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Chalk and cheese, last week’s MCSA and this. The only agenda the two programs had in common was bulleting the oldest contestant, but at least there was no gratuitous cruelty tonight. But why is MasterChefSA so ageist?
Oh yes, and last week Thin Chef wore a Woolies big suit. Tonight, it was a Woolies big shirt. But slap the Woolies marketing department on the wrist with a koek- or koessuster for flighting their admittedly brilliant ad for those 35-day aged thick cut steaks twice in consecutive ad-breaks. But what glorious camera work – the steaks made everything cooked in the show look like takeaways. This ad is so yummy, its almost worth signing up for a Woolies shopper card. That and getting the 25% meat discount.
From a wine point of view, there was at least a teasing glimpse of Nederburg products but the whole winelands set and bucolic environment speaks to a brand at the top of its game. The underlining of Nederburg as the premium lifestyle wine option was reinforced by the announcement that a dozen of SA’s sexiest brands are lining up to participate in the annual Nederburg Auction in September for the first time.
Nederburg
A bear hug from MasterChefSA judge Pete Goffe-Wood on Greenmarket Square on Thursday and a quick discussion about the series. I was initially unsure whether to dodge a Glasgow kiss from Pete after my comments on Tuesday’s braai program but chef, the model of decorum, admitted “we get better as the show progresses.”
Chef Pete Goffe-Wood and UCT voter Mike Bamfield-Duggan, a profusion of "-"s
Pressing questions (press shown below) are being raised as to how the Swartland came to dominate yesterday’s UCT Top 20 SA wineries poll. First placed Boekenhoutskloof mackintosh-hillhouse-chair Marc Kent, second placed baby Jesus of SA wine Eben Sadie and charming Chris and beautiful Andrea Mullineux in tenth position are all leading lights in the annual Swartland Revolution. An event that poll organizer Tim James is involved with.
Not that any impropriety is implied. After all, that Marc was first past the post is to be expected, as Boekenhoutskloof is Winery of the Year in the 2012 Platter sighted wine guide. But even with ten 2011 Platter pundits voting plus editor Phil, the 2011 Platter Winery of the Year, Nederburg, could not make the Top 20. A fantastic result and quite frankly, unbelievable as Nederburg had three five star stunners in 2012 and a record breaking five in 2011. Nederburg cellarmaster and TV star Razvan Macici must be wondering what you have to do to get into the Top 20! Surely the last shred of credibility at Platter has been lost by this result. Or is the poll perhaps a fix?
The Vaslin Burcher (sic) press at Boekenhoutskloof
Nederburg, headline sponsor of the MasterChefSA circus, must be pretty disappointed with last night’s program, which was pretty much a drinks-free zone. But even worse than that, relentlessly middle class; not restaurant fodder at all.
A stroke of luck to have your braai episode air the same week the Wonderwerkgat in the Northern Cape was revealed as the world’s first restaurant; full marks for locating it at Forum Homini. But from the curiously cringeworthy and stilted delivery of the judges, one dressed in an absurdly large David Byrne Stop Making Sense Woolies Big Suit (great for pop stars, less so for chefs with cuffs trailing in the sauce) to hardman Pete Goffe-Wood’s best dish (“magnificent”) which looked like a braai-free dessert compote, this was silly soccer mom stuff.
Was it me or were those first ads for Robertson Spices and Hyundai longer than the food? But overall, the ads were great and the beautifully styled camera work on the Woolworths 34-day aged steaks (available only to Woolies card holders in seems?) did confirm that Blair Witch Project production techniques employed at the braai, have had their day.
The best acting in MasterChefSA is in the ads - Razvan Macici is the star
At a sparkling dinner at Le St. James Hotel and Restaurant on a hill above Bordeaux last night, seven SA Sauvignons won medals at the 3rd Concours Mondial du Sauvignon: Cederberg, Eikendal, Kleine Zalze, Lomond (two), Nederburg and Nitida. The local sage of Sauvignon, Denis Dubourdieu, made a few pithy comments before the results were announced. But we were all a bit disappointed that he came solo as we were looking out for his brother Hervé, who cuts his own hair into a “Norman Conquest basin style”, according to well-placed hairstyle sources in the Douro.
Gironde Caviar
Here’s the unexpurgated version of yesterday’s story in the Sunday Times Food Weekly on bubblies for breakfast. Red Marauder may have been the slowest horse in 118 years to win the Grand National when he romped home in 2001. But his owner was so chuffed, the following morning a Champagne breakfast was served to the victor in his stall. So what Champagne do you serve a horse for breakfast? Or indeed a friend who wears open sandals with socks and eats raw oats in the form of Bircher Müsli from an unglazed bowl, rather than a morral (the pretentious name for a feedbag)?
Red Marauder wins the Grand National at 33-1
It was Anton Rupert who saved Tulbagh in 1969 after an earthquake destroyed the historic town in Het Land van Waveren, 90 minutes from Cape Town, when he paid for the reconstruction of historic Church Street. Now it looks like another history buff from Georgia called Charles Banks, will be an unlikely successor to Anton and place the town firmly on the international map.
Mulderbosch winemaker Adam Mason and Charles Banks
The news that Nederburg has made two special Masterchef wines for Woolies: an 90:10 red blend of Grenache and Carignan and a 60:40 blend of Sauvignon Blanc and Chardonnay from the 2010 and 2011 vintages respectively, brings together two of the nicest guys in SA wine: Nederburg cellarmaster Razvan Macici and Woolies wine consultant Allan Mullins. Why did Nederburg do it? Getting four listings on Woolies facings for their Sauvignon Blanc, Chardonnay, Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot might have had something to do with it.
Nederburg Bar One is the top selling medium priced red in the country. Discounted to just above the top of the R30-R40 price category, the fastest growing segment of the domestic market, Baronne has broken through the colour bar and is the red of choice for previously disadvantaged drinkers. Which poses a bit of a headache for a brand which shifts 1.2 million cases a year. Can big appeal to anoraks?
Over in Australia, Penfolds has answered in the affirmative. A brand that crushes around 250,000 tons – 10 times the size of Nederburg – retails from £4 to £40 in the UK and higher, if you include Grange. So how to get the message across to Gauteng Gastronomes?
Sponsor Masterchef SA and open up your facility to film the series, is one strategy that should appeal to couch potatoes. Although hair-raising tales of slave labour hours and chef prima donna hijinks confirms that SA TV is a high stakes game indeed. Heads have already rolled. Another strategy is to make a pair of wines with the face of Woolies vino, Allan Mullins, which should appeal to supermarket shoppers. And with Woolies on a roll, changing from basket to trolley in a direct challenge to Pick ‘n Pay, this strategy should have traction.
Another avenue is to host winemaker dinners at a top restaurant. Tricky to do in the middle of harvest and in Johannesburg, if you agree with the Mail & Guardian that Africa’s most vibrant city is a culinary parking lot. So enter the friendly face of Nederburg in the North, Chris de Klerk, who played to a packed house last night at Il Tartufo. Mining magnifico Andy Rompel and chef Luciana Righi (above) seem to be enjoying themselves.
Chris hauled out and polished the vinous gems at the top end of the Nederburg Pyramid of Potations: 2009 Ingenuity White and 2009 Ingenuity Red plus the best dessert wine in the world (according to the Australians) the 2009 noble late harvest and certainly the cheapest at R63 a half-bottle.
Diners got into the swing of things with the Cuvée Brut NV – carbonated Chenin that Chris called “a wine that makes you see double and feel single.” Before speculating how many of those present were conceived on the stuff. Shush! Chris. With a Minister of Health dedicated to closing down the national bar, let’s keep the bedroom, at least, sacrosanct.
The news that HCI recently bought another 688 shares in KWV at R8.50 each – which triggered a mandatory offer to shareholders to buy everyone out at that price – comes as no surprise. The price is a far cry from the R11.80 HCI paid to Jannie Mouton’s Zeder for the initial investment earlier this year but well above the R7 the security was trading for in September.
Farmers must be kicking themselves for not grabbing the offer from Pioneer Foods with both hands, but can congratulate themselves on remaining proud owners of one of Irma Stern’s best paintings. The current offer values 100 shares at roughly the retail price of four bottles of the flagship Roodeberg named after its inventor, Dr. Charles Niehaus. A 2010 blend of Shiraz, Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot, Charlie is richly fruited and densely intense. But even more importantly, brings the KWV icon red kicking and screaming into the New World of accessible wine styles upon which the very future of the company depends.
Charlie Niehaus, a new old face of KWV quality
