Wamakersvallei 'La Cave' 2004 Pinotage

Six years old and it's just perfect. Starting to lose some of its bright colour and beginning to brown. Beautiful smooth dusky damson fruit flavours with a long lingering finish. Like a good claret but with lots of sweet fruit.

'La Cave' is Wamakersvallei's premium label and they really have nailed making consistently fine classic Pinotage.

It is named after La Cave, the winery's arched brick cellar in Wellington.

Frozé -- Pink Pinotage on Ice (again)

Funny how innovative ideas seem to come out of the ether and strike several people at the same time. Earlier this year Stormhoek was grabbing the attention with a pink Pinotage designed for serving over ice.

And now here comes another. Frozé is, they say, "the refreshing fruity pink wine that's very nice ON ICE".

Frozé's web-site explains how the idea came about: 'One day, we were all talking about how much we all loved rosé wine but how rubbish a lot of them were - too sweet/too puny/too much like hard work. "We need a new type of rosé!" said someone (Paul thinks it was him, but Ant is sure it wasn't). "A fresh, clean-as-a-whistle rosé with loads of flavour, which costs less than a fiver but tastes like it should be more. Fruity and unpretentious. Fun. But also serious."

"Not too alcoholic, either," added Ant (or maybe Paul). "People want to chill out, not pass out."

So we got to work. We played around with lots of grape varieties and finally hit on a blend of Pinotage, Cinsault, Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon that tasted just great. The kind of wine that you won't try to hide behind more expensive bottles at a friend's party. The kind of wine that makes you want to stroke a labrador's head or start singing Madeleine Peyroux songs. If you know what we mean.

We soon discovered that our wine tasted even nicer when we added a couple of ice cubes. Don't ask us why. Maybe the hydrogen atoms trigger a complex molecular reaction with previously inert flavour compounds in the grapes. Maybe it's magic. Or perhaps it's simply the case that everything gets better with ice.'

Frozé is the inspiration of a UK company called Off-Piste Wines Ltd. It is a blend of Pinotage (42%), Cinsault (26%), Merlot (18%) and Cabernet Sauvignon (14%) -- 'but that might all change next year' they say, and at 12.05% abv is deliberately produced with a lower alcohol level. It is made by Christian Visser at Wamakersvallei Winery in Wellington.

Frozé is said to be stocked by the major UK supermarkets, inclusing Tesco, Waitrose and the Co-op, although I haven't come across it.

Maybe the real problem is that, as they say, it is a wine for outdoors on hot sunny days. And this years summer has been on of torrential rain, floods, and cold. Not ideal barbie weather -- or for ice cold wines.

Pinotage Is Champion!!

Pinotage from Wamakersvallei won the General Smuts Trophy –- the shows highest honour-- at the 2007 SA Young Wine Awards. It is the first time the Trophy has been won by Pinotage since records began*.


Wamakersvallei's wooded 2007 Pinotage was chosen for the award, beating 2026 other wines from 183 contestants. And the wine was also named SA Champion Pinotage. The awards were announced on 23 August.


Cellarmaster Hugo Truter (pictured right) received the trophy on behalf of Wamakersvallei.


The annual South African Young Wine Show gives winemakers the opportunity to showcase the pick of their current vintage. The Show judges the quality of wines that are still at the beginning of the vinification process - within the year of production - and have some way to go before they are finally blended and bottled in order to recognise the production capabilities of a wine cellar. Very few of the wines are for sale or are in their final form at the time of being judged.



*It is part of the Pinotage legend that PK Morkel of Bellevue Estate won the Smuts Trophy in 1959 with Pinotage, an event that shook the Cape wine industry and which led to many farms planting the new variety. However it wasn't until 1987 that the winning variety was also recorded. Prior to then neither the South African National Wine ShowAssociation nor Agri-Expo (the previous organisers of the show) knows with which wines the winning wineries achieved their win.

'La Cave' 2003 Wamakersvallei Pinotage

“Uh huh,” I thought. “Cold coming”. A tickle in the throat and a blocked nose presages a cold which is a real inhibitor on enjoying wine. So I decided to open a ‘special’ wine, one that I had been saving so that I’d have good memories to carry me over the cold.

‘La Cave’ 2003 Pinotage from Wamakersvallei is one of my favourite Pinotages, and since Wamakersvallei’s wines are unfortunately not available in the UK, this was a rare bottle I’d carried back from the Cape.

I remember how well it accompanied pan fried cob fish in Stellenbosch’s Fish Market restaurant in 2004 (yes, really) and how I returned to it after being offered a wide choice of the very top winning wines at a celebratory meal after that years Veritas wine judging. (I was lucky enough to be a judge at that competition and also the Pinotage Top 10 at which La Cave 2003 was a winner.)

And it tasted just as good again. This is a delightful serious wine with restrained fruit and great structure, very integrated, no rough edges. You know what it reminds me of? Vergelegen’s estate red. Platter is a bit sniffy about the 2003 vintage La Cave, but ignore them. This is a great wine.


If you’ve got a bottle, please do let me know what you think.

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.