My Wine of The Month for December is The Society’s
South African Pinotage-Syrah 2023. This is made, labelled and bottled for UK’s
The Wine Society by Ben Radford and Alex Dale at The Winery of Good Hope.
I remember, many years ago, Guy Webber at
Stellenzicht Winery making an equal blend of Pinotage and Syrah he thought was
the best wine he’d produced, and I agreed the two varieties were complementary.
It was a big flavoursome wine, so I had big hopes for this.
It’s young; the grapes were still on the vines at
the year’s beginning. It’s a pale translucent red and only 13% abv. It’s
pleasant enough, but one taster thought it ‘stalky’. I didn’t get that, but found
it a bit thin. It doesn’t seem to show varietal characteristics. It seems from
the back label’s suggestion to serve cool that The Wine Society wanted a
Beaujolais-Nouveau like wine. If it was served by the glass as a pub house wine I’d be
happy, but with dinner I want more oomph.
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