Elan Wine & Spirits Gallery

19/07/2021

10/07/2021

Winter Recipes -to spice up your.. life.” 🔥

Today we master a 🇪🇸 Spanish crowd pleaser. Drum roll please 🥁💥 ..”Pulpo Gallego”: A Galician-Style Octopus (yep we said Octopus… tastes like Calamari or Chicken -you don’t know it till you try it!)Tapa, favourite.

P.S. This is definitely one for the mum in law.

PREP

Time : 15 mins
Cook: 85 mins
Total: 100 mins
Servings: 8 servings

INGREDIENTS:

1 1/2 pounds octopus
4 large potatoes
1/4 cup olive oil (Spanish extra virgin, to drizzle)
Salt (to taste)
1 dash paprika (sweet Spanish/ or smoked)

Boil a large pot of water over high heat. Remove the octopus from the freezer and place it directly in the boiling water. Cook until tender—this usually takes about 1 hour for a 1 to 2-pound octopus. To test its tenderness, insert a knife where the legs and head meet. If it goes in easily, it's ready to eat.

Remove the octopus from the water and allow it to cool. Refrigerate for at least 1 hour.

Cut the chilled meat into bite-size chunks, slicing the legs in 1/2-inch rounds and the head into thin strips.

Rinse the potatoes and clean with a vegetable brush. Fill a medium-sized pot halfway with water. Bring to a boil over high heat. Boil the potatoes until they can easily be pierced with a fork, about 25 to 25 minutes.

Drain the potatoes and rinse under cold running water. Allow the potatoes to cool, then peel. Slice into rounds approximately 1/3-inch thick.

Arrange the potato slices on a serving platter. Place the octopus on top. Drizzle with olive oil. Season with salt and sweet paprika over top and serve.

TIP

You can use either fresh or frozen octopus. Depending on where you live, it may be easier to find it frozen. Keep in mind that fresh octopus should not smell fishy; this is a sign that it's going bad.
If it's a fresh octopus, ask the fishmonger to clean it for you. Otherwise, cleaning octopus is not difficult to do yourself. Be sure to remove the ink sac, the section of the head with the eyes, the beak, and the internal organs.

Be sure to use good quality paprika and olive oil since they are the main flavorings. While it's a simple preparation, just plan ahead since the octopus will need to boil for at least an hour and chill for another hour.

SERVE
.As part of a tapas spread with other dishes like patatas bravas, croquettes, or even a cheese plate. The dish pairs nicely with a dry white wine or a Carmen’s Merlot (pairs well with chicken 😉)..

WHAT DOES OCTOPUS TASTE LIKE?

If cooked properly, octopus is tender and some say similar to calamari in taste, while others say chicken.

PULPO GALLEGO, or Galician-style octopus, is a popular tapa (appetizer) served all over Spain today. It originated in the northwestern Spanish region of Galicia where octopus (pulpo in Spanish) is a specialty and a common catch for local fishermen.

08/07/2021

NEW PRODUCER. NEW LISTING!

We are proud to announce!.. 📣 Our newest release today -It’s a juicy, lip-smacking masterpiece! ..2019 is another BANGER year for Cape whites in particular, and Carmen Stevens just killed it --- AGAIN (she always dose, actually, man we wish we could tell ya...).
Stylish, pure, refined, razor sharp and somehow feeling even a little creamy or mineral-like in your mouth. Beautiful green pepper notes & fruity love. Just a whisper of new French oak, which rounds it a bit and adds a bit of s*x appeal, but mostly this Sauvignon is all about sweet citrus fruits, ripe fig, a dash of kaffir lime and a hint of passion fruit- just lovely, fresh and bright as a new vinyl pressing of Pinks latest album. Drink it with everything and nothing. Serve at 8-12 C (nice n chilled). Don’t miss out! 🙋🏽‍♀️🍷

05/07/2021

Wine some more… 🍷

02/07/2021

It’s another Fintastic day! We’re going to have so much fin!… There’s just some fin about today.. Ok. Ok, I’ve got no fin left…
For all of you celebrating today’s special day, we hope it’s fin-nomenal!! 🐟🎉🍣

23/06/2021

When you know. You know.

22/06/2021

Let’s talk Chenin Blanc!.. It’s our girl Alison 🇯🇲 back again for another review on local wines 🇿🇦. As passionate and bubbly as ever, we just can’t get enough🍷🍇

18/06/2021

It’s the little things in life… 🍷

17/06/2021

IMMORTALITY awaits. Take it. It’s yours!… Ok sooo, Wine & Spirits might not make you immortal, but they can both add years to your life, which is sort of the same thing, right..? Real question is… which do you prefer? Time to pick your potion… 🧪🧐

14/06/2021

It’s TANNIN-Y!!.. What a refreshing synopsis of our world class South African wines by (Instagram) -our vibrant Jamaica wine enthusiast. We love her energy... and a shout out to 💃🍷

12/06/2021

4 WINE-RULES YOU BROkE UNWITTINGLY

These rules you've been utilising since the day you turned 21 (who are we kidding, 18) but don’t really work. Nah, don’t feel like a dummy. There is a lot of misconception when it comes to getting the most out of wine -so don’t fret. We are going to hot potato these tips on to you QUICK. To keep you… your guests… and even our winemakers SMILING.

1. PRICES of wine rarely reflects their quality.

A lot of hullabaloo really, from the cost of the vineyards land to the reputation of specific regions can cloud one’s judgment. A lot of the quality is down to the craft and skill of the maker. Truth be told, wine is almost never priced for the real value of what’s in the bottle.

There are many examples of wines that overachieve (from places like South Africa, Australia, Chile, the lesser known properties of Bordeaux) whose prices smash what is offered by California “cult” wines, some top Burgundies, and so on. We all want to be on the first half of this equation, but there are times when spending a pretty penny makes sense.

A few things to keep in mind...

It’s difficult to find wines under R70 that are exquisite or made with care; it’s even harder under R50, a devision in which most big corporations focus on producing wines. But it’s easy under R150.
A small group of Estates in the world can justify a wine over R1400. Homework must be done before you consider buying them (and I’m not talking about just checking wine scores).
The best values often come from smaller boutique like estates. Friends may question you, but once the bottle’s open, your highly developed palate will be evident.

2. NEVER judge a bottle by its wrapping.

Once, corks were judged the best (and for many centuries, the only) way to seal a bottle. Yet today good wine come from all varieties of screw caps, crown caps, and more. In Australia and New Zealand, for example, screw caps are so common now that cork seems the unusual choice for many. The cork industry faced some heat due to cork taint, although it’s made huge progress now. But it’s not a guarantee anymore that a wine with a cork is the best thing on the cabinet.

3. TEMPERATURE maters. You’re likely serving your whites too cold and your red wine too warm.

It’s enticing to leave that white wine in the fridge and plonk the red wine on the counter, but neither will be the correct temperature. Serving wine too cold will subdue its full aromas and texture, while serving wine too warm can make it taste indistinct and plain—this applies to both white wines and reds. Bare in mind that the moment you pour it a glass, a wine’s temperature rises—that’s expected, and it’s a chance for you to enjoy the wine as it evolves.

In a perfect world, we’d all store our bottles in a wine fridge (or a temperature-stable cellar, if you’ve got one at your disposal). Clearly most of us can’t do that. Alternatively, keep all your wines slightly chilled, and take them out in advance to warm up. Roughly, a half-hour should be plenty for most reds and 5-10 minutes for whites. And if it gets too warm? Just pop it back in the old fridge, or even toss it in an ice bucket (Simples).

4. BIG is better. Drink your wine out of big bottles.

In this cause bigger really is better. We are all accustomed to wine coming in standard 750-ml bottles, but most of the best wines also come in magnums, or 1.5L bottles. ‘Magnum,’ is your friend—because he’s got twice as much wine, of course (thus the adage, “Magnums show you care”), but also, they age wine slowly, thanks to the lower ratio of wine to glass surface, which results in less wine in proximity to air or glass. They store wines in a state more similar to what they were at the cellar, a more clear snapshot of what a wine was meant to be. You don’t have to stop there either, there are: Jeroboams (three liters), Salmanazars (nine liters), and so on.

11/06/2021

We’re all very accustom to the lavish praise over wine. But what do you do when you open up bottle and are engulfed by that.. smell… taste… loss for words… What do you do -PANIC? No, the words to describe a bad bottle can be useful —and a lot of fun, too!

I know this sounds absurd, but bad wine tasting notes could provide pleasure as well as service to drinkers, I’ve observed. Defects happen and are natural. “Besides food critics are in their element when the food is bad.” My college Gavin also agreed. Yet, no one lingers long over a bad wine. “You don’t really get to put words to it?”

Gavin and I had each pulled out a bottle of wine from the cellar at a (BYO) restaurant a few months back. The trophy was a 2017 Newton Johnson Family Vineyard, a Hemel en aarde Valley Pinot Noir that we’d both had before and liked a lot.

We enjoyed the first bottle and turned to the Pinot Noir. I had the first sip. “This is really bad,” I remarked. The wine had a vague pharmaceutical smell—like a drugstores knock off perfume —and tasted like a mouthful of aspirin. In the interim, Gavin cautiously tasted it too. He agreed, it tasted like a Bayer’s baby aspirin, thrown into a glass of Caltrate. “It’s tricky finding the right words so describe a bad bottle of wine” he said with a smirk. Maybe there is some perverse pleasure in finding a naughty bottle?

There are words in general practice for a wine afflicted by a defect. For example, a wine that’s corked is often said to smell like a damp garage or wet cat, while a wine that’s ‘over the hill’ is generally described as dried up and chalky, all tannin, but no fruit.

When I asked a couple of my articulate friends about undesirable wines they have encountered, the general response was a haughty noses or shaking of their arms, followed by an abrupt, “Bleh.”
Wine critics share a fairly consistent vocabulary when describing the way a good wine hits the palate and caresses the nose. It’s: lively, juicy, opulent, balanced, well-structured, tightly knit, powerful, generous and/or vigorous. Most critics and writers, however, don’t make a habit of lavishing words on undeserving bottles.

So without to much more waffling on, what we have done -is gone ahead and a put together a list of tasting notes, all in the name of good fun.

1. An overly alcoholic wine might be said to be “hot on the finish.”
2. The overly oaken wine maybe described to,“redefine the meaning of a ‘rough red, and have the aftertaste of a damp chipboard.’

3. Wine with an imbalance or lack of body would be describe as, “The aromas are “weedy, immature, bruised,” the appearance is “dull, murky brick-red and structurally the wine is “but a husk.”
4. Oxidised wine might be described as, “Aromas of nail polish remover and charred apple-cider vinegar. The structure is lifeless and has a brownish color, mimicking the look of a leftover avocado.”

5. Corked wine could be “Damp, soggy, wet and hits the nose like rotten cardboard. Palate is metallic, mixed with dull fruit that cuts the finish.
I don’t think this wine will actually make you ill—although never say never.”

Hope you had fun with these. Wine just like life is not to be taken to seriously. S**t happens, laugh it off and move on (chuckles).