Tasting Pinotage Blends in London

To London for the first time for more than four months for a tasting of Top End Blends organised by WoSA. What strikes me is just how expensive SA wines are getting. £36 for a Merlot blend? £17 for Nederburg's blend of eight white varieties, the sort of thing that Flagstone used to do in a £5 Noon Gun?

Several of the reds have a Pinotage element, but I’ll concentrate on those that have a least 30% Pinotage as per Cape Blend conventions and I’ll list them in descending order of Pinotage proportions.

Cloof Inkspot Vin Noir 2005, (Darling) 14.83%abv.

78% Pinotage, 12% Shiraz, 10% Cinsaut.

Quite edgy, soft talcum powder texture with dried plum and raisin flavours. £8.99

Middlevlei 2006 (Stellenbosch) Middlevlei pioneered this blend of equal shares of Pinotage and Merlot and 14%abv.

This has an attractive sweet nose and a soft classic taste. It is restrained, softly well balanced with sweet berry fruits and a touch of vanilla custard on the finish.. £9.99

Stellenzicht Rhapsody 2006 (Stellenbosch)

has equal shares of Pinotage and Shiraz. 15.28%abv.

Rhapsody is Guy Webber’s pride and joy but I don’t think this particular wine is showing well; it’s a bit rough and has a hot finish, not at all like previous examples. £24.50

Kaapzicht Steytler Vision 2005 (Stellenbosch).

50% Cabernet Sauvignon 40% Pinotage, 10% Merlot 15.1% abv.

Mouth filling well rounded sweet fruit over tannins. Surprising restrained Bordeaux like but with a really attractive spiciness and ripe fruit sweetness. £19.99

Lyngrove Shiraz Pinotage 2004, (Stellenbosch).

70% Shiraz, 30% Pinotage.
Really nicely balanced wine, a thoroughbred not showing its 14%abv. £7.99

Dekkers Valley Revelation 2004 (Paarl).

41% Shiraz, 32% Pinotage, 27% Cabernet Sauvignon. 14%abv

Warm fruit nose leads into a lovely plummy wine, really very enjoyable. £7

I rated Kaapzicht and Middlevlei the best of the bunch, but the discovery of the tasting was Dekkers Valley, second label Mellasat, which offered a really enjoyable drink at the lowest price point.

Inkspot - Darling of Origin ~ Darling by Nature

I've been reading Oscar Foulkes blog as he tells of his travels around the world marketing Cloof wines, so it was good to meet him at last in London.

Cloof are in the Swartland region in an area around the village of Darling that achieved Wine of Origin Ward status in 2003. Darling of Origin ~ Darling by Nature is now Cloof's slogan.

I visited Cloof some years ago and was shown around by winemaker Christopher van Dieren who came from Belgium. I'm glad to say he's still there and has come up with some interesting new wines, including The Very Sexy Shiraz , The Dark Side Cabernet/Shiraz , 'a wine with curves where others don’t have places' and Inkspot Vin Noir.

"We're having fun," Oscar told me, "if you can have vin rouge, why not vin noir?"

Cloof Inkspot Vin Noir 2005
And intensely black this wine is. It is 78% Pinotage, 12% Shiraz, 10% Cinsaut. The oldest vines were planted more than forty years ago. Oscar says the bush vines are not irrigated and thus their roots descend more than 8 metres looking for water, and yield less than a litre per vines. Add to that, 30% of the Cinsaut juice was removed before fermentation (it went to make a pink wine) and you get a concentrated wine. I'm getting a tannic nose, and powerful mouthfilling flavours of liquorice, smoked meats and macerated cherries with some wood tannins on the finish. "There's a lot of structure from the Pinotage," says Oscar, who tells me that Platter awarded it 4 stars in the 2008 guide.

Cloof seem to have a pretty slick sales operation, the wines are widely distributed, and you can buy through their websites in South Africa and the UK. I'm presenting more tastings soon and I think I'll try ordering from the UK site. Inkspot retails at around 45R in ZA and £8.99 in the UK.