£65 Pinotage is 'too perfect'

Bruce Jack of Flagstone Wines has made a new Pinotage exclusively for Direct Wines who operate various wine clubs in the UK, USA, Australia and Hong Kong.

The single vineyard 2010 Pinotage is called ‘Time Manner Place’; there are just 1,500 bottles and it will be priced at £65. (870 ZAR/105 USD)

Jack told The Drinks Business “My aim is to make the best wine in the world from Pinotage. This won’t be a wine we produce every year, only in years we deem good enough.”

The grapes are grown by Anton Roos, (pictured above)  at Silkbush Vineyards in the Breede River, from where Flagstone’s ‘The Writers Block’ Pinotage is also sourced.

This wine is, I understand, basically a barrel selection from Writers Block.

 UK journalist and Pinotage sceptic Jamie Goode tasted a sample and said (in part)

Wild, herby, meaty notes lurk in the background. This isn’t just about sweet fruit: there’s also a strongly savoury, mineral dimension here. A serious effort, but it will need considerable time to come round. 92-94/100.

 

It is one of a series of good Pinotages he’s recently tasted that has caused him to rethink the variety of which he writes “I’m now changing my mind about”.

 

But South African journalist Christian Eedes thought

It’s an extremely compelling vision of what Pinotage can be but I wonder if it isn’t a little too perfect.

We’ve come a long way in a short time for a Pinotage to be criticised for being ‘too perfect’.

Can't wait to taste it - though, according to Jamie, perhaps I should.

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Is Good Pinotage Atypical?

Joe Roberts at 1 Wine Dude puts out a call to 'Stop hating on pinotage already'. His 'plea against the undeserved hate' asks readers 'what bargain-basement version of any variety doesn’t have its fair share of sh*tty-tasting bottlings?'.

He goes on to enjoy a 2008 Kanonkop Pinotage that overachieves because it

'deftly captures the entire BBQ picnic in a single bottle; toast, smoked meats, red fruits, bananas, leather purses & all. In the grand scheme of things, it’s a great introduction to high-end Pinotage and actually delivers quality and complexity levels a bit above its price point.'

Pinotage hater and anorak about town Jamie Goode has found one he likes! Scali Pinotage 2006

'Now this was superb: it is a Pinotage that doesn’t have Pinotage character, which is a good thing. I guess with a few year’s bottle age like this it is closest in flavour profile to a top Chateauneuf, with rich, warmly spicy flavours and focused cherry and berry fruits.'

Is it my imagination that when Pinotage detractors find one they like it is always because it is atypical? In my book it's the badly made ones which are atypical.

That was the second 'atypical' Pinotage he's tasted this year, last week he found Stellar Organics Running Duck No Added Sulphur Pinotage 2011 to be

'Fruity, bright and lively with nice cherry and berry notes, showing admirable purity. No heaviness, and really drinkable. 86/100'.

Meanwhile I lunched with friends at Neetlingshof Estate yesterday. Cellar Master DeWet Viljoen was also there there having a business lunch with potential foreign clients but he found time to put a glass of pale red wine on our table. It was light bodied and tasted like a fine old claret, yet had lively sweet fruit. What could it be? DeWet then revealed the bottle - a 1984 Neethlingshof Pinotage. My, how this variety can age. Atypical? I don't think so.

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Jamie's 'edgy funk'

My old mate Jamie Goode - the Wine Anorak has never been a fan of Pinotage so I was pleased to see him giving a try to the inexpensive Ken Forrester's Petit Pinotage 2005. Jamie says "By not taking Pinotage too seriously - and interpreting it as a good-time, slightly off-the-wall variety - Ken has made an attractive, juicy berry fruited red with some green herbal and medicinal Pinotage funk, in a format where this funk helps add to the fun character of the wine. I'd serve this wine slightly chilled with honest, rustic fare. It has edges, and these are all too often lacking in inexpensive wines. The packaging is great, too." See
www.wineanorak.com/blog/2007/01/petit-pinotage.html