Fairview's 2010 Pinotage "Looking Great"

Fairview winemaker Anthony de Jager reports that

"the early Pinotages are possibly some of the best that I have seen from this farm. Soft, supple tannins and rich fruit, but none of that jammy overripe character. They promise to be lovely, elegant wines."

Chris Bryant adds

"we spent some time tasting through the cellar and looking at the 2010 wines so far. Overall things are looking very good. I think that the producers who managed to get their fruit in before the heat will do well.

On the Pinotage front we were really impressed. We picked a fair amount of our Pinotage earlier, to try and reduce the final sugar and resultant alcohol levels. We were able to do so because of the moderate and steady ripening period.

The first Pinotages are really looking great. Supple and soft, but really full fruit flavours. Not that over ripe character. The would be enjoyable to drink chilled right now, but some have been sent off to barrels and we'll watch them over the next 6 to 12 months."

Chris runs Fairview's interesting blog covering what this innovative winery is doing and he follows Anthony around the vineyards with a video camera

Web Reviews: Fairview, Te Awa, Diemersfontein and Makulu

Over on eBob (Robert Parker's forum) Chaad Thomas thought Fairview's 2005 Pinotage was a great wine.

"Dark garnet, with some ruby reflections. Bright. Bold nose is smoky, gamey, and herbal. My wife says it smells like an Italian [spiced] stable! It's definitely redolent of wild berries and true to that SA funk.

Fresh and lively up front, the wine shows ripe, supple fruit and good weight. It's quite harmonious, with a good balance of earth tones and savor. The fruit is a juicy blend of cherry, raspberry, and cranberry...maybe blackberry.

Nicely knit all the way through the middle, too. The finish is a progressive evolution from the palate, allowing a nice glow of salty, beefiness at the end. Mouthwatering.

In all, this is still a great wine, true to my memory of it a few years back, on release. It's so satisfying and enjoyable to drink! It's not profound,but it is distinctly flavorful and "original" tasting."

In New Zealand, Sue Courtney at Wine of the Weektested a gizmo called SpinWine that is supposed to aerate wine. Sue compared three distinctly different wines, Tempranillo, Montepulciano and Te Awa Hawkes Bay 2007 Pinotage. The SpinWine didn't impress but the Pinotage did.

Concentrated, impenetrable, blackberry red hue. There's a tomato character to the aroma and a hint of a barnyard character too. A full-bodied wine in the mouth with soft tannins and bright, spicy, meaty flavours.

Actually the tannins are quite powerful but the juicy dark berry fruit cuts right them down. Acidity pops up like a speed bump, it's here and then it's gone, and the finish is chocolatey with a hint of liquorice. Fermented with natural yeasts and matured in French oak for 12 months. A fascinating wine - the most fascinating of the three - in that's it so different. Liked it

Amanda at The Travelling Grape 'was so excited' about tasting her very first Pinotage which a friend of a friend had brought back to her in California. It was Diemersfontein Pinotage 2008 .

Wow, a chocolate bomb on my nose right away with dark rich coffee beans. Could this be a Café Mocha lover’s answer? At first it was a bit hot and tickled my nose but that dissipated in time. The front of the palate was quick but the middle, whoa nelly…smooth like velvet with a hint of smoke and leather but the coffee and chocolate certainly stole the show. The finish lingered around a bit and left me yearning for a chocolate covered cherry. Very unique and I encourage each of you to get your hands on some to try.

Ellen at A Life in Reviews loved Makulu Iswithi Pinotage 2006, which she summed up as "Impressive and sustainable - it's like getting buzzed off a Toyota Prius." (?)

Hooray!!! A wine that is inexpensive, scrumptious, and organically/sustainably grown. For the price, it doesn't get much better than this. I haven't had a lot of South African wine, but I'm hooked. This Pinotage is sure to be a crowd pleaser. It's quite sweet and will appeal to the Pinot fans (Iswithi means "sweet" in Zulu), but it's cherry-sweet rather than sickly-sweet, and it's also full-bodied enough to win over Cab and Syrah fans.

Fairview Launch La Capra range

I was reminded of the Beatles tune ‘Being for the Benefit of Mr Kite’ when I opened La Capra 2008 Pinotage. The fab four’s song had been inspired by a circus poster, as surely is La Capra.

The ranges’ back labels promising that “each glass will transport you to a magical place where the wine flows freely, laughter fills the air and you dance until the sunrise” recall Victorian fairground posters.

La Capra seems a strange name for a new wine brand until you learn that it’s a Latin reference to goats and then you understand. For behind La Capra stands someone who George Taber in his recent book ‘In Search of Bacchus’ calls “a man who never heard a pun about goats he didn’t like”.

Yup, it’s Charles Back; chief goat herder, cheese maker extraordinaire, wine maker, tracker down of old blocks of rare grape varieties and consummate marketer whose brands include Fairview, Goats du Roam, Spice Route and who has interests in MAN Vintners, Juno and more.

Da Capra labels’ claim that ‘Fairview presents AMAZING tastes, sounds and sights of the La Capra Festival’ will come true, says Anita Streicher, manager at Fairview Winery’s master tasting room. She tells me that Fairview will be hosting an annual live La Capra fair with stalls, jugglers, fire eaters and other circus and fairground entertainments, and no doubt plentiful wines and goats’ cheese to accompany them.

La Capra is meant to be an easy drinking, non-serious, fun wine range. Individual pricing is not yet announced but for an indication currently any six wines from the nine strong range are available at Fairview for 200 rands (£16.50/$33). The La Capra range includes a Malbec, still an uncommon variety in the Cape and the wine which Anita recommends, as well as Sauvignon and Chenin Blanc, Chardonnay, Viognier, Merlot, Shiraz and Cabernet Sauvignon.

So what of La Capra Pinotage 2008? It is said to be ‘as brooding and complex as a troubadour’, but I am not up to date on the psychology of travelling balladeers. I found it to be a clean, modern, fruity wine for drinking, which is what I did with it. It went down quickly and enjoyably -- but it didn’t sing to me.

Recent Wines

The following were enjoyed with dinner in the past week.


Remhoogte 2008
WO Stellenbosch

Subdued blackberry nose and sweet blueberry flavours. An elegant refined wine with a spicy flourish at the end.

Du Toitskloof 2007
WO Western Cape

A little coffee on the nose. Lively welcoming wine. Berry fruits just jump out of glass. There’s coffee and black-forest gateau on the palate. A really enjoyable wine.

Fairview 2007
WO Coastal
Ripe rich berries with vanilla and coffee on the finish, a lovely full bodied wine.

Cardouw 2002
WO Western Cape
Showing signs of age, fruit tasting stewed and fading in the glass. 2002 wasn’t the greatest vintage and if you have any of this wine I’d suggest drink it now.

Welbedacht 2006
WO Wellington
Full bodied, big wine. Galumphing backberry fruits, some grip, great drinking!



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Fairview Primo 2000

This is a single vineyard wine from grapes grown on a farm named Primo located near the Fairview winery. Charles Back, owner of Fairview, has written on the back label of this wine that he ‘spent a large part of my life in pursuit of locations that express the uniqueness and show stopping ability of this variety’ and that this wine is the result of such a meeting with Jan Greef who grew the grapes.

So it’s eight years old now. There is a churn of emotions when opening an old bottle which you have kept through the years gambling that it would repay the investment and deferring the guarantee of instant enjoyment with the prospect of a better drink down in the future. And when the bottle is the only example you own then you both fear that the wine will be past it or not yet reached its peak.

Fairview
Primo 2000
Pinotage
WO Coastal 14.5% abv


I couldn’t wait longer to taste the Primo. The wine will keep, but it is delicious drinking now. My first love was Claret – the red wine of Bordeaux – and I aged them but often was disappointed as they lost their fruit becoming dryly thin. Pinotage often changes character with age, losing the vibrancy and exuberance of young Pinno and taking on the mantle of an aged Claret yet retaining a fruit core. Good robust colour, nose of a mature wine, restrained Victoria plum flavours, elegant wine, delightful.

A Pleasant Reunion at Fairview

Fairview Winery must be on the ‘must-see’ list of every visitor to the Cape with the international fame of the Goats do Roam family of wines and Fairview Cheeses, and the place keeps expanding to cater for them all. Car parks have replaced vineyards, the small tasting counter is now a grand tasting hall and this year there is a new restaurant bistro offering a full meal service in addition to the cheese tasting counter.

Owner Charles Back is one of the Capes most innovative wine producers and I popped in to see what was happening. As wandered into the tasting room a door opened, a young woman stepped out and cried out my name. I don’t know who was more astonished. Anita Streicher and I had last seen each other several years ago when we were working together teaching classes for the Cape Wine Academy in London. I knew she’d returned home to South Africa to work for Makro’s wine department in Johannesburg as I received her informative Makro newsletters.



Now here she was at Fairview in charge of the newly opened Beryl Back Room. This is a separate room where visitors can take their time and enjoy a personalised seated, tutored tasting of wines paired with Fairview cheeses, away from the hubbub of the main tasting room. The room named after Charles Back’s late mother and is furnished with a selection of antique and unique furniture collected by the Backs during their travels.

I couldn’t leave without experiencing the room, but I had been tasting wine all day so, much to Anita’s disappointment, I asked to taste just the following wines.

Fairview Pinotage 2007
WO Coastal 14.5%abv

Upfront soft berry fruits , with some firmness on the mid palate and bright spices on the finish. Anita told me the wine had been aged 10 months in French and American
oak barrels so it must have been just bottled and I think with a little bottle age
it could be a cracker. Cellar door price 50R

Fairview Pinotage/Viognier 2006
WO Coastal 14.5%abv

Fairview were the first to co-ferment Pinotage with a little Viognier, there’s 4% Viognier in this and that adds a lot. The wine is richly coloured and tastes invitingly soft and ripe with aromatic medium bodied fruits. Anita tells me this wine is very popular in Sweden. Cellar door price 60R

Spice Route Pinotage 2006
WO Swartland 15%abv

A lovely wine, smooth, ripe and spicy with blackberry flavours and a sweet medium length finish. Cellar door price 80R

Fairview Primo Pinotage 2003
WO Paarl 15%abv

A single vineyard, now with some age on it, and it is very very good. Beautiful balance, sweet ripe and spicy with plum and berry fruits. A snip at the cellar door price of 110R

My partner was tasting her own choices and had become enamoured of a sweet Special Late Harvest Viognier so when Anita told her it was only available at the winery she ordered a case for home delivery. And two weeks later a courier was knocking at our door with a sweet reminder of our visit.

When you next visit Fairview it is well worth upgrading to the comfort of the seated tasting in the Beryl Back room. And do please give my regards to Anita.

Fairview Pinotage - Washington Post's Wine of the Week

The Washington Post picked Fairview's Pinotage as its wine of the week on 11 October 2005. Paul Lukacs said "This young pinotage constitutes a fine, reasonably priced introduction to the grape and wine. Its dark plum and blackberry flavors are appealing by themselves, but the wine becomes really interesting once its deep, earthy aftertaste comes to the fore. Medium-bodied, with relatively soft tannins, it nonetheless tastes rich and concentrated." and he suggests decanting it an hour before drinking. See

London Pinotage Tasting

The Pinotage Club tasted the 2003 Pinotage Top 10 on 9 November 2004. We were glad to welcome as co-host David Brice from Cape Town's Wine Cellar who came laden with wines he'd hand carried from South Africa. The event was fully booked with a waiting list.

As a bonus we started with a tank sample of a new wine from Fairview, a Pinotage fermented with about 4.5% of Viognier. Small amounts of white Viognier have traditionally been fermented with red grapes in the Rhone but science has only recently discovered what French vignerons instinctively knew; a reaction occurs that results in better flavour and colour extraction.

Fairview Pinotage/Viognier 2003 - A very approachable wine with a delightful
palate packed with sweet fruits, redcurrants, rounded and a good finish. This was a tank sample, the wine has not yet been released, but look out for it.

We tasted the 2003 Top 10 in alphabetical order and marked out of 7, my marks are given followed by the group average.

Allee Bleue 2002 - Opaque dense colour, fruity nose, full body, some high acids, good tannins & grip (4 - 4.5)

Bellevue Estate 2002 - Dark fruits, firm tannins and crisp acids, hint of banana (5 - 4.2)

DeWaal 2002 - Sweet berry nose, beautiful purple glass staining colour, dry and tastes duty in the middle palate. (4 - 4.3)

Graham Beck Old Road 2002 - Quite dry on front palate but opens out to reveal nice plummy fuits (4 - 4.3)

Wamakersvallei La Cave 2002 - Oh dear, oh dear. I had so much hopes for this wine which is not available in the UK and which I often enjoyed while in the Cape. But it was stinky corked. (no marks - corked)

L'Avenir Estate 2002 - Delicious ripe fruits, good depth, underpinned with soft tannins (6 - 5.2)

Rijks Private Cellar 2002 - Wonderful sweet fruits on front palate, a bit closed in the middle. (5 - 4.9)

Slaley Hunting Family 2002 - Bright clear, lovely fruits of the forest flavours and spices, long finish (5 - 4.3)

Rooiberg Reserve 2001 - Tangy crisp fruits, interesting, dollops of fruits, spicy. (6 - 4.5)

Stellenzicht Golden Triangle 2001 - Big fruity nose with spices & acids, bit dusty in middle. (5 - 5)

It's difficult to host a discussion while writing notes, hence the bevity of the notes.