5 Platter Stars for Beyerskloof's Diesel

Earlier than usual the Platter team have announced the wines awarded five stars in the forthcoming 2010 Platter Guide, due for publication end of November.

Beyerskloof's Diesel Pinotage 2007 is the sole varietal representative in the list.

The Platter Guide annually tastes and rates more than 6,000 South African awarding from zero to a maximum of 5 stars. Very few wines achieve the highest score which indicates a wine the tasters agreed was 'superlative, a Cape classic'.

For the 2010 Guide there just 43 five-star wines, which includes 7 fortified and dessert wines.

Congratulations to Beyers Truter (pictured right) and his team at Beyerskloof. The first vintage of this barrel selection wine, named after Beyers' recently deceased and much missed dog, the 2006 vintage was a Pinotage Top 10 winner last year.

The full list of five star wines:

White Wine of the Year

Sadie Family Palladius 2008
Red Wine of the Year

Le Riche Cabernet Sauvignon Reserve 2005
Sauvignon blanc

Fleur du Cap Sauvignon Blanc Unfiltered 2009

Lomond Pincushion Sauvignon Blanc 2009

Tokara Elgin Sauvignon Blanc 2008

Woolworths Cape Point Vineyards Sauvignon Blanc Limited Release 2009

Cape Point Vineyards CWG Auction Reserve Barrel Fermented Sauvignon Blanc 2008
White blends - Bordeaux style

Woolworths Steenberg Sauvignon Blanc-Semillon Reserve 2009

Cape Point Vineyards Isliedh 2008

The Berrio Wines The Weathergirl 2008

Vergelegen White 2008
Chenin blanc

Beaumont Hope Marguerite Chenin Blanc 2008
White blends

Nederburg Ingenuity White 2008

Rall 2008

Sadie Family Palladius 2008

Woolworths Tulbagh Mountain Vineyards Spectrum White Limited Release 2008
Chardonnay

Ataraxia Chardonnay 2008

Chamonix Chardonnay Reserve 2008

Paul Cluver Chardonnay 2008
Pinot noir

Newton Johnson Domaine Pinot Noir 2008

Catherine Marshall Pinot Noir 2008
Grenache

Neil Ellis Vineyard Selection Grenache 2007
Pinotage

Beyerskloof Diesel Pinotage 2007
Red blends

Sadie Family Columella 2007

Spier Frans K. Smit 2005
Shiraz

Dunstone Shiraz 2008

Haskell Vineyards Pillars Shiraz 2007

Rustenberg Stellenbosch Syrah 2007

Saxenburg Shiraz Select Limited Release 2005
Red blends - Bordeaux style

De Trafford CWG Auction Reserve Perspective 2006

Kanonkop Paul Sauer 2006

Morgenster Estate Morgenster 2006

Stony Brook Ghost Gum 2006

Woolworths Jordan Cobblers Hill Classic 2005
Cabernet Sauvignon

Boekenhoutskloof Cabernet Sauvignon 2007

Le Riche Cabernet Sauvignon Reserve 2005
Port

Boplaas Vintage Reserve Port 2007

De Krans Cape Tawny Port NV

Boplaas Family Vineyards Cape Tawny Port 1997
Unfortified dessert wine

Buitenverwachting 1769 2007

Fleur du Cap Noble Late Harvest 2008

Nederburg Winemaster's Reserve Noble Late Harvest 2008

Mullineux Family Straw Wine 2008

Congrats to all..

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Called to the Bar for Bertus's Latest Coffee Pinotage

Bertus Fourie is the winemaker who achieved fame, and some say notoriety, for launching the coffee’n’chocolate Pinotage style upon the world while he was working at Diemersfontein. Some purists object that it is not varietally correct, but there is no doubting that Diemersfontein’s Pinotage is hugely successful and has introduced many people to the delights of Pinotage.

Bertus, by now nicknamed Starbucks, moved on to KWV for whom he created their mocha toned Café Culture Pinotage.

Bertus told me “I love to make ‘coffee Pinotage’- it is such a consumer friendly wine and I have met thousands of people as a result “

One of the people he met was Martin Venter, developer of Val de Vie Lifestyle Polo Estate, who offered Bertus the position of managing director at associated Val de Vie Wines in 2004.

Val de Vie specialises in Rhône style wines, so when Bertus and Martin got the itch to create their own coffee Pinotage a new label was called for, and Barista is its name.

Barista Coffee Pinotage 2009 will be released soon, marketed by Vinimark in South Africa, and I hope to taste it soon and report back.

24 October is POT Day

POT -- Pinotage on Tap -- takes place on 24 October this year. The popular annual festival celebrates the release of the new vintage of Diemersfontein’s famous coffee’n’chocolate Pinotage.

They’ll be music from aKING, Haydn Gardner's Swing Band and Lonesome Dave Ferguson. Food includes Pinotage friendly canapés, an XX-large chocolate fountain and strawberries, snack-pack goodie bags and ‘some frolicsome Pinotage games’ are promised.

And, of course, barrels and barrels tapped and pouring 2009 Diemersfontein Pinotage.

Price stays the same as last year – see for full details and to book.


(The date this year is a month later than last year: if only they’d put it back an extra week I could have attended, grrrr!)

DeWaal Top of the Hill 2006

Has it really been that long? Last Top of the Hill I tasted was the 2004 vintage when I visited the winery in 2007. Then I found the 2004 an “older style Pinotage, with firm firm dry tannins, less approachable fruit, and crisp acidity.”

This 2006 is a different beast being very approachable and well balanced with tannins well restrained on opening and an ideal wine with enough body to match food. The wine opens up in the glass showing ripe cherry flavours. The Top of The Hill is made for aging, and I think I’ll put away my remaining bottle to see how it develops, as the few dregs of this bottle were showing intriguing spices and plums when I emptied them the following day.

A well deserved Top 10 winner in 2008.


I must admit though my total puzzlement at the labelling. The front label does not mention the grape variety. The rear label has a vague all purpose waffle about “the diversity of soil and vineyard sites on this Stellenbosch Kloof Estate enable judicious partnering of classic varietals with ideal terroir.”

What relevance does the diversity of vineyard sites on the farm have to with this specific wine? It is a single vineyard wine from a named vineyard which happens to be on the top of a hill, not in a ravine as kloof implies. Not only that, but the historic Top of the Hill vineyard is planted with the world’s oldest Pinotage vines. I’d have thought that was worthy of mention.

2009 is a good vintage at Wildekrans

Wildekran's winemaker, William Wilkinson, reports that

2009 is been a very good vintage. Our yields are up from the previous vintage and our red wines show clean fruit flavour with excellent soft tannins. Pinotage and Shiraz would be classed as our premium red cultivars.

Our Pinotage Barrel Selection could be described as a multilayered complex full-bodied wine which was matured in first fill French American 225 litre barriques. Being a rather cool climate area our Pinotage lean more to fresher style that brings out strawberry, raspberry, cherry aromas well balanced with integrated bouquet of vanilla butterscotch and cherry tobacco. Ageing potential of about 10 years and recently rewarded with 2009 Silver Decanter Medal.

I'm looking forward to tasting it :)


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Anura 2007 Pinotage

Anura is not a winery I’m familiar with.

They bottled their first wine in 2001 and in 2008 won Pinotage Top 10 with this, their 2007 vintage. I opened my first bottle of Anura last night and heartily concur with the Top 10 judges. This is a very good wine.

Packaging is not quite there. The bottle is a classy heavy one and the front label is good, but the rear label has a blurb printed in tiny dull gold against black that is difficult to read and is confusing. Resorting to the Anura’s informative website all becomes clear. Anura means frog, which explains the image on the front, and is taken from the name of a hill on their farm. We used to find frogs in our garden when we had a small pond but that is now filled in and planted with courgettes and beans that get eaten by unseen predators the moment they emerge from their flowers. However a benefit is that we no longer find mutilated frogs after mowing our lawn.

I was expecting a DIAM technical cork at the end of my waiters’ friend but found a smoothed natural cork which was stained with wine along its length and top. So I was concerned for a while about the seal.

The first sip was rewarding with an intriguing spiciness which became less apparent as time progressed. The wine was smooth as an ivory boat with silk sails on a mill pond and twice as enjoyable. This was not one of your exuberant braai Pinotages with big flavours that leap out the glass but a quietly elegant one you could take to a Michelin starred restaurant knowing it wouldn’t embarrass. That’s not to say there wasn’t any fruit: layers of flavour yielded plums and raspberry restrained by tannins that were there if you were paying attention, but again they didn’t shout about it. This is one of those wines where you pour another glass while saying “I can’t believe how good this is – oh, we’ve finished it.”

Although some of Anura wines are available from Anura's fullfilment partner in Europe, the 2007 Pinotage isn't one of them, and I can't find any stockists in Europe or the USA, but Grapeland in England list the 2005 vintage Pinotage.


Anura Pinotage 2007
WO Paarl
14.5% abv (actually 14.63%)
60 ZAR

Muddy Water and Rijks in Cork

That's correct. There's a cork in Rijk's Pinotage but Rijks and Muddy Water are also in Cork: the fine city of Cork, Ireland, at Curious Wines.

Curious Wines were so impressed with one of New Zealand's best Pinotages, the magnificent 2006 Muddy Water, that they have gone to the trouble of importing it themselves.

They say that the Rijk's and Muddy Water 2006 are the very best Pinotages they have ever tasted, and that Rijk's is "proof that South Africa is capable of truly world class wines."

With wines like these, "Pinotage may some day be as popular as Merlot."

Visit http://www.curiouswines.ie/ to order.

Wine Spectator - "If you like Pinot but have never experienced a Pinotage, you owe it to yourself to try one"

Wine Spectator's James Laube recently blind tasted a flight of 2007 Sonoma Pinot Noirs and found one

"that stood out, and that I really liked. It was dark in color, notably spicy and peppery, with pretty floral scents and ripe, vivid black and wild berry fruit. Tight in structure, dense and concentrated, even a tad rustic, ending with a complex array of fruit, herb and anise, with firm tannins.

My first reaction: Is this a Syrah? Had I missed the change in varietals in the lineup? Did we shift from Pinot to Rhône reds? The wine certainly fit the critique some people have of some California Pinots--that is, they’re too big and almost Syrah-like in their structure, strength and flavor profile.

When the bags came off, the wine made sense. It was a 2007 Pinotage ($38) from J Vineyards and Winery. I liked the new J Pinots, too, but the Pinotage caught my fancy that day, and later that night as I tried it after it had had eight hours of aeration. It was still going strong the next day.

It’s a wonderful wine. If you like Pinot but have never experienced a Pinotage, you owe it to yourself to try one and taste the crossroad of Pinot and Cinsault, or the point where red Burgundy meets the Southern Rhône."

Read the full review at http://jvineyards.blogspot.com/2009/07/james-laube-of-wine-spectator-on-j.html



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Pinotage Judges Struggle

Judges at the 2009 ABSA Top 10 Pinotage Competition found it particularly difficult to select just 10 winning wines from the 139 entries.

Allan Cheesman, former Director of Wine for Sainsbury's supermarkets in the UK and now a consultant to several wine businesses, said "I have been tasting wine for 37 years and this was a great experience, with all the superb wines, breathtaking Cape winelands and the sincerity of the Pinotage people. More than ten years ago Pinotage was like shepherd's pie, every granny made it differently. Today the Pinotage red wine from South Africa is a benchmark in the global world of wine as a top quality international variety. Pinotage and Chenin blanc are South Africa's icon red and white wines, you own them. It was almost impossible to select the top ten wines and I also would have had a tough time ranking the top thirty."

South African wine writer Neil Pendock said "it was a very hard task to select the top ten. More than 100 of the 139 wines which we tasted are of top quality, hardly any of those wines were disappointing. At least thirty wines deserve to be winners. The 2007 vintage produced most of the great wines."

Duimpie Bayly, Cape Wine Master and convener of the panel agreed. "The wines showed elegance and beautiful fruit, while sensible wood treatment created a fine balance of flavours. There were very few bad wines and the 2007 vintage stood out with wines of supreme quality. The competition was very strong and even choosing the top thirty wines would not have been easy."In the first two days all the entries were tasted and on the last day the final 28 wines, followed by the final 20 wines and out of those the 2009 Absa Top 10 Pinotage Competition winners were chosen. Each of the twenty finalist wines will be tested for micro-biological activity by an accredited laboratory to ensure it has a long shelve life with natural Pinotage characteristics.

The results will be announced on 27 August at the Val de Vie Wine and Polo Estate near Paarl.

The judges of the 2009 Absa Top 10 Pinotage Competition, pictured above are, from left: Duimpie Bayly, Francois Naudé, Allan Cheesman, Neil Pendock, Wendy Burridge, Chris Roux and Gert Boerssen.

Coffee & Chocolate Comes to California

A frequent query from America asks where to purchase Diemersfontein’s cult ‘coffee’n’chocolate’ Pinotage and up to now the reply was that it wasn’t available in the USA.

But now it is.

Cape Ardor in San Francisco, California, now stocks the original Diemersfontein Pinotage 2008.

Owner Eric Matkovich tells me “we can ship direct, and have been already, to about 33 states. This unique style of Pinotage is a perfect accompaniment to salmon, roast venison and even chocolate mouse, and seems to be a wonderful introduction for Americans to the world of Pinotage.”

Cape Ardor also lists other Diemersfontein wines, including their premium Pinotage, Carpe Diem 2006.

For more information contact Cape Ardor; details at http://www.cape-ardor.com/

Excellence Award for Stone Boat 2007 Pinotage

Stoneboat Vineyards 2007 Pinotage was a winner in this years Lieutenant Governor’s Awards for Excellence in British Columbia Wines.

The annual award winning wines are chosen by an expert panel who taste the wines blind and are tasked with choosing no more than 12 winners. 2009 saw 248 entries and a record maximum 12 awards were made.

The official web-site hasn't yet been updated with this years results and I am indebted to wine writer John Schreiner, who was one of the judges, for posting on his blog.

For more about Stoneboat see here.


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Easy drinking Golden Kaan Pinotage 2006

Golden Kaan is a brand that has not yet reached the UK so I was pleased to be able to taste this bottle given to me at the London Wine fair. The question I forgot to ask is what ‘Kaan’ means. Google says it is Hindi for ‘ear’ and I suppose the map of Africa looks a little like an ear, but why a wine intended for the German market should use a Hindi name is beyond me.

Golden Kaan was set up five years ago as a partnership between the German Racke company and Paarl based wine giant KWV. The range, with its distinctive label design, was immediately successful in its target market and then expanded into the USA where it soon became a top seller in California -- as reported here.

This wine comes from the excellent 2006 vintage and was a hit with my dining partner who loved it for being ‘smooth and fruity with subdued tannins’. I found it a clean fresh modern style wine quite light bodied and fruit forward which slipped down very easily, though it didn't show overly much Pinotage characteristics.

Sealed with a plastic closure, presumably because of lack of US market acceptance of screwcaps.

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138 Entries for 2009 Pinotage Top 10

138 wines have been entered into this years Top 10 Pinotage Competition; that's two fewer than last years record entry.

But there are a record 14 brands entering the competition for the first time. And three of them are from the north island of New Zealand!

There are 74 wines from the 2007 vintage, 30 from 2008 and 25 from 2006. The two oldest wines are from 2004 and the youngest (very) is a 2009 vintage.

Judging of the competition will take place from Wednesday 15 to Friday 17 July 2009 which is a three months earlier than previous years.

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Virginia's SA Wine & Food Festival at Grayhaven Winery

Grayhaven Winery will be holding their fourth annual South African Wine and Food Festival this weekend over three days Friday 11 thru Sunday 13 July.

As well as pouring their own estate grown Pinotage, they'll have a selection of South African wines including Wildekrans 2007 Pinotage which was chosen as wine of the week in the current issue of Richmond Times-Despatch.

Grayhaven Winery is in central Virginia midway between Richmond and Charlottesville.

Visit the special Festival web-site for full details - http://www.southafricanfoodfest.com/

The Pinotage Club visited Grayhaven in September 2008 -- see our report and videos here

Cheap Pinotage is Getting Better

My long held belief that cheap anonymous Pinotage should be avoided is under review. Sure there is inexpensive good Pinotage made by experts like Andries Blake at Swartland Winery and Zakkie Bester at Riebeek Cellars but in my tours of the web I sometimes encounter lousy reviews of the Pinotage variety based on one $5 bottle of wine bearing a shipper’s brand name that doesn’t appear in Platter or have any information about where it was made. If the maker doesn't want to be identified then I don't have much faith in the brand.

Last week in Exeter at the Taj Mahal Indian Restaurant I saw Rouwkes Drift Pinotage listed at £9.95. That is a pleasantly low price for restaurant. But was the wine drinkable?

Indeed, it was an enjoyable, clean, fresh modern fruit driven wine with pleasant red cherry flavours.

The wine was came from Malt House Vintners, which is the wine range exclusive to Booker , a a wholesaler supplying restaurants and independent stores and they suggest a retail price of £5.29 per bottle.

But I couldn’t discover who actually made the wine. The identification number A938 is owned by Constellation, the world’s largest wine company. Constellation’s South Africa wine brands include Kumala and Fishhoek, brands which also featured on Bookers list.

As the best Pinotage’s are getting more expensive, its good to find that the cheapest ones are getting better. Well done Malt House Vintners and especially the Taj Mahal.

But I’d still like to know the wine’s identity….

Rouwkes Drift Pinotage 1997
WO Western Cape

Tasting the 2009 Vintage Pinotage

The Pinotage Association gathered on Thursday, 18 June, for an early vintage tasting in the Doornbosch Agricultural Hall, Stellenbosch. Nikki Lordan of WINE.CO.ZA reports:

It was with insightful reports on changing climate conditions, the 2009 harvest and why this one is supposed to be the "big one", that we sat down at the annual Pinotage vintage tasting in Stellenbosch. The fact remains - the weather is still acting strange, but Pinotage seems to love it. "The good, cold winter allowed the vines to rest properly, while the dry weather and rainfall in December, kept the foliage fresh and provided sufficient water and flavour development during the berry forming phase, which resulted in smaller berries," said Leon Dippenaar, Breedekloof viticulturist.

The first four of the thirteen pino's were placed in front of us. Blindtasting, I might add - for the extra touch of objectivity and surely to make some sparks fly between winemakers all cradling their vintages like newborn puppies. As all senses involve a wine tasting of the highest standard, the Pinotage Association made sure all five were involved. With Steve Hofmeyr and Jakkie Louw ensuring our auditory senses were alert and all is South African, we could finally set off to write down our praises (and criticisms) of the chosen wines in a well-laidout booklet.

Thirteen tank and barrel samples formed the basis of this year's Pinotage tasting. Comments that flew across the room, as each table had a chance to give a summarised opinion, were mostly that the wines were confectionary, with strong aromas of fruit conserve, dried banana and sweet mocha. "All of these wines are commercial, easy drinking wines. As winemakers we're being a little shy on our tannins and structure. Pinotage is a thick skin grape and has the potential to become more than a New World style wine," commented Anthony Hamilton Russell.

According to De Wet Viljoen, presenter for the event and chairman of the Pinotage Association's organising committee, the annual tasting serves as a barometer for the rest of the year, as well as an indicator of how the wines are going to show when bottled.

All in all, everyone seem excited about the 2009 vintage Pinotage as different climate conditions seems to be the make or break of this wine.




Thanks to Nikki Lordan and WINE.CO.ZA

Pictured are Leon Dippenaar, De Wet Viljoen (front), Ilse van Dijk and Francois Bezuidenhout (rear)

Emile Joubert at Wine Goggle has another view of the tasting - here

Video: Gerda Willers and Allee Bleue Natural Sweet Pinotage

At the London Wine Fair I tasted a sample of scrumptious new sweet dessert Pinotage from Allee Bleue in Franschhoek.

I asked winemaker Gerda Willers to tell us how she created this nectar and what it will cost to buy when it is released.

Video: Ses'fikile Pinotage

Nondumiso Pikashe, one of the owners of Ses'fikile Wines, talks about their Rain Song Pinotage.

Ses'fikile, which means 'we have arrived', is a 100% female Black Economic Empowerment owned company. The other two owners are Jacky Mayo and Nomvuyo Xaliphi. The wines are made in co-operation with Flagstone winery, and pretty darned good.

In the UK Ses'fikile wines are exclusively listed by Marks & Spencer, though not, as yet, the Pinotage.

Win a Case of Hill and Dale Pinotage

If you are in South Africa* you have a chance of winning a case** of Hill and Dale Pinotage in a competition held by food24.com

All you have to do is submit a recipe for a stew that will complement the wine. Closing date is end of the month. Full details of the competition are here

Hill and Dale is a second label for Stellenzicht and is made by the same winemaker, the talented Guy Webber.

*the rules actually say the competition is open to all South Africans, it doesn't specify their location.

**the rules don't state whether a case means 12 bottles.

Pinotage in the Blogs....

Andrew Barrow of Spittoon has posted a report of his recent visit to Beyerskloof. He says

While age worthy it is the younger Pinotage single varietals that impressed during the cellar tasting. With ripe, sweetish upfront fruit, good structure and length they have structure and drinkability with the Beyerskloof Reserve Pinotage being singularly impressive.

He also enjoyed the Pinotage Burger! See his report here

Peas on Toast doesn't seem to have heard of the worldwide airport ban on liquids in hand baggage and had two bottles of Diemersfontein Pinotage confiscated, an act that

was nothing short of the most sacrilegous sacrilege on the planet.

Her friends in Istanbul will be disappointed but at least the airport security team had something decent to drink with their dinner.

Diemersfontain Pinotage was the secret ingredient that helped the Cherryflava team in South Africa win first place in their annual potjiekos competition.

We made our famous lamb and mushroom pot, laced with a bottle of DiemersfontainPinotage and fresh organic ingredients.

Mike Rosenberg at Naked Vine released his inner Shatner trying the Golden Kaan range. He paired the Pinotage 2006 and Shiraz 2007 with a spiced lamb dish and found that

the Pinotage was much more interesting. I thought it stood up to the spices in the marinade and the sauce, and the flavors in the wine itself stood out.

And Yoav Shapira was pleasantly surprised by Souther Right's 2007 Pinotage The 2007.

I expected it to be more blunt, since it's so young. But it was very smooth.
Almost too smooth.

"Comprehensive, excellent and fascinating book"

Richard Auffrey is a journalist who writes a restaurant and wine column for the Stoneham Sun newspaper in Massachusetts.

He bought a copy of my book via Amazon.com and posted a detailed review in his Passionate Foodie blog.

He says :-

"This is a very comprehensive book, covering so many different aspects of Pinotage, from its origins to its future. I learned plenty about this grape, much of the information probably not available elsewhere.

Peter also helps to clarify the facts behind the myths surrounding Pinotage. I enjoyed the stories about Pinotage wine makers and wineries.

Overall, I was very pleased with this book and certainly recommend it.

Peter May has written an excellent and fascinating book about an intriguing grape and I recommend you check it out."

Read his full review here

Pieter Malan on Simonsig Redhill -- and a response!

Pieter Malan is one of the three brothers who own Simonsig. Francois toils in the vineyards, Johan works in the winery so I see Pieter most often as he is responsible for marketing and so travels the world living out of suitcases to attend wine fairs. Here he is last month at the London wine fair talking about Simonsig's Redhill Pinotage 2006.

Redhill is from a single vineyard and is aged in oak barrels. Simonsig's other Pinotage is one of a few unwooded examples.
Alex Lake, below, tasted the Redhill 2006 at the Pinotage Top 10 stand that I was manning; this is his reaction to the wine.




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Idiom Cape Blend with owner Alberto Bottega

Idiom 2006 was clear winner of WINE Magazines June issue tasting of Pinotage blends. It was the top scoring wine, the only one with four stars. WINE described it as ‘Pitch black. Appealing oak on nose. Subtle and restrained on the palate with dark fruit.”


Idiom owner Alberto Bottega talks to me about his Cabernet Sauvignon, Pinotage, Merlot, Petit Verdot blend.

Karikari Pinotage 2007 is Wine of the Week

Sue Courtney has chosen the 2007 Karikari Estate Pinotage as her wine of the week. - see here

After tasting through all Karikari's Pinotages from their first 2003 vintage release she said

"It's an evolution that leads up to the blockbuster Karikari Estate Northland Pinotage 2007. Deep black red coloured with a violet sheen, it's savoury and spicy on the nose with chicory / mocha / chocolate and smoked meats in unison - fresh - voluptuous - tantalising. Youthful and primary to the taste with lots of underlying acidity - tannins are amazingly supple and svelte and have a fine texture while the flavours has a meaty savoury depth and bittersweet red fruits - but it's juicy and full of sweet berry and cherry too.... tasty, sweet-fruited and a little spicy - momentarily Aus Shiraz comes to mind - but it's too savoury and gamey to ever be that. Don't like Pinotage - then try this. It's simply excellent."

I too highly rate Karikari. I tasted a tank sample of this wine in December 2008 as reported here, and my video of winemaker Ben Dugdale talking about his Pinotage is here

Kanonkop & Beyerskloof makePremium Pinotages

The best Pinotages are going to get less good in order for the cream of the crop to be bottled separately as 'super-cuvees' at super-expensive prices.

Currently Kanonkop Pinotage costs around 18 pounds in the UK or 170 R from the winery, Beyerskloof’s top Pinotage is their black label Reserve at 8 – 11 pounds in the UK or around 100 R at the winery.

But they won’t be the best wines for much longer. Kanonkop and Beyerskloof both intend bringing out premium ‘super-cuvees’. I guess they’ve been spurred on by seeing newcomers like Ashbourne (24 pounds), Laroche’s L’Avenir Grand Vin (a stonking 27 pounds) and Francois Naudé’s own label (400 R) come on the market.

But if you’re already making the best Pinotage how do you encourage the punters to pay more? Seems like barrel selection is the answer. Identify a special barrel and – instead of using it to improve the rest – bottle it separately and price it accordingly.

Beyerskloof got two wines into the 2008 Pinotage Top 10; the Reserve and a new label called Diesel. Diesel, named after owner Beyers Truter’s recently deceased favourite hound, was a barrel selection. It was placed in a standard bottle and the normal black ‘Reserve’ label was tweaked with Diesel replacing the word Reserve.

Diesel will be the name of Beyeskloof’s new flagship Pinotage. It will have a new label and a heavily impressive new bottle. And will cost as much as three times the price of the Reserve, according to June’s issue of The Drinks Business. Retailing it at around 30 pounds brings it into line with L’Avenir Grand Vin.

But what about the Reserve? What about the standard Kanonkop? I reported back in April 2007 Kanonkop owner Johann Krige’s reaction to a question about whether they’ll be a ‘Reserve’ Kanonkop. Johann stepped in to answer vehemently that there never will be. “Kanonkop wines are the best we make,” he stated. “We only make the best. We don’t make second best wines.” But the experimental wines they have made at Kanonkop from 50 year old plus vines are “mind-boggling” according to Johann.

So does releasing a limited bottling of a special barrel selection automatically mean the standard label is not the best? It’s a moot question which they are tussling with at Kanonkop, as Johann admits in the video below taken at last months London wine fair. He wants to expose the wine to imbibers – maybe these wines will not be sold but poured at tastings



I’m torn. Pinotage is a great wine, so you would expect there to be premium priced bottles and people willing to pay the money. Problem is that I’m not one of them. Much as I like to drink the very best Pinotages, thirty quid a bottle is a bit too much for my pension. And I’m not sure how I feel about the concept of wines whose prices are yanked sky high even although they cost no more to make just in order to have a prestige premium priced wine.

As always the market will decide.

Canada's Hillside Estate impresses

Adrian Bryksa was impressed by Hillside Estate's first Pinotage release which he reviewed for Canada's R4NT.ca, and rated it 90 points:

"I think Canadian red wines sometimes have a tendency to be a bit on the thin side but this Pinotage was an exception. On the nose, there was notes of fruit, earth, tobacco, and game. I could be nuts but there was some teriyaki beef jerky. In the mouth, this wine displayed cherries and cocoa with a full mouth feel with seamlessly, integrated tannins. The finish on this wine was long and memorable. This wine is in my top 10 Canadian wines."

Hillside Estate Pinotage
Vintage: 2007
Region: Naramata Bench, British Columbia, Canada
Price: $34.95

Read Adrian's full article here



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Video: DeWet Viljoen tells the secrets of Lord Neethling 2005 Pinotage

As we are talking about Neethlingshof Estate, let's hear what winemaker DeWet Viljoen has to say about his 'Lord Neethling' 2005 Pinotage of which he is very proud. DeWet talks about what he did differently for this excellent vintage.

As you can see, I tasted the wine and it was just like DeWet described it. Delicious. Now, where can I buy it?


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Good Lord! The critters are coming!!!

What is your thinking on what the American’s call ‘critter’ wines? Critter wines are those with animals on the label. There was a flood of them in a decade ago including the hippo on Fat Bastard, the kangaroo on Yellow Tail and the goat on Goats do Roam. These three wines were justifiably very successful and inspired tanker loads of ‘me too’ critter labelled wines but few of them reached the quality of FB or GdR and critter labels became, in many consumer’s opinions, a sign of a cheap mass-branded wine.

Which is why I was amazed to hear that one of South Africa’s top wines, which has a name that others would kill for, is considering losing its name and adopting a critter label…


Yes, it is Neethlingshof who are intending abandoning their premium Lord Neethling brand for critters. Pictured is a mock-up of the replacement for the Lord Neethling Pinotage label. Many wineries encourage birds of prey to their vineyards. The Owl Post on the Pinotage label refers to those erected to encourage owls into the vineyards. Another label in the range that I saw showed a rare wild cat in mid-air leap plucking a bird out of the sky. Not the owl, I think.

I suppose the thinking went something along the lines of ‘it was ‘time for a change’ (the never ending cry of new brand managers who want to make their mark), the success of other ‘critter’ labels (although they’re not so fashionable now and are considered downmarket) and a chance to leap on the sustainability wagon (while possibly upsetting bird and furry animal lovers). And maybe the argument that a ‘Lord’ was elitist and old fashioned.

But…..

I am no marketing expert, but … If you have a premium wine doesn’t the ‘Lord’ name make it clear that this is the top win ein the range? Does Owl Post immediately identify a top wine?

Is ‘Lord’ old-fashioned? Surely the great thing about this name is that it is ironic! Neethling was nicknamed ‘lord’ because of his airs and graces. What a great back story! I think the existing label is fine, but if they want to ‘get down wiv d’ yoof’ how about cartoon illustrations of ‘Lord’ Neethling in different situations with a back label giving the story behind it.

Looking at CellarTracker.com, which indexes more than 13 Million bottles, I see acres of owls including Barking Owl, Burrowing Owl, Thirsty Owl, Owl Hill, Night Owl, Hoot Owl, Naked Owl, Owl Ridge, Owl Creek, Winking Owl, Barn Owl, Mr Owl, Owl Box, and Winking Owl.

But Lords? Just four: Lord Rutherford , Lord Culpeper Lord Botetourt and Lord Baltimore.

I’ll make two predictions. Firstly, no matter whatever label is slapped on the bottle the wine inside will be continue to be excellent. Winemaker DeWet Viljoen doesn’t get the acclamation he deserves but he’s making some cracking good wines under the venerable ‘N’ label.

Secondly, Lord Neethling will return. It is too good a name to disappear under a menagerie

Note how even the Neethlingshof Estate name is being down played. Sigh ....



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M'Hudi Pinotage, Oupa and M&S

Oupa Rangaka of M'Hudi was in ebullient mood at last months London Wine Fair but when he said that every loved his Pinotage I just had to ask him about Marks & Spencer ...

Oupa hadn't seen the BBC TV programme about him that was aired in the UK in March (see here) which made suspense of a visit of Marks & Spencer's wine buyers and whether they'd add M'Hudi Pinotage to the other two M'Hudi wines that they stock.

Assisting Oupa is Sheila Hlanjwa of Lathithá Wines who had the stand next to Oupa.

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PINOTAGE:Behind the Legends of South Africa's Own Wine

Announcing the first book about Pinotage!!

Pinotage is South Africa’s very own wine, but there has never been a book about it until the Pinotage Club's Peter F May from England decided to tell its story.

2009 is the 50th anniversary of the world’s first Pinotage wine and in PINOTAGE: Behind the Legends of South Africa’s Own Wine author Peter F May tells the story of this uniquely South African grape variety, its creator, Professor Abraham Perold and the people who grow and make Pinotage.

During researches in South Africa Peter F May was told information that differed from the standard definition of Pinotage in text books. Turning detective, May investigated various legends about Pinotage's parentage and origins.

“I felt like Sherlock Holmes,” he says, “as winemakers told me things in confidence that contradicted everything I'd read about Pinotage.”

Peter F May travelled to four continents to interview winemakers and winery owners for the book which details how Pinotage is grown, made and marketed. As well as covering growing, making and marketing Pinotage in South Africa, he provides a comprehensive review of Pinotage in other countries.

ABOUT THE BOOK

PINOTAGE: Behind the Legends of South Africa’s Own Wine tells of Peter F May's infatuation with the Pinotage variety and follows his investigations into its origins. After exhaustive investigations into various legends about the variety he identifies when and how it was created and first planted and he discovers the oldest living Pinotage vineyard.

The book contains a history of winemaking in South Africa and a biography of Pinotage's creator, Professor Abraham Izak Perold.

May investigates various legends about the variety including ones that say it has Shiraz or an American rootstock vine in it parentage and the reasons for Pinotage’s creation.

In the second part of the book May discusses growing, making and marketing Pinotage wines with case studies of several classic South African vineyards and wineries.

Various styles of Pinotage are discussed, the Cape Blend controversy is covered and criticisms of the variety are analysed.

In the third section of the book, author Peter F May takes a look at Pinotage in other countries. His travels take him from South Africa to California and Virginia, Canada, Israel and New Zealand.

This timely book is for anyone interested in wine and wine making, and those who want to know the full story about South Africa's wine gift to the world.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Peter is a wine writer, educator and author. He is a member of the prestigious Circle of Wine Writers. His first wine book Marilyn Merlot and the Naked Grape: Odd Wines from Around the World was published in summer 2006 by Quirk Books of Philadelphia, USA.

Peter F May first visited South Africa in 1996 and he has visited the Cape wine lands on average every year since, spending weeks visiting vineyards and wineries and talking with winemakers and winery owners.

In 1997 he founded The Pinotage Club - an international web-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.


PINOTAGE: Behind the Legends of South Africa’s Own Wine
by Peter F May

Published April 2009
£14.99
248 pages, 25 illustrations, comprehensive end-notes and index
Paperback: 15.59 cm x 23.39 cm, perfect binding, white interior paper (55# weight), black and white interior ink, white exterior paper (90# weight), full-colour exterior ink
ISBN: 978-0-9561523-0-5
Publisher: Inform and Enlighten, England

Read sample pages at http://www.pinotage.weebly.com/

AVAILABILITY

Book and Postage

UK £14.99EU - by Airmail £17.99Worldwide - by Airmail £19.99

Dedication Required

US Customers, use button below to pay in US Dollars. Signed book airmailed to you for just $31.25, cheaper than amazon.com!

Dedication Required

Signed and dedicated copies may be ordered by clicking on the above Paypal button or by emailing Peter F May at peter at pinotage dot org or from http://www.pinotage.weebly.com/

The book is available from online channels including stores.lulu.com/pinotage , Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk , Barnesandnoble.com and Borders.co.uk and can be ordered from your local bookshop. A

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Pinotage Blend Wins Trophy for South African Red Blend over £10 Trophy

Schalk (left) and Tiaan Burger

Welbedacht Hat Trick 2006 won the Trophy for Best South African Red Blend over £10 at the 2009 Decanter World Wine Awards in London.

Welbedacht Hat Trick 2006 is a Cape Blend of 50% Pinotage, 25% Syrah and 25% Merlot.

Schalk Burger Snr, owner of Welbedacht, is delighted with the result. “What makes this so special is that this category is hotly contested. Winning a Trophy Award in this category is an amazing achievement for us.”

Cellar Master Jacques Wentzel says 2006 is fast becoming a superb vintage for fruit flavours, which lie at the heart of the Welbedacht Hat Trick.

“The core of this blend has been the immense fruit focus which culminates in the Pinotage contributing fresh red berries and the more complex plum flavours. The Syrah adds the spice and floral flavours, while the Merlot rounds it off with the fullness that it adds to the final mouth feel,” he says. “These cultivars beautifully express the terroir of our estate and encapsulate our winemaking philosophy, namely to make wines that are varietal expressive. The quality of our blend is also helped by the fact that we built our cellar to suit our fruit.”

The name ‘Welbedacht’ means “well thought out” in Dutch - a fitting name for this increasingly prestigious wine farm where great care is taken to express each wine and cultivar’s unique character.

“As only traditional methods are used to make our wines, we believe that the 2006 Welbedacht Cape blend embodies all the attributes of a rare hat trick, and as such, a black label is awarded to it,” he concludes.

Congratulations to everyone at Welbedacht -- and to Pinotage for gaining both the red single varietal Trophy (see below) and for being the major part of the red Bldn Tropy.

Tony Laithwaite: Pinotage is a race horse worth backing

Tony Laithwaite owns the worlds largest specialist home delivery wine business. He started in 1969 loading his van with wines in Bordeaux and selling them back home in the UK. Now his company, Direct Wines, as well as selling wines under the Laithwaites trading name operates wine clubs for American Express, British Airways and The Sunday Times as well as several others, owns Averys of Bristol and Virgin Wines and runs the largest mail order wine business in the USA .

So when Tony Laithwaite talks about Pinotage it is worth listening. At the moment he is in South Africa where he enjoyed a braii and "most importantly, I rediscovered Pinotage."

In his blog yesterday he wrote :

"I have tasted a range of styles of Pinotage, each well made and enticing in their own way. From soft juicy, summer fruit bombs of the younger styles to rich, mocha tasting lightly oaked wines with a bit of age. I am loving them all!

Perhaps at last South Africa has cracked its red wines - will Pinotage do for South Africa what Malbec has done for Argentina? Only time will tell, but for me, this is a race horse worth backing."

Read his article in full here.

I look forward to seeing a larger range of Pinotages on Laithwaites list than the current pair, Stanford Hills Jacksons Pinotage 2006 and Drakenskloof Pinotage 2007 . Stanford Hills gain 4 stars in Platter 2008 but Drakenskloof is a name unknown to me.

Laithwaites likes to sell labels exclusive to themselves. It makes it impossible for consumers to compare prices. The winemaker is named as Frans Smit who is the cellarmaster at Spier. Spier make a range of 'own label' wines for UK supermarkets and it is likely this is something similar.



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Video: Yngvild Steytler on Winning Decanter's Trophy

Yngvild Steytler is the public face of Kaapzicht Estate and she travels the world marketing husband Danie's wines.

This week Yngvild has been very busy at the London International Wine Fair as the crowds flocked to her stand to taste Kaapzicht's Trophy winning Steytler Pinotage 2006.

Kaapzicht's Pinotage beat Shiraz, Cabernet, Merlot etc to the South African Red Single Varietal over £10 Trophy.

I managed to get Yngvild's reaction to their win. Her modest reaction was that it was a primarily a win for Pinotage and shows that Pinotage does deserve its place among the world's great wines and that there is a great future for all kinds of Pinotage from rosés and light bodied fruity wines to the full bodied oaked pinotages like Kaapzichts flagship Steytler.

I found this wine to be full of ripe fruit, pure and clean and approachable, its two years oak aging is very much in the background.

The wine retails in the UK for around £20 a bottle.

Pinotage Wins Trophy for South African Red Single Varietal over £10 Trophy

2006 Kaapzicht Estate Steytler Pinotage has won this years South African Red Single Varietal over £10 Trophy at the Decanter Wine Awards announced yesterday at the London International Wine Fair.

Congratulations to Danie Steytler and his team.

Proudly Pinotage at London Wine Fair

Winning Pinotages will be poured at the London International Wine Fair that starts tomorrow 12 May and runs for three days at the Excel exhibition complex on the banks of the Thames river in London's docklands.

The Pinotage Association are funding two stands: one will show all 10 winning wines from the 2008 Pinotage Top 10 Competition, the other will show a selection of Pinotages from new and small producers.

If you are coming to LIWF make a point at stopping at stands 4 and 20 on the Wines of South Africa island L50 in the centre of the hall.

Be seeing you ...

WINE Tastes Pinotage

WINE Magazine will be holding a Pinotage tasting in Cape Town on 23 June 2009 and in Johannesburg on 1 July 2009.

The wines shown at the seated tasting will be ten top-rated wines as reviewed in the June issue of WINE.

Details are

Cape Town, 23 June 2009, 18:15 for 18:30
Mount Nelson, Gardens

Johannesburg, 1 July 2009, 18:15 for 18:30
The Rosebank, Rosebank.

Tickets cost R120 per person and can be booked by calling 0860 100 205 or by sending an email to subs@ramsaymedia.co.za or book online at www.winemag.co.za

Four Paws Lands in UK

Four Paws Pinotage is now available in the UK. Four Paws is owned by Anne Jakubiec (pictured left) and the maiden 2006 vintage Pinotage shot the label to fame by achieving a 2007 Pinotage Top 10.

Trevor Mayor of Great Wine UK Ltd tells me that he has now received shipments from South Africa of that winning 2006 Pinotage.


The Pinotage is priced at 15.95 from http://www.greatwineonline.co.uk/







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Tasting Pinotage Firsts for the 50th Anniversary

2009 is not only the 350th anniversary of the first Cape Wine: it is also the 50th anniversary of the vintage of the first commercial Pinotage varietal wine.

That was grown and made by PK Morkel of Bellevue and marketed by Stellenbosch Farmer's Winery under their Lanzerac brand name.

So it is appropriate that in this 50th anniversary year I have been asked to present a tasting on of Pinotages on Tuesday to 60 members of Brentwood Wine Appreciation Society, in Brentwood, Essex, near London.

It has taken a lot of thought and effort to obtain eight representative wines. I decided on a theme of 'firsts' and these are the eight wines I will be showing on Tuesday:


Delheim Rosé
Pinotage 2008
(Delheim were the 1st winery to make a rosé Pinotage in 1976

Simonsig
Kaapse Vonkel Brut Rose
Méthode Cap Classique 2006
(Simonsig were the 1st South African winery to make a Methode Champenoise sparkler in 1971)


Mellasat
ENIGMA
Blanc de Noirs Pinotage 2008(
this is the 1st commercial release of a white Pinotage)

Warwick Estate
Three Cape Ladies
Cape Blend 2005
(Warwick's 3 Cape Ladies was the 1st cape blend in Wine Spectator’s World’s Top 100 Wines)

Diemersfontein
Pinotage 2008
(Diemersfontein pioneered the amazing 'coffee & chocolate style' of Pinotage and it was voted 1st choice of readers of The Cape Times which proclaimed it “the Peoples’ Pinotage”)

Bellevue Estate
Houdamond
Pinotage 2007
(Bellevue grew and made the world’s 1st varietal Pinotage in 1959 )
This is an exclusive special bottling for Marks & Spencer.

Beyerskloof
Reserve
Pinotage 2006
(1st winery to have 2 wines, this is one of them, in Pinotage 10 Competition)

Kanonkop Estate
Pinotage 2004
(Kanonkop is South Africa’s ‘1st Growth’ says WINE Magazine)

Problem, as always, is sourcing the wines I wanted. I ordered some Reyneke, which is the only biodynanically grown Pinotage but then the supplier cancelled the order as they had only one bottle in stock.

There are no Pinotages from other countries because I was unable to find any available in the UK and didn't have enough in my own cellar.

A good time will be had by all... :)

Pinotage Tops Chinese Challenge

Pinotage was voted the favourite red wine of Chinese consumers at the Grape Wall Challenge last Friday in Beijing, China when Foot of Africa Pinotage 2006, made by Kleine Zalze in Stellenbosch, won first place

Judges tasted 23 red wines that retail in China for under 100 Renminbi (about £10.10 or $15USD or 140 ZAR)

The challenge aimed to find good but affordable wines and to involve consumers in the process. Judging was done by teams of 6 consumers and 6 experts. The consumers team were asked to rate each wine as 'love it', 'like it', 'dislike it' or 'hate it'. The experts panel included wine makers and lecturers who used the 20 point scale to score wines. The experts gave 9th place to the Pinotage, but when the two teams scores were combined Foot of Africa Pinotage was in third place.

Read the full report here. Thanks to Jim Boyce of grapewallofchina.com who organised the tasting for permission to use these photographs.





Foot of Africa Pinotage can be seen below, third from the right in the front row




Photographs ©Copyright Jim Boyce grapewallofchina.com

"Pinotage has undergone a change" -- Grape

Pinotage expert Angela Lloyd has been tasting 96 varietal and 24 Pinotage blends for WINE magazine and she’s blogged some interesting thoughts in Grape.co.za on where Pinotage is today.

She says

“That Pinotage has undergone a change, there is no doubt. Our line up clearly showed that aggressive acetone character and those thin, rough tannins are just about a thing of the past. Today, the profile encountered may feature generous black cherry, summer pudding or raspberry aromas, rich, silky flesh with refreshing acid and those troublesome tannins, taut but well-manicured. Oaking too is more often complementary and harmonious.”

She expects WINE will award 2 and 3 star ratings to these “joyful, approachable wines with their juicy red fruit and, hopefully pocket-pleasing prices” which will give no “indication of just how enjoyable they are to drink now.”

She also has some words for coffee Pinotages which she calls a “cynical recipe” for “coffee masquerading as wine”.


Read the whole article at Grape.co.za

Reyneke's Pinotage is "Another classic"

"I also hugely enjoyed Johan Reyneke’s superb Pinotage 2005 (£12.50), again biodynamic, a deep ruby red from Stellenbosch in South Africa, with a gorgeous smell of creamy black cherries and plums, chocolate and spice and then backed up by silky smooth tannins. Another classic."

-- Helen Savage, writing about ethical trading in Newcastle's The Journal on 13 March 2009 .

I am delighted to learn that Reyneke's Pinotage is available in the UK. Johan Reyneke, pictured above, was the first farmer in South Africa to convert to Biodynamism and it was his Pinotage vineyard that was the first. The results from that trial were so impressive that he turned went competely over to biodynamic farming.

Almost the entire entire production from that small Pinotage vineyard has been earmarked by US customers, so much so that Johan was hard pressed to find one bottle for me when I visited him.

UPDATE:
But the 2005 vintage is [UPDATE = NO LONGER] available from Ethical Superstore at http://www.ethicalsuperstore.com/products/ethical-fine-wines/reyneke-pinotage-stellenbosch-south-africa/ at £12.50 a bottle.

Despite the wine still being listed as "In Stock. Available for despatch tomorrow" and accepting an order from me for 6 bottles, it seems they have only one bottle in stock A brief phone message was left with someone else in my house that "the Stellenbosch wine" is unavailable. They could not tell the name of the wine and since I have a number of wines on order it wasn't until a got an abrupt email from them saying "Order Status:Cancelled" that I knew. There was no apology, no nothing, just "Order Status:Cancelled".

Ethical Superstore was set up in 2006 by Vic Morgan and Andy Redfern with the manifesto help the ethical consumer “Buy What You Believe”.

M'Hudi on TV

A three part series on wine came to an end last night with the final programme titled ‘The Future’ focusing on two South African wine brands, M’Hudi and Solms-Delta.

The programme irritated me from the start because they mispronounced Pinotage and called it “a hybrid varietal that remains stubbornly unpopular abroad”. The programme tried to create suspense with the annual visit of Marks & Spencer’s wine-buyers and whether would buy M’Hudi’s Pinotage. M&S already stock the other two M’Hudi wines, Sauvignon Blanc and Merlot and the chances of taking a third, bearing in mind another wine in M&S’s portfolio would have to be delisted, are almost non-existent. But there were no surprises since we already know that M’Hudi’ s Pinotage is not in M&S. There was no discussion of why no other buyers than M&S was considered.

Another focus was on the International Wine Challenge and whether M’Hudi Pinotage and Solms-Delta’s new sweet wine would get awards. Interestingly the programme showed this new semi-sparkling sweet red low alcohol (9%abv) Shiraz being fermented in barriques, which seems most unlikely for a cheap mass market wine

Initially the two farmers seemed to be on opposite ends of the spectrum. M’Hudi is the first black owned vineyard, bought by the Rangaka family who live in a ramshackle tin-roofed cottage among broken machinery and straggling bush vines while Solms Delta has been in the same family for generations who live in a grand Cape Dutch mansion among a landscaped garden and neat trellised vines.

The programme brought out a number of similarities and parallels between the two

• The Rangaka’s of Mhudi are new owners, having bought their farm in 2003
  
• Solms-Delta was inherited by Mark Solms and their first wine was bottled in 2004
  
  
• Oupa Rangaka was a university professor and dean
  
• Mark Solms is a brain specialist and translator of the works of Sigmund Freud
  
  
• M’Hudi has black owners whose wines are marketed at sophisticated middle class wine drinkers via Marks & Spencer in Britain
  
• Solms-Delta has white owners who are producing sweet fizzy wine for non-wine drinking black people in Africa
  
  
• M’Hudi is bankrolled by government grants and loans
  
• Solms-Delta is bankrolled by partner Richard Astor

At the IWC M'Hudi Pinotage got a Bronze medal whiled Solms-Delta's lambrusco like wine failed to win anything.

Oupa Rangaka seemed a little restrained on the programme, but maybe there just wasn't enough time to show him in full speech mode!

The programme blurb says "via the struggles of these two remarkable men, wine becomes a prism through which to view the current state of the Rainbow Nation." Discuss.....


The programme will be repeated on Sunday 9 March at 19:00 on BBC4 and is available via the internet on BBC iPlayer for those in the UK or anyone who can trick the website that their IP address is in the UK. See http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00j0g7v

Tasting Pinotage Blends in London

To London for the first time for more than four months for a tasting of Top End Blends organised by WoSA. What strikes me is just how expensive SA wines are getting. £36 for a Merlot blend? £17 for Nederburg's blend of eight white varieties, the sort of thing that Flagstone used to do in a £5 Noon Gun?

Several of the reds have a Pinotage element, but I’ll concentrate on those that have a least 30% Pinotage as per Cape Blend conventions and I’ll list them in descending order of Pinotage proportions.

Cloof Inkspot Vin Noir 2005, (Darling) 14.83%abv.

78% Pinotage, 12% Shiraz, 10% Cinsaut.

Quite edgy, soft talcum powder texture with dried plum and raisin flavours. £8.99

Middlevlei 2006 (Stellenbosch) Middlevlei pioneered this blend of equal shares of Pinotage and Merlot and 14%abv.

This has an attractive sweet nose and a soft classic taste. It is restrained, softly well balanced with sweet berry fruits and a touch of vanilla custard on the finish.. £9.99

Stellenzicht Rhapsody 2006 (Stellenbosch)

has equal shares of Pinotage and Shiraz. 15.28%abv.

Rhapsody is Guy Webber’s pride and joy but I don’t think this particular wine is showing well; it’s a bit rough and has a hot finish, not at all like previous examples. £24.50

Kaapzicht Steytler Vision 2005 (Stellenbosch).

50% Cabernet Sauvignon 40% Pinotage, 10% Merlot 15.1% abv.

Mouth filling well rounded sweet fruit over tannins. Surprising restrained Bordeaux like but with a really attractive spiciness and ripe fruit sweetness. £19.99

Lyngrove Shiraz Pinotage 2004, (Stellenbosch).

70% Shiraz, 30% Pinotage.
Really nicely balanced wine, a thoroughbred not showing its 14%abv. £7.99

Dekkers Valley Revelation 2004 (Paarl).

41% Shiraz, 32% Pinotage, 27% Cabernet Sauvignon. 14%abv

Warm fruit nose leads into a lovely plummy wine, really very enjoyable. £7

I rated Kaapzicht and Middlevlei the best of the bunch, but the discovery of the tasting was Dekkers Valley, second label Mellasat, which offered a really enjoyable drink at the lowest price point.

L'Avenir and Writers Block in Jukes' Top 50

Matthew Jukes just published Top 50 South African wines includes two Pinotages, Flagstone Writer's Block 2006 and L'Avenir Grand Vin 2006

Matthew is author of several wine books and wine correspondent for the UK's Daily Mail national newspaper.

Of the 2006 Flagstone Pinotage he says

The most expressive Writer's Block ever has me gushing thank goodness. Seamless, hedgerow and boot polish notes bombard your palate and there isn't a touch of unwanted earthiness in sight.

L'Avenir's premium Grand Vin 2006 elicits

With almost Barolo-like, enigmatic flair, this distinguished Pinotage stalks your taste buds one by one, converting every one in its path to its cause.

In the UK Writer's Block retails at £15 and the L'Avenir Grand Vin is an eye-watering £26.

The Top 50 is on Matthew's releaunched web-site at http://www.matthewjukes.com/?p=224 athough a coding error is preventing display at the time of writing (hint, use view source)

Winemaker Ben Dugdale talks about Pinotage (video)

Ben Dugdale is winemaker at Karikari Estate, New Zealand's most northerly. He showed me around the estate in December 2008 (see my report here) but I didn't have the bandwidth while travelling to upload this video of him in his Pinotage vineyard

In the video he talks about growing Pinotage and why he is planting some more. The berries are small and green because this was filmed in December. They'll be ready for harvesting soon.

Ben uses the following terms:

Veraison - that is when the grapes ripen and change colour to black

Brix - is a measurement of sugar in the grape. A finished wine will have an alcohol level a little over half the brix reading. So when Ben measures 24 brix thats teling him those grapes would produce 12.5-13% alcohol by volume.

Saam Pinotage for Red Nose Red

Red Nose Day is a major bi-annual fund raising event for Comic Relief in the UK. The red nose refers to a the bulbous scarlet facial appendage worn by clowns and was adopted as a symbol by the professional comedians who started Comic Relief in 1985.

The wine business has always been an active supporter, in the past running a parallel ‘wine relief’.

For 2009' two Red Nose wines have been launched, both sourced from South Africa’s Saam Mountain Vineyards near Paarl. Red Nose White is a Chenin Blanc and Red Nose Red is a Pinotage blended with some Shiraz (an ancient French cross between Dureza and Mondeuse blanche).

Red Nose Red Pinotage/Shiraz 2008 is a tremendously attractive wine with a scented nose, brimming with ripe loganberry fruit flavours, and an almost jammy sweetness.

Tasting notes for the wine from Jancis Robinson MW and Tim Atkins MW read "This hearty and full bodied red brims with goodwill, bramble perfume and raspberry fruit. Drink with friends and partner it with anything you feel like eating."

But I think my friend Andy Barrow over at Spittoon has really nailed it. Andy likens the wine to picking blackberries in hedgerows. I went blackberrying last summer and and he has it spot on.

The wine costs £4.99 in UK supermarkets of which £1 goes to Comic Relief. But don't think of this as a bargain basement £3.99 value wine. Importers Bibendum reckon that, without the donations of those involved in producing the wine it would be priced above £6. "SAAM, Erbin and Multiprint provided wines, capsules and labels respectively at cost, while JF Hillebrand, Quinn Glass and all of the retailers are working at reduced margins," they say.

At not extra cost, Red Nose wines come with an art work by Damien Hirst. The label is a Hirst work titled A Red Nose, being a raised shiny red circle on a dull matt grey background. The label on my wine easily peeled off, so get a frame and you can have a Hirst work on your wall. Much better than a pickled shark :)

Good wine, designer art and charity, all in one £4.99 bottle. Rush out and buy.

M'Hudi on BBC-tv

When I wrote last year (see here) about M’hudi wines and my chat with Oupa Rangaka, I mentioned that Oupa was being filmed by a television company.

Now the results are due to be shown on BBC-tv's digital channel BBC 4 in March in a three part series features different aspects of the wine business including London wine merchants Berry Bros and Rudd and Chateau Margaux.

The final programme, titled 'The Future', to be shown in March, travels to South Africa to talk to Oupa at M’Hudi and Mark Solms of Franschhoek winery Solm’s Delta .

Managing Director Malmsey Rangaka (left) & Oupa in their vineyard

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Inniskillin's Pinotage - heavy palate of red fruit

"You’ll be reading a fair bit about Pinot varieties over the next few weeks, as we get closer to wine fest time. First off the bat,Pinotage, a red wine grape originally bred in South Africa, where it is the signature variety.

Here in B.C., Inniskillin’s Discovery Series includes a slightly spicy Pinotage that boasts a heavy palate of red fruit, with a nose of cherry, raspberry and prune. A few layers of toasted vanilla lead the nose to a nice finish. Match with rich pastas, braised meats or savoury stews.

Anya Levykh writing in Vancouver's Metro News 22 January 2009, item titled The Many Sides of Pinot: Pinotage

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Such is fame ....

The Pinotage Club has been active on the web since 1997, and it comes near the top of any Google for Pinotage, so it was rather surprising to read in wine-writer Eric Asimov's New York Times of 20 January 2009 that I’ve yet to find a hard-core pinotage fan club.


Eric Asimov has just discovered South African wines and he's impressed with the Cabernet Sauvignons, but he thinks that increasingly its producers are focusing on cabernet sauvignon. Err?? Surely red-wise the new focus is Shiraz?

Eric says of the South African wines that their track record is slim. We don’t know yet how these wines will age, thus dismissing 350 years of continuous wine production.

Since he gets so much so wrong, how much reliance can be placed on his opinion of Pinotage as a distinctive wine that is made virtually nowhere else in the world, but almost nobody likes or wants that wine?

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Wither Hills Pinotage

Wither Hills, in Marlborough’s Wairau Valley, is the answer to ‘guess who is growing this Pinotage’.

But they are not making any Pinotage wine. A short row of Pinotage is one of an exhibition at the entrance to Wither Hills intended to demonstrate to vistitors most of the varieties being grown in New Zealand.

It was instructive to me to see how much smaller the berries were than those I had seen just a week before on the North Island. Grape vine flowering here can be a week or more later than in the North.

Today I leave New Zealand from Christchurch on the South Island to fly to Melbourne, Australia to see relatives before heading home via Singapore.

New Zealand has been really enjoyable, the wine is all of excellent quality and my only regret is that they do not make more of Pinotage.

I'd like to thank Sue Courtney of www.wineoftheweek.com for her lovely welcome to New Zealand and all the assistance she has given during my stay in her wonderful country.

Kerr Farm P’06

While I didn’t get an opportunity to visit Kerr Farm on this trip to New Zealand I found a bottle of P’06 in a wine store. This is the 2006 vintage Pinotage of which I’d tasted a sample in 2007 with Jaison Kerr at his vineyard. (see here)

P’06 is medium dark ruby red with a subdued nose and restrained fruit. It’s a bit flat in the mid-palate but finishes well with mulberries and tangy spices. The tannins are soft and there are no rough edges. The wine is already throwing some sediment. Overall it is a well made red wine in a Bordeaux style, ideal with dinner.

And there's good news from Kerr Farm. Sue Courtney reports that the old Pinotage vines there seem to have rallied after being attacked by Lemon Tree Borer moths and that the vines are going to live to

fruit another day.

Marsden Estate 2000

Here’s a rare one; an eight year old Pinotage from Marsden Estate in KeriKeri in the Bay of Islands near the top of North Island. The winery is named after Reverend Samuel Marsden who planted New Zealand’s first vineyard by the coast in the Bay of Islands.

The back label suggests this wine will cellar from two to five years and we’re already three years past that date. The wine is pale red turning to brick and it doesn’t have too much bouquet. There are sweet fruit flavours, although they’re fading and the wine has all the characteristics of smooth aged claret. Pleasant, but it is time to drink up.

Marsden Estate 2004

Here we’re in the recommended cellaring range and indeed this wine appears to have a lot of life left in it. The colour is dark garnet with a red rim. It is rather classy; nice fruit balanced by gentle tannins with some dusty blueberries flavours and a creamy finish. This is a very drinkable and enjoyable wine.

Many thanks to Ben Dugdale for arranging the opportunity for me to drink these wines.

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Guess Who is Growing this Pinotage.

Gourmet blogger Douglas Blyde of Intoxicating Prose posted a comment asking “Please may we have another picture of a vineyard to guess its location?”

So here it is.

My question is -- which winery is growing this Pinotage?

Some clues. I have been in New Zealand for the past month or more and this picture was taken on 31 December 2008 in the grounds of a major New Zealand winery which is famous, especially in Britain which is a major importer, for Sauvignon Blanc wines.

If you know anything about NZ wine you’ll recognise the winery name; we’re not talking about some garagiste winery you’ve never heard of.

But the winery does not list a Pinotage varietal among its wines, so you’ll find no help on winery websites. The size of the grapes in the picture may give you a clue as to whether we are on the North or South Island, and that in turn may indicate the region.

It’s a near impossible question, so don’t hold back – have a guess and have a go!

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Delheim's Rose - 'A New Favourite'

"A new favorite .......... is this pinotage rose made by Delheim in South Africa. Still lively from the 2008 harvest, it has a spot-on balance of bright berry sweetness and a refreshingly crisp finish that pairs well with light foods. At $11.99, it's a fair price for a mid-winter's sip of Stellenbosch sunshine in a bottle. " -- Craig Laban in The Philadelphia Inquirer 4 January 2009