Potting @ Potluck

Talk about misnomers! A potluck is supposed to be a communal meal where guests each contribute a dish but in this case, when invited by Alex Dale, the hardman of SA hedonism, lunch was a liquid one with bottles contributed by his colleagues from Klein Constantia, Anwilka, KC (who left the Sunshine Band at home) and Hartenberg and the food was all from the famous kitchen of Luke Dale-Roberts.

Once again, a mercifully Troll-Free Zone with exotic guests such as saucy Greg Landman and Scott Wood (below) from Kyoto Garden who tells me he has abandoned ostrich in favour of wagyu from the Free State. And beef doesn’t get more exotic than Bloemfontein. I’ve decided to press on with our feathered friends and am arranging an ostrich outrage at Birds on Bree to launch my latest Swartland wines, Dora and Fedora, a white and red Pinotage I’d previously wanted to call Great White Hope and Swapo (Swartland Pinotage) and realized they tasted more la cage aux folles than Herman Toiva Ja Toivo so I’m now looking for a stuffed ostrich and some pienk feathers.

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The 2011 Hartenberg Riesling is a worthy successor to the 2010 and is the one to order if Howard Booysen is too sweet for the dish. However the best white was the Klein Constantia Perdeblokke Sauvignon Blanc 2012 being modelled below by winemaker Matt Day. Matt is described on the Klein website as “fresh-faced” and his wine has a fresh acidity and amazing minerality, whatever that contentious term may mean. For me, it’s all about pH and palate texture (creamy), but then I’m no geologist or mineralogist. Klein also is close to embracing the Jean Engelbrecht model of one estate, one wine as they seriously slim their range down to a white, a red called 2011 (presumably vintage dependent) and of course, a pudding wine, Vin de Constance.

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In the red department, the Petit Frère 2010 (little brother, below with friend) blend of Shiraz and Cabernet from Anwilka impressed mightily, especially when vouchsafed its price – R75. Seems that the 2010 vintage was judged below par, so a second label was magicked up. Boy, did the big Bordeaux gros fromages involved in the project blow this one! Bonus, as now mere mortals and salarymen can enjoy a fine Fench-inspired ami for R40 a glass at Frères Bistro on the Foreshore. As Miguel Chan, senior sommelier of SA, confirms.

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Little Brother and Big Steak. Could this be the next BT (Big Thing) for CTC (Cape Town Cuisine)? We’re not in Stellenbosch any longer, Dorothy!