Every year on the second Saturday of October, we celebrate Pinotage Day – a tribute to its journey from ancient soils to our tables, evolving in the hands of skilled artisans. This remarkable variety represents the heart of South African winemaking, a blend of culture, care, and heritage.
I'm opening KWV The Mentors Pinotage 2020 today.
Wishing you the joy of a glass or more of Pinotage.
Cheers!!!
My Wine of The Month for September is Mhudi Pinotage 2020, WO Coastal Region
Time flies - it was in 2008 that I visited the Rangakas at Mhudi and almost as long as I've tasted their Pinotage.
Thanks to The Wine Society now I again can. The first thing that struck me, after the £17.50 price, was its heavy bottle with deep punt, and DIAM cork.
Dark colour, berry flavours with plums to the fore and a really silky mouthfeel. A delicious wine.
Read about my visit to Mhudi here
I didn't notice chocolate on the nose
Winners of the Pinotage Top 10, Cape Blend and Rose competitions 2024 are:
My Wine of The Month for July is Warwick ‘The First Lady’ Pinotage 2023, WO Western Cape.
‘The First Lady’ name is a tribute by the current owners to Norma Ratcliffe who, with her husband Stan, founded Warwick. Norma made the wines and was South Africa’s first female winemaker of modern times.
It has a raspberry nose, tastes include cherries and vanilla with smooth subdued tannins and a creamy finish. Light, Burgundy styled easy going and very drinkable. A lovely wine. 13.5% abv.
I think it’s maybe not 100% Pinotage, maybe a little Merlot, but Warwick’s website is not forthcoming.
My Wine of The Month for May is Stellenrust Pinotage 2021 and 2022.
We had the 2021 vintage at our favourite Asian restaurant, Chez Mumtaj. We've enjoyed it there several times in the past but in May this year it was sublime. Good fruit flavours with just a hint of coffee being ground. And of course, it went very well with our subtly spiced Lamb Rogan Josh.
Our local Tesco supermarket had it in their Finest range, but this was the 2022 vintage. It was delightful, but not quite to the level of the 2021. So I've bought more to open in one years time in the expectation that another year in the bottle will bring it to the heights of the 2021 this year.
My Wine of The Month for April is Cloof Inkspot 2019. The bottle is festooned with stickers but it seems they were awarded by only two organisations.
The bottle has no information on what grape varieties are in it, but the man in the shop I got it from told me that it was a Cape Blend. According to Cloof's website they are Pinotage, Shiraz, Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot. Platter says there is a little Viognier as well.
The wine is quite firm with layers of fruit and a spine of tannins. It's well made but somehow just not very moreish and it's the first bottle in a long time that we don't finish.
My Wine of The Month for March is Bellevue '1953', vintage 2016.
Bellevue are a Pinotage pioneer, making the wine that was the first to be sold commercially under the Stellenbosch Family Winery brand 'Lanzerac'.
Now the old vineyard, with its twisted bush vines growing on sandy soil is having its grapes bottled separately under the year '1953' it was planted. It is one of the worlds oldest existing Pinotage vineyards.
Only 600 bottles of 2016 vintage were produced. After nine years the wine is stately and serious. Like a fine old claret with a rounder body. The sweetness and youthful fruit has left and this wine demands a good steak or roasted loin of beef. Delicious.
I last had this wine at Bellevue's restaurant in 2018 when it was young and I bought a bottle home with me which I've kept till now.
See here for my report on that lunch and here for the announcement of the bottling
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Learn more about my new book telling all about Pinotage and read sample pages at
A Year in Paarl
A I Perold's
A Treatise
on Viticulture
A I Perold (1880-1941) was South Africa's first Professor of Viticulture and Oenology. He dedicated himself to improving the quality of grapes for wine, brandy and the table. He studied wine and brandy production in Europe, imported more than 60 varieties to the Cape and bred new ones. Perold said this book “is intended to serve both the student and the practical grape-grower. There are in it technical passages that will appeal more to the student, e.g. the chapters dealing with the biology of the vine, its external and internal morphology, the theory of grafting. My remarks on the practice of viticulture, such as those dealing with the propagation, manuring and pruning of the vine, the production of table grapes for export, will, it is hoped, assist the practical grape-grower as well as the student.” This is a newly typeset reprint, not a photocopy. Text on the 712 pages have been aligned to match the original pagination so any external references to pages in the Treatise will be valid in this edition
Available in paperback and hardback editions. 712 pages
with
A I Perold
Dr Perolds report on his Paarl experiments 1915 - 1916 reprinted with glossary, introduction and brief biography. Fascinating historical document on viticulture for wine and table grapes, wine and brandy making.
