Pages

Tuesday, December 13, 2011

MAKE MINE BRANDY WITH DINNER

MAKE MINE BRANDY WITH DINNER



Specialty brandy portfolio FINE BRANDY.BY DESIGN™ has teamed up with one of South Africa’s top-rated restaurants to create a luxury, four-course brandy-paired menu.



Featuring a range of award-winning connoisseur brandies from Van Ryn’s, Oude Meester, Klipdrift and Collison’s, the gourmet menu deftly shows diners how versatile brandy can be as a dinner companion. The dishes have been created by The Roundhouse’s lead chefs, PJ Vadas and Eric Bulpitt, together with sommelier Joakim Hansi Blackadder.



The exclusive Camps Bay restaurant was recently ranked amongst South Africa’s Top Ten dining establishments in the 2011 Eat Out DSTV Food Network Awards, while Blackadder is the inaugural winner of the Bollinger Exceptional Wine Service award.



The Roundhouse, a National Monument, dates from the late 18th century and was at one time the hunting lodge of Lord Charles Somerset. With sweeping sea and mountain views, it has become a must-visit destination for international foodies visiting Cape Town.



Starting with lighter-bodied, more youthful potstills, the menu graduates to progressively complex, fuller-bodied potstills and all the cuisine has been designed accordingly. “The purpose is to showcase the best of South African brandy and underscore its rightful place with food, as is becoming the trend across Europe and America,” says spokesperson for the prestige brandy collection, Shelley Ellse.



Vardas and Bulpitt have been collaborating with the FINE.BRANDY.BY DESIGN™ portfolio for several months, successfully pairing the Roundhouse’s signature luxury dishes with brandies in the portfolio at events in the Cape and Johannesburg.



The menu is priced at R450 and forms part of The Roundhouse’s permanent selection.

Pairings include chicken, caramelised pear and white bean velouté with Oude Meester Demant, and cob, pickled mussels and sea lettuce with Collison’s White Gold; while fillet of venison and hay-ash baked beets and mulberries come with Klipdrift Gold. The brandies can firstly be tasted on their own, and thereafter with the especially designed cocktail paired with the dish. The meal culminates in a coffee and walnut sponge, served with orange creameux and butterscotch sauce, and is matched with Van Ryn’s 15 Year Old, a former winner of the Best Brandy trophy at the International Spirits Challenge in London.



DATE DECEMBER 2, 2011

ISSUED BY DKC (DE KOCK COMMUNICATIONS)

FOR FINE.BRANDY.BY DESIGN™

QUERIES SHELLEY ELLSE, SA MARKETING MANAGER/CARRIE SANDERS, SA BRAND MANAGER 021 809 7000 or 083 631 0624
MARLISE POTGIETER/SONJA BEZUIDENHOUT, DKC 021 422 2690