food & wine in South Africa

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I'm here in SA because a few years back in Toronto I met Alex Beeslaar, a colleague from work and we became friends and rock climbing partners. He returned to SA about 2 years ago and eventually settled in Cape Town. since I knew somebody here, had heard that it's one of the top ten places to visit in the world, plus that there's awesome rock climbing here, so I came. I spent Christmas with Alex and his partner Milda and they both had their family over (17 adults, 3 kids). the tradition here is to open presents on Christmas Eve and have a feast for lunch on Christmas day. Alex made gammon (pork roast), his mother brought rump roast (lamb), everybody brought stuff and in general, there was too much food as usual. I had malva pudding for the first time. everything was really good, I tried everything including the meat dishes.
Alex's brother, Abrie Beeslaar, is a wine maker and he just won the award International Winemaker of the Year at the 2008 International Wine and Spirits Competition in London (5500 entries from 50 countries). I chatted with him about that. He works for the wine estate Kanonkop. they also won awards for 2 of their red wines. He says that in a blind taste test, a bottle of Kanonkop can be as good if not better than a top french wine but because it's from Africa, people will never pay for the same amount as they would a bottle from France, therefore, a good bottle of Kanonkop is no where near the price of a French bottle of the same quality. so even though Kanonkop has won prizes, its price will never go up much. however, with these awards, more people will buy Kanonkop but they won't actually produce more so bottles will get harder to find (so stock up on Kanonkops if you can still find them, esp. the older vintages). Wine connaisseurs have always known though. When Gordon Ramsey (famous chef) dined in the restaurant of a top notch hotel in Dubai, he was served a bottle of Kanonkop. check out kanonkop.co.za for a selection of their wines and then check out what you can get at your local LCBO (liquor store).

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