24 May 2017

Earth’s Essence Pinotage 2015

Earth’s Essence Pinotage 2015, Western Cape


I’ve been wanting for some time to try Earth’s Essence, a Pinotage wine that uses two South African indigenous woods -- Rooibos (Fabaceae family species, Asplathus) and Honeybush (Cyclopia)
-- to provide necessary anti-bacteriological and preservative qualities and thus avoids adding sulphur. Although sulphur has been used in winemaking since antiquity, the fairly recent addition of allergy warnings to wine labels some consumers now blame sulphites for any negative reactions experienced after drinking wine. 

For all its supposed health benefits I unfortunately did not like the wine. On the positive side it was creamy with a touch of pencil shavings, but I found it lifeless, without enough fruit flavours, and I wouldn’t have guessed it was Pinotage if tasted blind. It had a streak of acidity, and a strange aftertaste I found unpleasant. Did those odd tastes come from Rooibois and Honeybush wood? I don’t know what Honeybush nor Rooibois wood tastes like and although  I once had rooibois tea it was a long time ago and once was enough.


This was the first bottle of Pinotage, for as long as we can recall, that we didn’t finish.

Earth
s Essence is made by KWV, there’s a fact sheet for the 2014 vintage describing their patented use of native woods on their dedicated Earth’s Essence website - http://earthsessence.co.za

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