Congratulations to the winners of this years Pinotage Top 10 Competition, listed in alphabetical order. The 20 finalists were posted here.
It is the 9th time in the Top 10 for Kanonkop and the 6th time for both Beyerskloof and Rijks and by my reckoning, with 5 wins while at Kanonkop and 6 wins at Beyerskloof it means it is winemaker Beyers Truter' 10th time in the Top 10, the most wins by any winemaker!!
Veteran winemaker and accomplished Pinotage producer Neil Ellis takes us through his 2009 Vineyard Selection Pinotage, msourced from a single vineyard in the Jonkershoek Valley.
Paul Kemp, owner of Loma Prieta Winery in California, joined me for dinner earlier this month as he paused in London on his journey home from South Africa to San Francisco.
Paul has become enthused with Pinotage and believes he is now the largest Pinotage producer in the America’s, having bought in all the grapes he could find to add to his own increasing plantings.
While he was in the Cape the Pinotage Association had arranged a series of tastings during which he visited winemakers at Simonsig, Beyerskloof and Kanonkop Estate. He told me he was blown away with the breadth and quality of the wines he tasted. He had not been able to find many South African Pinotages back home.
He had shipped a case of his own Pinotages to the Cape for tasting and had saved two bottles for me.
We started with a sparkler I was certain Paul wouldn’t have previously encountered, the Ridgeview Estate Merret-Cavendish 2006 methode traditionelle, an excellent English estate sparkler.
Paul suggested we opened his 2008 Loma Prieta Pinotage and keep the 2009 for later. He wanted the wine decanted, but I poured the wine to see how it developed in the glass.
At first it reminded me of an Italian wine because of its acidity which made it ideal for food pairing. After about 15 minutes the wine softened and became more voluptuous with juicy berry flavours and after about 40 minutes it was showing underlying coffee flavours. The evolution was most interesting. I am not sure I would have identified this wine as Pinotage in a blind tasting although the later coffee aromas were a hint. It was an excellent wine rich in berry fruits and rewarding drinking.
Paul says that he can sell all he makes of his Pinotage and has customers who pre-book cases. In the USA many wineries operate ‘wine-clubs’ where subscribers receive regular shipments of wine and Paul has started a Pinotage only club which already has a thousand members committed to buying his Pinotage. That’s one of the reasons Paul is fast planting more Pinotage, a variety he thinks has a bright future in California.
We also opened Te Awa 2006 Pinotage from Hawkes Bay and L’Avenir Estate 2003, made by Francois Naude whom Paul had met in the Cape. Te Awa was most delightful, lean like a greyhound and L’Avenir was at its peak of elegant maturity.
I have since heard that Loma Prieta 2009 Pinotage won a double gold and best of class in the Indy International Wine Competition. Paul says "I am bottling next week so I will have both the second bottling of the 2009 and the new 2010. I think that the 2009 that will be bottled will be better than my 2009 that now has won 3 golds
and 1 double gold."
The final 10 will be selected from these 20, the names are in alphabetical order. The list was released a month early apparently because it had been widely leaked.
Interesting to see the inexpensive 'lifestyle' Meerkat in the final, and three from Spier, plus a number of familiar names.
Pinotage will be poured during the three days of the New Forest & Hampshire County Show 26 - 28 July, 2011, held at the New Forest Show Ground near Brockenhurst.
UK importers Cape Wine Cellars in association with The Pinotage Association will be showing 11 wines – one rose, four ‘coffee’ style, three ‘easy drinking’ and three barrel matured Pinotages.
Cape Wine Cellars are also selling Pinotage taster case of the wines from their website at www.capewinecellars.co.uk at £99 with free deliver, a saving of £21.
The wines at the show will be
Beyerskloof Pinotage Rosé 2011 LIGHT AND FRUITY Beyerskloof Pinotage 2010 Hill & Dale Pinotage 2009 Neethlingshof Pinotage 2007 COFFEE AND MOCHA Ashton Kelder Pinotage 2011 Alvi’s Drift Pinotage 2010 Diemersfontein Coffee Pinotage 2010 Doolhof Dark Lady Pinotage 2010 CLASSIC AND ELEGANT Hidden Valley Pinotage 2009 Knorhoek Pinotage 2008 Tukulu Pinotage 2008
Cape Wine Cellars and The Pinotage Association are promoting a Proudly Pinotage campaign in the UK supported by the website www.proudlypinotage.co.za which has a competition for South African wine and book hampers
Judging for the 2011 Top 10 Competition has been taking place this week. Neil Pendock is judging again and he blogs "In several years judging the ABSA competition, these 2009 wines are the best I’ve ever tasted."
He was less impressed with the previous days wines from 2006, 7, 8, 10 and 11 vintages.
The judges are photographed in what looks like an attic and there is no sign of the sophisticated desktop scoring computers introduced some years ago when I last judged.
I don't have much 2009 myself except for a case of the Fairview 2009 that was a Top 10 winner last year which I ordered from the winery.
Gary Vaynerchuck likes Pinotage. In his latest video tasting he opens 2009 Diemersdal Pinotage and 2007 Chamonix Greywacke Pinotage, rating them 88+ and 89+ points.
Some interesting comments and individualistic tasting descriptors!
Escapades is another label new to me. A partnership from Greece have bought a small farm in the Bottelary Hills and constructed a winery to make 70,000 bottles of four premium Estate grown varietal wines.
I met Stelios Samaras at the London International Wine Fair who told me that the Escapade winery had been set up by winemakers Evangelos Gerovassiliou and Vassilis Tsaktsarlis with marketeer Takis Soldatos, whose Mare Magnum company makes wine in Italy and six other countries.
Escapades has a striking bottle with its gold bands and this is the first Pinotage that I know that has been made by a Greek winemaker
Maceration and fermentation was in stainless steel tanks for 10 days at a relatively low temperature ranging from 20-25°C. After malolactic fermentation the wine was matured for 12 months in 100% new French Allier oak barrels before bottling and undergoing bottle aging.
The 2008 Escapades Pinotage is good example of the variety with some lush ripe fruits and it is pleasant drinking but I thought the pricing – not finalised but they expect it to retail northwards of £25 - to be rather ambitious for the first vintage from a new label.
In today's Telegraph Victoria Moore picks it as one of her top summer wines.
Kanonkop Kadette 2009
There’s no mistaking the origin of this bold red: it’s a big, smoky South African blend of pinotage, cabernet sauvignon, merlot and cabernet franc, aged in old French oak. Beautifully structured, with notes of roasted coffee beans and leather. It would be brilliant with blackened barbecue meat – spare ribs and steaks.
Vino Con Brio winery in Lodi is closing on 5 June and the property has been sold on the retirement of the owners, Mike and Renae Matson.
Vino Con Brio has the largest Pinotage plantings in America. They make their own Pinotage, which I have tasted and its a good clean fruit forward modern wine, and they sell grapes to a number of other wineries who want to make Pinotage.
This follows the sudden sale in March of New Zealand’s Muddy Water winery to neighbouring Waipara producer, Greystone. Muddy Water made one of my favourite NZ Pinotages, a powerful ‘no prisoners’ taken statement wine. Winemaker Belinda Gould, Muddy Hill’s winemaker of eleven years lost her job.
New Zealand journalist Sue Courtney called the Muddy Water 2009 Pinotage “voluptuous” and that it was a wine that “totally seduces the senses in every way - a wine that lovers of full-bodied reds will find hard to resist.” Sue is doubtful that Greystone will continue with making Pinotage.
Sad news when two top non-South African Pinotage wineries close in few months of each other.
Carte Blanche, the new James Bond novel written by Jeffrey Deaver, has James Bond choosing Warwick’s ‘Three Cape Ladies’ Cape Blend to accompanyhis seduction of Felicity Willing.
“ ...vintage Three Cape Ladies, a red blend from Muldersvlei in the Cape. Bond knew its reputation. He took out the cork and poured. They sat on the sofa and sipped. “Wonderful” he said.”
Three Cape Ladies is a delicious Cape Blend of Cabernet Sauvignon, Pinotage, Merlot and Shiraz.
Some interesting comments about Pinotage from Neal Martin who was one of the international judges at this year’s Old Mutual Trophy Wine Show. Neal Martin is a Bordeaux expert and one of Robert Parker’s team. This was his first visit to South Africa.
When asked about Pinotage Neal said
“South Africans love Pinotage like English love fish and chips and we know that fish and chips is never going to be the top sashimi in Japan but we still love it and we’re still proud of it and we’ll always keep eating it.
Just like Pinotage maybe it’s never going to be a Chateau Latour, but certainly there is a definite improvement which is good to see and it’s just a case of tackling the stigma that surrounds Pinotage and that is a case of going to the producer who aren’t making good Pinotage, giving them a slap on the wrist and telling them to sort it out.”
and
“I have to say when we had the ’61 Pinotage it completely blew me away. It was as exciting as any extremely expensive wine I’ve had because it completely changed my perception and opened my mind.
The month before I’d tasted half a dozen ’61 Bordeaux and it was just as enjoyable, if not more so than those. We had a half bottle of ’59 Zonnebloem.
One of the things that was interesting was that a couple of people said where did we lose our way. If we can make that in ’61 why are we getting such bad press now, which I thought was really interesting.
The winemakers were asking themselves how does that Pinotage age for 50 years and still taste so fresh. It was delicious.”
Results of the competition will be published on 1 June 2011
Koopmanskloof is a winery new to me. Anriënka (call me Anna) Vlok told me it is in the Bottellary Hills where the soil type is a shale known as Koffieklip which proved to be a convenient name for their new coffee toned Pinotage.
Anna shows us a piece of Koffieklip as she tells us about the Koopmanskloof Koffeeklip 2010 Pinotage .
I thought the coffee tones were very muted in this tank sample and I wouldn't have identified this as a 'coffee style' Pinotage if it wasn't for the name. It's a pleasant modern berry fruited wine with - yes - maybe some coffee lurking in the background, but this is a sample and it will be interesting to taste the finished wine.
The bottle in the film has a temporary label but the actual - rather attractive - label is shown below.
I noticed a new wine with an oak coloured label on Rijk's stand at this year’s London International Wine Fair: Rijk’s Touch of Oak Pinotage.
Winemaker Pierre Wahl was happy to tell us about this addition to Rijks range of Pinotage wines.
If found the wine pleasantly fruit forward with the oak well hidden and was surprised when Pierre said it had spent 14 months in oak, but old barrels. That’s how oak should be, supportive but not overt.
I think Touch of Oak Pinotage is a wine made for enjoying now but the standard Rijk’s Pinotage ages well. Checking my records I find I have been drinking Rijk’s 4 – 6 years after vintage and they have been perfect -- but I’ve none left now.
Pierre calls his Pinotage the Pope of wines, because it converts all who taste it :)
Hit of this years London International Wine Fair, which ended yesterday, was the new Wines of South Africa (WoSA) stand. In a major break from previous years wines were available in a welcoming self-serve format. Instead of individual winery stands each with a pourer behind the counter, visitors were invited to ‘help themselves’ from a large number of themed circular pods.
Playing on WoSA’s long running slogan Variety is in our Nature was a stand invoking a sideshow tent at a travelling circus. Colourful pods had headings including Cheerful Chenins, Wonderful Wellington, Splendid Swartland and Stars of Tomorrow. At the stand’s corners were towers of clean glasses topped by bottles of mineral water with an invitation to ‘help yourself’. Bottles on pods nestled in individual holders and underneath each were containers of business card with wine and contact details. I headed to the Popular Pinotage pod where I tasted the wines in turn. The first that made an impression was from Aaldering a name I had not previously encountered. It was a Stellenbosch WO from the 2007 vintage – the oldest wine on the stand -- and its red colour was getting a brownish tinge. There were mulberry fruits and a creamy almond nuttiness on the palate with a spicy finish. By chance I met Janine Smink who is the Global Marketing & Sales Manager for the brand and she introduced me to owner Fons Aaldering, a Dutch business man who in 2004 bought the Devon Valley property previously owned by Hidden Valley winery.
Janine said that the Pinotage vines for their 2007 Pinotage were 15 years old and that Aaldering keep back their wines until they are mature before they are released. Currently sales are mostly to restaurants in Netherlands and they are looking for distribution in England and elsewhere.
Don't like Pinotage? Wonder what I'm on about. Well, have you ever tasted Pinotage? Or if so, when did you last actually taste one without any preconceived notions in your mind? Because if you have preconceived notions you are living in the past? It's 2011, not 1967."
Read the rest of Sue's report on her always interesting Wine of the Week blog here.
Seems every month a new coffee ’n’ chocolate Pinotage is added to the pack. When supermarkets get their own label version then you know it is entering the mainstream.
Mochatage is Marks & Spencer’s take on the category and the front label leaves no room for doubt about its taste and how that is achieved.
And it’s pretty good, not overpowering although distinctly coffee-ish, but there’s also some silky ripe berry fruit flavours underneath. I could face a second glass of this and I think it’ll please shoppers pining for the loss of Diemersfontein’s original from Waitrose’s shelves.
The wine is made by Thys Loubser at KWV: is it their Café Culture under a different label? Anyway, £6.99 at M&S in a screwcap.
The Bernard Series is named after Bellingham’s original winemaker Bernard Podlashuk who was one of the innovating pioneers of South African wine.
Dense purple colour, looking much younger than its 2005 vintage, In the mouth this is a ripe voluptuous black cherry flavoured wine, yet restrained like a Ruben’s beauty in an Agent Provocateur basque, full of promise but keeping some back.
Afterwards I read on the back label that the wine has been aged in oak barrels for 18 months and yet the wooding is not apparent – except maybe as that corset and from the sediment the wine is already throwing.
This is a beautiful clean modern wine, mouthfilling and rewarding and thoroughly recommended. From bush vines growing in Darling.
The website is www.bellinghamwines.com but it doesn't appear to have been updated since this time last year.
In UK this wine is available from Majestic at £14.99, currently reduced to a more reasonable £11.99. And while there, try a bottle of the excellent Bernard Series Old Vine Chenin Blanc.
Peter F May is the founder of The Pinotage Club, an international cyber-based fan club for wines made from the Pinotage variety.
Peter was awarded Honorary Membership of the producers Pinotage Association in 2004 and was a judge at the annual Pinotage Top 10 Competition in 2004 and 2005.
Peter is a wine writer, educator and author. His book PINOTAGE: Behind the Legends of South Africa's Own Wine may ordered below and from Amazon.
Marilyn Merlot and the Naked Grape - odd wines from around the world was published in summer 2006.
Peter answers all polite emails - contact him at peter (at) pinotage (dot) org .
A I Perold's
A Treatise
on Viticulture
A I Perold (1880-1941) was South Africa's first Professor of Viticulture and Oenology. He dedicated himself to improving the quality of grapes for wine, brandy and the table. He studied wine and brandy production in Europe, imported more than 60 varieties to the Cape and bred new ones. Perold said this book “is intended to serve both the student and the practical grape-grower. There are in it technical passages that will appeal more to the student, e.g. the chapters dealing with the biology of the vine, its external and internal morphology, the theory of grafting. My remarks on the practice of viticulture, such as those dealing with the propagation, manuring and pruning of the vine, the production of table grapes for export, will, it is hoped, assist the practical grape-grower as well as the student.” This is a newly typeset reprint, not a photocopy. Text on the 712 pages have been aligned to match the original pagination so any external references to pages in the Treatise will be valid in this edition
Available in paperback and hardback editions. 712 pages
A Year in Paarl
with
A I Perold
Dr Perolds report on his Paarl experiments 1915 - 1916 reprinted with glossary, introduction and brief biography. Fascinating historical document on viticulture for wine and table grapes, wine and brandy making.
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