excellence Award in the Wine List of the Years awards.

Then a wonderful and memorable meal took place at la Couronne Restaurant on la Couronne Wine Estate. Wines on the menu range from affordable R90 per bottle up to R 2000 per bottle for French imports. The restaurant has been adjudged as one of the "50 most exciting restaurants in the world." The one and only Alfio, of Polana Hotel fame, made everyone feel young again as he transported them back in time, making our romantic dinner a nostalgic experience, as he played the piano with mellifluous calm.

What could have been more fun and enjoyable than learning to make different kinds of bread at Moreson, such as foccacia. This fun filled experience was topped by a magnificent brunch next to an orange orchard where one rubbed shoulders in the garden restaurant with Reuben, another of South Africa's top chefs! 

Being an avid lawn bowler, I was fascinated to see many exciting games of boule taking place across the piste. Boule is a french game played by two, three or four people. The rules are simple - a coin is tossed to see who goes first. A small wooden chachonnet is thrown from a circle and then the first boulle is tossed. A memeber of the opposing team them attempts to cast his boule closer to the cachonnet. Each round is called an end and the first to reach 13 is the winner. There is one huge difference between lawn bowls and petanque or boule. The former is abstemious in nature (that is until the game is over) but one cannot paly boule without a glass of wine or pastis in hand. As the game progresses the entertainment around the piste livens up. When visiting the Cape, boule can be palyed at many places but Delheim, Rijks, Lindhorst and Graham Beck in Robertson are the chief places. Boule really livens up during the Bastille Festival.

If you think Franschhoek is one of the most perfect places on earth, email me and perhaps we can find you a village cottage, a magnificent residence on a signatutre golfing estate, a home on a wine estate or even a wine estate on it's own!