WoTM Beyerskloof 2015

My Wine of the Month for February 2017 is Beyerskloof's Pinotage 2015. It's their basic large volume 'white label', and this one was  bulk-shipped and bottled in the UK.
 

The empty bottle next day

And it was most welcome, served with a take-away pizza on our hotel balcony overlooking the Caribbean. We spent most of this month in Barbados. No restaurant had Pinotage and I didn't se any in the shops. But I had packed this emergency bottle in my suitcase before leaving home with some plastic wine  'glasses' from Poundland.

After a couple of weeks I could resist no longer. The juicy black fruit Pinotage flavours from this most typical Pinotage brought a big smile to my face. The bottle came chilled from the fridge into the 30C warmth of a Barbados evening where it soon reached ideal drinking temperature.  

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Beach by Hotel

Pinotage is Changing - Roger Jones

'Bananas, chocolate box, rubber, fruit bombs, nail polish …. forget these descriptions, Pinotage is changing and there is a shining light coming from some Cape winemakers presenting a wine that is altogether more attractive, pure, precise and perfectly balanced.'

Michelin-starred chef Roger Jones travelled to South Africa to find top quality Pinotage  that would sit happily on wine lists in the UK.

Roger Jones

In his article for premium on-trade magazine The Buyer he reviews wines from Rijks, Spienkop, Spier, Simonsig, Flagstone, Beeslaar, Kanonkop, Southern Right and Groot Constantia and tastes a 1969 Lanzerac.

The article is here.

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Lodi, California, Pinotage

Lodi Winegrape Commission have a couple of stories on Lodi Pinotage.

One features Loma Prieta in Santa Cruz, America's largest producer of Pinotage wines who use  fruit sourced from Lodi -- see here.

And the other is about the Mettler Family who farm 4 acres of Pinotage that makes its way to Loma Prieta, as well as making some under their own label. See here.

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Pinotage Vinegar

I am indebted to Jon Clements over at PinotageUS.com for the news that a specialist company in Pennsylvania are now producing a Pinotage vinegar.

Image courtesy of

pinotageus.com

Supreme Vinegar LLC in Bensalem, PA  makes niche vinegars  without added sugar, chemicals, or additives  combining old techniques and modern chemistry in order to ensure the quality of the final product.

Reginald Smith, President and founder of Supreme Vinegar LLC told me:

"Right now I use only South African Pinotage wines, buying retail/wholesale by the case until I can see if the market justifies importing bulk amounts.

One case of 750 mL bottles can get me almost 6 cases of 250mL bottles of wine vinegar. I primarily use Nederburg, the most common available here in Pennsylvania, but there are some others I might add to the mix."

He'd be interested to hear of any boxed/bulk Pinotage available in the US.

Jon Clements says

"After contrasting the Pinotage Red Wine Vinegar with the regular Red Wine Vinegar the Pinotage flavors really stood out."

Read Jon's full review in his article here.




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