Jennifer Molgat of The View talks Pinotage - video

The View is a fifth generation farm set in fruit orchard country south of the town of Kelowna, British Columbia, Canada. The winery name comes from the amazing view of Lake Okanagan from the highest part on the farm where the tasting room was planned to be built. But that is on hold and tastings take place at the winery and office in an old apple packing facility next to the roadside.

Here I met the ebullient owner, Jennifer Molgat (pictured left inspecting Pinotage), winemaker Bernhard Schirrmeister and vineyard manager Willem Semmelink. It is Jennifers red stiletto shoes that have become the winery's logo and each wine comes with a shoe pairing recommendation.

Eight years ago they planted 4 acres of Pinotage and because the variety was successful they have planted another 4 acres. The soil is sandy loam with some clay on the lower slopes.

Four varietal Pinotages are produced. “We make North America’s only Pinotage Rosé,” says Jennifer. Named Distraction, 2010 is the second vintage and is bright pink, clean and fresh and dry with a tang of red grapefruit flavours. This is a grown–up’s rosé and it won ‘Judges Choice’ and a Gold medal in the rosé category at the Okanagan Spring Wine Festival. (Shoe pairing: “Nothing…you will want to feel the sand in between your toes”)

The View wines are in demand from restaurants and Red Shoe Red is a Pinotage produced for the on-trade and closed with a screw-cap because that’s what restaurants request for wines served by the glass. I tasted the 2009 vintage. 60% is aged in old oak. It is dark red with soft red-berry fruit flavours, cracked black pepper and a dry finish. It’s lovely stuff. (Shoe pairing: 4 inch Red spike heels)

2009 Pinotage Reserve had some juice bled off to intensify the remaining wine by increasing the skin to juice ratio. This has an inky dense black red colour and a tangy taste at first that ends in lingering smooth dark chocolate and cherry flavours. I really enjoyed this serious delicious wine. (Shoe pairing: Anything Jimmy Choo) 2008 Pinotage is lighter, with an expressive nose and bright strawberry flavours and a touch of sourness on the finish. (Shoe pairing: Louis Vuitton penny loafers)

Jennifer drove me up the hill behind the winery to see the views of Kelowna and the lake. We passed vines laden down with large black bunches of Baco Noir which will be sold to other wineries, and pale green Riesling.


Pinotage is grown on high trellises and some of the older vines are on their own roots but phylloxera has been detected nearby and the new Pinotage vineyards (pictured above) are grafted.

While in the mature Pinotage vineyard with its ripe bunches soon to be harvested, I asked Jennifer to tell us about her Pinotage:




The View produce the funniest winery video's I have seen. Make sure you see the Red Shoes in winery action at theviewwinery.com/video.html

Lake Breeze, Okanagan - Video

Lake Breeze wine farm occupies a commanding position above Lake Okanagan, on a strip of ancient shoreline known as the Naramata Bench. There are around 25 wineries along this strip of land between mountain and the lake.



Lake Breeze is the only one to describe itself as a 'wine farm', a common term in South Africa, where the first owners had lived for 25 years. Lake Breeze was the first winery in Canada to plant Pinotage, and 1999 was the first commercially released Pinotage vintage. Only small quantities are made from a lakeside plot less than half an acre in size.

Garron Elmes is the South African born winemaker. I managed to grab him away from th harvest for a few minutes to tell us about Lake Breeze Pinotage.



I found Lake Breeze 2009 Pinotage bright ruby red, clean and fruity with red cherries on the palate and a hint of cigar box. There was some depth and it was a most enjoyable wine. It costs $29.90 CDN (+tax) at the winery.

A Visit to Stoneboat Vineyards - Video

Lanny Martiniuk invited me to meet him at his winery. We’d corresponded about Pinotage while I was writing my book and at last I was able to visit his vineyard where he grows eight acres of Pinotage and taste his wines.

Stoneboat Vineyards and winery are on the eastern bank of the Okanagan River which connects the 85 mile long glacial Okanagan lake with Osoyoos lake, part of linked series of lakes in a very long glacial valley that runs north-south through British Columbia through the US border.

The land here was once all underwater and then as waters receded it left flattened benches that used to be shore lines. Stoneboat is on the Black Sage Bench where the soil is sand over gravel. “We have half a metre of good sandy soil on top of 50 metres of gravel.”

It is the sand that gives protection from phylloxera and Lanny’s five acres of Pinotage, like the rest of his vines, grow on their own roots. “Phylloxera isn’t a problem like the cold is,” he says. “When a vine is killed during a cold winter I just clear a depression in the soil and the roots send up a new cane and the vine regrows.”

The vineyards are 3,500 metres about sea-level and 30.5 metres above the river. Lanny adds nitrogen to the soil and sometimes has to spray sulphur as a fungicide but he doesn’t need insecticides. Stoneboat uses drip-feed irrigation on the Pinotage rows: the southern Okanagan is desert and no crops can grow here without watering.


In this video Lanny talks about growing Pinotage on Black Sage Bench.

Lanny and Julia have three sons: Chris who works on the farm when not training as a pilot and twins Jay and Tim who work on the farm. Jay is responsible for winemaking and Tim manages marketing. Here they talk about winemaking and more.



Stoneboat also grows six different Pinot Noir clones, Pinot Gris and Pinot Blanc plus some white Germanic varieties: Kerner, Muller Thurgau, Oraniensteiner and Schonburger.

We left the vineyard to taste wines on the tasting room patio. I had to tell Lanny that I had already tasted Stoneboat Pinotage. A few days before we found the 2008 on the wine list of a restaurant in Penticton. We’d loved its intense fruit flavours and complexity.

Lanny started us with Pinot Gris which was dry with a pleasant acidity. Chorus 2010 had an attractive floral nose. Its blend of Pinot Gris, Pinot Blanc, Kerner, Muller Thurgau and Viognier offered a delightful fruitfully complex drink. 2009 Pinot Noir was a pale red with soft fruit and a clean finish.

Pinotage 2009 was recently released. It was bright garnet, rather subdued, with a pleasant fruit nose but a little disjointed on the palate. It needs longer to come together.

Pinotage 2007 had a leathery nose and was lively in the mouth. It is an exciting wine with cedar wood and spices in abundance. This wine won the Lieutenant-Governors Award of Excellence in British Columbia Wines, one of twelve selected from 248 entries. “We checked the wines were tasted blind because there are some preconceptions about Pinotage”, said Lanny, “and there were some surprised faces when the awards were announced.” ($25)
Pinotage 2008 is dense and complex with black fruits, damsons, cherries and a spiciness that makes it so drinkable. ($25)

Pinotage ‘Solo’ 2007 is a reserve made from the best barrels. It is a bright red-black colour with a ripe fruit richness and cedar-wood flavours and is absolutely beautiful. ($33)

We finished a enjoyable tasting with Verglass 2009, a very sweet botrytis wine made from Oraniensteiner with 5% Pinot Blanc. Just 10.2% abv and a residual sugar of 30g/L from grapes picked at 50-55 brix, this smelled of whole baked apples and had an unctuous sweetness with enough acidity to encourage another mouthful.

Lanny is a viticulturist who started in the business by propagating and planting vines for other vineyards, and his business continues to propagate thousands of vines for others.

This was the first time I have encountered a Pinotage varietal made from vines growing on their own roots. Lanny says he selected individual vines which performed well in Okanagan conditions to propagate so this vineyard is making a truly Okanagan Pinotage that expresses the terroir of this beautiful lake and desert area.




Stoneboat’s name refers to the wooden sled (pictured above) used to haul unwanted stones from the vineyard. Lanny says that no matter how many they take out, others work their way to the surface and now they leave them there. The stones are smooth and rounded from millennia in rivers that flowed through here in times long past.

Hillside's Last Pinotage

Hillside Estate, on the eastern shore of Lake Okanagan just north of Penticton, is one of five wineries in Canada making Pinotage. But no more. After three successful years the 2009 vintage, bottled in October 2010, is sadly the last.

The winery make a wide range of wines and have decided to concentrate on varieties they grow themselves. I learned that Hillside doesn't grow Pinotage but obtain the grapes from Stoneboat Vineyards in Oliver some 40 kms south.


At the tasting room, pictured below

their 2009 Pinotage was listed with the words 'sold out' written over the message that because of demand purchasers were limited to three bottles.

However Hillside's bistro has some Pinotage stocks remaining for sale by the glass, so we decided to lunch there and sample the last release from this winery.



The wine was taut and restrained with some tight tannins. Dark cherry and blackberry flavours over a meaty core and forceful tannins. This is a big and serious wine which would reward keeping. But the only way to do that is to persuade the bistro to sell you a bottle at bistro prices. Alternatively it is currently available by the glass for $9.50.



Hillside Estate
Pinotage 2009
13% abv

Lammershoek and Barista in Canada

Canadian wine lovers suffering under the dead hand of government monopoly supply look forward to the regular updates to the ‘Vintages’ list of limited supply wines.

The latest release features Lammershoek Pinotage 07 (though I recall Lammershoek have been available for some years) and Barista 09.

Here are what the local bloggers had to say about the Lammershoek Pinotage 07:
Billy Munnelly at www.billysbestbottles.com

Lammershoek does for Pinotage what Henry of Pelham does for Baco. It puts a charming spin on a rustic grape variety. This combine the lush richness of a Rhone with the earthy feeling of a Portuguese red. Sexy with a light roughness

Michael Pinkus at grapeguyvintages.blogspot.com

not a wine that’s popular with everyone but this version just might change a few minds: Full of flavour with coffee and mocha notes, cherry, plum and smooth tannins, I was rightfully impressed here

David at daveswinedomaine.blogspot.com

Now, who doesn’t like Pinotage? Oh yeah? Well, check out what you're missing. Handpicked and hand-sorted. Fermentation in open concrete tanks, then Malolactic fermentation. Aged in French oak barrels (20% new) for 12 months. Unfiltered.

And Alan Kerr at blogs.gangofpour.com was won over by Barista

Without wanting to sound like I am not a fan of this varietal, which incidentally, I do struggle with, this is one tasty Pinotage. One needs however, to be a fan of coffee as the Mocha note is somewhat overwhelming, but behind it lays sweet blackberry fruit, dark silky chocolate and a note of clove. The palate bears pure clean dark fruit, a note of espresso, a hint of molasses and crisp clean acidity. The finish is long and well balanced. Not to be missed I should add.

Update on 28 August
Gord Stimmell asks in The Toronto Star how come "Two bottles of the same wine taste totally different"? and it is Lammershoek Pinotage 2007 he is referring to:

"Tasted in the LCBO laboratory, it merely rated an 88/100, which is good for any pinotage, in my book. But it showed hints of tar and asphalt and rustiness among the sturdy fruit. Then I got a hold of another bottle and what a difference. All of a sudden, it rose to first class, with rich smoky coffee bean, blackberry and summer plums wrapped in a totally silky texture. This rates 90.

I frankly do not know which batch will be hitting shelves. If it is the silky seductive one, it is definitely worth a serious detour as this summer’s quintessential barbecue red. If it is the rougher-edged, more rustic pinotage, then it’s slightly overpriced"

Gord puts it down to batch variation.

"Wineries assemble final wines from different tanks and casks, and sometimes absolute consistency of aromas and flavours falls by the wayside between the various bottlings."

(Note: LCBO is Liquor Control Board of Ontario, the state wine monopoly)

First N. America Rose Pinotage -- from View

The View Winery has released America's first rosé Pinotage together with its third red Pinotage. The rosé is produced by the saignée method in which juice is drawn off during fermentiion thus leaving a greater ratio of grape skins to juice and resulting in a deeper more intense red wine. The removed pale pink juice is used to make a rose.

Sarah Willard, for BC Local News, tasted the wines and reported:

2009 ‘Distraction’ Rosé $13.95
Perhaps North America’s only Pinotage bleed, it’s hard to find anything quite like it. I wouldn’t be surprised to find some copycats in future years. Exhibits wonderful strawberry notes reminiscent of a purely Pinot Noir Rosé, but the pomegranate and cherry are incomparable and addictive! A fantastic Rosé at an even more fantastic price. Don’t disappoint yourself. This will sell-out fast.

2009 Pinotage $19.95
Much darker in colour than their previous vintage, this Pinotage features lots of red fruits and spice that carries through on the finish. A great food pairing wine (if you are barbequing, this is a must!), but equally enjoyable on its own. Winner of ‘Finalist’ award at 2010 Okanagan Spring Wine Festival.

The View Winery is located at Kelowna, in British Columbia's Okanagan Valley. The 2008 Pinotage featured in The View's must-see video, as mentioned yesterday.

Haddock and Pinotage

Chris Stenberg's favourite fish recipe is halibut with a red pepper puree and bread crumb crust. But what to drink with it?

He says

I didn’t feel like going the obvious road of Pinot Gris or Chardonnay with halibut. It’s tougher and more rewarding to find a red that goes with the delicate halibut. In this case I chose the Stoneboat Pinotage Solo 2007 served slightly chilled (20 minutes in the fridge), which if I may toot my own horn for a minute, was a great choice. The Pinotage was a nice compliment to the red pepper puree. The wine was interesting enough, but not overwhelming, and I think it tied it all together quite nicely.

Read the full story at chrisstenberg.com

Canada's The View Winery produces Second Pinotage

Another Canadian winery has joined the Pinotage family. The View Winery in Canada's Okanagan Valley wine region is about to release their second vintage, the 2008 Red Shoe Pinotage.

"Our first release, Pinotage 2007, is a delicate medium bodied red. It is lightly oaked and is quite fruit forward with cherry aromas and flavours. We produced 260 cases," says Jennifer Turton-Molgat.

"Pinotage 2008 has quite a different profile - an extended maceration compared to that of the 2007 has achieved a much fuller bodied, complex Pinotage. The peppery spiciness of the Cinsaut shows itself in this vintage. It was aged for 12 months in a combination of Hungarian, French and American oak barrels."

The View Winery will be bottling it in the middle of March and producing approximately 585 cases. They have four acres of Pinotage ranging in age from 8 - 10 years.

Jennifer tells me "the vines are thriving on our property. The early ripening nature of Pinotage appears to suit our climate and location and we are excited to be planting another five acres in the spring.

"I am happy to say that, more and more, the response from the public at tastings is, "Oh Pinotage! I've heard of that. 'Or, "Pinotage! I tried a great one last week!', instead of the response I used to get back in 2007 when I first started marketing ours which was, 'Pinotage... What's that a blend of?'

Can't wait to taste it!



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Excellence Award for Stone Boat 2007 Pinotage

Stoneboat Vineyards 2007 Pinotage was a winner in this years Lieutenant Governor’s Awards for Excellence in British Columbia Wines.

The annual award winning wines are chosen by an expert panel who taste the wines blind and are tasked with choosing no more than 12 winners. 2009 saw 248 entries and a record maximum 12 awards were made.

The official web-site hasn't yet been updated with this years results and I am indebted to wine writer John Schreiner, who was one of the judges, for posting on his blog.

For more about Stoneboat see here.


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Canada's Hillside Estate impresses

Adrian Bryksa was impressed by Hillside Estate's first Pinotage release which he reviewed for Canada's R4NT.ca, and rated it 90 points:

"I think Canadian red wines sometimes have a tendency to be a bit on the thin side but this Pinotage was an exception. On the nose, there was notes of fruit, earth, tobacco, and game. I could be nuts but there was some teriyaki beef jerky. In the mouth, this wine displayed cherries and cocoa with a full mouth feel with seamlessly, integrated tannins. The finish on this wine was long and memorable. This wine is in my top 10 Canadian wines."

Hillside Estate Pinotage
Vintage: 2007
Region: Naramata Bench, British Columbia, Canada
Price: $34.95

Read Adrian's full article here



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Inniskillin's Pinotage - heavy palate of red fruit

"You’ll be reading a fair bit about Pinot varieties over the next few weeks, as we get closer to wine fest time. First off the bat,Pinotage, a red wine grape originally bred in South Africa, where it is the signature variety.

Here in B.C., Inniskillin’s Discovery Series includes a slightly spicy Pinotage that boasts a heavy palate of red fruit, with a nose of cherry, raspberry and prune. A few layers of toasted vanilla lead the nose to a nice finish. Match with rich pastas, braised meats or savoury stews.

Anya Levykh writing in Vancouver's Metro News 22 January 2009, item titled The Many Sides of Pinot: Pinotage

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Stoneboat finds Pinotage has Great Potential in Okanagan

Stoneboat Vineyards in Canada's Okanagan Valley has five acres of Pinotage, some of which were planted several years ago along with some newer three year old vines and their first varietal Pinotage, from the 2005 vintage, is currently on sale.

Owner Lanny Martiniuk tells me that "the reception to the varietal has been overwhelmingly positive, despite the fact that most people are unfamiliar with it. Once they try it, we find that people quite like it; it was our best-seller in the wine shop this summer.

Our 2006 is close to being in bottle. We are in the midst of blending this vintage, and will likely release it in the new year. We're very pleased with how it is turning out. The 2007 vintage looks very promising, we're really happy with the fruit and how it is evolving in barrel. There was a somewhat smaller crop this year because of a long period of cold (-25) in the winter; flavours were nicely developed and concentrated in the berries as a result. We are determined to improve upon the wine each vintage, and we still have much to learn from it, especially since our climate and growing techniques differ so much from those in South Africa."

Lanny first encountered Pinotage when Lake Breeze Vineyards -- who were the first vineyard to plant Pinotage in Canada, asked him to propagate some vines for them from South African cuttings. Lanny says "The varietal sounded interesting, so I retained a plant for myself and watched it grow for a few years, during which time we sampled various South African Pinotages and liked their flavours.

The hardiness of the plant was appealing also and we were very happy with the fruit it produced, so we decided to plant more of it. I tissue cultured the one plant that we had and grew more from that."

Lanny says "We believe Pinotage has great potential in the Okanagan, and we really enjoy it both as a vine and as a wine."

The winery's unusual name refers to the flat sledge, pictured on their label, used for carrying stones. A stoneboat was originally used to clear their Home Vineyard of its abundant river rocks, and the name is a tribute to the original caretakers of the Home Vineyard, who had to clear the land of its rocks in order to cultivate it and represents the valued qualities of hard work and tradition.

Julie and Lanny Martiniuk started farming in 1979 with purchase of a 15-acre orchard which they have now expanded to nearly 50 acres in which they have three vineyards growing a number of varieties. They produce under their own label Pinots Noir, Blanc, and Gris varietals plus two blends, as well as Pinotage. Lanny sat sat on the British Columbia Grape Marketing Board for several years and was a founding member of the BC Wine Institute. Lanny also runs a grapevine propagation business, which has produced hundreds of thousands of vines for wineries and vineyards across BC.


Full details of Stoneboat's Pinotage and other wines can be found at http://www.stoneboatvineyards.com/