The Franschhoek Cap Classique Festival 2012

Sunday saw me at the Franschhoek Cap Classique Festival. Always bound to be a sparkling affair, most patrons showed up in high style.

As Cap Classique suggests, these are a compilation of traditionally French style produced sparkling wines that mimic Champagne in all but nomenclature. Combinations of Pinot Noir and Chardonnay abounded, with the odd addition of Pinot Mineur. I only tasted one sparkling wine that was made with Semillion.

However, as one learns by tasting, that there is something more intrinsic about  the taste that you are left with than the mere combination of base wines that make up the bubbly.  And there seemed to be two sides of the camps. Those that were more "French" tasting and those that were perhaps a bit more familiar to our palates.

 But champagne tasting is more of an experience than it is a mechanism and the style of champagne more a testimony to the fact that Cap Classique is method more than it is a result. And so while the resulting style of wine may seem to be something specific it is no more universal than two people are the same. 

Take the guys at GH and Ahrens, for example who in two years have completely reversed their blend of base wines. Their 2009 is a blend of 78% Pinot Noir and 22% Chardonnay, a complete reverse of their 2008 vintage, which if I remember correctly was something like 71% Chardonnay and 29% Pinot Noir. Now, I never actually tasted the 2008 vintage but I do believe the charming ex-lawyer in the beret (see pic below) when he said that it is not so much about the base wines as it is about the mousse and the finish that the sparkly produces. And I dare say that as much as there is a science to wine, like a work of art or a piece of music it is also a sensation. 

La Motte, whose Chardonnay and Sauvignon Blanc I particularly enjoy, I was pleased to see, was also present with their MCC. And I often feel that if a house spends more time on making one very good cuveé that that is preferable to having several options that are not as well attended to.

However, one must allow for differences in taste and taking the market into account. And of course, there are some farms that cross a spectrum well: Labourie and Graham Beck being two such farms. Graham Beck's bubbly I know from reviewing their bubbly bar at Steenberg called, Gorgeous where you can also have a tasting of their variously tiered wines. The Cuveé Clive is worth a mention here.

One of the pities about the festival is that when you taste credits are taken off per glass rather than for tasting across a range of a few from a farm to compare. But let's be honest here, there was no spitoon in sight, so it is probably just as well.

Constantia Uitsig and Plesir de Merle are other such farms that only had one vintage present on the "French" side of the tent.


Simon Back, from Backsberg very kindly answered our somewhat demanding questions after a long day at the festival - but one can never talk too much of MCC.

I personally like a blanc de blanc cap classique with something that has been left on the lease for a long time (more than three years).

 But I'd have to say that I tasted several very excellent vintages and sometimes it is a pleasure to compare something that is crisp and apple-y to something that is buttery - and something that is pink and dry to something that is pink and sweet to something. Each has it's charm. And with unlimited combinations  - more than I got to taste - I think that I can comfortably say that in South Africa we produce a range of bubbles for every taste and occasion.

A Little Dinner Before The Play

I recently came across Agnes Jekyll's "A little Dinner Before the Play" a collection of her "Kitchen Essays"that was published in The Times in the 1920's  put together by Penguin earlier this year.

It is, in a few short words, delightful. I think particularly for me because of their historical information about food. Being interested in food, I am interested in people (not necessarily those that are still living, mind, who can be somewhat annoying!) But those that have gone before exist at a safe distance and in that way I find are a great deal more endearing to me.

For instance, I know that Lady Jekyll and myself would have been very good friends, both taking an interest in food and both acknowledging that one is not at one's best first thing in the morning - though she published these thoughts in The Times almost 90 years ago and for those of you who have never met me, for the first time, now on this blog.  But I do feel so strongly on the idea that getting up before the sun rising is wrong, that I'll be surprised that I haven't written it somewhere else. All the more reason form the cheerful breakfast tray which she prescribes!

But I digress: this is not about me, but about Lady Jekyll.  Agnes, from her writing seems like a perfectly no nonsense kind of woman who found that all things being equal, and even if they weren't, that they were to be rectified immediately by putting effort into how and what you provided your guests with, but moreover, by putting careful thought into what guests ate.

Here is one such example. She says:

God made the first Christmas and man has ever-since been busy spoiling it. Year by year, the propaganda of the shops grows increasingly active (what would she have said today?) ; and their suggestion for the keeping of that high feast, including such secular items as dozens of brandy, whisky, and champagne, appear annually more elaborate and incongruous than never before.

So she doesn't hide her indignation at the fact that then friends will come from the countryside to Town in order to procure said brandy and champagne. But does she hold it against them? Of course not! Being delighted that she should see her friends, she suggests that the gracious Town hostess would make for them such delights for tea (read here an almost three course lunch to allow them relief from the effort of being on their feet and flitting from one shop to the next) as they would not be able to make in their country abode due to their being unable to procure the ingredients: A dear friend indeed!

The effort (or her cook's effort - since she was lucky enough to oversee one - though I have no doubt that if she saw her cook doing something incorrectly that she would take over and instruct with the good intention of bettering her cook's skills) that she went to in proving them with such fare leaves us in no doubt as to her being much treasured as such.

Some of her recipes do seem a little on the difficult side, but she seems not to have been one to spare the horses on account of her guests' happiness!

She would insist that guests enjoy themselves and in doing so, benevolently allow others to do so - another point with which I sit in solidarity with her on.

She was after all, a famed philanthropist, which starts in the kitchen.

I'm so delighted to have met her through her writings!