05 February 2007

No Weedy Wines Here!


2001 Hidden Valley Pinotage is one of the Pinotages that are stocked by the Ontario monopoly LCBO and thus available to Gordon Stimmel of the Toronto Daily Star who finds Pinotage 'weedy', see here




I opened my only bottle of this wine and found it had a dense garnet colour, with a little smokiness on the nose and front palate, but with a core of concentrated dense red fruits - black cherry and mulberry , a there is a little spice and tobacco and some soft drying tannins on the finish. Lovely stuff.




Hidden Valley's vineyards are in Devon Valley, access to which is along a no-through road that terminates at JC le Roux Sparkling Wine Cellars. Along that road is the sign shown here on the left. It always amuses me that there is such a large sign for a hidden valley. But the name comes from the owner of the vineyard and winery owner, Dave Hidden.


Some other Pinotages I've had recently were

2005 Southern Right Pinotage - Little staining of glass, light bodied and a tangy finish. This is an almost delicate wine with purity of fruit, certainly no block buster and seems like Burgundy is the inspiration.



2005 Groot Constantia Pinotage - There's a European feel to this wine, quite restrained with a good balance of red plum fruits and tannins and a very long finish.


2001 Bellevue Estate Pinotage - Black dense cherry and blackberry fruit flavours, tobacco underneath, hint of eucalyptus and with a very long finish. A very enjoyable serious wine made from 58 year old bush vine grown on sandy soil, aged 10 months in 50% new 300l American oak barrels. 13.5% abv. ABSA Pinotage Top 10 winner in 2002.


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