Top 10 2010 Entries Invited

If you make Pinotage then enter now for the 2010 Top 10 Competition sponsored bt ABSA and organised by the Pinotage Association. Deadline for entries is 15 July 2010 and winners will be announced on 9 September 2010.

While Pinotage is made in many styles this competition is restricted to dry red Pinotages and international entries are welcome. In previous years wineries in California and New Zealand have participated.

The competition is unusual in that there are 10 equal winners in order to be able to reflect the many different interpretations of this intriguing variety.

The competition rules are available here and the entry form is here

Pinotage Association Saves Trophy

The International Wine & Spirit Competition’s Trophy for Pinotage has been saved by the swift intervention of the Pinotage Association when KWV withdrew their 13 years sponsorship at short notice.

The Pinotage Association, with the backing of their sponsors ABSA, immediately stepped in to ensure that Pinotage continues as a Trophy category.

The Trophy has been renamed the Abraham Perold Trophy for Best Pinotage to give recognition to the father of Pinotage, Abraham Perold. KWV, who hold the rights to the Abraham Perold brand name, graciously consented to the re-naming of the Trophy. “We believe that this will enable a more collective drive in honouring the legacy of both Pinotage and Perold internationally”, said KWV CEO, Thys Loubser.

The IWSC is one of the world’s biggest and most authoritative wine competitions and South Africa’s own grape variety, Pinotage, was introduced as a category in this competition in 1995.

Frances Horder, IWSC Competition Director, said “with the sponsorship of this trophy now coming from South Africa’s Pinotage Association and their sponsor, Absa, it will for many years be an established and prestigious part of the Wine and Spirit Competition.”

This year the 2009 Abraham Perold Trophy was awarded to Rijk’s Private Cellar for their Pinotage Reserve 2006.


Photograph shows Dave Hughes, South African’s international wine expert and honorary member of the Pinotage Association (left) holding the new Trophy with Sir Ian Good, 2009 President of the IWSC. Photo courtesy of the Pinotage Association

Proudly Pinotage at London Wine Fair

Winning Pinotages will be poured at the London International Wine Fair that starts tomorrow 12 May and runs for three days at the Excel exhibition complex on the banks of the Thames river in London's docklands.

The Pinotage Association are funding two stands: one will show all 10 winning wines from the 2008 Pinotage Top 10 Competition, the other will show a selection of Pinotages from new and small producers.

If you are coming to LIWF make a point at stopping at stands 4 and 20 on the Wines of South Africa island L50 in the centre of the hall.

Be seeing you ...

Worth Winning - World Cup Pinotage

The Pinotage Association has asked FIFA to designate Pinotage as the official wine for the 2010 Football World Cup, which will take place in South Africa in June and July 2010. This is the first time the World Cup has been held in Africa.

Cobus Dowry, Minister of Agriculture for Western Cape, came out in strong support and has undertaken to present the request to the World Cup Committee. "The Department of Agriculture Western Cape wholeheartedly supports the initiative and agrees that 2010 Soccer World Cup is the ideal opportunity to present a truly unique South African wine. Pinotage wine at the official functions during the World Cup celebrations will assist to strengthen the image and value of Pinotage," he said.

Beyers Truter, Pinotage Association Chairman, said that South Africa has practical and patriotic reasons for promoting Pinotage as a grape variety that provides wines of superior quality. He said "If the request is accepted, we will donate a sufficient quantity of wood-matured Pinotage wine for official functions and for participants and winners of the 2010 Soccer World Cup. We do not want to become involved in the commercial opportunities, as there are enough cellars and other instances that are structured to do this."

The 2010 World Cup Pinotage wines will be selected by a panel of experts and will be bottled under a generic Pinotage label..

Although Pinotage grapes became part of the SA national vineyards at a much later stage than the classic European red wine cultivars, it produces nearly 15% of the total tonnage of red wine grapes harvested in South Africa. The international demand for Pinotage wines is thus clearly illustrated by the fact that it comprises about 11% of all these natural wines exported from South Africa.

The Pinotage Association also requested South African Airways to name one of their aeroplanes ‘Pinotage’ on the route between London and Cape Town in order to increase the awareness of the variety.

From left:-
Beyers Truter (Pinotage Association Chairman), Minister Cobus Dowry, Gert Boerssen (Pinotage Association Board Member).

Top 10 Cut-off is 9 July

Entries for the annual Pinotage Top 10 Competition must be in by 9 July.

The competition, organised by the Pinotage Association and sponsored by Absa Bank, is open to all Pinotage wines no matter where in the world they are produced.

The competition is unusual in that ten equal winners are chosen. This is to recognise that there are many different ways to interpret the Pinotage variety and to give a chance to them all.

Every competition so far at least one first time entrant has been a winner.

Rules and entry forms may be found at the Pinotage Association website here.

Dave Hughes Honoured by Pinotage Association

Dave Hughes has been awarded Honorary Membership of the Pinotage Association.

Beyers Truter, Chairman of the Pinotage Association, handed the honorary membership certificate to Dave and called him South Africa's best wine friend. Dave's career includes distiller, winemaker, wine auctioneer, international wine and spirit judge, writer on drink and allied subjects, consultant to Nederburg Annual Wine Auction, Veritas Wine Awards, South African Airways Wine Selections and the International Wine and Spirit Competition.

One of the first times he showed Pinotage overseas, was in September 1976, for a Wines and Vines magazine tasting in San Francisco. One of his first overseas presentations of a range of only Pinotage wines was at the Wine Educators Conference in Santa Rosa California in 1981, where he presented eight different Pinotage wines to an audience who had never heard of the grape.

According to Dave it was difficult to promote South African wines in those days because of international sanctions, due to our politics. In 1985 he was barred from talking at the Roseworthy Campus in Australia, because a few students objected to the presence of a "racialist South African". The tasting was held in Wolf Blass cellars and instead of 30 odd students, there was a crowd of about 100 students, winemakers and consumers.

My congratulations to Dave; may your socks never match!

Pictured above, left to right, are are De Wet Viljoen (Chairman of the Absa Top 10 Pinotage organising committee), Dave Hughes and Beyers Truter (Chairman of the Pinotage Association).

Pinotage's 5 Million Rand Sponsorship

Absa bank yesterday (21/07/07) signed a five-year sponsorship deal worth one million rand per year with the Pinotage Association.

Dr Steve Booysen, Absa’s Group Chief Executive, said “I am extremely proud of what Absa has achieved in helping the Pinotage Association to development the Pinotage brand. With this agreement, we’ve committed to apply the bank’s considerable resources to firmly establish Pinotage in the local and international market. It is particularly important to us that all South Africans are made aware of the fact that this is our very own unique cultivar.”

This deal renews Absa’s decade long relationship with the Pinotage Association, which includes sponsorship of the annual Pinotage Top 10 competition. Pinotage Association Chairman Beyers Truter said “If it had not been for Absa, we would still have been in the experimental phases with Pinotage.”

Absa Bank and the Pinotage Association intend an ambitious promotional and media drive to capitalise on the success of the past and to take the brand to the next level. Several programmes will be rolled out, working toward positioning Pinotage for 2010. These will include a project with Absa Art later this year and a Food and Wine programme in 2008.


Picture: Dr Steve Booysen (left) and Beyers Truter celebrating with a glass of sparkling pink Pinotage.

2007 Pinotage Vintage - One of the Best

The annual new Pinotage Vintage Tasting was held on Thursday 14 June at Allée Bleue outside Franschhoek. Wines from different areas were selected from these wineries: Perdeberg, Wellington, Rooiberg, Neethlingshof Estate, Stanford Hill, Simonsig, L'Avenir, Riebeeck Kelder, Klawer, Brandvlei, Stellenbosch Hills, Fairview and Du Toitskloof.

The wines were all a work in progress, being either tank or barrel samples, but the event gives the first opportunity to judge the overall quality of the new vintage. Charles Hopkins, vice-chairman of the Pinotage Association, presented the tasting. He said “The wines that were tasted came from various wine-producing areas, with diverse climates and soils, and are aimed at assorted local and international markets, from the lighter style for high-quality drinking wines to the more complex wines."

"My overall conclusion," said Charles, " based on the 2007 Pinotage vintage we tasted, is that the characteristic Pinotage fruitiness was in general strongly present, in addition to a better balance between wood-maturation and fruit-driven properties. This year’s wines also show younger than last year’s and need to develop considerably before they can be bottled and released. It’s something to look forward to!”

Francois Naudé, award-winning winemaker who is famous for his Pinotage made when at L'Avenir Estate, rates 2007 as one of the best four vintages ofthe past decade.

Pinotage is South Africa’s second-largest volume of bulk export wine, after Chenin Blanc, (7 .1M litres from May 2006 to April 2007).

Co-owner, and cellarmaster of Simonsig, Johan Malan said that their 2005 Pinotage sold out some time ago and that there was already huge demand for the 2006 vintage. “Pinotage is a top-seller, so it must be in fashion. That’s the reality of the market,” says Johan.

Since I couldn't attend the tasting I am grateful to Minette (WineFly) Willard for letting me post her impressions. Her favourite wines were:-

Fairview Pinotage 2007 - Again the alcohol is quite high in this wine and you can also taste the alcohol but it is not too overwhelming. There is fruits and coffee on the nose and this wine is more a classical pinotage and will make a good wine in the longterm. Also one of my favourites

Klawer Co-op Birdfield Pinotage 2007 - It is a big and complex wine, with flavours of prunes and bananas coming forward. Farmyard was also detected on the nose. This wine will do well once matured and will do good in the UK and Europe market as a commercial wine.

L'Avenir Pinotage 2007 - This wine also really stood out for me. It is a complex and well-balanced wine with a low yield of 5 ton/ha. They only used French Oak and 85% was bushvines. It has been in the barrels for 4.5 months at the time of the tasting. They keep the wine on the wood for 12 months in total.

Perdeberg SAAM Pinotage 2007 - Mocca Cappichino flavours stood out on this medium-bodied wine. Fruitiness is also detected with a silky finish and tannins on the palate.

Rooiberg Reserve Pinotage 2007 - First Fill 100% French Oak was used. There is smokeyness and a hint of perfume on the nose, with earthy mineral-ness that lingers. It has a straight finish. This wine is a good pinotage to me, the wood compliments the grapes/flavours. One of the better ones.

Stanford Hills Jackson's Pinotage 2007 - This wine has ripe plums, camembert cheese flavours and is fruit driven. Wood that was used is Hungarian & French Oak and it pushes the tannins to the front of your tongue. Good balanced wine and opens up when left for a while.

Read Minettes full report of the tasting at http://wineflyselection.blogspot.com/2007/06/pinotage-tasting-of-2007-vintage.html

Pictured above at the tasting are Charles Hopkins, vice-chairman of the Pinotage Association, and Debbie Burden of Simonsig with Pieter Carstens of Perdeberg (rear left) and Eduard Malherbe of Rooiberg (rear right) . Picture courtesy ML Communications

Tasting Wheel

In the July 2003 we reported that Dr Johann Marais, Specialist Scientist at ARC Infruitec-Nietvoorbij had been asked by the Pinotage Association to develop a Pinotage aroma wheel.

The project is now complete. The wheel lists 14 primary and 44 secondary characteristics. The wheel can be ordered from the Pinotage association at info@pinotage.co.za , or downloaded from http://www.wynboer.co.za/recentarticles/0409wheel.php3


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