2007 Pinotage Top 10 Winners Announced - Exclusive

The results of the Pinotage Top 10 Competition were announced today at the award ceremony.
There are six first time winners:

Bon Courage Pinotage 2006
Robertson Wine of Origin and first-time Top 10 winner
Winemaker Jacques Bruwer
Judges' notes: "Ripe plum nose with vanilla and spice. Rich, succulent mouth with layers of berry flavour".


Fantail Pinotage 2006
Stellenbosch Wine of Origin and first-time Top 10 winner
Winemaker Jacques Cilliers.
Judges' notes: "Warm spices, hints of mint. Firm yet fine grained tannins".

Fleur du Cap Pinotage 2005
Coastal Region Wine of Origin and first-time Top 10 winner
Winemaker Justin Corrans.
Judges' notes: "Black cherries and milk chocolate Very well structured tannins balancing acidity".

Four Paws Pinotage 2006
Piekenierskloof Wine of Origin and first-time Top 10 winner.
Winemaker Anne Jakubiec.
Judges' notes: "Brambles with a hint of grapefruit. Fresh acidity, lively expression on the palate".


Marianne Pinotage 2004
Paarl Wine of Origin and first-time Top 10 winner.
Winemaker Stephan du Toit
Judges' notes: "Ripe plum, chocolate, mint and cherry on the nose with a hint of vanilla. Sweet fruited mouth".


Windmeul Reserve Pinotage
2006 Paarl Wine of Origin and first-time Top 10 winner
Winemaker Francois van Niekerk
Judges' notes: "Ripe full ripe plum and cherry on the nose with same flavours in the mouth".

Môreson Pinotage 2006
Coastal Region Wine of Origin and third-time Top 10 winner
Winemaker Hannes Meye
Judges' notes: "Aromas leap from the glass! Rich, full fruit with chocolate and cherry. Supple tannins".

Pulpit Rock Pinotage 2005
Swartland Wine of Origin and second consecutive year as a Top 10 winner
Winemaker Piet Kleinhans
Judges' notes: "Ripe black fruit with minty notes. Delicate yet firm tannins with balanced acidity"

Simonsig Redhill Pinotage 2005
Stellenbosch Wine of Origin and third-time Top 10 winner
Winemaker Debbie Burden
Judges' notes: "Ripe plum nose with cherry and vanilla. Big and full in the mouth with great oak support".


Stellenzicht Golden Triangle Pinotage 2006
Winemaker Guy Webber
Stellenbosch Wine of Origin and fourth Top 10 win all in the past five years
Judges' notes: "Rich, ripe plum, full fruited, well rounded mouth with developing complexity".


It is good to see new wineries win for the first time, but sad not to see some old friends. What it shows is that the Pinotage bar keeps being raised, and any winery that doesn't enter because they they don't stand a chance against the Pinotage establishment should make definite plans to compete in 2008.

Congratulations to all the winners!

I cannot wait to taste them all.

Soft hands for Durbanville Hills Pinotage

Martin Moore (pictured left), Cellarmaster at Durbanville Hills, has some interesting pointers on Pinotage. In his latest newsletter he says

"Our 2006 Pinotage has just reached the market. I am often asked by overseas visitors why it tends to be so different from the Pinotage they tasted in other areas, claiming it reminds them more of Pinot noir than the typical Pinotage they have come across.

This Pinot noir character is something I’ve only found in cool climate areas such as ours. I believe Pinotage must be made with "soft hands" to preserve its lovely fruitiness and without extracting too much hard tannin. I have often at winemakers' dinners combined chilled Pinotage with a fruity or even chocolate dessert and always enjoy the stunned looks on guests' faces when they confess that "it works"!

Do try chilled Pinotage this summer and I bet you'll be surprised. I often point out to people that we tend to drink our whites too cold and our reds too warm. The tradition of serving reds at room temperature applies to European room temperature and not that in the Upington station café on the brink of the Kalahari Desert in midsummer on a Sunday afternoon. "

It is well worth signing up for Martin's newsletter -- he is a good writer with firm opinions and always has something of interest to say.

Picture of Martin Moore was taken from the Durbanville Hills website and is copyright (c) Distell Group Ltd and is used in accordance with their terms and conditions.

South Africa's Greatest Pinotage?

This advert for Beyerskloof Pinotage apeared in the UK national newspaper The Guardian yesterday.

I cannot ever remember seeing a Pinotage being advertised this way before. But the advert wording raises a number of interesting questions:

-- If this is the greatest Pinotage, where does that leave Beyerskloof's black labelled barrel-aged Reserve bottling? (although to be fair that is not available in the UK)
-- The bottle pictured is the 2006 vintage with a screw-cap. The screwcapped bottles are available only in Tesco's; other supermarkets and high street chains have cork closures. So where does that leave the 'Beyers Truter' branded Pinotage stocked by Tesco at £2 more a bottle ?
-- Just South Africa, Beyers? Not the worlds greatest????

"You tell us" the advert invites, pointing to a revamped Beyerskloof website homepage.

You can vote

YES without question

NO, definitely not

or click on TELL ME MORE

But I don't think the voting buttons work or that there is any coding behind them because nothing happens. There is nothing to stop you clicking multiple times, no scores are shown, and if you click on 'Tell me More', you are shown the following blank page:-

Maybe it is deliberate and they're trying to suggest that "there's no more to say", but the Beyerskloof website has a long, sorry history of links not working and pages missing: it is a mystery why this major winery still can't get the basics of its web-site right.

**UPDATE** As of close of business 30 October the buttons all now work, and voting is 77% that Beyerskloof Pinotage is SA's greatest.**

Beyers told me some months ago that he intended blogging on the site, and now you can click on a 'Talk to Us' button to send your comments to 'Beyers Blogosphere' on a blog there. As of Sunday morning, the only entries are promotional puffs from someone calling themselves 'RedLeaf' .

So pile in and take part...

Times blasts stinky SA Wines - Diemersfontein Pinotage Excepted

Not everyone was impressed by the recent South Africa Mega Tasting in London. Jane McQuitty writing in todays Times newspaper says “South Africa has yet to tame its peculiar, savage, burnt rubber and dirt odour. Other commentators either fail to take offence, or euphemistically dismiss the smell and taste as “smoky”, “earthy” or “tarry”. She says she blind tasted the “country’s flagship reds, priced from £16 to £40 a bottle and mostly Bordeaux-inspired blends, and half of them displayed this unpleasant taint.”

We often read that burnt rubber is a descriptor of Pinotage, but McQuitty says that it is nothing to do with the variety, “though this variety frequently suffers from the pong”, which is “associated either with unacceptably high yields, virused vines, a pH-related bacterial infection, or that it’s just what occurs during a typical Cape red wine ferment and maceration session.”

Although she says Pinotage has a “weird, jammy, nail varnish scent” Diemersfontein is one of her favourite South African wines, and is one of only four wines she recommends, “Diemersfontein’s masterly 2006 Pinotage (£7.99), with its sweet, burnt, heavy, peppery fruit,” is ideal for a game casserole.

Full article is at www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/food_and_drink/wine/article2729852.ece

Onyx Releases 2004 Pinotage

Abé Beukes is the cellar-master at Darling Cellars and I remember visiting him there some years ago when their top range Onyx brand was first produced. Now Onyx has a track record and earned a reputation so I was pleased when Abé offered to pour me a taste of the newly released 2004 vintage Onyx Pinotage. Abé told me it comes from low yielding (3 tons a hectare) 35 year old vines in Darling and spent 15 months in 100% new French and Hungarian oak barrels. It has14.5% abv.

In the glass the colour was a dull, brooding dark black with a red rim and the bouquet was sweet. On the front palate the wine was ripe and full bodied, with wood well to the back, giving underpinning structure. There was a lively crispness at the end and a lick of wood tannins on the long finish. A nicely balanced serious wine!

Innovative Arniston Bay

If you are still wrestling with the closure argument between cork and screwcap, do try to catch up as the debate has moved on to bottles versus other containers. Bag-in-box wines have been with us for decades, as have cans and Tetra-paks, and now ‘the company of wine people’ have a new packaging concept for their Arniston Bay brand that is really good looking.

It is effectively a ‘bag-in-a box’ – without the box. The 1.5 litre container – called an ‘e-pouch’ – have a comfortable carrying handle, weigh about a kilo less than the equivalent amount of wine in two 750ml glass bottles, and are cheaper too. There is a tap for pouring a glass when needed, and the wine should remain fresh in the container for a month after unsealing the tap. And when finished, it folds flat taking almost no space in rubbish.

What is really impressive is how the pouch, thanks to its clever design, stands easily upright on its own.

And they are about to release a 250ml serving bag, (pictured left) the equivalent of two normal glasses or one large pub-sized glass. This will be ideal for taking to events where glass is not allowed, walking, camping or other such activity where weight and breakages (and corkscrews) are a concern.

I was enthused by the packaging, but what about the contents? They are the same wines as currently available in glass bottles. The only Pinotage available for me to taste was the Rose 2007 which is semi-sweet (4-5grams residual sugar) with a boiled sweet flavour which suits the market it is aimed at .

I think this packaging is a real cracker – and initial reports from UK supermarket chain Morrisons, who are trialling it, show that sales are exceeding expectation. I’ll be purchasing some of those smart 250ml e-pouches when I see some red Pinotage in them.

The e-pouch ('e' for ethical and ecological) was developed in South Africa and is made from three multiple protective layers to contribute to the aesthetic qualities, strength and permeability. It is said to have an 80% lower carbon footprint than two glass bottles and make 90% less waste and less landfill than two glass bottles.

Imvula is Writing History

“As a black woman I am writing history for my children”, says Thembi Tobie, whose Imvula brand is entering its second year. Imvula means ‘rain’ -- which equates to wealth and good health in the Xhosa language -- and Thembi is blazing a trail for her children to benefit from.

“This is the dawn of a new era for us black people in the wine industry,” she told me. While she hopes everyone will enjoy her easy drinking wines, she is focusing on encouraging new wine drinkers in the black community by holding tastings. “These are everyday entry level wines,” she says.

Thembi has the wines made to her specifications by Wellington Cellars, and her Imvula Pinotage has a friendly 13% alcohol. It is a soft, light fruit driven wine. Maybe not a lot of complexity, but it is certainly pleasurable drinking. Which is exactly what new (and many not so new) wine drinkers are looking for.

Five Pinotage Veritas Double Golds

Five Pinotages won the coveted Veritas Double Gold – the highest award at the South African National Wine Show (SANW) 2007. Veritas is the country’s longest running wine show and aims to recognise wines of exceptional quality.

The Sauvignon Blanc category won the most with seven Double Golds, followed by Pinotage, Merlot, Shiraz and Muscadel all with five.

It is pleasing to see that Pinotage is holding its own with other cultivars, especially Shiraz which some prophesied would sweep Pinotage away and which had the most entries with 220 wines out of a total 1,904 wines competing.


The five Double Gold winning wines are

Bon Courage Pinotage 2006
Longridge Pinotage 2004
Neil Ellis Pinotage 2006
Simonsig Redhill Pinotage 2005
Wamakersvallei La Cave Pinotage 2006

Congratulations to everyone concerned.

Full results are online at http://www.veritas.co.za/.

Mellasat's Blanc de Noirs Pinotage

Mellasat owner/winemaker Stephen Richardson (pictured right) tells me that he is about to launch a white Pinotage under the name Blanc de Noirs (white from black).

This will be the first commercially released white Pinotage - as far as I know.

What does it taste like? It is quite clear - there's no trace of pink. It offers a crisp dry nose and palate with a refreshing finish and a bit of floral fullness in the mid-palate and tasting it blind I took it for a dry Chenin.

Stephen says that he blended in 15% of Chenin Blanc to round the wine out. It is the style of white wine that I enjoy -- but I can't help remembering that Mellasat used to make a pretty good red Pinotage ... and I think I prefer my Pinno red.

Truter wows London's Restaurant Show

Pinotage guru Beyers Truter flew into London on Tuesday 9 October to present a packed Pinotage master class at the Restaurant Show.

He gave a brief history of the variety and admitted that it had suffered in the past from technical faults, including being over-oaked and over-alcoholised.

Beyer's opinion is that the correct Pinotage style is 'classic-balance', and noted that it would age in bottle for many years, and he was currently enjoying wines from 1972 and 1974 that have excellent balance.

He remarked on the versatility of the variety, including its suitability to make 'Port' because of the high alcohol levels it can achieve, and how rosé wines benefit from Pinotage's up-front fruit flavours. Beyers suggesting drinking his Beyerskloof rosé at 12° C with oysters and he said he preferred drinking it after aging for 2-3 years.

Unfortunately time ran out too soon. Beyers had been told he had an hour long slot, but in fact it was only 40 minutes as the hall had to be cleared and prepared for the next presentation. But maybe it was for the best since Beyers was getting very enthusiastic by now; getting rounds of applause and gales of laughter in response to his quips and stories and promising to bring a chef and musicians the next time so we could taste Pinotages suitability with a range of foods and he’d get us to sing the Pinotage song he’d written. And you know, by now the normally reticent audience of British restaurateurs would all have joined in

Ten wines were poured for tasting, they were

Beyerskloof Rose 2007
Beyerskloof Reserve 2002
Kanonkop 2003
Clos Malverne Reserve 2003
Laibach 2005
Simonsig Red Hill 2005
Stellenzicht Golden Triangle 2005
Fairview 2006
Nitida 2006
Zavenwacht 2005

Mega Tasting - London

Next week London sees the South African European Mega-Tasting. This is the second Mega, which is intended to replace a multitude of tasting events throught Europe. The idea is that London is easily accessible from anywhere, and is easier and cheaper and quicker to travel to than Cape Town.

More than250 producers are expected to exhibit and it is thought that the event is probably the single biggest national generic wine event held off-shore by a wine-producing country.

The show is on Monday and Tuesday 8 & 9 October and although aimed at the trade, will be open to the public on Monday evening from 6 - 8pm. See http://www.winesofsa.com/ for ticket information.

The catalogue of exhibiting producers is at http://www.wine.co.za/WineLink/ShowMaster.aspx?SHOWID=60

Mega tasting is at

Brompton Hall
EARLS COURT
Warwick Road
London
SW5 9TA

At 16%abv it's technically a dessert wine

Jack Berninger writing in the Richmond Times-Despatch (15/08/2007) asked four Virginia winemakers about their favourite wines. At Grayhaven Winery he met Chuck Peple the owner-winemaker "in this family-run business that has been making wine for 12 years."

Chuck chose his 2005 Pinotage ($30)


"Grayhaven's Pinotage is a spicy, peppery, full-bodied red with strong cherry notes balanced by the earthy American and French oak barrels used to age this 2005 vintage. The current Pinotage release is technically a dessert wine, not sweet, but boasts a hearty 16 percent alcohol, making it a great sipping wine or after-dinner treat."

Rijk's wins Michelangelo Trophy

Four Pinotages were awarded the Grand d' Or - Michelangelo International Wine Awards top award - in the 2007 competion whose results were announced on 15 September. They are:-

• Bellevue Estate 'Morkel' 2005
• Groot Eiland 2005
• Rijk's Private Cellar 2003
• Stellenzicht 'Cellarmaster Release' 2005

with Rijks claiming the Pinotage Trophy.

Congrats to all!

Full results are here.

SA Winemakers “Slate Pinotage”

South African Winemakers Louis Nel and David Trafford “slated the country’s signature grape Pinotage” according to Harpers magazine (21/09).

Harpers quotes David Trafford (de Trafford Wines - pictured right) saying “It’s a grape for wine anoraks – you have to go through a lot of bad Pinotages to find a good one. Even when you get a good Pinotage right, it goes through funny stages in the bottle and could look pretty dumb.”

Louis Nel ( (Warwick Estate - pictured left) weighs in with “Pinotage is a lot like Merlot – and there’s a lot of dodgy Merlots. Even boring Cabernet is good but there’s a lot of bad Pinotage.”

Call me biased, but I reckon you could change the word Pinotage for Pinot Noir in David Trafford’s statement and it would be just as valid.

Harpers is a UK weekly trade magazine

From Rusty Nail to Elegant Fruit

Articles about Pinotage all too often tell of the group of British Masters of Wine who visited South Africa in 1976 and, comparing Pinotage’s taste to "rusty nails", declared that the variety had no future.

In that group was Julian Brind MW (pictured right) , until recently head wine buyer for the UK Waitrose supermarket chain. Thirty-one years later he again tasted Pinotage in South Africa, this time as a judge at the Pinotage Top 10 Competition.

Interviewed after the judging, Julian remarked that most of the wines in the competition were of an exceptionally high quality based on international standards, and it was almost impossible to select only the top ten wines.

"I think the rest of the world must discover these wines and South Africans must be very proud of it,” he said. “The balance of fruit, elegance and good integration of tannins is an indication of the talent of South Africa's viticulturists and winemakers. They made it very difficult for us to select only the top ten."

Fellow judge South African Dave Hughes emphasised the combination of quality and diversity. "People think there is only one kind of Pinotage, but the variety of styles makes it a real tasting experience, but every wine still is a Pinotage,” he stated. “A few years ago, it was my opinion that you could only select the top five to seven out of all the entries, now it is difficult to select the top fifteen. The quality and fine balance of the wines improve year after year."

The results of the 2007 Absa Top 10 Pinotage Competition will be announced on 31 October at the Arrabella Sheraton Hotel in Cape Town.

Spice Route 2003

Immediate impressions are of a soft approachable and fruit forward wine. But underneath the upfront juicy berry flavours is a grippy structure. There's a pleasing combination of sweet leather and soft oak tannins. This is a spicily enjoyable drink, both powerful and complex wine that shows more facets over time.

Spice Route is part of Charles Back's Fairview family. The winery is located in Swartland and winemaker Charl du Plessis joined Spice Route from Rijk's in Tulbagh.

This 2003 wine was a Pinotage Top 10 winner in 2004 and was a second win for Charl in that competition since the wine he made two years previously in Tulbagh - the 2001 Rijk's ( reviewed here) - was also a winner.

Details
Producer: Spice Route Wine Company
Winemaker: Charl du Plessis
Variety: 100% Pinotage
Appellation: Swartland
Alcohol:15%
Cost: around 13GBP/26 USD / 80 ZAR

Golds for Spier & Nederburg

Congratulations to both Spier and Nederburg on winning Gold medals at MUNDUSvini International Wine Awards for their Spier 'Private Collection' Pinotage 2005 and Nederburg 'Classic' Pinotage 2005.


This international competition held in Germany is said to be the largest officially recognised wine competition in the world; 4495 wines were entered this year, of which 429 were awarded gold. Medals are limited no more than one third of wines entered.


Spier Cellar Master Frans Smit said “Our goal is to be known across the globe for our Private Collection wines. This is a great result for our newly-released vintage, and an affirmation of our selection of wines, from the vineyard block right through to barrel.”

Spier Wines MD Neville Carew added, “At Spier quality underpins everything we do. The fact that our wines are formally recognised at a global level upholds our mission of ‘taking our wines to the world’.”


Nederburg's marketing manager Misti Watson said “Germany is our next biggest market, where sales have continued to climb, despite the fierce competition from New World and Old World producers. When international competition results largely concur with those on domestic events, we believe it shows Nederburg’s capacity to create pleasing wines that transcend geographic boundaries.

Positive Pinotage -- Rolland Can Make It

Michel Rolland, the famous international winemaking consultant, showed some of his wines at a tasting in San Francisco attended by Laurie Daniel whose 12 September report appears in the San Jose Mercury News as follows

'"You can make cabernet sauvignon everywhere," Rolland said. "Merlot is not exactly the same, but almost." But pinotage is a grape variety that's special to South Africa, as carmenere is to Chile, he noted, and he thinks pinotage shows great potential as a blending grape. "I'm sure we can make it with positive character," he said.'

Two wines were shown that contained Pinotage, both from Remhoogte Estate. Daniel writes 'The 2004 Remhoogte ($40), a blend of mostly merlot and cabernet sauvignon with 20 percent pinotage, is one of the better South African wines I've tasted: It's rich and ripe, with dark fruit, a subtle herbal note, a hint of tar, good structure and a long finish. The 2003 Bonne Nouvelle ($81), a similar blend that's a selection of the best barrels from the Remhoogte Estate, is a little showier, with more obvious oak. (Considering the price difference, I'd opt for the former wine.)'

Daniel himself is not a fan of the variety, calling it an "odd cross" of which he's "tasted very few that I'd want to drink" .

Wine Blogging Wednesday - Rijk's 2001 & Beyerskloof 2006

Wine Blogging Wednesday is a web institution in which people around the world blog on a theme. For the 37th WBW on 12 September, which is hosted by Dr Vino, the subject is “go native” with an indigenous grape variety.

Pinotage -- pronounced 'pinno-targe' -- is the local red variety of South Africa, having been developed there eighty years ago. It is a variety used to make wines in all styles, including sparkling, pink and fortified. But the best expression of the variety is in serious red wines. Since Pinotage is a fairly recent variety, and because there is no old world model to measure it against, wine makers have been interpreting the variety in several styles.

My take is that Pinotage’s taste profile should be found within the oenological region bounded by the southern Rhone, northern Italian red and Californian Zinfandel. There should be the rich spicinessof Zin and warm depth of Syrah with a twist of the gamey kick of Italian reds. Plus, a lush sweet mouthfeel that is uniquely Pinotage.

For WBW I am tasting two Pinotages. First is a mature wine from the 2001 vintage. This vintage is sold out now at the winery but you may still find it in a specialist shop. The second you should be able to find inexpensively almost anywhere.

Rijk's Pinotage 2001

The nose is closed, not offering much at all, and it feels quite firm on the front palate. But first impressions are deceptive because this wine soon opens in the glass to offer yummy blackberry fruit with a pleasing sweet uplift on the finish. There’s some acidity also, and integrated oak (40% new French oak barrels) is working its creamy magic behind the scenes. It has 14.5% abv but feels light and refreshing, making it an ideal food wine.

Rijk’s – pronounced ‘rakes’ – was created by the Dorrington family in the Tulbagh valley and named in honour of Rijk Tulbagh, governor of the Cape from 1751 to 1771, who gave his name to the town and valley. Rijk’s wines achieved almost instant success from their first bottling in 2000. Their very first Pinotage won Top 10 in 2001 and this Pinotage, from the 2001 vintage was a Top 10 winner in 2004.

Although it’s a bit of a drive from Cape Town, I like to visit Rijk’s to enjoy lunch in their open air restaurant shaded under vine leaves and overlooking a lake and vineyards. And, as usual in the Cape, I have a glass or two of cold Chenin Blanc with my food. Rijk’s make stunning Chenins which are not to be missed.

Although vines have been grown in Tulbagh for generations, the land bought by Neville Dorrington had never previously been cultivated. The Norringtons started planting vines in 1997 and three years later, when the winery had been built, they produced their first wines and now make about 11,000 cases annually from a variety of cultivars.

Details
Producer: Rijks Private Cellar
Winemaker: Charl du Plessis
Variety: 100% Pinotage
Appellation: Coastal
Alcohol:14.5%
Cost: around 18GBP/36 USD




Beyerskloof Pinotage 2006

Beyerskloof winery specialises in Pinotage - the red leaf label is the world's largest selling Pinotage brand - which is no surprise as its winemaking owner, Beyers Truter, championed the variety and is known as the Pinotage King.

Although made in huge quantities -- 1.5 million bottles of the 2006 were produced -- quality is maintained and all the grapes are grown only in the premium Stellenbosch region of South Africa.

I chilled this wine by putting it in the fridge for half an hour before opening -- which is how they serve it at Beyerskloof. On opening there is an strong fruity bouquet as if the wine can't wait to get into the glass. Well, let's pour it. It has a deep black core with a bright purple red rim, and a powerful fruity taste. This is a gutsy wine -- I often have it to accompany spicy Indian food with which it matches well.


There's black fruits, cherry and plums, some blackcurrant leaf and a lick of leather on the back palate. Somewhere I'm also getting black olive tapenade. This wine is so yummy I keep drinking for the sheer pleasure rather than analyzing. No matter, lets pour another glass. What do you mean 'the bottle is empty'?

Owner winemaker Beyers Truter is a man with boundless energy. Now a young 50 year old, he was a rugby-player in his youth before being appointed winemaker at Kanonkop Estate where he championed and elevated the Pinotage variety, along the way being named International Winemaker of the year at the 1991 Wine & Spirit Competition held in London. He is the only winemaker ever to twice receive the Pichon Longueville Comtesse de la Lalande trophy for the best blended red wine at the International Wine and Spirit Competition in London. That was in 1994 and 1999.

He founded his own Beyerskloof winery in 1998 on a property owned until 1895 by five generations of ancestors and so he became the sixth generation to farm this particular land.

Beyers Truter is active in the Church and in politics (he has stood for the ANC and founded a farmers political party) and his latest venture is the ‘Faith Fund’ charity focusing on Foetal Alcohol Syndrome. This year at Beyerskloof he extended the cellars and opened the instantly popular ‘Red Leaf’ restaurant featuring dishes cooked in and with Pinotage -- my favourite being the Pinotage Burger.




Details
Producer: Beyerskloof
Winemaker: Beyers Truter
Variety: 100% Pinotage
Appellation: Stellenbosch
Alcohol:14%
Cost: 5 GBP/10 USD/35ZAR

Café Culture Coffee Pinotage Launched

KWV today launched a new Pinotage under the brand Café Culture – and the name suggests they are aiming at the market for coffee-toned Pinotages pioneered by Diemersfontein with its cult ‘coffee & chocolate’ Pinotage. Not that KWV is using the ‘c’ word – oh dear me no – please note that it is ‘mocha’.

KWV say “Café Culture is a new Pinotage wine, produced in an innovative style and presented in a trendy packaging that mirrors its vibrant target market perfectly. Café Culture is a brand that has been specially created for trendy, upmarket enjoyment. It has an air of the avant-garde and bohemian. It is associated with debate and banter. It is the Café Culture - a lively, vibey social spirit with a sense of adventure and exclusivity...even decadence. The modern, understated label emphasises the social nature of the wine, and recalls the smart café society of the Twenties and Thirties.”

The wine was crafted by winemaker Bertus Fourie who says the wine “is the most controversial style of Pinotage wine in the world. Most people crave it. It does not speak of 'terroir' as oak plays the dominant role. This accounts for its mocha and chocolate flavours – the richness of coffee beans, the smoothness of creamy chocolate and the freshness of ripe fruit. ”

Prior to taking up his post of Senior Winemaker at KWV, Bertus Fourie was the winemaker at Diemersfontein responsible for creating their innovative popular coffee'n'chocolate Pinotage. In a prescient item for South African magazine ‘Grape’, diarist ‘The Widow’ wrote in November 2005 that KWV were looking for ways of “making their red wines taste of coffee. 'Go out and hire Bertus ‘Starbucks’ Fourie at any price' was the directorial demand!”

The 2007 vintage wine (although the bottle image on the KWV site says 2006 – I wonder what happened to that wine) was harvested and underwent wood maturation (where it presumably picked up its coffee mocha flavours from the toasted oak) for 3 months before being blended and bottled July 2007. It has a hefty 14% abv and is recommended for drinking on its own or as an accompaniment to meat and pasta dishes as well as chocolate and berry desserts.


I like to think of myself as ‘trendy’ and ‘upmarket’ (I’m not so certain about ‘vibrant’ but ‘decadent’ probably fits) and so I look forward to tasting it…..