Pinotage Club a Top 10 Blog

I am intrigued and surprised to be informed that this blog has been

“selected by Cision, a global media intelligence provider, to be included in this week’s Cision’s Top 10 Wine Blogs.

Every week, we carefully monitor a selected topical blogosphere in the UK and apply our in-house methodology to identify and rank these blogs accordingly.”

The list is

Wine Blogs – UK Top 10

Posted: November 15, 2012 at 12:13 pm

The Top 10 UK Wine blogs was last updated 15/11/2012.

1.        Spittoon

2.        jamie goode’s wine blog

3.        Wine Conversation

4.        Jim’s Loire

5.        Knackered Mother’s Wine Club

6.        THE WINESLEUTH

7.        Berrys’ Wine Blog

8.        The Pinotage Club

9.        Confessions of a Wino

10.     Brett, The Wine Maestro

 Surprised because not only is this blogging on a very niche subject, specialising in a non-mainstream cultivar, but few realise it originates from the UK as it is about a mostly South African wine on a blog hosted on a US server. It’s assumed by most to be a South African blog, yet not eligible to enter the South African wine blog competition.

Intrigued because I’ve not encountered Cision.com before, yet note they are offering “in-depth profiles for these Top 10 Wine Blogs, their authors...”

As far as I know they have no in-depth information about me — but I can’t read what they have because they charge for access to the info. I do not, so if you want to know about this blog or me, just ask. My contact email is (and  has always been) on this site – see under my photo at the top right.

Meanwhile I will bask in the glory of being place one point under the highly professional Berry Bros and Rudd blog and above the very readable Confessions of a Wino and the laid-back affable Wine Maestro himself, Brett Jones.    

Pinotage at AWS Conference

This is the scene from the rear of the room where I am about to start my presentation on Pinotage to the annual conference of the American Wine Society in Portland, Oregon on the north western coast of America.

I have a limited time, just 75 minutes.

My two-fold aim is to give the facts and dispell the myths about Pinotage that are endlessly repeated on the web, and secondly to let people taste for themselves a selection of good Pinotages.

I am lucky that I am able to present some first rate examples, generously donated by wineries in South Africa (Silkbush, Fairview, Simonsig and Beyerskloof), California (Fort Ross and Loma Prieta) and Virginia (Lovingston).

Not only a geographical spread of wines, but also we can compare  unwooded and wooded versions, value wines and reserve barrel selections.

I received much enthusiastic feedback from attendees who said the wines had been a revelation.

Fringe Wine Reviews Pinotage

Fringe Wine is a site that investigate the origins of grape varieties and tries to untangle the confusion of names and history. I find it fascinating and a real resource. Writer Rob Tebeau, based in Boston USA,  is a dilgent researcher with a inquiring mind and I like the way he backs up his conclusions by naming his sources.

When he wrote about Pinotage recently his main reference was my book, and he also gives the book a review. Have a look at http://fringewine.blogspot.com/2012/10/pinotage-stellenbosch-south-africa.html