31 January 2025

WoTM - Heron’s Nest 2020

 

My Wine of The Month for January is a Cape Blend, Heron’s Nest Cabernet Sauvignon/Pinotage 2020, WO Western Cape.




My Wine of The Month for January is a Cape Blend, Heron’s Nest Cabernet Sauvignon/Pinotage 2020, WO Western Cape.


The label is coy; it doesn’t name the producer or the component proportions. But the A Number belongs to S A Pritchard who is the owner of Clos Malverne in Devon Valley. Clos Malverne’s flagship wine is Auret which is a Cabernet Sauvignon/Pinotage blend, but as that is more expensive in the Cape than I paid for Heron’s Nest in the UK I don’t think they are the same wine, but it’s one made in a similar way from bought in grapes. 


It’s a very enjoyable wine; the Cabernet calms down Pinotage’s exuberance and the Pinotage gives fruit and sweetness to the Cabernet. Thoughtful winemaking shows – there were no shortcuts as they used the basket presses  beloved by Clos Malverne and aged in French Oak barrels. I’d buy more, unfortunately for me they quickly sold out. 




01 January 2025

100 Years of Pinotage

 


2025 is the 100th anniversary of the planting of the first Pinotage.


In South Africa’s autumn, at the beginning of 1925, Professor Abraham Izak Perold picked grapes from a Cinsaut vine whose female flowers he’d fertilised with Pinot Noir pollen the previous spring.


He planted seeds from those grapes in the spring of 2025. While all the subsequent vines had the same parents they were not identical. Most were unsuitable for use as commercial grape vines, but one was, and it was named Pinotage after its parents, Hermitage being the South African name for Cinsaut at that time.


It took time for grape farmers to plant the new variety, but early growers started winning wine-show awards with their Pinotages.


However the public had to wait until 1961 for the first commercially available Pinotage, a 1959 vintage released by Stellenbosch Farmers Winery under their Lanzerac label.


31 December 2024

WoTY - Beyerskloof Pinotage 2021

 


My Wine of The Year 2024 has to be the one I’ve drunk most, which is Beyerskloof Pinotage 2021. 


It’s bulk shipped and bottled in the UK and as it’s stocked in Sainsbury’s supermarket and frequently discounted it’s easy and inexpensive to buy. This year the 2021 vintage is still being sold in the UK, but in South Africa in November we were drinking winery bottled 2022 vintage.

 

Beyersklooof Pinotage is our go-to when we have a curry, and our eldest son is a huge fan. Unfortunately we can no longer find the Reserve or Synergy Cape Blend, so white label it is. The wine is an easy drinker and  true to the variety, with good balance and bags of fruity flavours.

In total I’ve opened 77 varietal Pinotages this year and 11 Cape Blends.



(The British label says its made by Beyers Truter and his team, but the winery bottled 2021 (below) makes it clear on the front label that Beyers son, Anri, is now the winemaker.) 

30 November 2024

WoTM - Stettyn Pinotage 2023



My Wine of the Month for November is Stettyn Pinotage 2023 (WO Stettyn). I was alerted to this wine by Dan who’d had it with lunch at My Couzens Family Restaurant in Gordon’s Bay during our all too short stay in the Cape in November.

 

I thought I knew all the Wine of Origin appellations, but I’d never heard of Stettyn or the winery of the same name. A few days later I saw Stettyn Pinotage on a shelf at Houw Hoek Farm Stall near Bot Rivier and had to buy. We consumed it the following night with a steak at Spur, and jolly enjoyable it was too.

 

There were plummy tones together with some blackberry flavours bound together with soft tannins. A quaffer that went perfectly with our steaks and the only disappointment was that I didn’t buy more bottles. This was a very young wine and I wonder what it’d be like with a bit more ageing.

 

We planned to visit the winery but ran out of time. It’s located on the R43 between Villiersdorp and Worcester. Next time. 



30 October 2024

WoTM - KWV Mentors Pinotage 2020


My Wine of the Month for October is the KWV Mentors Pinotage 2020 (WO Stellenbosch) that I opened on Pinotage Day earlier this month.


It's a big brooding beast in a heavy statement bottle. The back label says 'Can be enjoyed now, but will benefit for aging for a further five years' which is fairly meaningless as it doesn't say when the five years starts from. Is it the vintage year, as it says further aging? Is from the bottling date although they don't say when that is? Is it when one buys it, or when one opens it? Who knows?


I opened it four and a half years since the grapes were picked and I should have kept it longer, as it was closed - keeping it's promised glories tightly packed. Oh yes, it was enjoyable but for the feeling it would blossom with more age and that I'd opened it too soon.



12 October 2024

Pinotage Day - TODAY

 

Every year on the second Saturday of October, we celebrate Pinotage Day – a tribute to its journey from ancient soils to our tables, evolving in the hands of skilled artisans. This remarkable variety represents the heart of South African winemaking, a blend of culture, care,  and heritage.


I'm opening KWV The Mentors Pinotage 2020 today.


Wishing you the joy of a glass or more of Pinotage.


Cheers!!!

30 September 2024

WoTM - Mhudi Pinotage 2020

 


My Wine of The Month for September is Mhudi Pinotage 2020, WO Coastal Region


Time flies - it was in 2008 that I visited the Rangakas at Mhudi and almost as long as I've tasted their Pinotage.


Thanks to The Wine Society now I again can. The first thing that struck me, after the £17.50 price, was its heavy bottle with deep punt, and DIAM cork.

Dark colour, berry flavours with plums to the fore and a really silky mouthfeel. A delicious wine.


Read about my visit to Mhudi here



I didn't notice chocolate on the nose