My Wine of The Month for November is Sutter Ridge 1996.
When I visited this winery in Amador County long ago it was growing 25 acres of Pinotage, the largest in the USA. I brought this bottle home but kept it too long.
But no, this 26-year-old wine was delicious. Showing the brownness of age, of course, but plenty of sweet fruit. No tannin, and surprisingly little sediment. A beautiful delicate wine.
The winery was pressurised by another winery with a similar name to change its name, but it now appears to have closed.
Very sad news from Ontario. Pat Del-Gatto winemaker/owner of Del-Gatto Estates passed away on 15 Sept 2022 from complications following a stem cell transplant.
His widow, Heidi, tells me
We had wonderful 2020 and 2021 Pinotage vintages - both quickly sold out.
He was able to finish his 2021 vintages (as I always helped him with the work) and our kids completed all the bottling spring 2022 while he was in hospital.
See the report of my meeting with Pat when I visited Del-Gatto Estates by clicking here.
My Wine of The Month for October is De Grendel Amandelboord Pinotage 2019 (Estate Wine of Origin Durbanville).
This is a most enjoyable new style Pinotage. Its dark red with bright clear ed highlights where it catches the light. Surprisingly the label states it's 15% abv because it doesn't show the alcohol.
Subdued tannins, no leather tones, but fruit of the forest on the palate and finished all too soon.
“It was never the grape’s fault,” Beyerskloof winemaker Anri Truter says of the historical perception of Pinotage in the UK.
This is the first sentence in Drinks Retailer, a UK off- trade magazine, on Pinotage titled Can South African Pinotage make a comeback? – an analysis by Lucy Britner.
My Wine of The Month for September is 2020 False Bay Pinotage The Last of the First Schapenberg Single Vineyard(W.O. Stellenbosch)
This was light bodied with a pale colour, maybe trying to channel its Pinot parentage - or perhaps Cinsaut.
We were split on this, one of liked it but not me… I found it had the same strange taste that I got in other False Bay Pinotages, a combination of dustiness and violets.
The back label implies this is made from the last block of the first commercial plantings of Pinotage, which would make the world's oldest Pinotage. But it ain't so; I reckon this is a new vineyard.
My Wine of the Month for July 2022 is 2017 Laibach Pinotage
Every time, and there weren’t many, that I’ve had Laibach before it’s been bought in the Cape because most of the output exported from this fine organic estate goes to Germany, where the owner comes from.
But this year Mr Laibach sold the winery in April and retired to Germany. Near neighbours Kanonkop Estate are the new owners and they immediately renamed the place Ladybird Vineyards, so this may be the last Laibach labelled wine I’ll have.
I was excited when I found this wine in a nearby independent wine shop. This bottle was a solid traditional style Pinotage although I thought it was lacking the excitement I remember from previous vintages.
It will be interesting to see what comes under new ownership. Farewell Laibach.
In June 2018 the first commercial Pinotage vineyard was planted in England, see here.
Now the first Pinotage wine has been produced from those vines, and Michelle Cheyne visited the vineyard to taste it, read her article - The First UK Pinotage.
My Wine of The Month for May is 2007 Fort Ross Pinotage Fort Ross Vineyard (California, Sonoma Coast)
The cork split and my Butlers’ Friend didn’t help, some of the cork had fixed itself to the glass; the rest of the cork fell into the wine. I poured it through a small mesh strainer which collected most of the cork so only tiny grains were on the wine in a decanter.
I’d bought this estate wine from the winery in December 2012; the owners Lester and Linda Schwartz said they didn’t release their wine until it was aged and was ready to drink, but I decided to keep it for a couple more years. Then I forgot about it. So was I too late?
No doubt it would have been good drinking a few year ago, but - boy - this was enjoyable. It had the tremendous sweetness of Pinotage berries and a smooth seriousness of aged wine. We drained the decanter.
(Since we were there, the small Fort Ross-Seaview AVA has been created which Fort Ross winery is now in. The Schwartz's were instrumental in getting the AVA registered.)
My Wine of The Month for April is Durbanville Hills Pinotage 2018 The Promenade Collectors Reserve.
The wine was closed with a DIAM, printed to match the label. The wine was deep ruby red with flowers of the forest on the nose. In the mouth it had a tangy violet richness, with cedarwood on the finish. A delightful wine.
The front label bore a witty picture by artist Theo Paul Vorster
Irritatingly the winery website has only factsheet for their latest vintage, and not the one currently on sale here.
My Wine of The Month for March is Abraham and the Heretics Pinotage 2018. I first came across this wine in 2015 at a tasting, but this year I was able to buy it from owner run wine ship Dylanwad in Dolgellau, Wales. It was the only Pinotage they had.
Abraham and the Hereticsis created by Richard Kelley MW (above) for importer Dreyfus Ashby and made by Villiera Winery. 2013 was its first vintage. Richard Kelley is known for his Liberator range.
It felt light but was full bodied, lush and smooth with bright berry flavours and just a sight hint of coffee. Very enjoyable and just 13.5% abv.
Richard told me in 2015 “Abraham and the Heretics is something of a tongue-in-cheek challenge to Pinotage non-believers to accept the variety into their vinous lives”
I've enjoyed several Pinotage this month that were candidates for Wine of the Month, most notably a stunning Spier 21 Gables 2016, but a three nights before the end of the month I was in the midst of moving wine to its new location and decided it was time to open a 1990 Kanonkop rather than store it away again as the maturation chart on the back label showed it reaching its peak in 2002.
Thus my Wine of the Month for February is - Kanonkop Estate Pinotage 1990 (Stellenbosch).
The cork was spongy and a chunk of it dropped off the bottom and fell into the wine which was gorgeous. Yes, it was aged and the big fruit flavours had gone but it offered delicate fruits and gentle Pinotage sweetness. Usually Mrs M doesn’t go for aged wines and I was prepared to open a more recent wine, but she loved this. And so did I.
And while drinking it I was thinking that 32 years ago its grapes were probably fermenting in Kanonkop's Kuipes.
Note: It’s W.O. Stellenbosch only because it was made before the Simonsberg-Stellenbosch ward - which the estate vineyards are in - hadn’t been created at that time.
Matthew Nugent in The Irish Sun says "I’m a wine expert and these are the top ten wines to treat yourself and a loved one to this Valentine’s Day. Now something light, pink, and possibly sparkling, are the go-to wines to pop on February 14"
The second wine listed is Delheim's Pinotage Rosé about which Matthew Nugent says:
"This pale, salmon pink Rosé has long been a house favourite. Red fruit notes dominate on the nose while the lively palate has excellent acidity and an explosion of red berries in the mouth."
My Wine of the Month for January is - Robertson Winery ‘Longbeach’ Pinotage 2020. I assume Longbeach is the importers own on-trade label, and I’ve only seen it at Dylan’s Restaurant in Criccieth, Wales.
We’ve been drinking it for as many years as Dylan’s has been open, but now it’s come off the list leaving them with no Pinotage - or any South African red - at all. Luckily they had a few unsold bottles out the back which our charming waitress tipped us off about. They now have fewer.
I’m guessing this is Robertson Winery’s basic Pinotage which I’ve had in the Cape. On bitterly cold days by Criccieth beach the warm generosity of this unpretentious wine is most welcome. Light bodied, with cherry and plum flavours it is a great match for food.
Peter F May is the founder of The Pinotage Club, an international cyber-based fan club for wines made from the Pinotage variety.
Peter was awarded Honorary Membership of the producers Pinotage Association in 2004 and was a judge at the annual Pinotage Top 10 Competition in 2004 and 2005.
Peter is a wine writer, educator and author. His book PINOTAGE: Behind the Legends of South Africa's Own Wine may ordered below and from Amazon.
Marilyn Merlot and the Naked Grape - odd wines from around the world was published in summer 2006.
Peter answers all polite emails - contact him at peter (at) pinotage (dot) org .
A I Perold's
A Treatise
on Viticulture
A I Perold (1880-1941) was South Africa's first Professor of Viticulture and Oenology. He dedicated himself to improving the quality of grapes for wine, brandy and the table. He studied wine and brandy production in Europe, imported more than 60 varieties to the Cape and bred new ones. Perold said this book “is intended to serve both the student and the practical grape-grower. There are in it technical passages that will appeal more to the student, e.g. the chapters dealing with the biology of the vine, its external and internal morphology, the theory of grafting. My remarks on the practice of viticulture, such as those dealing with the propagation, manuring and pruning of the vine, the production of table grapes for export, will, it is hoped, assist the practical grape-grower as well as the student.” This is a newly typeset reprint, not a photocopy. Text on the 712 pages have been aligned to match the original pagination so any external references to pages in the Treatise will be valid in this edition
Available in paperback and hardback editions. 712 pages
A Year in Paarl
with
A I Perold
Dr Perolds report on his Paarl experiments 1915 - 1916 reprinted with glossary, introduction and brief biography. Fascinating historical document on viticulture for wine and table grapes, wine and brandy making.