Farewell, Sentinel

What happened to Sentinel? The winery was owned by Cape wine figures Walter Finlayson and Rob Coppoolse. That they made good wine is not in doubt. This 2003 Pinotage is garlanded in awards – in 2004 the Pinotage Top 10, Trophy at Capital Fairburn and a Veritas Silver.

I did not meet a local that liked Sentinel's ‘castle’ perched on a ridge overlooking the R44 just north of Stellenbosch. However my spirits are always lifted by its incongruous vision, stonework lit golden by the sun, towering over vineyards. Around the base were historic muzzle loading cannons rescued from wrecks of wooden warships on the seabed that had foundered along the coast.

Now the property and vineyards have been acquired by neighbouring L’Avenir who will remodel the castle and use it for their tasting room. Which is another shame as I enjoyed tasting wine in L’Avenir’s winery barrel cellar next to a lake, although the tasting room staff no doubt found the cellar depressingly cold and dark.

This 2003 Sentinel Pinotage is intensely dark and opaque. It is mouth filling, dense and ripe with a balance and depth, offering fruit of the forest spiciness with tobacco leaf. It is soft, tangy, and a bit chewy with a whiff of leather on the dry finish. An excellent example of the art of Pinotage.

Farewell, Sentinel. I’ll miss you.

Details
Producer: Sentinel Vineyards

Vintage: 2003
Winemaker: Adele Dunbar
Variety: Pinotage
Appellation: Coastal
Alcohol:15%

The Sentinel Castle
(originally a fruit packing plant and soon to be L'Avenir's tasting room)

Recent Dinner Wines

Jacobsdal Estate 2001 - Other wineries have been redesigning their labels, getting new names and changing winemakers, but at Jacobsdal father and son Cornelis and Hannas Dumas keep a steady hand on the tiller. They continue to make Pinotage they way they always have, and showing Distell's keen consultants the door. And why not, when they make such enjoyable dinner wines as the 2001? Beautiful dark red colour, good well rounded body with meaty fruit flavours, and a long smooth finish. This wine slips down a treat with dinner and leaves one surprised the bottle empties so quickly.

L'Avenir Estate 2003 - Lusciously drinkable wine, sweet plummy fruits are underscored by soft tannins and uplifted by spicy mulberry tones. I just love this wine.

Sentinal 2003 - Deep purple red colour, smoky nose, mouthfillingly fruity, plums, smoke and spices, tobacco leaves on finish. Its so very drinkable its a real surprise to see its 15% abv.

Sentinal Wows Fairbairn

Sentinel Vineyards Pinotage 2003 was named Best Pinotage at South Africa's Fairbairn Capital Trophy Wine Show, and was also awarded the trophy for Discovery of the Show.

'Discovery of the Show' is an award based on the quality-price ratio of the wines entered, and Sentinel Pinotage was deemed to offer the best value of all.

French wine authority Michel Bettane was effusive in his praise: 'The Pinotage winner was superb, quite superb. It shows what refined Pinotage is capable of'. According to WINE magazine he likened it to Zinfandel, which went out of fashion, and is now making a comeback forcing those that scorned it to eat their words.

Recent Dinner Wines

Sentinal Reserve 2001
14% alc
Deep garnet red colour, attractive upfront fruits, red plums and redcurrants, and an uplift of tangy fruit acids with by integrated tannins on finish. Enjoyable.

Sumaridge 2002
15%alc
Very dark purple, subdued nose, soft berry and cherry flavours, some tannins on mid palate, but with hot alcoholic finish. 250 cases were made, aged 11 months in new 225 litre barrels

Mont Destin 2001
14.5% alc
Dusty cherry nose; cherries and enticing sweet fruits on palate finishing
with enough tannins to match food.

Wildekrans Estate 2002
13.5%
Soft perfumed nose, modern fruit-led wine with subtle complex balance of fruit, tannins and acids coming together to create a delicious experience. Long aftertaste.