28 February 2015

WoTM _ Rijk's Private Cellar 2008 Pinotage



My Wine of The Month for February is Rijk’s Private Cellar 2008 Pinotage. Rijk’s – pronounced ‘rakes’ – was created by the Dorrington family in the Tulbagh valley and named in honour of Rijk Tulbagh, governor of the Cape from 1751 to 1771, who gave his name to the town and valley. Rijk’s wines achieved almost instant success from their first bottling in 2000.

This grapes for this wine were handpicked at night at the beginning of February, then underwent 48 hours cold maceration at 10° C, prior to fermentation and underwent malolactic fermentation in barrel where it was allowed to mature for 20 months in 60% French and 40% American oak barrels,  50% new, 40% 2nd fill and 10% 3rd. It was bottled in September 2010 and released in March 2012 after 18 months bottle aging.


The wine is a beautiful bright cherry red colour. It’s tight in the mouth, but opens up with time. Rijk’s website recommends the wine be decanted for 1 hour before consumption. This is good advice, which I wish I’d had taken. It’s a powerful and elegant wine, with restrained fruit flavours and a structural tannin core. I don’t think I’ve ever had a Rijk’s wine that didn’t delight, and the only disappointment with this wine is that this was my last bottle of this vintage.


This wine was a Pinotage Top 10 winner in 2012, and won  Pinotage Trophies at Michelangelo,  Old Mutual, and International Wine & Spirits Competitions 

26 February 2015

House of Ball joins the Pinotage Family



While in New Zealand I heard a whisper of an estate called House of Ball growing Pinotage to use in blends, but found their  website showed they also made a 100% Pinotage. 

House of Ball is in the Waipara Valley north of Christchurch. As we were spending our last few days in Christchurch before flying home, and our route south from the Marlborough wine region would take us close-by, we decided to pay a visit. 

Armed with the address and Google maps we easily found their road leading out of Waipara, but after a while the tarmac ended and we were on dirt and gravel. Then the road divided – we took the one that was slightly larger and continued up the side of the valley. There were no signs and the road got narrower, then it divided again. We could see no sign of vines or building and so I called their number but got an answerphone. So we found a place to turn and headed onto Christchurch.

From our hotel I emailed the winery asking if I could buy a bottle of their Pinotage and have it couriered to our hotel before we departed. “Yes,” came the answer and, even better, owners Lynda and Julian Ball would deliver the wine personally.
 
Lynda and Julian Ball
The Balls run a boutique B&B alongside their vineyard and guests receive detailed  instructions on how to find the property, and they’re not open to casual visitors, which is why there were no signs but it turned out that we were quite close.

The estate covers 80 acres with two acres planted from 2004 with small quantities of seven different varieties. Pinot Noir, Riesling, Gruner Veltliner, Pinotage, Gewurztraminer, Chardonnay & Tempranillo.  There are 350 Pinotage vines out of a total of 3,000.
 
House of Ball Pinotage Vines
“So why Pinotage?” I asked. Because Lynda had previously worked as Vineyard Manager for Muddy Water on the opposite side of the valley where she cared for their Pinotage block planted in 1993.

Lynda and Julian do all the work in the vineyard and winery themselves. “We make wine in our garage the old fashioned way and we don’t like to get into science,” says Lynda. “We let grapes get to around 26 Brix, start picking at dawn and stop at 10am before it gets too hot. We take off stalks, let grapes sit cold for a week then we stomp them with our feet and put in a large plastic fermenter. We let it sit for a week after fermenting then age in a new French oak barrel for eight months. We make Pinotage like Pinot Noir.”
 
Pinotage vines at House of Ball
Lynda and Julian brought a bottle of 2011 Pinotage. There was no 2012 as they’d not been travelling in Europe. “2013 crop was made as a rosé (“Rosé is very popular”) as was 2014 (“There was too much rain”)

House of Ball 2011 Pinotage was one of a handful of wines I carried home to England.


This Pinotage is clear bright red, with an attractive nose and clean berry fruit flavours of plum and blackberry with a good finish. A really nice drinkable wine whose 14.5% abv is not obvious. House of Ball is a most welcome addition to the Pinotage family.


House of Ball   
Pinotage 2011
Waipara
14.5% abv
NZD$35.00 at the cellar door



Photograph of Lynda & Julian Ball by Peter F May. All other images copyright  of House of Ball. Used with permission.

11 February 2015

Pinotage Comes of Age

Pinotage Comes of Age, states The Wine Society. "Pinotage is a Cape calling card reinvented for today’s more demanding palate. It now comes in a multitude of styles and the best examples, from a range of climates, are fine, ageworthy reds".

And so the Society has decided it's time to include a Pinotage catagory in their Fine Wine List. 

The initial six are:
  •  Chamonix Greywacke Pinotage, Franschhoek 2011
  •  Beaumont Pinotage, Bot River 2013 
  • Neil Ellis Vineyard Selection Pinotage, Jonkershoek 2010
  • Radford Dale Frankenstein Pinotage, Stellenbosch 2013
  • Kanonkop Estate Pinotage, Stellenbosch 2011
  • Rijk's Reserve Pinotage, Tulbagh 2009 
 
The Wine Society has also added a Pinotage to their premium 'Exhibition' own label range. The Exhibition 2013 Pinotage is produced by Kanonkop and I suspect it's a re-badged 'Kadette' Pinotage.

The Wine Society, founded in 1874, is the world's oldest wine club and is a mutual society solely owned by its members.