Jordan Cobblers Hill | WhaleTales Blog by Chris von Ulmenstein

The Food & Wine Bloggers’ Club meeting, held at Den Anker last night, and addressed by Matt Allison of ImNoJamieOliver Blog and Nikki Dumas of Swirl! Blog, was characterised by PASSION: not only in terms of the blogger speakers, but also in the fantastic food paired by Den Anker with six excellent Jordan wines.

Prior to the speakers sharing their blogging passion, Robyn Martin, the most charming, organised and passionate representative for Jordan wine estate, took us through the tasting of the first three Jordan wines. Being the organised person that she is, she had prepared a tasting summary for groups of wines. The first three wines tasted were white: the Jordan 2009 Riesling, being ‘aromatic and appley’, and a winner of the Old Mutual Trophy, SA Terroir, and the Five Nations awards, was paired with just-seared sesame-coated tuna, one of the highlights prepared by Chef Doekle Vlietman at Den Anker. On the same plate was the sweetest presentation of truffle-enhanced scrambled egg served in an egg shell on a bed of coarse salt, paired with creamy and toasty Jordan 2009 Chardonnay. Wrapping up the trio was a beer-poached katifi-wrapped prawn, draped in a saffron beurre blanc, paired with the tropical green notes of Jordan 2010 Sauvignon Blanc.

Nikki Dumas, another highly organised lady, presented each of the attendees with a sheet of her ‘Twenty-one Commandments’ on how to blog successfully. She passionately expressed her love for wine, and all things related to it. Nikki’s suggestions for successful blogging are: 1. write something useful 2. write something unique 3. write something newsworthy 4. write something first 5. write something that makes those who read it smarter 6. write something controversial 7. write something insightful 8. write something that taps into a fear people have 9. write something that helps other people achieve 10. write something that elicits a response 11. write something that gives a sense of belonging 12. write something passionately 13. write something that interprets or translates news for people 14. write something inspirational 15. write something that tells a story 16. write something that solves a problem 17. write something that gets a laugh 18. write something that saves people time or money 19. write something opinionated 20. write something that is a resource 21. write something about something ‘cool’.

Nikki’s passion for her own brand ‘Nikki Dumas’ came to the fore, and she is a confident blogger, who knows exactly where she is going. She has two blogs – Swirl! is a blog she uses to document information about the wine industry, coming from PR agencies, for example. She does not allow comments on this blog. Winestyle.biz is the blog on which she writes her own blogposts, with about 4000 hits since she started it in April. She allows comments on this blog, even if they are controversial, to create debate. She emphasised that she is not a writer nor journalist, and that she will only write about something she judged to be good. Everything she experiences in terms of food and wine she evaluates against her career in restaurant management. She likes using Google’s Blogger platform, saying it is user-friendly. Her blogpost attracting the largest number of hits is the anonymous survey she conducted on restaurant listing fees for wines. She said she is a ‘Mac junkie’, and evaluates her blog performance through all the statistics that Google makes available, including Google Analytics, AdSense, and more. She knows exactly where her traffic is coming from, and which keywords are used to get to her blog (wine, winestyle, wine journal, Nikki Dumas). Nikki was asked to share her background, and she told us that she moved to Cape Town from Johannesburg ten years ago. She started Moyo in Norwood, and opened Vilamoura in Camps Bay, and then moved to Belthazar and Balducci. Nikki offers restaurant wine training, is a wine consultant in designing winelists for restaurants, assists wine estates in getting better sales in restaurants, and sells branded Wine Journals. Nikki told us that 60 % of wines in supermarkets are by Distell. She feels that the wine industry should teach the consumer more about wine.

The next stage of the food and wine pairing was a lovely plumy and stylish Jordan Merlot 2008 paired with the most ‘butter-tender’ peppered fillet, and the rich Jordan Prospector 2008 Syrah, which was paired with venison served with sauce bordelaise. Robyn told us that the power of Social Media was demonstrated when more than 6000 persons protested against the planned mining on the Jordan wine estate. The threat was withdrawn, and in gratitude Gary Jordan named his new Syrah, launched last year, The Prospector. With our yummy chocolate ravioli with pomegranate jelly the flagship Bordeaux-style Jordan Cobblers Hill was served.

Without any notes, Matt Allison spoke from his heart, reflecting his passion and principles. With careers in the wine trade, as a graphic designer, and first as a musician and then as a music producer, Matt realised that he was spending too much time away from home, not what he wanted with his new baby boy. He realised he needed a change, and became a rare ‘house-husband’, spending almost all his time with his son at home. He loves food, and became the cook for the family, and his blog ‘ImNoJamieOliver’ was born a year ago when he decided to cook all 60 recipes of a Jamie Oliver recipe book in 90 days. He lost twenty days when he had his kitchen redone. We laughed when he told us that his mother had engendered independence amongst her children, and it was a matter of ‘cook or die’ in their household. He has since blogged a further 60 recipes from a second Jamie Oliver recipe book. Matt presented who he is honestly, and described himself as a person with a 30’s nature, a 50’s style, living in 2011.

Matt told us that blogging for him is a means to an end, and he has changed direction in that his interest now is the provenance of food. He has rented a piece of land from the City of Cape Town, and now grows 40 vegetable and herbs, not counting different varieties. This has led to seasonal eating, fresh out of his garden. He does not grow potatoes and corn, as these take too much space. Matt is critical of Woolworths, for their vegetables sourced from countries such as Kenya. On a Wednesday afternoon he sells his vegetables he harvested an hour earlier, between 4 – 6 pm at Starlings Café in Claremont. He told us horror stories about supermarket vegetables being picked unripe weeks earlier, and artificially ripened. Matt also would not touch fast-food any more, and expressed concern that so many people grab a McDonald’s in-between meetings. There are no TV dinners in his home. He would like people to question where their food is coming from. He believes that obesity and diabetes can be fixed via ‘healthy food’. With his help, Cape Town and Winelands chefs at restaurants such as Societi Bistro, Warwick wine estate, El Burro, and Franschhoek Kitchen at Holden Manz wine estate, are moving to sourcing their herbs and vegetables from small ‘bio-dynamic’ (he does not like the word ‘organic’) producers, or planting their own. He likes restaurants that serve local, seasonal, and sustainable food, and operate ethically in all respects. Matt has about 5000 unique readers of his blog per month, and about 1300 Twitter followers, but his readership is of no consequence to him. He is ruthless in unfollowing and blocking on Twitter. He recently changed his Twitter name to @MattAllison, to build his own brand. Given his focus on the provenance of food, he will be launching a new blog “Planting Thoughts” soon. One of the most exciting experiences for Matt is that he has been selected as one of 250 chefs and urban farmers to attend a symposium in Copenhagen, organised by the chef/owner Rene Redzepi of the world’s number one restaurant Noma, the only South African hand-picked by Redzepi. The symposium takes place next weekend, and co-incides with the world’s largest food festival, the MAD Food Camp, also organised by Redzepi, with more than 10000 visitors expected! Matt says we pay too little for our food in South Africa, and told us what it costs to raise a chicken. He buys his meat from Gogo’s Deli in Newlands, or directly from farmers. Matt encouraged us to ‘think about your food’, that one should not evaluate a restaurant if one has not been a chef and a waiter, given that most chefs put their heart and soul into their meals. For him a good restaurant is one in which the chef comes out of the kitchen, offers great service, and has staff who love what they do. He encouraged one to do one’s own blogging and Tweeting, to reflect one’s personality, and to not outsource social media.

Dusan Jelic of wine.co.za, who has been a passionate supporter of the Food & Wine Bloggers’ Club since its inception, was wished well, who will be returning to his home country Serbia in September.

The Food & Wine Bloggers’ Club was formed to reflect the tremendous growth in and power of food and wine blogs in forming opinion about food, restaurants and wines. Most bloggers do not have any formal training in blogging, and learnt from others. The Food & Wine Bloggers’ Club aims to foster this informal training, and to serve as a social media networking opportunity. Each of the two bloggers talk for about half an hour about their blog, and what they have learnt about blogging. The Club gives fledgling as well as experienced bloggers the opportunity to learn from each other and to share their knowledge with others. Attendees can ask questions, and get to know fellow bloggers. The Club meetings are informal and fun.

Future Food & Wine Bloggers’ Club meetings have been organised as follows:

* 21 September: Chef Brad Ball of Bistro 1682, and Anetha Homan, Marketing Manager of Steenberg, at Steenberg

* 19 October: Roger and Dawn Jorgensen of Jorgensen’s Distillery, and Anthony Gird and Michael de Klerk of Honest Chocolate, with a chocolate and potstill brandy tasting, at Haas Coffee on Rose Street.

* 12 November: Visit to new Leopard’s Leap tasting room and cookery school in Franschhoek

Food & Wine Bloggers’ Club. Bookings can be made by e-mailing whalecot@iafrica.com. The cost of attendance is R100. Twitter: @FoodWineBlogClu Facebook: click here.

Chris von Ulmenstein, Whale Cottage Portfolio: www.whalecottage.com Twitter: @WhaleCottage

Sotano by Caveau Mediterranean restaurant opened officially today in the newly renovated funky La Splendida Hotel on Beach Road in Mouille Point, near the lighthouse. Its name has caused confusion on Twitter, as it has been referred to both as Sotano (meaning ‘cellar’ in Spanish) and Sontano (the till slip spells it this way). Given that the name is to link to Caveau (‘cellar’ in French), the spelling must be the former. However, there is no cellar visible or accessible to patrons at Sotano!

The restaurant is operated by Caveau, a Wine Bar and Deli in Heritage Square on Bree Street, and At the Mill in Newlands. The owners are the trio of Jean-Yves Muller, Brendon Crew and Marc Langlois. It is a surprise that Newmark Hotels, who operate the new hotel, has chosen to contract out the running of the restaurant to Caveau, when it has restaurant interests in OYO (in its V&A Hotel) and Salt Restaurant (in its Ambassador Hotel). Talk on the street is that Caveau has lost its charm and attraction, and lots of its good staff.

General Manager of the restaurant is Bruce Philemon, who has worked at Buitenverwachting as Restaurant Manager, at Steenberg as Food & Beverage Manager, and as sommelier on cruise ships, he told me. Chef Philip Myburgh was previously at Caveau, and before that at 48 on Hout Street, which no longer exists. He was enthusiastic about his focus on ‘authentic Mediteranean’ food that will be served at Sotano, with an emphasis on seafood and shellfish.

The wooden deck leading to the pavement, covered to protect patrons from the sun and wind (the south-easter can pump in that corner of Cape Town), with wooden chairs and tables locally made from “French wine barrels”, the imprint on each says, is clearly the most popular space on a good summer’s day. The problem with the outside seating is that non-smokers have to endure the smoking habits of others. The beauty of the interior design could be lost to those patrons sitting outside, Inhouse Interiors having constructed a fascinating bar in white with coloured bar stools. The restaurant section caters for a substantial number of patrons inside, on rainy and windy days. For ambiance, the restaurant could have done with music.

The restaurant opens at 7h00 every morning and will be serving breakfast until 11h00 every morning. There are eleven breakfast options, and they seem expensive, but the prices can only be judged on portion sizes. A health breakfast of muesli, yoghurt and honey costs R50; a charcuterie and cheese platter sounds an interesting breakfast option, at R 55; a salmon bagel with chive cream cheese and smoked salmon costs R60; French toast with fruit and mascarpone (R 55); full English breakfast costs R65; Eggs Benedict R60; and omelettes range from R58 – R70. After 11h00 the blackboards offer snacking, as well as lunch and dinner options, until 23h00 every day of the week. The staff are neatly dressed in white branded golf shirts and in grey aprons, with either Anthonij Rupert or Paul Cluver branding.

The Mediterranean menu is written onto two blackboards, and the writing is not easy to read for all menu items. My eye caught the expensive Caprese salad at R 82 immediately, and in general the prices seem on the high side. Chef Philip explained that the mozzarella has been sourced from an Italian in Cape Town, who makes the mozzarella from cow’s milk, and the full 100g ball is served in the salad. Greek salad costs R58. Oysters cost R 18 each. Vitello tomato costs (R65), Beef carpaccio (R60), Tomato salad (R60), Fish soup (R70) and Gazpacho (R40). The Gazpacho was spicy, and consisted of raw tomatoes, baguette slices, red and yellow pepper, as well as herbs, red wine vinegar and lemon juice blended together to make a thick refreshing summer’s day soup, a little on the oily side. Mains range between R98 (chicken supreme) and R125 (for grilled salmon and poached egg), seafood paella and crumbed veal being the only other options. One can order flat bread at R20, with hummus (R10) or Tzatziki (R8). An avocado and feta pizza costs R70. For dessert one can order fresh watermelon, a summertime treat one rarely sees on a menu (R25), as well as nougat glaze (R28) or lemon tart (R30).

Teething problems were the Cappuccino machine not working yesterday (although the hotel has a 70 % occupancy, and has been open since last week, and invitations on Twitter encouraged one to try the restaurant ahead of its official opening), and the toilet paper running out without any spare supplies. Waiter training was happening in front of patrons. A group of four next to me wanted to order a bottle of Pierre Jourdan Brut RosÃ© (R232), but the waiter offered to bring it by the glass, and the manager had to be called for assistance. The winelist is not yet ready, but information on the winelist will be added to this review after it is finalised tomorrow.

POSTSCRIPT 16/11: I went back to Sotano by Caveau this evening, to finalise the winelist information for this blogpost. When I looked for a table on the deck, I was blocked by Caveau/Sotano by Caveau Operations Manager Ross Stillford, who told me that the three owners of Caveau have decided that I am not allowed to eat at Sotano by Caveau, nor at Caveau, ever again because of the review I wrote about Sotano by Caveau. To add insult to injury, co-owner Brendon Crew Tweeted about this incident, referred to me as a “bitch” in a Tweet, and continued in disparaging and defamatory vein in subsequent Tweets. Not a good start to a restaurant that has only officially been open for less than 24 hours!

POSTSCRIPT 22/11: I have managed to obtain details of the Sotano by Caveau winelist. Seperated into “Bubbles, Whites, Rose, Reds, Desserts”, it details vintages but not region of origin. Two sparkling wines (Graham Beck Brut – R49/R195 and Pierre Jourdan Brut – R 38/R150) are offered by the glass. No champagnes are served. About ten options per variety are offered, and each variety offers wines-by-the-glass. Sauvignon Blancs range from R28/R110 for Haut Espoir to R51/R205 for the Warwick Professor Black. I was interested to see the name of a wine (Parlotones Push me to the Floor), a white blend sold at R116, I had not heard of before, and its red blend ‘sister’ Parlotones Giant Mistake. Shiraz options range from R25/R110 to R620 for De Trafford CWG 1999. Magnums are available for Vriesenhof Grenache 2007 (R650), Jordan Cobblers Hill 2000 (R1000) and Meerlust Rubicon 2001 (R1250).

POSTSCRIPT 2/12: Neil Markovitz, the owner of the La Splendida Hotel in which Sotana by Caveau is located, was most apologetic about the Sotano/Brendon Crew incident when I saw him at the Newmark Hotels function two days ago.

POSTSCRIPT 4/12: Today we went to have breakfast at Caveau, to try out the restaurant, given the many negative comments it attracted to this blog post. We were served by the charming Lilly, who brought the breakfast board to the table, and took our order of scrambled eggs (R19) and cappuccino. The prices were most reasonable, and the coffee was served in Origin-branded cups I have not seen anywhere else. We were shocked at how run-down the place looked on the outside, with paint peeling off the walls, the chairs wobbly, the tables and chairs not having been varnished for ages, and the Vin d’Orrance umbrellas dirty. It generally smacked of neglect. Before we could be served our egg orders, we were asked to leave by the Caveau Operations Manager Ross Stillford, but not before we paid for our coffees!

Sotano by Caveau, 121 Beach Road, Mouille Point, Cape Town. Tel 0711962660 www.sotanobycaveau.co.za (website under construction) Monday – Sunday. 7h00 – 23h00

Chris von Ulmenstein, Whale Cottage Portfolio: www.whalecottage.com Twitter: @WhaleCottage