Wining and Dining, and then some by Kim Maxwell

Wining and dining, and then some

Monday, November 03, 2008 by Kim Maxwell

Wining and dining your way through year-end events and launches can be tiring even to contemplate. Kim Maxwell highlights a few that stood out, and some to watch out for.

With deadlines looming and ever-limited time for private commitments, what makes a launch or new release worthy of three or four hours of concentration and conversation is hard to define. People often tell journalists how "lucky" they are to spend so much of their time wining and dining "for free".

Yet in reality anybody past the stage of a rookie newshound realises that taking on too many events for the sake of staying abreast of developments means even less time to complete those income-generating deadlines. Generally it's about striking a balance between what's newsworthy, new or novel, ensuring an event is easy to attend in terms of timing or location, and hoping that it doesn't drag on.

In the absence of a celebrity claim to fame, having a likeable personality/quality wine/reputable chef makes something more appealing if you're a new winery, restaurant or book trying to be launched.


Curtis Stone, TV chef best known to viewers from 'Surfing the Menu' (featuring two Aussie chefs cooking on scenic coastlines), didn't have that problem last week in Cape Town. He's dishier in person than on screen (where he made People magazine's 'Sexiest Men Alive' list along with George Clooney) with a boyish friendliness too. Curtis was visiting South Africa for a whistle-stop tour of cooking demos and dinners from his current Los Angeles home, and managed to squeeze in Gansbaai shark diving followed by home-cooked lunch with a nearby winemaker.

He'd messed around as a junior kitchen hand in London's Quo Vadis restaurant with a similarly junior Peter Tempelhoff, who now oversees luxury hotel kitchens of The Collection by Liz McGrath properties.

Their six-course dinner was impressive and the chef duo had fun, with Constantia Valley wines donated to match sommelier Miguel Chan's interpretations. The Eagle's Nest Viognier 2006 was a surprise because it wasn't overly wooded or peachy, and Vin de Constance to finish is always a treat. My top choice was Curtis's first course: tiny hand-dived sea scallops with diced avo in a lime-spiked sauce with basil, coriander and coconut milk.

He'd been surprised to hear scallops weren't to be found in South Africa, so Peter placed a pricy order from America's West coast. The Constantia Glen 2008 Sauvignon Blanc wasn't showing as well as WINE Magazine's 10 Sauvignon Blancs did a week earlier (personal favourites at that event being Ghost Corner 2008 and Strandveld Vineyards 2008 for that idiosyncratic Elim / Agulhas sea air-infused mineral character, and Groote Post Woolworths Reserve 2007 for completely different characters on the Darling coastline), which just shows how bottle-ageing benefits some Sauvignons.


An interesting titbit from a table guest was that Curtis and three London nightclub owner mates created an imaginary rock band and fanclub, although none of them played instruments or sang. For a laugh, Curtis booked the friends "gigs" in Ibiza, Greece and Barcelona, planning these boy's holidays to a tee.

The "band" all take turns now at pitching to holiday at Curtis's swanky LA home, because everybody knows celebrity chefs enjoy rock star status. This might explain Curtis's thought process in the naming of his signature 'bump and grind' stainless steel pestle and mortar, which he designed for @home stores (March 2009 release). With a pre-release price indication of R1650, you'll need the expense account of a rock star to justify the purchase.


A few weeks ago Premiére restaurant at the Arabella Western Cape Hotel & Spa launched their first of monthly Wine and Dine dinners, with the menu being paired with offerings by two winemakers. They seemed to think the concept was novel, which it isn't. But having good wineries is always a drawcard, and the elegant wines crafted by Newton Johnson brothers Gordie (wines) and Bevan (marketing) are always a pleasure to sample, while Blaauwklippen's Rolf Zeitvogel provided novelty value for their Red Zinfandel - the red 2005 a glorious example of the variety, the pink-toned White Zin 2007 a little too acidic and strange to be taken seriously with food. Subjective wine choices were also the subject of Michael Olivier's 'Crush!' pocket book released in October, featuring '100 of the author's favourites to drink now'.

With appealing layouts and clever diagrams of macro/meso/micro-terroir differences, it's essentially a consumer-orientated book that's largely wasted on a wine industry crowd. It should be punted in magazines geared at men or women specifically, or at those tourism booths offering guesthouse and wine tour information.


All this complicated eating left a desire for simpler pleasures. Fortunately at The Venue at South Hill winery in Elgin, Gordon Manuel's simpler eating is what you'll find, with an emphasis on locally farmed ingredients. Overberg wines are also on offer - Catherine Marshall sources fruit at James Downes in Elgin, before any eyebrows are raised about her wine inclusion - at affordable prices.

Time your Elgin visit right and you can buy your own delicious sausages, honey, bakes, farm produce and take-aways at the new Elgin Valley Market at Peregrine's Saturday market space, previously held at Rockhaven.


I'm a repeat customer and there's something extremely satisfying about making this country drive where grocery shopping becomes fun. If scenic gardens, country lunches and teas are your thing, why not combine the farmer's market with a drive through at Elgin Open Gardens 2008 on 8 & 9 November from 10h00 - 17h00. A variety of farms open their gardens for a small fee to benefit charity. Visit http://www.elginopengardens.co.za/ or call (021) 848-9146 for a list of participating farms.