My Wine of The Month for September is 2020 False Bay Pinotage The Last of the First Schapenberg Single Vineyard(W.O. Stellenbosch)
This was light bodied with a pale colour, maybe trying to channel its Pinot parentage - or perhaps Cinsaut.
We were split on this, one of liked it but not me… I found it had the same strange taste that I got in other False Bay Pinotages, a combination of dustiness and violets.
The back label implies this is made from the last block of the first commercial plantings of Pinotage, which would make the world's oldest Pinotage. But it ain't so; I reckon this is a new vineyard.
My Wine of the Month for July 2022 is 2017 Laibach Pinotage
Every time, and there weren’t many, that I’ve had Laibach before it’s been bought in the Cape because most of the output exported from this fine organic estate goes to Germany, where the owner comes from.
But this year Mr Laibach sold the winery in April and retired to Germany. Near neighbours Kanonkop Estate are the new owners and they immediately renamed the place Ladybird Vineyards, so this may be the last Laibach labelled wine I’ll have.
I was excited when I found this wine in a nearby independent wine shop. This bottle was a solid traditional style Pinotage although I thought it was lacking the excitement I remember from previous vintages.
It will be interesting to see what comes under new ownership. Farewell Laibach.
In June 2018 the first commercial Pinotage vineyard was planted in England, see here.
Now the first Pinotage wine has been produced from those vines, and Michelle Cheyne visited the vineyard to taste it, read her article - The First UK Pinotage.
My Wine of The Month for May is 2007 Fort Ross Pinotage Fort Ross Vineyard (California, Sonoma Coast)
The cork split and my Butlers’ Friend didn’t help, some of the cork had fixed itself to the glass; the rest of the cork fell into the wine. I poured it through a small mesh strainer which collected most of the cork so only tiny grains were on the wine in a decanter.
I’d bought this estate wine from the winery in December 2012; the owners Lester and Linda Schwartz said they didn’t release their wine until it was aged and was ready to drink, but I decided to keep it for a couple more years. Then I forgot about it. So was I too late?
No doubt it would have been good drinking a few year ago, but - boy - this was enjoyable. It had the tremendous sweetness of Pinotage berries and a smooth seriousness of aged wine. We drained the decanter.
(Since we were there, the small Fort Ross-Seaview AVA has been created which Fort Ross winery is now in. The Schwartz's were instrumental in getting the AVA registered.)
My Wine of The Month for April is Durbanville Hills Pinotage 2018 The Promenade Collectors Reserve.
The wine was closed with a DIAM, printed to match the label. The wine was deep ruby red with flowers of the forest on the nose. In the mouth it had a tangy violet richness, with cedarwood on the finish. A delightful wine.
The front label bore a witty picture by artist Theo Paul Vorster
Irritatingly the winery website has only factsheet for their latest vintage, and not the one currently on sale here.
My Wine of The Month for March is Abraham and the Heretics Pinotage 2018. I first came across this wine in 2015 at a tasting, but this year I was able to buy it from owner run wine ship Dylanwad in Dolgellau, Wales. It was the only Pinotage they had.
Abraham and the Hereticsis created by Richard Kelley MW (above) for importer Dreyfus Ashby and made by Villiera Winery. 2013 was its first vintage. Richard Kelley is known for his Liberator range.
It felt light but was full bodied, lush and smooth with bright berry flavours and just a sight hint of coffee. Very enjoyable and just 13.5% abv.
Richard told me in 2015 “Abraham and the Heretics is something of a tongue-in-cheek challenge to Pinotage non-believers to accept the variety into their vinous lives”
I've enjoyed several Pinotage this month that were candidates for Wine of the Month, most notably a stunning Spier 21 Gables 2016, but a three nights before the end of the month I was in the midst of moving wine to its new location and decided it was time to open a 1990 Kanonkop rather than store it away again as the maturation chart on the back label showed it reaching its peak in 2002.
Thus my Wine of the Month for February is - Kanonkop Estate Pinotage 1990 (Stellenbosch).
The cork was spongy and a chunk of it dropped off the bottom and fell into the wine which was gorgeous. Yes, it was aged and the big fruit flavours had gone but it offered delicate fruits and gentle Pinotage sweetness. Usually Mrs M doesn’t go for aged wines and I was prepared to open a more recent wine, but she loved this. And so did I.
And while drinking it I was thinking that 32 years ago its grapes were probably fermenting in Kanonkop's Kuipes.
Note: It’s W.O. Stellenbosch only because it was made before the Simonsberg-Stellenbosch ward - which the estate vineyards are in - hadn’t been created at that time.
Matthew Nugent in The Irish Sun says "I’m a wine expert and these are the top ten wines to treat yourself and a loved one to this Valentine’s Day. Now something light, pink, and possibly sparkling, are the go-to wines to pop on February 14"
The second wine listed is Delheim's Pinotage Rosé about which Matthew Nugent says:
"This pale, salmon pink Rosé has long been a house favourite. Red fruit notes dominate on the nose while the lively palate has excellent acidity and an explosion of red berries in the mouth."
My Wine of the Month for January is - Robertson Winery ‘Longbeach’ Pinotage 2020. I assume Longbeach is the importers own on-trade label, and I’ve only seen it at Dylan’s Restaurant in Criccieth, Wales.
We’ve been drinking it for as many years as Dylan’s has been open, but now it’s come off the list leaving them with no Pinotage - or any South African red - at all. Luckily they had a few unsold bottles out the back which our charming waitress tipped us off about. They now have fewer.
I’m guessing this is Robertson Winery’s basic Pinotage which I’ve had in the Cape. On bitterly cold days by Criccieth beach the warm generosity of this unpretentious wine is most welcome. Light bodied, with cherry and plum flavours it is a great match for food.
My Wine of the Month
for December – and indeed my Wine of the Year for 2021 is Beyerskloof Pinotage
2019.
This is their entry
level Pinotage with a white label, and for the past few vintages it has been
bulk-shipped and bottled in England. This keeps down costs, but I’d prefer to
have the wine bottled at the winery and keep bottling and associated jobs in
the Cape.
It’s a wine to drink,
not to overthink. A wine to grab when we get a takeaway from an Indian restaurant,
make a curry, or need to grab the nearest wine from the kitchen’s ready rack.
I’ve opened 34 bottles
of the 2019 vintage and my elder son has consumed many more. He and his partner
became a big fan of Beyerskloof after visiting the winery at the beginning of
2020.
And now, after many
years and vintages the wine we buy whenever stock runs low has vanished. We
didn’t realise how much we’d miss it.
We’re hoping that it
is a blip in the supply chain and that the 2020 vintage will soon be on
shelves. But at the moment we cannot get any Beyerskloof Pinotage. I’ve got one
bottle left, the son has none.
My Wine of the Month for November is De Waal Pinotage 2018. DeWaal have the world's oldest Pinotage vineyard from which they bottle 'The Top of the Hill'. This is their entry level Pinotage. Although I bring home a couple of bottles Top of the Hill rom my trips to the Cape I don't drink much De Waal otherwise solely because I don't see it for sale.
So I was pleasantly surprised to see this bottle on a small section of wines in a garden centre near Edinburgh during a recent Scottish holiday, and I took it to have on a holiday to Devon.
Sealed with a sensible screwcap, so there were no worries about a faulty cork. The maturation chart on the back label showed it had reach its optimum drinking window. I think it would last well and develop for a further five years, but I've learned that it is better to drink wines too young than too old.
This was just right. A bit of maturity but perky in its youth, deeply coloured and full fruited with damsons and mulberries to the fore. Long finish, very satisfying.
De Waal's website says this wine, which comes from 30 year old vines, had three months aging in older barrels and a further 14 months in bottle.
Matthew Jukes writing in MoneyWeek says of Beeslaar Pinotage 2018
Beeslaar has nothing but pristine, gloriously appointed, velvety fruit – it is shaped like a super Tuscan, built like a Cape(d) crusader and I know everyone who feels like me about this tricky grape will go nuts about this wine. Well done, Abrie – you are a veritable magician.
He also likes 2020 Radford Dale, Vinum Pinotage.
I agree with him that Abrie Beeslaar makes excellent Pinotage under his own label (and for Kanonkop).
But I wonder how much weight should be given to reviews of Pinotage by those who don't like - and thus rarely drink - the variety. When they find a well made example they think it is an exception, rather than today's norm.
Wine writer and Daily Telegraph wine columnist Victoria Moore has seen the light. In her article titled "Why you need to try Pinotage, South Africa's signature grape" she write
this grape can make universally appealing red wines too, gentle but with a streak of wildness and hints of sweet tobacco, soft leather, cranberry, raspberry, rose petals and rooibos tea.
My initial realisation that I didn’t just tolerate but actively liked pinotage came after encountering it in blends. One of my favourite supermarket reds is Kanonkop Kadette Cape Blend, from Stellenbosch. The current 2019 vintage is 44 per cent Pinotage plus 25 per cent cabernet sauvignon, 29 per cent merlot and 2 per cent cabernet franc.
In other words, a Cape take on a Bordeaux blend and sure enough this is a red I’d recommend to claret drinkers, especially those who relish the soft tobacco style of a St Julien. And you can be sure it isn’t so good despite the Pinotage; it’s so good, and has a beautiful texture, because of it.
My Wine of the Month for October is 2010 Meerendal Estate Pinotage Single Vineyard 'The Heritage Block'(WO Durbanville).
I opened this 11 year old wine for International Pinotage Day 2021 on Saturday 9 October.
This was browning and offered soft sweet succulent, albeit aged, fruit. Tannins had softened to invisibility. I loved this wine.
Some wine was saved to sip during a two hour Zoom ‘Celebration of Pinotage’ organised by Gerhard Perold of Perold Wine Cellar. Gerhard is the great-grandson of Pinotage’s creator, A I Perold.
Meerendal Estate were one of the first to plant Pinotage, but their first and second vineyards, planted in 1953 and 1954 are no more, and this comes from their 6 ha 1955 vineyard - the first in South Africa to be registered as a Single Vineyard.
I visited Meerendal in 2018 to see the vineyard; my report is here.
If you are in South Africa and have 995 Rand to spare there's an interesting online tasting on 25 November of the 2021 Pinotage Top 10 winners, organised by The Institute of Cape Wine Masters.
For your money you get delivered a 125ml sample of each of the ten wines to drink along with the tasting, plus some snacks to go with them. But there's a 60 participant limit.
Tomorrow, Saturday 9 October is International Pinotage Day. I'll be opening a Pinotage - but that's not unusual. However at 7pm I'll also be logging on to Pinotage - Time to Wine Down, a two hour online webcast organised by A I Perold's Great-Grandson, Gerhard Perold.
The webcast promises that "Gerhard Perold and Andy Copps (from My London Voice) will be there to entertain and relay some of the amazing stories around Pinotage that is now grown in various countries.
Michelle from the Content College team will be making sure the boys behave and that everyone is having fun while relaying your comments and questions from the chat.
Nadia Rae will be mesmerising us all with her gorgeous voice.
We will also have the stories of some prominent winemakers in the Pinotage story shared:
That the first varietal Pinotage was released under the Lanzerac label 6o years ago in 1961 is well known. The fairly recent Lanzerac Estate has been taking credit for it, that is not true as shown in this article by Joanna Gibson.
However, just announced is that Bellevue Estate, who made that first Pinotage, and the modern Lanzerac Estate are producing a wine to celebrate the original bottling.
Bellvue are supplying grapes from the original 1953 vineyard to Lanzerac to vinify. The wine is available from both wineries' tasting rooms.
And they have an informative new website telling the history of Pinotage and that first wine - https://storyofpinotage.co.za/
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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