WoTM - Kaapzicht Estate Pinotage 2017

 My Wine of the Month for October is Kaapzicht Estate Pinotage 2017

Kaapzicht is a 4th generation farm owned by the Steytler family in the prime Bottelary Hills region of Stellenbosch. I’m surprised Kaapzicht isn’t wider known. 

Danie Steytler was the winemaker when I first visited. He’s now handed over winemaking to son Danie Junior and the quality is a high as ever. Steytler is their top label and under that one finds Pinotage, Vision Cape Blend and Pentagram Bordeaux blend. I have had all these but I haven’t tried their full range of wine, although I have been able to buy their wonderful Chenin.

Kaapzicht means Cape Sight – from the top of Kaapzicht’s vineyards one can look down on Cape Town’s harbour in the distance.

This wine is quintessential Pinotage, made with a light hand by a master of the variety. There’s plum, blackberry and spices over a tannin spine – the wine was aged for two years in French oak barrels before blending. But it’s not a bruiser, instead lighter bodied and sophisticated. Delightful!