We woke up this morning to pea-soup mist. There is something wonderfully enveloping about wintermist in Swellendam. Sitting in the lounge in Park Villa, waiting for the dining room to be readied for breakfast and gazing at the bare oak trees in the garden I was reminded of the haiku by Lee Emmett, the Australian poet. She talks of some obscure Australian bird, the currawong, but in Swellendam it would have to be the Hadeda and with apologies to Lee, I have substituted the two.

WINTER MIST VEILS TREES

Winter’s mist veils trees
pink camellias are in bloom
and Hadedas sing

I took the picture of Arum Lily Suite after breakfast – the red hot pokers look amazing in the grey.

Renovations are in full swing and with the summer season approaching there is little time to waste. Swellendam’s finest carpenters, builders, painters & suppliers are working as one to help meet some crazy deadlines.

Vivian and his friend Jonathan are working specifically on Park Villa which has much historic details and has to be handled carefully as befits a grand old lady.

In the reading room of the new Honeybush Suite we wanted a rich stripe design and the boys rose to the challenge. Suddenly the space is alive and the rich 1802 detailing is totally complemented by the stripe & colours.

…Psalm 104,15

Augusta de Mist is very proud of her maiden vintage as provided by Chris and Andrea Mullineux. And tonight we have sold our first bottle to Gert & Karin from Rostock, Germany, who are staying with us tonight.

We call this our ‘ROUGE ROUGE’.  It is a quirky blend of Swartland wine, and it is the red sister in the FILLES DE JOIE range.

We would be delighted to pour you a glass of our finest on your visit!

Tea at 4. At the gate of our new home, Hawks Landing at Augusta de Mist
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As you may know, from 1 August Augusta de Mist will be in the hands of her new custodians, Henk Klijn & Michel Metford Platt. With this blog we hope to keep you informed of the goings-on in Swellendam.

Moving day arrived and the very capable guys from Biddulphs were there bright and breezy to pack and load. Things went on forever. What we expected to be a simple day’s move ended up being a marathon 15-hour packing day. We loaded the car with the dog and a few suitcases and said to goodbye to our beloved Riebeek Kasteel at midnight. . After folding my seatbelt into a rosary due to driving the dark road in very heavy fog, we arrived in Swellendam way past 2am.

Unpacking was a new nightmare. The same set of guys were tired by now and the Tardis-like van just kept heaving forth more an more stuff. Unpack day finally ended at 20:00.

And so a new chapter begins. With optimism and vigour we are ready to accept the challenges and requests that the new life may hold. But first we need to unpack…

This is the kind of CD that makes you rub your ears. These are kids from the lowest slums of Caracas, some of them as young as twelve. They sound accomplished. And in fact, better than a lot of professional orchestras. The Simon Bolivar Youth Orchestra delivers a Rite of Spring that stands comparison with the best.

Dudamel’s reading is as energised and violently exultant as the old standard, Leonard Bernstein with the NY Philharmonic. Except for the eerie opening solo from the bassoon and the hushed interlude before the maiden dances herself to death, every bar is hair-raising.

Dudamel has both a charismatic and a callow side. Here, the two meld. This isn’t a reflective or thoughtful Le sacre. It’s Le sacre for the cast of “Stomp!” Not that thoughtful is a completley desirable way to approach Stravinsky’s barbaric masterpiece to begin with. Better to say perhaps that Dudamel has found his own style. He departs from Boulez’s analytical dissection, the Stravinsky’s own razor-sharp frigidity, and Maazel’s frenetic virtuosity.

Dudamel makes the score come alive viscerally. Dudamel has also made a crusade out of promoting the music of Mexico and South America. Here we get a second version of primitivism from Silvestre Revueltas, the visionary Mexican modernist who died just short of his forty-first birthday in 1940. Revueltas had heard Le sacre with open ears and offered a Latin descendant in his well known Sensamaya (Bernstein was a fan and made an early, riveting recording of it). Dudamel performs a suite taken from the 1939 film “La noche de los mayas,” directed by Chano Urueta, a contemporary of the composer’s who made films up to 1974. the style is crushingly primordial, and spookily reminiscent at times of Messiaen once the birds have flown south. Dudamel gives what sounds like a definitive performance and since the youthful percussionists of the SBYO are incendiary, the listener won’t miss the percussion cadenza added to the suite after the composer’s death.

In all, this is a recording to make you believe in Dudamel’s potential and to celebrate the growth of an impoverished youth orchestra into a force for joy and light.

For an idea of the Dudamel magic, check out the Beethoven 5th rehearsal clip.

We have the pleasure of a Kumquat tree in our Riebeek Kasteel garden, which once a year surprises us with a whole bunch of Kumquats. Initially we just didn’t bother as we had no idea on what to do with them, but then a year later a friend printed out 3 pages of recipes from the Florida Kumquat association and we were strangers to the possibilities of the fruit no more.

I would make a chutney out of stones if I could, so the chutney recipe was the one that I tried out and that was it. Today was the second big Kumquat-chutney-making-day…there will be a few on sale at Augusta from next week onwards!!

Kumquats – sometimes called Chinese oranges – are the smallest and weirdest of the common citrus fruit. In contrast to other fruit from this group, the skin and zest are sweet, while the juicy insides are tart with a hint of bitterness. A winter treat, kumquats can be eaten whole, just as they are (you’ll either love them or loathe them) or cooked with sugar, spices or spirits to make sweet compôtes and aromatic chutneys.

Wash kumquats and eat them whole, poach them in sugar syrup and serve them with ice cream, or use them in a fruit salad. They are particularly good in stuffings for poultry. When made into compôte or chutney, they complement duck and other fatty meats well.

Raw preparation

Kumquats can be eaten raw as a snack or added to salads. Kumquats do not need to be peeled. They can be eaten with the skin on. Serve them like grapes as a snack.

Kumquats have a distinctive taste with their sweet peel and sour juice. The seeds should not be eaten.

Baking

Kumquats can be used to flavor breads, cakes, cookies, pies and muffins.

Cooking

Use kumquats in marmalades and jellies. They can also be used as a complement to seafood, chicken or pork dishes.

Freezing

Like other citrus, kumquats do not freeze well.

Kumquat Chutney

2 cups kumquat, halved and seeded

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 sweet onion, chopped (about 1/2 cup)

1 Granny Smith apple, peeled, seeded, chopped (about 1 cup)

3 tablespoons red chilies, seeded, minced, divided

1/2 cup dried apricots, chopped

3/4 cup water

3/4 cup sugar

3/4 teaspoon salt

In food processor, finely chop kumquats. Heat oil in medium saucepan over medium-high heat.

Add onions, apple and 1 tablespoon chilies. Cook until onions are soft, stirring frequently, about 4 minutes. Add chopped kumquats, apricots, water, sugar and salt. Bring to a boil, stirring until sugar dissolves. Boil until mixture thickens, about 8 minutes.

Stir in remaining chilies. Fill into sterilized canning jars, seal. Serve warm with pork tenderloin.

Ambrose Bierce defined the accordion as “An instrument in harmony with the sentiments of an assassin.” What’s wrong with the accordion, I ask.

Those who disrespect the accordion turn their backs on an instrument that can score every mood from depression to elation. Enter Richard Galliano’s ‘Bach’, a collection of music that should put to rest any negative connotations associated with the accordion.

One might not know it, given the instrument’s unwarranted red-headed-stepchild status, but Bach on the accordion has a venerable history. The legendary Charles Magnante, for example, opened his 1939 Carnegie Hall concert with the Toccata and Fugue in D minor.

So it’s natural that Richard Galliano, the superb French jazz accordionist, would then turn to Bach for his first classical recording. But Galliano, unusually, ventures beyond keyboard repertoire, offering transcriptions of not only the Fifth Harpsichord Concerto (BWV 1056), but also the A-minor Violin Concerto (BWV 1041) and the Concerto for Violin and Oboe (BWV 1060), as well as a handful of Bach greatest hits. Galliano, one of the foremost accordionists of our time, has practiced and performed Bach over the years, but this is the first time he has recorded the composer’s works. Accompanied by a string quintet, Galliano’s interpretations of familiar pieces such as Orchestral Suite no. 3 in D Major and Sonata for Flute and Harpsichord no. 2 in E flat major soar. Every piece performed is a gem unto itself. Playing the accordion since the age of four and recipient of the Académie du Jazz’s Django Reinhardt Prize (“French Musician of the Year,” 1993), Galliano presents his audience with faithful renderings of the music as Bach wrote it. As in any great orchestral production, the music elevates the listener who is not hearing an accordion, but the works of a master played by a master.

Dating back to the early nineteenth century, the accordion has long supplied the melody for folk music from a variety of cultures. What’s klezmer or a tarantella or a polka without an accordion? Accordionists have been the subject of jokes and wisecracks, yet they are handling an extremely complex instrument that is suited to a wide variety of music, from folk to rock to classical. Those who master it can produce rich sound that does not require accompaniment. And, really, is there anything more romantic than having a strolling accordionist stopping by a candlelit table and playing “That’s Amore”? Ok, some may find it tacky but then you can’t win them all…

When you try some wheat-free torte at Augusta you may  be surprised to find that it’s creator and driving force, Zosh Kihl, had been an administrator in the corporate sector until she launched her own confectionery company, Pleezer’s. Zosh lives in Constantia with her husband, Kent, and their two children, Emma and Elin.

“Pleezer’s is my baby – I eat, sleep and breathe Pleezer’s at the moment. It’s quite a change from what I did previously. I was a paralegal in a large law fi rm, and before that I worked in administration in a number of big financial services companies. During that time I married Kent, who’s Swedish, and in 1999 we went to Sweden to visit his family. While there I bought a recipe book and experimented with it when we returned to SA. When I made the silky almond cake, Kent explained that it’s a popular confection you find in many Swedish coffee shops, restaurants and supermarkets. I thought I might try to do the same thing with the cake here, and began selling to friends, colleagues and two coffee shops but it was more a hobby than a business.

I was still working and had started my paralegal studies, but when I fell pregnant the idea fizzled out. I went into partnership as a beauty therapist and didn’t give the almond cake idea any more thought until about seven months ago when the chef from the Blue Peter Hotel in Tableview called, wanting to know if I still made the almond cake. He’d tasted it at one of the coffee shops I supplied, got my number from them and wanted to place an order for the hotel!

I filled that order and soon he placed more. I took his call as a sign, nudging me to do something but I knew that if I wanted to make a business out of baking, I had to be professional about it.

I got in touch with a brand architect who helped me design a brand identity that wouldn’t be limited to just cakes. I have a real passion for the almond cake but I know it’s just a product.

My vision is to develop the Pleezer’s name beyond confectionery into a lifestyle brand incorporating many product lines. It’s really an exciting time for me, I’m meeting with national distributors and getting the name I’m so passionate about out into the public eye. I look forward to the day when everyone’s talking about my brand. It gives me pride when I think about where my business is going.”

Pleezer’s products are available at Pick n Pay V&A Waterfront, Pick n Pay Canal Walk, Pick n Pay Claremont, Pick n Pay Constantia, Pick n Pay Long  Beach, Pick n Pay Gardens & Pick n Pay Tygervalley. And of course Swellendam. At Augusta de Mist.

4th of July BBQ. Riebeek Kasteel. At Andrea & Chris Mullineux.

Who were there? Andrea & Chris, with very cute JZ, who was wearing a total US flag-inspired outfit. Renche & Nic van Aarde and of course the Augusta crew, represented here by Michel wearing his USA sweater.

Obama graced the table in the shape of a tablecloth, which I would kill for & Andrea’s patriotically themed red and blue reminded us of the main focus of the event, while the food was out of this world and a USA/RSA fusion of flavours. Augusta’s Chakalaka and potato salad, Rensche’s pear & pomegranate salad & Andrea & Chris’ BBQ ribs, cheesy corn bread and Nyala fillet, which was perfectly cooked on the BBQ by Chris and a game meat none of us were too familiar with. Highlight of the evening was the cupcake which was without fail the best cupcake ever. Andrea made red, white & blue velvety chocolate cupcakes, New York-style, with beetroot and a Philadephia cheese icing.

The other highlight was a wine served by Chris which was a knockout.  The Hartford Zinfandel is a blend of old-vine Zinfandel vineyards from the Russian River Valley in California. The average vineyard age is about 85+ years. Zinfandel grown there is characterised by a bright, natural acidity and vibrant fruit aromas and flavors. Exotic spice as well as sweet berry aromas of blueberry, loganberry, and black raspberry are complemented by flavors of boysenberry, blackberry, anise, mocha& allspice.  Chris had it bang-on when he called it Christmas cakey.

We are very excited about our wine which we blended and worked on with Andy Barns of Mischa fame. One of the elements in the red blend will be Mourvèdre. After languishing in the wilderness for a while, Mourvèdre is now on the verge of becoming hip. It’s in the new world where the real image change is taking place, and in particular California and Australia. It used to be Mataro, a spotty teenager with a crap social life. But it’s undergone an image makeover, metamorphosing into Mourvèdre, the grape that everyone wants to know. It’s been invited to the party.

Its spiritual home is Provence’s Bandol region, which itself has undergone a revolution in the last thirty years. Led by Lucien Peyraud’s Domaine Tempier, Bandol now boasts a clutch of dynamic, aspiring producers, including the likes of Lafran Veyrolles, Gros’ Noré, Pibarnon and Begude. By law, Bandol Rouge must now contain at least 50% Mourvèdre, but many serious producers will use more than this.

But it is Spain that grows the lion’s share of Mourvèdre. Known there as Monastrell, it’s the second most widely grown grape, after Garnacha (Grenache). Producers there are just beginning to wake up to Mourvèdre’s new cachet; will we soon see a wave of varietal Mourvèdres from Spain marketed by the grape’s French name?

All is not rosy, however. Mourvedre is a challenging grape to grow. The yield is irregular, and it has a reputation for ‘alternance’, whereby one year produces a good yield, followed by a poor yield the next. And whereas most grapes produce a commercial yield in three to five years, you can be waiting as long as 10 years for Mourvèdre to deliver. But small yields do deliver good colour, and when it’s not excessively astringent and ripens properly (it needs warm climates), it makes some fairly serious wine.

What are the flavour characteristics of Mourvèdre? Look for leathery, herby, spicy notes on the nose. In the new world there is often some sweetness, too. On the palate think savoury. Part of the reason that this has been so successful as a blending grape is that it provides a spicy, savoury structure that complements the richness of Grenache and Syrah grown in warm climates. It’s not an excessively fruity grape, and in some cases can contribute slightly gamey, almost animal-like flavours, especially in younger wines.

Mourvedre buds and ripens extremely late. Provided the climate is nice and hot, as it is in our region and certainly this past summer, the vigorous Mourvedre adapts well to a wide range of soils. This thick-skinned grape, when fully ripened, can produce a heady wine with wonderful longevity. Wine made from Mourvedre is intensely colored, rich and smooth, with nice fruit, and a sort of earthiness when young, and matures so nicely as it ages. Mourvedre produces a wine with some structure and backbone. It is fleshier than Syrah, hardier than Grenache and Cinsault, and more charming than Carignan. Mourvedre is often improved by the structure, spice and tannin of Syrah, the warmth and fruit of Grenache, the spice of Cinsault, and the acidity and tannin of Carignan.

- Cépage de cuve noir, originaire d’Espagne.

- Ses feuilles vert clair sont tourmentées, épaisses et très brillantes.

- Ses grappes moyennes à grandes sont compactes et tronconique.

- Les baies de Grenache ont une pellicule épaisse et craquante à la pulpe fondante.

- Son jus incolore est abondant.

- Les meilleurs vins sont obtenus dans des sols maigres et caillouteux.

- Les vins sont alors très alcooliques, nerveux, d’une belle couleur rouge mordorée.

- Vinifié seul, le vin de grenache vieillit vite et s’oxyde en prenant le gout de rancio.

- Au contraire, pour des vins de garde, il faut prévoir l’emploi de raisins d’autres cépages donnant plus de corps comme la Syrah ou le Mourvèdre