Avoid Headaches, Drink Pinotage ?

Scotland’s Perthshire Advertiser is recommending readers to drink Pinotage at New Year celebrations to avoid getting a hangover.

“Each vineyard has its own method of fermenting their harvest, with producers introducing sulphates to the wine mix as a preservative. But sometimes levels can be too high, causing the dreaded hangover.

“Welgegund Pinotage from South Africa as an example of a wine that can help maintain a guilt-free diet, citing far fewer toxins in its content to pollute the human body than are contained in more commonly found brands.”

According to Russell Wallace of Excel Wines who markets Welgegund Pinotage, “mass producers need to add so much sulphate to their yield is because they use machinery to pick the fruit, and often rotten fruits slip through the quality control process. Additionally, sulphates rid the harvest of bacteria left behind from pests including wasps, lizards and birds.

“Smaller producers do all their harvesting by hand, so have a much better quality control procedure when it comes to picking only the best fruits, and do not require excessive amounts of sulphates to cleanse what’s going into the wine.”

I am all for people drinking Pinotage and I’m sure Welgegund make an excellent one, (which I have not yet encountered).

But the claims in the article are nonsense.

Most South Africa wines are made from handpicked grapes — especially Pinotage. There is an embarrassment of unemployed labour ready, able and willing to harvest grapes and many Pinotage vineyards are planted as bush-vines which can not be machine harvested.

There is no reason grapes that have been machine harvested to be inferior to hand harvested. In both cases it is the quality check on grapes arriving at the winery that matters. Increasingly farms are using sorting tables to hand select berries that go forward for wine making. A machine may pick rotten grapes, but then so may workers who are paid by the weight of the grapes they pick.

Good looking bunches of grapes are just as liable to have bacteria from insects lizards and birds.

But the real nonsense is equating sulphites with headaches. Many years of medical research has failed to find any link between the two.

The article alleges that large producers use more sulphites. However sulphite levels in wine are limited by law and few wines come close to them. The European Union limit for red wine is 160 mg/L. The largest producer of Pinotage is Beyerskloof who publish the scientific analysis of their wines on their website. Their standard, large volume Pinotage 2009 has just 41 mg/L Free SO2 and 87 mg/L Total SO2.

What gets you drunk and gives you a hangover is alcohol. Please enjoy Pinotage at New Year and anytime and avoid hangovers by drinking in moderation.

Hill & Dale, Blogging and Diam

The winelist at Gordons Bay Spur is not overlong but they seem to have upped the choice.

Usually I take grateful advantage of their no-cost corkage policy and take in bottles I have acquired in the wine-lands but Wednesday night we were late back from the SA Wine & Food Bloggers meeting in Cape Town where I sat next to Sarah Graham of ‘ A Foodie Lives Here’.

Sarah tells me she has a contract with Random House to produce a cook book which is brilliant news, but not as brilliant as the news that she is also going to produce a baby. As to which will arrive first, I don’t know. But since babies don’t wait and publishers seem to take ages, I think baby will win!

So straight into Spur — which got a name check from our speaker, blogger 'The Squashed Tomato' herself Linda Harding, that implanted the thought of baked potato and New York strip in my partners subconscious — and I ordered Hill & Dale Pinotage 2009.



Now — two things. Note the origin, Stellenbosch, and the cork. Hill & Dale was introduced as a second label for Stellenzicht. If ‘mass market’ isn’t the right word, ‘large volume’ and ‘entry-level’ will do. Or even the new buzz word ‘life-style.’

But this doesn’t look like your usual large volume label. It is Stellenbosch Wine of Origin, a classic area for Pinotage and one where grape prices have increased to a level that some other producers can no longer get enough Stellenbosch Pinotage and have had to source elsewhere, changing their appellations to the catch-all and basically meaningless ‘Western Cape’.

Secondly: note the word DIAM on the cork. DIAM is what is known as a ‘technical’ cork. It is made from cork — it is not plastic — that has undergone a patented process in which cork is ground into granules which are cleansed by supercritical carbon dioxide before being reassembled into a cork closure. The closures are guaranteed to be free of TCA and they are not a cheap option.

They look similar to the cheap agglomerate closures which are corks made from the remainders of cork manufacture but differ in that the name DIAM is printed on them and when you smell them they are completely neutral—there is not a trace of that dirty smell you can get from cork and which transfers to wines. So DIAMs are, for most wine lovers, the preferred closure that is not a screwcap.

So, not your usual life style wine packaging. That Hill & Dale are serious about quality is obvious. But is the wine any good? No worries here. Big juicy soft clean fruity wine with underlying oak tannins that slips down very easily. It is an ideal wine for a steak house and reasonably priced at 69R.

Genial Guy Webber is the winemaker behind Hill & Dale and his monthly musings can be read on his blog On The Couch with Guy Webber.

(by coincidence, the following day I attended a tasting in the winelands at one of the Cape’s leading wineries. Seven wines were presented to a group visiting from the international Circle of Wine Writers. Two of the wines were closed with screw caps. Of the other five wines, three were corked — a 60% failure rate. We were at the winery, the owner was pouring and replacements were to hand. But how many bottles with bad corks had already gone out to consumers? Talk again to me about the ‘romance of cork’.)

Kanonkop 2009 - a bud ready to flower

Friday afternoon an hour before closing and Kanonkop’s normally sedate tasting room is busy. All seating is occupied and groups of people are standing swirling glasses, discussing wine and ticking order sheets. Counter staff are hard pushed to fill tasting glasses, answer questions and take orders on a till that is playing up.
“It has been like this all day,” says Anita Heyns who has run Kanonkop’s tasting room for as long as I can remember. She is trying to find the wooden case for a Methuselah (5 litre) bottle of Pinotage that has just been snapped up.

I wait for the purchases to be made and collected and the room starts to empty. Winemaker Abrie Beeslaar has brought to work his new baby daughter to show his colleagues and while they cuddle her he comes over for a chat and pours me a taste of Kadette 2010 Pinotage Rose which I’d tasted a tank sample of at the London Wine Fair in May. With some bottle time this dark pink wine was drinking well. “It had minimal skin contact,” said Abrie, “less than two hours. Just the time it took to fill the press — it has 55% free run juice. As soon as it was full we pressed it off the skins. Pinotage has this tremendous colour.” The wine is made dry; there is just 2 g/L residual sugar but the 14% abv “gives an impression of sweetness,” according to Abrie.

The red Kadette 2009 is very impressive. Made from a blend of 46% Pinotage, 30% Cabernet Sauvignon, 18% Merlot and 6% Cabernet Franc this vintage is a step up, being much more serious. There’s less upfront obvious fruit and a classic linearity. “We make it the same as the other wines,” Abrie told me. “The difference is that we use the young vines and older barrels.” 60,000 cases were produced and the UK Sainsbury supermarkets will be listing it.

To my surprise the tasting counter had open bottles of 2000 Pinotage. Abrie told me that for the past decade Kanonkop had been holding back supplies with the intention of being able to offer ten year old bottles. “Few people have the chance to taste aged Pinotage,” says Abrie, “and yet it is a variety with great aging potential so we wanted to be able to promote Pinotage by releasing some ten years old. Next year we will have the 2001 vintage available alongside the 2010 and so on.”

Kanonkop Estate Pinotage 2000 vintage was perhaps not an ideal example of the variety’s aging potential as the wine was pale, light bodied and had lost its primary fruit. All the same it offered rewards for aficionados of aged wine, with a delicate red berry flavours and a long aftertaste . “I think it is now showing its Pinot Noir heritage,” said Abrie. “2000 and 2002 were our toughest vintages. In 2000 we had bush fires and when the wine was young you could taste the smoke.”

Kanonkop had been hosting some trade tasting events elsewhere in the winery that Friday and when I mentioned that 1999 was my all time favourite vintage an opened leftover bottle was found.

Kanonkop Estate Pinotage 1999: In contrast to the 2000 this looked youthful with a dense deep black-red colour with a red rim and a soft warm sweet nose. I’d last tasted it in 2008 with Beyers Truter when my notes read “concentrated dense fruit, great complexity and it is just so drinkable” which is just as true now. Lovely wine, how I wish I had some.

I had come hoping that the 2009 Pinotage was released, and it was. Based on experience it won’t be available in the UK until next year: the 2008 had just appeared on the Wine Society Christmas list and I have a case at home. “It needs another year in bottle,” advises Abrie.

Kanonkop Estate Pinotage 2009: Dense impenetrable black, big and soft approachable tannins with fruit appearing in the mid-palate, a refreshing food friendly acidity and an after taste that just lingers. This is going to be a stunner. Abrie says that they used more fruit than usual from the older vineyards and that gives subtlety to the flavour and the long aftertaste.

I bought some bottles and opened one Saturday night with a Spur steak fillet and enjoyed it immensely even though too young. Spur doesn’t run to decanting, and the wine is young, but it is like a bud that will open and flower, and I reckon if (like me) you can’t wait then try opening it a few hours before drinking or decant it because by the end of my meal the wine in my glass was starting to open up.

The 2009 Pinotage is 185 Rand a bottle at the winery and the 2000 is a little more at 210 Rand. The Kadette Pinotage Rose is 52 Rand and Kadette Red is 65 Rand.
Another reason to visit Kanonkop, should you need an excuse, is that signed copies of my book Pinotage: Behind the Legends of South Africa's Own Wine are on sale in the tasting room.

Pinotage for Partridge

Anthony Rose in The Independent (UK) recommends Pinotage with game birds such as partridge, in particular

"the 2007 Signatures of Doolhof, Pinotage, Doolhof Estate, Wellington,£14.50, Berry Bros & Rudd (0800 280 2440), is in a different league from common or garden Cape pinotage, with a richness of plum and strawberry fruit concentration and a stylish vanilla oak veneer, a revelation for anyone who can't bring themselves to believe that pinotage is occasionally capable of making delicious red wine."

Ashbourne 2007 is released

The latest Ashbourne Red is now available for sale at 400 Rand a bottle from the farm. 2007 is the fourth release of Anthony Hamilton Russell's iconic and rare homage to Pinotage.

Anthony says: "It was always our aim to create something entirely new, based on a “redefined” expression of South Africa’s fascinating grape Pinotage. We wanted to create a benchmark that didn’t attempt to replicate the established benchmarks of other wine regions (See the attached background). If we are not excited by the wine, we do not release it and no 2002, 2003 or 2006 was released.


"True to the Ashbourne character, the 2007, although unquestionably “classically” styled, is very hard to place and is a highly individual wine. It is simply Ashbourne and should be enjoyed as great red wine without attempting to pigeonhole it.


"The Ashbourne 2007 does not attempt impact and appeal through high alcohol and could be regarded as surprisingly low alcohol for a South African red at only 13.23%. The pH is also surprisingly low for a South African red at a very healthy 3.26. In 2007 the chosen blend was 82% Pinotage (a blend of three of Ashbourne’s most interesting Pinotage vineyards), 9% Cabernet Sauvignon and 9% Shiraz."

Available production is 9468 bottles

Pinotage is taking off

"Pinotage is taking off," says sommelier Brian Murphy.

"Now that the vines are older this wine [Koopmanskloof 'One World' 2008 organic,biodynamic and Fair Trade certified Pinotage] is getting better and stronger. When it's cold outside you want something stronger in a wine. Pinotage is great with barbecue or anything grilled. It would also be great with chili."



From article by Beverly Firme in Bethesda, Maryland's news site ChevyChasePatch.com January 11.


Not only Pinotage is taking off: I will be flying to the Cape later today for an extended trip.

Pinotage – from Reviled to Revered

Interesting article by industry expert Michael Fridjhon in the latest WINE magazine which starts "The turnaround on Pinotage – from reviled to revered – has been remarkably swift."

Fridjhon goes on to say that while Pinotage is a difficult grape from which to make wine "This is a little like blaming a fast car for handling badly. Brilliantly designed vehicles create the illusion that the driver knows what he’s doing, but there does come a point where the better driver does the better job."

The evidence for the turnaround is that " it garnered more gold medals this year at the Old Mutual Trophy Wine Show than any other category" and the "number of stellar-premium Pinotage-based wines" now on the market that have continued to sell at high prices each year, showing that "the wines are living up to their pretensions."

Fridjhon finishes by asking that its time for thevariety "to be accorded a degree of respect."

The article is currently online at www.winemag.co.za/article/a-long-road-2011-01-03
unforgiving variety

Video - Jeremy Borg's Painted Wolf Pinotage Rose

PINOTAGE Book on Kindle

My book PINOTAGE: Behind the Legends of South Africa's Own Wine is now availabe as a Amazon Kindle eBook.

Click the icons below and you could be reading it in a minute.

USA and rest of world except UK	UK

Pinotage as Icon Wine

Decanter magazine commissioned Christian Eedes some months ago to write an article on Pinotage. Eedes has never been a great proponent of the variety and during his time as deputy editor of South Africa’s WINE magazine it dropped its annual Pinotage Champion trophy in favour of Shiraz.

Back then Eedes wrote “more than a few examples of this wine [Shiraz] are recognised as unquestionably great, and this confirms the grape's inherent worth. Unfortunately, the same can still not be said for Pinotage. Shiraz, always generous in flavour, is a friendly wine, whereas Pinotage very often isn't. It would seem the writing is on the wall for Pinotage.”

Four years later in 2008 he wrote “WINE magazine is not anti-Pinotage. We do wonder how many producers are truly capable of greatness.”

What a difference a couple of years makes. In Decanter this month Eedes says “South Africa doesn’t have a single ‘icon’ wine. One that is recognised and sought after the world over. At last not yet. But could its first icon wine be a Pinotage?”

Pinotage as an icon? There are several South Africa wines that I consider icons, starting with Klein Constantia’s ‘Vin de Constance’ whose price has tripled since I first bought it.

I think an icon wine has to have a track record and Kanonkop Estate currently is the only Pinotage with iconic status in my eyes. Kaapzicht Estate’s Steytler Pinotage has also achieved great success at international competitions but I don’t think it is a name widely known. Pinotage winemaker’s are ramping up prices with special bottlings (Kanonkop’s Black Label, Beyerskloof’s Diesel, Hamilton Russell’s Ashbourne, Chateau Naude’s Vin de Francois) in an attempt to signify iconic status. All are excellent but they are wines that, I think have been more cellared than drunk.


Since 1997 The Pinotage Club has been working to raise the profile of the variety and no-one would be happier than me to see Pinotage becoming South Africa’s iconic wine* and when a former sceptic like Christian Eedes starts talking about Pinotage being it, that day is coming closer.


*Though a a drawback for people who actually enjoy drinking wine as opposed to speculating with it is that iconic prices take ones favourite wines out of the everyday drinking budget.

In the Press

Irit Boxer-Shank is the youngest winemaker in Israel and one of only five women employed in Barkan Winery’s cellar. Dale Robertson , who interviewed her for the Houston Chronicle says, “at the moment, she's most passionate about Pinotage, a grape she believes has a superb future in the Israeli terroir.”



New Zealand’s Wanguini Chronicle says Kidnapper Cliffs Hawke's Bay Pinotage 2009, is “produced by the talented team at Te Awa, who have a long pedigree when it comes to making great Pinotage, this is a gorgeous, buxom red showing layers of sweet black tea, baking spices, plum and pepper. It has a delicious, warm, earthy character in the mouth and sensational persistence of flavour.”



Anthony Rose in The Independent (UK) includes Diemersfontein’s Pinotage in a list of wines he dislikes, saying its “its oak-derived flavours of coffee and chocolate” are “an aberration,” but he noted its great popularity. The recent appearance of Marks & Spencer’s Coffee Pinotage Mochatage and Tesco’s mocha-flavoured Choccochino Shiraz which are “as distasteful as the Diemersfontein Pinotage I so dislike. But I have no doubt that to those who like the taste of chocolate in their wine, they will be extremely popular.”

He say that this “goes to show that however objective we try to be about taste, beauty in the long run is in the eye – and nose – of the beholder.”


However Koos Kombuis at South Africa’s Mail & Guardian has made Pinotage the focus of his diet. The columnist writes “during the last few weeks, after eating mostly fat-free food and heaps of vegetables, aided by lots of Beyerskloof Pinotage wine (which, according to the manufacturers, contains a substance that actually enlarges blood vessels), my cholestrol count has miraculously dropped from 7,5 to 6,4, and I’ve lost an astonishing two-and-a-half kilogrammes”.



.

Old Pinotage in Cape Town

My chums at The Wine Cellar in Cape Town have just held a tasting of old wines sourced from a private collector. Among them were threee Pinotages:

- Zonnebloem Pinotage 1974
- Simonsig Pinotage 1974
- Lanzarac Pinotage 1966

I couldn't be there (coz, amongst other reasons, I was in Tampa, Florida) but fellow bloggers The Cru Master and Harry Reginald Haddon were. The Cru at thecru.co.za has an attractive sepia photo of the tasting cellar and says Special mention must be made of the aged Pinotage's - sensational stuff but Harry at wineandi.wordpress.com has detailed tasting notes.

Interesting reading.


While you are at Wine & I have a look at the menu tabs at the top. Harry is campaigning against the practise of restaurants charging fees to list wines and he's going further by naming (allegedly) guilty parties.

5 Stars for Beyerskloof Diesel 2008

The annual announcement of wines awarded Five Stars by the Platter tasting team has just been made.

Out of more than 6,000 wines from 800 producers and brands tasted and rated for the Platter's South African Wines 2011 guide, just 58 have achieved 5 Star rating.

The only Pinotage is Beyerskloof 'Diesel' 2008.

Diesel is a premium label, named after owner Beyers Truter's dearly loved dog, that was introduced in 2008 with the 2006 vintage.

Diesel 2007 was awarded Five Stars in last year's 2010 guide. See winemaker Anrie Truter talk about the vision behind the wine and how it got its name here

The full list is

Cabernet Sauvignon
•Boekenhoutskloof 2008
•Delaire Graff Reserve 2008
•Kanonkop 2007
•Klein Constantia 2008
•Kleine Zalze Family Reserve 2007
•Le Riche CWG Auction Reserve 2007

Grenache
•Neil Ellis Vineyard Selections 2008

Pinot Noir
•Meerlust 2008
•Newton Johnson Domaine 2009

Pinotage
•Beyerskloof Diesel 2008

Shiraz
•Boschendal Cecil John Reserve 2008
•De Trafford 2008 (Red Wine of the Year)
•Eagles’ Nest 2008
•Haskell Pillars 2008
•Rijk’s Private Cellar 2005
•Saxenburg Select Limited Release 2006

Merlot
•Shannon Mount Bullet 2008

Red Blends
•Ernie Els Signature 2007
•Graham Beck Ad Honorem 2007
•Hartenberg The Mackenzie Cabernet Sauvignon-Merlot 2007
•Nederburg Ingenuity Red 2007
•Reyneke Reserve Red 2008
•Spier Frans K. Smit 2006
•Vergelegen Red 2005

Chardonnay
•Groot Constantia Gouverneurs 2009
•Julien Schaal 2009
•Mulderbosch 2008
•Rustenberg Five Soldiers 2008

Chenin Blanc
•Botanica 2009
•StellenRust ‘45’ Barrel Fermented 2009

Grenache Blanc
•The Foundry 2009

Sauvignon Blanc
•Graham Beck Pheasants’ Run 2010
•Klein Constantia Perdeblokke 2009
•Kleine Zalze Family Reserve 2009
•The Berrio 2009
•Zevenwacht 360° 2009

White Blends
•Cape Point Isliedh 2009
•Hermanuspietersfontein Die Bartho 2009
•Lammershoek Roulette Blanc 2009
•Nederburg Ingenuity White 2009
•Nederburg Sauvignon Blanc-Chardonnay Private Bin D253 2009
•Rall White 2009
•Sadie Family Palladius 2009
•Steenberg Magna Carta 2009
•Steenberg CWG Auction Reserve The Magus 2009
•Strandveld Adamastor 2009
•Tokara Director’s Reserve White 2009

Méthode Cap Classique
•Topiary Blanc de Blancs Brut 2008
•Villiera Monro Brut 2005

Dessert Wine, Unfortified
•Fairview La Beryl Blanc 2009
•Fleur du Cap Bergkelder Selection Noble Late Harvest 2009 (White Wine of the Year)
•Klein Constantia Vin de Constance 2006
•Nederburg Winemaster’s Reserve Noble Late Harvest 2009
•Nederburg Private Bin Edelkeur 2009

Port
•Boplaas Cape Vintage Reserve 2008
•De Krans Cape Vintage Reserve 2008
•De Krans Cape Tawny NV
•JP Bredell Cape Vintage Reserve 2007

Video - Alex Milner- Boer and Brit Pinotage and Petit Verdot

Alex Milner is the Brit half (with Stefan Gerber) of an exciting -- and very attractively designed -- winemaking team with a new label Boer and Brit.

I enjoyed his Pinotage which is blended with 15% Petite Verdot. This wine is under their second label Suiker Boisse which means “Sugarbush, I want you so”. (I'm not so keen about that design though.)

The wine is tremendous, and so are their other reds. I got the feeling that Alex (who reminds me a bit of the new Dr Who) isn't that keen on Pinotage but I hope his success with this one will encourage him to make it a regular.

I think we'll be hearing a lot more from Boer & Brit. They're young, have some good ideas -- the red wine in a crown cap beer bottle and modern designed sparkling wine bottle are just two -- and make some good wines.

Video - Mike Ratcliffe of Warwick Estate - Pinotage in China

Mike Ratcliffe talks about Warwick's Old Vine Pinotage in China, how it matches with spicy Chinese food and the benefits of chilling.

Mike is MD of Warwick Estate

Video- Norma Ratcliffe of Warwick Estate

It was good to renew acquaintence with Norma Ratcliffe owner of, and first winemaker at, Warwick Estate.

MD son Mike usually travels the world on his own promoting Warwick but Norma joined him on this trip. They had just returned from a couple of weeks in China where they got involved in matching Chinese cuisine with Warwick wines. Norma said the Chinese were very enthusiastic about the wine with Pinotage especially successful matching dishes.

Here Norma talks about Warwick's Three Cape Ladies 2007 Cape Blend comprising 35% Cabernet Sauvignon, 34% Pinotage, 27% Shiraz, 4% Merlot

Video - Zakkie Bester of Riebeek Cellars

Zakkie is spending more and more time on the road spreading the word about Riebeek Cellars. I have been drinking his wines for many years and their quality wines are excellent for a bargain price.

I tasted two delicious Chenin Blanc, one wooded , one not. I preferred the unwooded 2010 which has a lively racy acidity while the wooded version, Reserve 2009 was creamier with more body.

The rose Pinotage 2010 was clean fresh and refreshing but I prefer my Pinotage to be red and was taken with the Riebeek 2009 Pinotage.

I asked Zakkie to say a few words about this wine and talk about the 2009 and 2010 vintages.

Pinotage is "an easy sell" in the USA

An interesting response by Ezanne Gouws, Ernst & Co marketing manager, to Neil Pendock's question about marketing SAf wine in the USA

I get the "what makes your wine industry unique?" question a lot, and Pinotage is right up there with boerewors, Nelson Mandela and World Cup Rugby champions. That's why Argentinian malbec does so well in America, because it is an Argentinian calling card. My American customers know South Africa produces a wide variety of quality wines, but so do many other countries. But what makes us unique is Pinotage.

I actually start off by offering my customers a chance to taste a good red wine without telling them what it is. After I have identified it for them and told them the Pinotage stories, it's an easy sell. It's not brain surgery, but it works every time.

Read the full article in in SAf's Sunday Times here

Virginia Cape Blend

At a wine fair in Renton, Virginia, last week I met Susan Prokop and Jim Turpin (pictured) who own Democracy Vineyards in Lovingston. They started in April 2009 with the aim of having 12 acres of their farm planted to vines.

So far they haven’t planted Pinotage but Jim told me they were thinking of doing so in their upper field vineyard. In the meantime, while waiting for their vines to mature, they are buying grapes.

For Democracy Vineyards ‘Forum’ 2009, which is a 50/50 blend of Pinotage and Cabernet Franc, they sourced Pinotage from nearby Lovingston Winery. Riaan Rossouw, who is winemaker at Lovingston, crafted this wine for them.

“We wanted to make a lighter styled wine,” said Susan. I found the wine to very easy drinking, being soft and very fruity with ripe cherry tones, and good value at $10. The Cab Franc, which has not seen any oak, makes a good partner.

Jim’s background in politics inspired the venture’s name and his large collection of historic campaign material is destined to decorate their tasting room.

Welbedacht's Wellington Win

Welbedacht’s confidence in their Wellington terroir was confirmed when their very first Estate labelled wine -- 2008 Welbedacht Estate Pinotage – won in the 2010 Top 10 Pinotage competition. Owner Schalk Burger said

“it is our first wine under our new Estate label, launched this month, that has achieved an accolade and all kudos go to our wonderful terroir and our cellar master Jacques Wentzel.”

Grapes for the 2008 Welbedacht Estate Pinotage were hand selected from a 21 year old Bush Vine block growing on decomposed granite soils.

Marketing and Sales Manager Tiaan Burger said

“these grapes were specially selected and hand harvested with plenty of hands-on devotion during the vinification process. The Estate boasts some impressively senescent soils and this is prevalent in the intensity and multi-faceted character the 2008 Pinotage.

What makes this wine ever so more special is the divine coincidence that the fruit was harvested on Valentine’s Day, 14 February 2008. We can truly lay claim to the fact that it was made with love!!”