Beware the grape thugs of Constantia. Dinner on Wednesday night at the renovated and relocated The Greenhouse at The Cellars Hohenhort in Constantia turned out to be an evening of riddles. Executive chef Peter Tempelhoff had diners guessing with his new tasting menu, themed "Imagine", in which he conjures up ‘liquid nitrogen powder dressing', ostrich egg bowls and a platter that requires diners to forage through artichoke bark with their hands for wild mushroom treats. Asking diners to eat with their hands in a fine dining restaurant however puzzling is less baffling than proprietor Liz McGrath's stolen grapes.

Apparently, came harvest for the botrytis infected Hanepoot this year, the grapes were neatly picked, packaged and removed from the property one evening without anyone noticing. It has the makings of a detective board game.

Mrs M, as Liz McGrath is affectionately known by staff, says the 2010 vintage was looking particularly promising after the rather miserable 2009 offering, but on the evening before harvest grape thugs trucked away the shrivelled grapes. She thinks it might have been an inside job. The estate's grapes are made into the special Vin de Hohenhort sweet wine, exclusively sold from the property, but with the 2010 harvest disappearing into someone else's tank only seven bottles of the 2007 Vin de Hohenhort are left in the cellar at The Greenhouse. Could it be that grapes for the Vin de Hohenhort found their way into a neighbouring Vin? It is time for Constantia Cluedo with Groot Constantia also having released a sweet wine this week... or can it be that Chef Tempelhoff is branching out after his collaborative winemaking effort with Klein Constantia's Adam Mason produced The Yardstick Pinot Noir?

Liz McGrath wonders who stole her grapes.

 

Chef Tempelhoff might be too busy to play Constantia Cluedo, and ruled out as a 'suspect', as he revealed last night that he would be required to be chef de extraordinaire at the annual Relais & Chateaux conference taking place in South Africa in November this year.

He has also been asked to be the chef at the gala dinner - with numerous three-star Michelin chefs in attendance. Having tried his adventurous eight course menu I'd say he can be as cool as liquid nitrogen, I am yet to have a better orchestrated, more entertaining dining experience at a restaurant. His sweet cheese course of "camembert cheese cake" might come up lacking without the Vin de Hohenhort as match though. Best the thugs are kept away from the grapes come harvest 2011. Unless someone is deliberately sabotaging the chef's food and wine matches, which introduces another Constantia producer with a famed restaurant to the game of Constantia Cluedo...?