Kanonkop Pinotage 2010

I went to Kanonkop Estate as soon as I arrived in the Cape in January excited to taste their 2010 Pinotage, as I had tasted the 2009 in January the previous year. It seems to take six months for the wine to make it to England so I wanted the heads up. But the 2010 was not yet released.

The day before I left the Cape to fly home, owner Johann Krige kindly offered to open a bottle of the 2010. “I haven’t tasted it myself for some time,” he said.

Standing in the tasting room I was able to compare the just opened 2010 with the 2009 on the counter.

The 2010 is much in the style of 2009, but didn’t have the knockout appeal that the 2009 had at the same stage last year. 2010 was bright red and a bit more tannic, a bit leaner and not as soft rich and rounded as 2009 about of which I said “This is going to be a stunner.” It has potential and I’ll be buying some when it finally appears in my local wine shop, but if you have the chance, get some 2009 before they sell out.

Kanonkop didn’t release a 2009 vintage Black Label because the outstanding quality of the entire production meant there wasn’t a barrel that was superior enough to warrant a black label bottling, but there will be a 2010 Black Label.

The 2010 vintage was small following wind damage to vines in 2009 and this carried through to the 2011 vintage but production is back to normal levels with the 2012 vintage which was just about to happen.





Open top fermentation tanks at Kanonkop. Cleaned waiting for the arrival of the imminent 2012 vintage. The metal radiators in them carry cold water to conntrol fermentation temperatures.


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Pink Kadette for Kanonkop

Kanonkop Estate’s popular red blend Kadette will soon have a pink partner. The rosé Kadette will be made from Pinotage.

For some years Kanonkop has concentrated on just four wines; as well as Kadette there is varietal Cabernet Sauvignon and Pinotage and the Paul Sauer Bordeaux blend.

“You can’t stand still,” owner Johann Krige told me, “you must keep innovating.” Currently in barrel is a premium Pinotage which the estate will release in 2010 through negocients. “We won’t even sell it at the winery,” said Johan. “It will be a very special wine at a price to match.”


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Kanonkop & Beyerskloof makePremium Pinotages

The best Pinotages are going to get less good in order for the cream of the crop to be bottled separately as 'super-cuvees' at super-expensive prices.

Currently Kanonkop Pinotage costs around 18 pounds in the UK or 170 R from the winery, Beyerskloof’s top Pinotage is their black label Reserve at 8 – 11 pounds in the UK or around 100 R at the winery.

But they won’t be the best wines for much longer. Kanonkop and Beyerskloof both intend bringing out premium ‘super-cuvees’. I guess they’ve been spurred on by seeing newcomers like Ashbourne (24 pounds), Laroche’s L’Avenir Grand Vin (a stonking 27 pounds) and Francois Naudé’s own label (400 R) come on the market.

But if you’re already making the best Pinotage how do you encourage the punters to pay more? Seems like barrel selection is the answer. Identify a special barrel and – instead of using it to improve the rest – bottle it separately and price it accordingly.

Beyerskloof got two wines into the 2008 Pinotage Top 10; the Reserve and a new label called Diesel. Diesel, named after owner Beyers Truter’s recently deceased favourite hound, was a barrel selection. It was placed in a standard bottle and the normal black ‘Reserve’ label was tweaked with Diesel replacing the word Reserve.

Diesel will be the name of Beyeskloof’s new flagship Pinotage. It will have a new label and a heavily impressive new bottle. And will cost as much as three times the price of the Reserve, according to June’s issue of The Drinks Business. Retailing it at around 30 pounds brings it into line with L’Avenir Grand Vin.

But what about the Reserve? What about the standard Kanonkop? I reported back in April 2007 Kanonkop owner Johann Krige’s reaction to a question about whether they’ll be a ‘Reserve’ Kanonkop. Johann stepped in to answer vehemently that there never will be. “Kanonkop wines are the best we make,” he stated. “We only make the best. We don’t make second best wines.” But the experimental wines they have made at Kanonkop from 50 year old plus vines are “mind-boggling” according to Johann.

So does releasing a limited bottling of a special barrel selection automatically mean the standard label is not the best? It’s a moot question which they are tussling with at Kanonkop, as Johann admits in the video below taken at last months London wine fair. He wants to expose the wine to imbibers – maybe these wines will not be sold but poured at tastings



I’m torn. Pinotage is a great wine, so you would expect there to be premium priced bottles and people willing to pay the money. Problem is that I’m not one of them. Much as I like to drink the very best Pinotages, thirty quid a bottle is a bit too much for my pension. And I’m not sure how I feel about the concept of wines whose prices are yanked sky high even although they cost no more to make just in order to have a prestige premium priced wine.

As always the market will decide.

Kanonkop 2006 - Tasting Good

Kanonkop owner Johann Krige (pictured right) was pouring the newly released 2006 vintages of Pinotage and Kadette Cape Blend at last months London International Wine Fair.

Kanonkop have the most detailed labels in the Cape – although USA labelling requirements unfortunately means consumers there don’t get the useful maturation chart on the back label, so as a service to them I am showing the labels below.

Kanonkop Pinotage 2006
Just bottled, but I’m thinking this is showing all the signs of being another cracker. It is elegant, showing restrained berry fruits, balanced by tannins and fruit acids.

Kanonkop Kadette 2006
A classic Cape Blend of three Bordeaux varieties - Cabernet Sauvignon (32%) & Franc (9%), and Merlot (20%) - married to 39% Pinotage. It is immediately attractive, with ripe fruits, sweet blueberry and raspberry flavours, really enjoyable easy drinking. Johann says “it has sweet accessibility from Pinotage that you can’t get from Cabernet Sauvignon, but without getting too fruity".

Back label from Kanonkop 2006 Pinotage. Note the 'Estate Wine of Origin' appellation, showing all the grapes were grown on the estate, the wine made matured and bottled on the Estate.



Back label from Kanonkop 2006 Kadette Cape Blend. Note the 'Wine of Origin' appellation, showing that is is not an Estate wine. Some of the grapes would have come from vineyards outside the Estate boundaries.

Taste Pinotage with Kanonkop's Johann Krige

If you are in South Africa you'll want to know that WINE magazine is organising tastings of top Pinotages on 6 June in Cape Town and 14 June in Johannesburg.

Johann Krige, owner of Kanonkop Estate, will lead the tastings. Tickets are R100 a head. Bookings can be made by emailing smart@rsp.co.za faxing 0866 704 101, or telephoning 0860 100 203.

Wines to be poured are

FOUR AND A HALF STARS
Kanonkop 2004

FOUR STARS
Allée Bleue 2005
Compagnies Wijn 2005
Deetlefs Oak Matured 2005
Groot Constantia 2005
Hidden Valley 2004
Pulpit Rock Brink Family 2005
Simonsig Redhill 2005
Southern Right 2005

THREE AND A HALF STARS
Ashbourne 2005


Location details are

CAPE TOWN
Date: Wednesday, 06 June 2007
Time: 18H30
Venue: Mount Nelson Hotel, Gardens


JOHANNESBURG
Date: Thursday, 14 June 2007
Time: 18H30
Venue: Park Hyatt Hotel, Rosebank

There are some cracking wines to be tasted.

A Decade of Kanonkop Pinotage - Part 1

When Kanonkop throws a party, it starts with a bang!

There was a real cannon on the grass, a red box marked ‘Danger - Explosives’ and a man with a smouldering fuse. We’re standing around, glasses in hand, offering jocular advice to the man with the fuse and a cannon loaded with gunpowder that refuses to light. It takes a couple of attempts before there is an incredibly loud explosion, a jet of smoke and shaking trees and we’re stunned to silence.

Inside the tasting room we find chairs and take glasses of Kadette 2005, followed by Pinotage 2004 and then Pinotage 06 from the barrel and 07 from the tanks. The 06 has sweet beautiful welcoming fruits - mulberry/blackberry with spices and coffee tones. Superb and stunning. From the the old vineyard, 3 tons per hectare, 16 months in 100% new French oak barrels. The 07 is just starting malolactic fermentation so it’s too early to form any judgement, but it has intense colour and bubblegum flavours and tonight we’ll go from this juice that is not yet a completed wine and taste back through the vintages to 1995.

Johann Krige, co-owner with brother Paul, has the job of welcoming us and introducing the event, which is an annual occasion for friends of Kanonkop. “This is an informal evening”, Johann tell us, “it is all done in house – there’s no catering firm” as he introduces his brother Paul who has the onerous task of running the braai , cooking the snook and feeding us all.

Wine maker Abrie Beeslaar (pictured right) speaks to us about winemaking at Kanonkop. “We try to capture the vintage – not make the same wine every year,” he says. Mentioning the 07 juice we have in our hands, he tells us that “this year we picked 3 tons a hectare from our 53 year old vines. We find that old vines give structure, good mouth-feel and tannins that you just don’t get with young fruit.”

Someone asks a question about whether they’ll be a ‘Reserve’ Kanonkop. Johann steps in to answer vehemently that there never will be. “Kanonkop wines are the best we make,” he states. “We only make the best. We don’t make second best wines.”

Then we are invited to visit two tasting stations in the cellars for verticals of Pinotage and Cabernet, to wander through the winery and to assist the cellar staff with the two hourly punch-downs of the cap of skins that form on the fermenting grapes in the open tanks, and not to forget the braai.

I first taste the Pinotages – tasting notes in Part 2 – then go to punch down the cap. (picture below) Now I have frequently seen this done. People stand on boards over the fermenting tanks with poles pushing down the hard skins so that they go back down in the juice and give up their colour and flavour. The workers have a good rhythm and it seems an easy task. Well, it is not. It is hard physical graft that pulls at ones muscles. The pole seems to get heavier by the moment and you must keep your balance on a swaying plank. And it must be done every two hours throughout t the day and night. So I didn’t last long at that. Are there any jobs in a winery that are easy? Picking grapes is back breaking…

It is now past midnight and, although many people have left, there are deep discussions going on and bottle after bottle of Kanonkop still circulating. Never mind tasting note scores – it’s the one you choose to drink when you have your choice of them all that is the real winner.

I won’t name names since they were talking in a social occasion, but one winemaker famous for his award winning Pinotages firmly stated that “South African wines that go past 10-15 years are past their best. But Pinotage is the exception. It changes in character. The wine itself stays intact but it develops into something really special. If you go beyond 10 years Pinotage knocks the socks off Cabernet – it needs to age.” And another winemaker agreed, saying “anyone can make a decent Shiraz, it is an easy simple grape that makes an easy simple wine, but to make decent Pinotage needs skill.”

Tasting notes follow in Part 2

Picture - Pitching in and Punching the Kanonkop Cap