Franschhoek has joined The Délice Network of Good Food Cities of the World, an international network of cities promoting the benefits of culinary excellence and good food, in partnership with the Cape Winelands District Municipality.
The Délice Network has 21 member cities, including Barcelona, Madrid, Montreal, Lausanne, Milan, Copenhagen, Chicago, Gothenburg, Birmingham, Helsinki, and Brussels. It is the only city in the Continue reading →
I have never seen the red carpet rolled out at La Motte’s entrance, but yesterday the wine estate proudly welcomed fellow wine estates for the 2012 Best of Wine Awards of the South African leg of the Great Wine Capitals Global Network Best of Wine competition, and received the award as the overall South African winner for 2012.
Cape Winelands District Municipality Executive Mayor Neels de Bruyn said that our country’s membership of the Great Wine Capitals Global Network has raised the profile of our Winelands, and allows wine estates to benchmark themselves against the world’s top wine tourism players. He added that for our country to achieve its national goal of becoming a top 20 destination by 2020, wine tourism would play an important role. To this end Vindaba is planned to be held in September next year.
The winners in each category were as follows:
Sustainable Wine Tourism Service: Waverley Hills Organic Wine and Olive Farm in Tulbagh, with La Motte highly commended. Waverley wines ‘are produced in the most sustainable way’ in the total production process, and this leads to the making of organically certified wines. They also have a hiking trail in their fynbos garden, have a fynbos nursery, have implemented a waste recycling programme, they manage invasive alien plants, conserve water, educate children at schools in the area, and help to restore river systems in the upper Breede area. This category was judged by Joan Isham, BWI extension officer.
Wine Tourism Services: Waterford in Stellenbosch, with Steenberg Vineyards highly commended. At Waterford, wine tasting is enjoyed in a relaxed space, and the families that help to make the wines are introduced to tasters. Staff are passionate, knowledgeable about their wine, farm and region, and customer-focused. This category was judged by tour operator Margi Biggs.
Wine Tourism Experiences: Solms-Delta in Franschhoek, with Spier highly commended. Solms-Delta was recognised for its archaeological and historic tour, interactive museum, a garden with culinary and medicinal ingredients used by the early inhabitants of the valley, a menu at Fyndraai restaurant which incorporates the ingredients, its passionate and enthusiastic staff, and its innovative programme of social upliftment, empowerment and profit-sharing. This category was judged by wine and food journalist Myrna Robinson.
Wine Tourism Restaurants: Tokara Restaurant, with Rust 
en Vrede highly commended. Tokara was praised for its beautiful setting, good modern food, professional service, wine appreciation, and opening hours. This particular award is named in honour of Lannice Snyman, and was judged by restaurant reviewer JP Rossouw.
Accommodation: Delaire Graff Lodges & Spa, with Grande Provence highly commended. The accommodation has excellent views, state-of-the-art equipment, 600-threadcount Egyptian cotton, welcoming perfection, outstanding service, and encouragement by the staff for visitors to visit other wine farms too, ‘epitomising what Wine Tourism is all about’. This category was judged by wine writer Joanne Gibson.
Architecture & Landscapes: Waterkloof in Somerset West, with La Motte highly commended. Waterkloof was praised for its unpretentious modern winery perched on a hill, ‘perfectly proportioned columns’ inside, which are filled with natural light and offer framed views, its Scandinavian restaurant furniture, ‘mysterious oversized paintings‘, its warm and welcoming tasting area around a fireplace, its open kitchen, and its biodynamic farming based on minimising its environmental impact. ‘A dramatic interplay of architecture, agriculture and the natural landscape can be experienced by visitors‘. This category was judged by architects Johan van Papendorp and Alex Robertson.
Art and Culture: La Motte, with Delaire Graff highly commended. Art and culture are the foundation of La Motte, especially with the presence of JH Pierneef, embodied in the name of its restaurant and for bringing the collection of one of our most famed artists back to the country, and creating a special gallery for it. This category was judged by Marilyn Martin, Director of Art Collections for Iziko Museums.
Overall winner: La Motte, for its ‘consistently high performance across other categories it had also entered’.
The Great Wine Capitals Global Network consists of Mainz-Rheinhessen in Germany, Bilboa-Rioja in Spain, Bordeaux in France, Florence in Italy, Mendoza in Argentina, Porto in Portugal, San Franciso-Napa in the USA, Christchurch in New Zealand, and our Cape Winelands.
I sat at the table with representatives of Tokara and Solms-Delta, and the biggest surprise of all was sitting next to JP Rossouw, our first meeting. JP is not ever seen at industry functions, but he attended as judge in the Restaurant category. He told me and Tokara Chef Richard Carstens that the judging for his 3-star restaurants had closed in March, to get his annual restaurant guide printed in Singapore. At that time Pierneef à La Motte and Tokara had only been operating with their new chefs for six months, and therefore he did not award them 3-stars for 2012, explaining the contradiction of his Great Wine Capitals best restaurant selection. The other restaurants that were of a high standard were Waterkloof, Rust en Vrede, and Pierneef à La Motte, JP said, and their quality was almost equally high. JP was very gracious about our meeting, and is looking forward to the birth of his twins in January. Chef Richard seemed happy with the recognition he received yesterday, after the shock exclusion (not just to him but also to many chefs and restaurant lovers) from the Eat Out Top 10 Restaurant list on Sunday.
We had an enjoyable lunch at Pierneef à La Motte, with Chef Chris Erasmus in attendance, and my choice of Franschhoek Trout, sorrel and asparagus velouté, poached baby potatoes and braised fennel was perfect. The alternative choice was grilled venison. A Cape cheese plate followed, with healthy rye and wholewheat breads, berries and a fruit chutney. 
Coffee and dessert treats were served under the oak trees, and included mini Cape fruit tarts, chocolate truffles, macaroons, fynbos blancmange with guava and granadilla jus, warm malva pudding honey cakes, ginger and rooibos syrup.
Chris von Ulmenstein, Whale Cottage Portfolio: www.whalecottage.com Twitter:@WhaleCottage
Today is Nelson Mandela’s 93rd birthday, and the Western Cape is celebrating his special day with a meal prepared at his last home before his release from Victor Verster (now Drakenstein) Prison today, with 67 school children, 67 farmworkers, and 67 senior citizens being féted by four chefs to mark the 67 years that Mr Mandela sacrificed to ‘make the world a better place’. Today has been declared International Nelson Mandela Day by the United Nations.
Chefs Jenny Morris, Reuben Riffel, Uncle Merv and Marco Radebe are preparing the birthday meal, making a difference to a cross-spectrum of South Africans on Mandela Day. The event was organised by Cape Town Routes Unlimited, the Cape Winelands District Municipality, and the Department of Correctional Services. The menu includes Mr Mandela’s meals at Victor Verster and Robben Island, and those prepared by his present cook, to represent Mr Mandela’s favourite food. The menu is as follows:
Cream of Tomato soup with wholewheat bread
Chicken liver on mash, or hake
Roast chicken, brown rice, carrots and beans
Salad
Trifle, in rainbow colours
Journalists and writers invited to the media conference at Mandela House at Drakenstein Prison on Thursday were privileged to be shown around the house in which Mr Mandela lived for the 14 months leading up to his release. If we did not know it before, we were reminded of the humility and statesmanship of our country’s greatest leader. He was often taken out of the grounds on secret outings, to assimilate him into the world he had missed out on for 25 years, and this included the Taal Monument on Paarl Mountain. He had a television set, and read the daily newspapers. We were shown the lemon tree which Mr Mandela planted on the property. I was impressed with the size of the prison grounds, which appears to be a working farm. Mandela House is a national heritage site, we were told, and we sat at the table at which the historic draft constitution was signed by then-President FW de Klerk and Mr Mandela.
Calvyn Gilfellan, CEO of Cape Town Routes Unlimited, said that it was due to Mr Mandela that South Africa had an upsurge in tourist numbers, only surpassed by last year’s World Cup. Given that Mr Mandela was released from Victor Verster, it was felt that the function to celebrate the birthday should reflect the Winelands’ reputation of being the Gourmet Capital. Giggling Gourmet Jenny Morris became very emotional when she shared with us how special an honour it is for her to be preparing the meal with her chef colleagues.
Manfred Jacobs, Communication Officer of the Department of Correctional Services, was most informative when he showed us around Mandela House. Mr Mandela was brought to the house at Victor Verster late at night, and the area over the prison grounds was declared a no-fly zone, to prevent a bomb from being dropped onto the house, we were told. Mr Mandela spent the last 14 months of his incarceration there, and impressed the warders with his humility, and the interest he showed in them as persons, congratulating them on their birthdays, and assisting them with their studies, where he could. Politics was never discussed. We laughed when we were told that Mr Mandela thought he had two TV sets, referring to his microwave oven as one of them, something he had not seen in the 23 years of his time at Robben Island. Mr Mandela was taught to swim in his swimming pool, but he sat on the edge of the pool most of the time, as he was frightened of the pool cleaner! Mr Mandela’s policy was to change people’s hearts, and not to attempt to change their minds. We laughed when we were told the story of the wood running out for the fireplace in his house, with no further wood being allocated. Mr Mandela encouraged his doctor to address this shortage, and the doctor promptly wrote out a prescription for wood! Mr Mandela loved looking onto the Simonsberg mountains from his house, a source of inspiration. He had a replica of the house built in Qunu, where Mr Mandela is celebrating his birthday today, so that the inhabitants of his ancestral village could experience his prison house. A bar was stocked in the house, with lots of alcohol, in the hope that Mr Mandela would imbibe heavily and spill the beans, but this never happened. Having been incarcerated in a small cell on Robben Island for 23 years, Mr Mandela felt uncomfortable in his massive bedroom, and asked to be moved to the study, and this was turned into his bedroom. Mr Mandela was given the nickname ‘Nelson’ after the Admiral, as his teacher could not remember all the Xhosa names of the children in her class. Mr Mandela said that ‘big doors hang on small hinges’, his way of saying that everyone can make it in life.
A statue of Mr Mandela was commissioned by businessman, politician and Franschhoek wine-farmer Tokyo Sexwale, and proudly stands at the entrance to the prison gates. Mr Mandela agreed, on condition that the plinth not be too high, so that he does not appear elevated. Marble for the base came from Robben Island. Black and white stones represent the people of South Africa.
Congratulations Mr Mandela, ‘humble servant of the people’!
POSTSCRIPT 19/7: I attended the opening of a photographic exhibition of the Lalela (to listen) Project in the Goodman Gallery at the One&Only Cape Town last night, to coincide with the celebration of Mr Mandela’s birthday. Pupils from Hout Bay High School, coming from the Coloured community of Hangberg and the Xhosa community of Imizamo Yethu, got to know each other and connected through taking portraits of each other, mentored by photographers Hasan and Husain Essop. The Lalela Project was founded by Andrea Kerzner, daughter of the owner of the hotel. Portraits can be seen outside the hotel, and in the city center too.
POSTSCRIPT 19/7: The Eastern Boulevard, the highway which leads to the N2 in Cape Town, was renamed Nelson Mandela Boulevard last week. Brand new silver signs have been placed at regular intervals to remind one of the new name.
Whale Cottage Portfolio: www.whalecottage.com Twitter: @WhaleCottage
The old ANC-run provincial government in the Western Cape made a quick appointment of new directors of the Board of Cape Town Routes Unlimited (CTRU) before it vacates its offices due to the election results, having suffered a heavy defeat in the 22 April provincial elections.
The Board is once again run by Chairman Peter Bacon, ex-Sun International CEO. Other members include Phillip Couvaras, Chairman of FEDHASA Cape, who at the time of his election at FEDHASA last year did not know what Cape Town Routes Unlimited stood for; Vernon Kirsten, the ex-Chairman of SATSA; Tembi Kunene, the CEO of the Tourism Grading Council; Deon Cloete, the General Manager of the Airports Company Cape Town branch; Annemie Liebenberg, Marketing Manager of the V & A Waterfront; Labeeqah Schuurman, Head of the provincial Department of Economic Development and Tourism; Mangaliso Mdlalo, chairman of Business Western Cape; Stephen de Vries of the Eden District Municipality; and Chrissie Brink of the Cape Winelands District Municipality.
The Board is City dominated, which is a surprise, given the City of Cape Town’s withdrawal of its funding from CTRU. Two City seats are still vacant. CTRU should be focusing on marketing the rest of the province while Cape Town Tourism has been given the mandate to market Cape Town. What is also obvious is that there is no representation of small accommodation players – FEDHASA and SATSA represent the large tourism players in the main, and are not in touch with small accommodation establishments.
A relief is the demise of Tony Ehrenreich of COSATU, who served on the Board for a number of years, probably with a trade-off that he was not allowed to comment about tourism at all, which he was fond of doing in a most destructive manner, whilst serving on the board to represent hospitality industry labour.
It will be interesting to see how the DA-led province will deal with the two separate tourism bodies Cape Town Tourism and Cape Town Routes Unlimited, and whether they will revert to one united CTRU!