My Wine of The Month for April is Beyerskloof Kriekbult Pinotage 2020.
Taking its name from the farm the vineyard is planted on, it comes from their 27 year old bush vines. I had this with lunch at the winery in March and bought a bottle to have with dinner the following week. Then I went back to buy two more bottles to bring home, and I opened the first this month, shared with a fellow Pinotage fan.
It is exceptional. Lots of blackberry fruits, tannins discreetly in the background, it's easy to drink and so rewarding. My new favourite of all Beyerskloof's portfolio. And that's saying something!
The Pinotage Food and Wine Festival this year on 13 May 2023 is a celebration of the 2023 harvest. Tickets are now available from Quicket.co.za - https://qkt.io/QsV6Og
The festival will be held at Markötter Sports Grounds, in the heart of the Stellenbosch wine region. Festival goers can expect to sample a wide range of Pinotage wines from some of the most recognised South African wine estates. In addition to the wine tastings, there will be live entertainment, delicious food, and a private tasting with some well-known, award winning wine personalities.
"The Pinotage Festival is truly a celebration of South African wine and culture," says deputy chairman of the Pinotage Association, De Wet Viljoen. "It's a chance for people to discover the unique and exciting flavours of Pinotage wine, while enjoying the beautiful surroundings and vibrant atmosphere of the festival."
Wines will be poured by L'Avenir Wine Estate, Springfontein Wine Estate, Spijker & Bessie Wyne, Stellenbosch Hills, Amperbo, Windmeul Kelder, Middelvlei Wines, Clos Malverne, Beyerskloof Wines, Bon Courage Wine Estate, Marianne Wine Estate, De Waal Wines, Koelenhof Winery, Simonsig, DuToitskloof Cellar, Overhex, Painted Wolf and more.
Live performances by - Francois Haasbroek, David Derman, Johnny Camel and Die Broers.
Accommodation partner is Protea Hotel by Marriott Stellenbosch, contact them for the Pinotage Festival special rate, 021 880 9500or email grmanager@phstellenbosch.com
The Pinotage Food and Wine Festival is a collaboration between Pinotage Association and Klub1000.
For more information: Sonia Haasbroek shaasbroek@paulroos.co.za or Belinda Jacobs brand@pinotage.co.za
My Wine of the Month for February 2023 is KWV Cathedral Cellar Pinotage 2019.
It's a very drinkable clean bright fruity wine with a bit more seriousness about it than the basic KWV. It's savoury with berry fruits, and could be kept - but why when it's so good now?
Cathedral Cellar is the huge KWV cellar in Paarl lined with large 12,000 litre barrels with carved ends. At the end of the cellar are tinted windows. A visiting poet said the cellar was a cathedral of wine.
The new KWV doesn't seem to set a foot wrong, and I have enjoyed their basic Pinotage. This is about double that price, and about half that of the premium Mentors brand.
Note how a reader might assume Dr. Perold was working for KWV when he produced Pinotage,
I like the label produced especially for the centenary of the Cathedral Cellar.
Bruce Jack tells how an overheard conversation about a red variety called Bobal inspired him to make prizewinning Pinotage
He was in the Spanish wine region of Utiel-Requena in Valencia home of Bobal.
He writes:
'Ed Adams (my partner in our Spanish project, La Báscula) had just ordered some lamb cutlets cooked over the open flame (the house speciality), when his ears pricked up at the word ‘Bobal’. A table of winemakers next to us were engaged in a passionate discussion and Ed translated what they were saying for me:
“Bobal is a cat,” sneered one. “It will only be friendly on its own terms.”
“It can be magnificent or your Achilles heel – there is no safe middle ground,” concurred another.
Then a much older, weather-etched man with a tweed cap spoke and everyone listened.
“Bobal is like our mountains. In ancient times, one had to master the mountains to get to the coast. But then came the railways, the flood-proof bridges and the tunnels. So now we go around and through the mountains. This has opened up the country and brought wealth from Valencia. No one uses the old mountain roads and in some places they are now lost to the forests.”
I wasn’t sure Ed was translating correctly. There didn’t seem to be a point to his soliloquy and I couldn’t decipher what the relevance to Bobal winemaking was. I noticed some of the younger winemakers looked at each other quizzically while the old man took a sip of wine and chewed on a polished almond.
Eventually, he said, “No one is forcing us to conquer the mountains anymore, so our relationship with them has changed and our knowledge of the ways of the mountain has been lost. But we still marvel at them and respect them and of course they are part of us. We must just be prepared to rediscover the mountains for the sake of the mountains. Instead of having to conquer them to get to the coast, we must rediscover the old roads and ways of the mountain only because they are special to us.”
I am not sure what effect this cryptic speech had on those winemakers and their personal struggles with Bobal, but for me a light suddenly came on. For the first time I saw Pinotage, not as a debilitating battle, but as an adventure – an opportunity to rediscovery my own South African viticultural identity. I decided to discard everything I had been told about Pinotage and just walk up into the forest and discover this majestic winemaking mountain at my own pace, and purely for the delight of doing so.
From making some of the most embarrassing examples of Pinotage, in a single vintage, I started making award-winning wines. What astounded me was the immediacy of the transformation. It wasn’t an army I had needed to meet Pinotage with, it was a flag of truce.'
And Flag of Truce is the name of Bruce's new single vineyard Pinotage. Its grapes come from from the same vineyard on the Silkbush farm in Breedekloof from which Bruce sourced grapes for Writers Block when he owned Flagstone Wines.
My Wine of the Month for December 2022 is L’Avenir Estate Single Block 02 Pinotage 2015.
It is a registered Single Vineyard Estate Wine of Origin Stellenbosch, and Block 02 is pictured in gold on the label on an image taken from a satellite photo. The block was planted by the then viticulturist and winemaker François Naudé in 1985 as bush vines, but subsequently changed to low trellising. This wine was made by Dirk Coetzee.
Although almost eight years old, it seems still youthful, full of power. But there's grace too. Tannins have melted to the far background allowing sweet fruit to take centre stage. It's a big wine, and much as I enjoyed it I was wondering what it'd be like with another couple of years. Ah well, that was my last bottle.
My Wine of The Month for November is Sutter Ridge 1996.
When I visited this winery in Amador County long ago it was growing 25 acres of Pinotage, the largest in the USA. I brought this bottle home but kept it too long.
But no, this 26-year-old wine was delicious. Showing the brownness of age, of course, but plenty of sweet fruit. No tannin, and surprisingly little sediment. A beautiful delicate wine.
The winery was pressurised by another winery with a similar name to change its name, but it now appears to have closed.
Very sad news from Ontario. Pat Del-Gatto winemaker/owner of Del-Gatto Estates passed away on 15 Sept 2022 from complications following a stem cell transplant.
His widow, Heidi, tells me
We had wonderful 2020 and 2021 Pinotage vintages - both quickly sold out.
He was able to finish his 2021 vintages (as I always helped him with the work) and our kids completed all the bottling spring 2022 while he was in hospital.
See the report of my meeting with Pat when I visited Del-Gatto Estates by clicking here.
My Wine of The Month for October is De Grendel Amandelboord Pinotage 2019 (Estate Wine of Origin Durbanville).
This is a most enjoyable new style Pinotage. Its dark red with bright clear ed highlights where it catches the light. Surprisingly the label states it's 15% abv because it doesn't show the alcohol.
Subdued tannins, no leather tones, but fruit of the forest on the palate and finished all too soon.
“It was never the grape’s fault,” Beyerskloof winemaker Anri Truter says of the historical perception of Pinotage in the UK.
This is the first sentence in Drinks Retailer, a UK off- trade magazine, on Pinotage titled Can South African Pinotage make a comeback? – an analysis by Lucy Britner.
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."
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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