11 October 2007

Truter wows London's Restaurant Show

Pinotage guru Beyers Truter flew into London on Tuesday 9 October to present a packed Pinotage master class at the Restaurant Show.

He gave a brief history of the variety and admitted that it had suffered in the past from technical faults, including being over-oaked and over-alcoholised.

Beyer's opinion is that the correct Pinotage style is 'classic-balance', and noted that it would age in bottle for many years, and he was currently enjoying wines from 1972 and 1974 that have excellent balance.

He remarked on the versatility of the variety, including its suitability to make 'Port' because of the high alcohol levels it can achieve, and how rosé wines benefit from Pinotage's up-front fruit flavours. Beyers suggesting drinking his Beyerskloof rosé at 12° C with oysters and he said he preferred drinking it after aging for 2-3 years.

Unfortunately time ran out too soon. Beyers had been told he had an hour long slot, but in fact it was only 40 minutes as the hall had to be cleared and prepared for the next presentation. But maybe it was for the best since Beyers was getting very enthusiastic by now; getting rounds of applause and gales of laughter in response to his quips and stories and promising to bring a chef and musicians the next time so we could taste Pinotages suitability with a range of foods and he’d get us to sing the Pinotage song he’d written. And you know, by now the normally reticent audience of British restaurateurs would all have joined in

Ten wines were poured for tasting, they were

Beyerskloof Rose 2007
Beyerskloof Reserve 2002
Kanonkop 2003
Clos Malverne Reserve 2003
Laibach 2005
Simonsig Red Hill 2005
Stellenzicht Golden Triangle 2005
Fairview 2006
Nitida 2006
Zavenwacht 2005

1 comment:

  1. Hi Peter

    What did you think of the wines? I would have loved to have a sip of each!

    ReplyDelete