Web Reviews: Fairview, Te Awa, Diemersfontein and Makulu

Over on eBob (Robert Parker's forum) Chaad Thomas thought Fairview's 2005 Pinotage was a great wine.

"Dark garnet, with some ruby reflections. Bright. Bold nose is smoky, gamey, and herbal. My wife says it smells like an Italian [spiced] stable! It's definitely redolent of wild berries and true to that SA funk.

Fresh and lively up front, the wine shows ripe, supple fruit and good weight. It's quite harmonious, with a good balance of earth tones and savor. The fruit is a juicy blend of cherry, raspberry, and cranberry...maybe blackberry.

Nicely knit all the way through the middle, too. The finish is a progressive evolution from the palate, allowing a nice glow of salty, beefiness at the end. Mouthwatering.

In all, this is still a great wine, true to my memory of it a few years back, on release. It's so satisfying and enjoyable to drink! It's not profound,but it is distinctly flavorful and "original" tasting."

In New Zealand, Sue Courtney at Wine of the Weektested a gizmo called SpinWine that is supposed to aerate wine. Sue compared three distinctly different wines, Tempranillo, Montepulciano and Te Awa Hawkes Bay 2007 Pinotage. The SpinWine didn't impress but the Pinotage did.

Concentrated, impenetrable, blackberry red hue. There's a tomato character to the aroma and a hint of a barnyard character too. A full-bodied wine in the mouth with soft tannins and bright, spicy, meaty flavours.

Actually the tannins are quite powerful but the juicy dark berry fruit cuts right them down. Acidity pops up like a speed bump, it's here and then it's gone, and the finish is chocolatey with a hint of liquorice. Fermented with natural yeasts and matured in French oak for 12 months. A fascinating wine - the most fascinating of the three - in that's it so different. Liked it

Amanda at The Travelling Grape 'was so excited' about tasting her very first Pinotage which a friend of a friend had brought back to her in California. It was Diemersfontein Pinotage 2008 .

Wow, a chocolate bomb on my nose right away with dark rich coffee beans. Could this be a Café Mocha lover’s answer? At first it was a bit hot and tickled my nose but that dissipated in time. The front of the palate was quick but the middle, whoa nelly…smooth like velvet with a hint of smoke and leather but the coffee and chocolate certainly stole the show. The finish lingered around a bit and left me yearning for a chocolate covered cherry. Very unique and I encourage each of you to get your hands on some to try.

Ellen at A Life in Reviews loved Makulu Iswithi Pinotage 2006, which she summed up as "Impressive and sustainable - it's like getting buzzed off a Toyota Prius." (?)

Hooray!!! A wine that is inexpensive, scrumptious, and organically/sustainably grown. For the price, it doesn't get much better than this. I haven't had a lot of South African wine, but I'm hooked. This Pinotage is sure to be a crowd pleaser. It's quite sweet and will appeal to the Pinot fans (Iswithi means "sweet" in Zulu), but it's cherry-sweet rather than sickly-sweet, and it's also full-bodied enough to win over Cab and Syrah fans.

Coffee Pinotage and Bertus (Starbucks) Fourie

The following article by Nikki Lordan comes courtesy of WINE.CO.ZA


It happens quite often that uniquely handcrafted wines are overlooked in the chase for best value, yet quality wines. While the coffee-styled Pinotage is handcrafted by impressive scientific measures, the question remains - how unique is it?

Bertus Fourie aka Starbucks Fourie (which makes him sound a little bit like a movie star) is the MD of Val de Vie Wines and creator of the infamous coffee-styled Pinotage, particularly invented to "demystify" wine, making it more accessible to the people. Fourie's coffee Pinotage career, of which the 'recipe' lies in a specific type of oak and toasting combined with specific yeast, took off at Diemersfontein and has since left a trail of coffee beans at KWV causing much controversy and tons of cash. Currently employed in a "purely management capacity", Fourie is in charge of the Barista Pinotage while his brother, Martin Fourie, is the official winemaker of Val de Vie Wines. Despite lots of criticism from the industry, the reaction by the public has so far been extremely positive not only in South Africa but also countries such as Singapore, the UK, USA and Canada.

It is generally believed that Fourie "practically invented this style of Pinotage", but apart from using Pinotage, this method isn't so new Down Under. Although not with Pinotage, Australian wine company Wolf Blass already "exhibited some of these characters back in the late 70s," says senior wine judge and KWV consultant, Ian McKenzie. Although the focus has never been on these coffee-like characters, he continues, they "have always been recognized and described as barrel ferment artefact and have been utilized to varying degrees by different winemakers as a complexing agent". McKenzie has been working as a consultant to KWV since 2005. According to Prof Sakkie Pretorius of the Wine Research Institute in Australia, even though one can not "rule out the possibility of another (yet to be discovered) Pinotage-specific compound which is driving those coffee characters" it is more likely that those "characters are not exclusively associated with varietal Pinotage wines" and can in fact be used with any varietal.

"We have found these coffee-like characteristics can be achieved in almost any red wine," McKenzie further explained, "provided the grapes are fully mature with ripe sweet fruit characters and importantly, ripe tannins". Yellowtail and Little Penguin are among a couple of currently available Australian brands that have "similar but not as pronounced characters" in many different varieties including Shiraz. The basis of Fourie's research however, was not done "on the enhanced coffee aromas, but the effect thereof on Pinotage due to the aromatic profile of this variety". Yes it can be done with any varietal, he explains over a cup of (real) coffee, but "not nearly the same result is achieved as with Pinotage".

Although he has caused much controversy (albeit not on purpose), he remains a firm believer in the success of the Pinotage grape and believes that Pinotage handled correctly in the cellar and the vineyard "can produce a world class wine" - even without the added coffee aromas. Though widely criticised, the 2009 Barista does show lots of fruit, soft tannins and a delicate yet very much recognisable hint of coffee and mocha - indeed, a very drinkable wine. Fourie, however, is "slightly disappointed in the 2009", for which he wished even "more coffee intensity" and scores the KWV Café Culture the highest point of the three - a wine described by Tim James as "squishy". Proving there is no such thing as bad publicity, the Diemersfontein 2008, KWV Café Culture 2009 and Barista Coffee Pinotage 2009 were voted top of the polls (in that order) during the Cape Town RMB WineX - popular wine show organised by Michael Fridjhon. The KWV Café Culture, sweet and sticky with overwhelming flavours of coffee and chocolate, seems to be the characteristics most non-lovers of wine prefer when drinking wine. However, Fourie is quick to assure that the Coffee Pinotage was not created in an attempt to camouflage the varietal characteristics but purely a decision of "supply and demand" thereby giving the consumers what they want.

Pinotage Association vice-chairman and acclaimed winemaker De Wet Viljoen believes the key to any successful Pinotage lies in knowing that winemakers "work with a living thing (the vineyard) where there is no fixed recipe and the starting point is never the same". He prefers a Pinotage of which the primary fruit is not completely overwhelmed and feels the most important part of winemaking is to "recognise and stick to the varietal characteristics" of the grape.

Pinotage certainly isn't a crude grape that makes for unbalanced and unsophisticated wines but merely asks for refinement; finding the elegance and the sophistication in the grape as proven by Abrie Beeslaar, Beyers Truter, Neil Ellis, Danie Steytler and Johan Malan. Almost like moving along the edge of a steel-point knife, every winemaker has "to strive for balance" - an important point that relates to any other varietal. McKenzie feels the level of the coffee-like characters found in Bertus's versions and the KWV Café Culture would in Australia "in all probability be regarded as overoaked".

The truth is veteran winemakers have seen many vintages of Pinotage (and other varieties) make their way through the cellar and have by now recognised what they call "concept wines". The danger comes, De Wet explains, when critics and people start to "place Pinotage in a box", associating it with one particular style. "Different styles come and go but some things are timeless and will never change."

Timeless or not, people seem to love a good trend and Bertus Fourie is most certainly enjoying the ride on this wave of success.

Video: Francois Naude talks about his very own wine

Francois Naude retired from L'Avenir but he couldn't retire from wine making. Here he is talking about his own wine, Le Vin de Francois.


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Khulu Sky Pinotage Rose 09 - Video

Khulu Sky is a new range of three South African wines from Roger Harris Wines which include a Pinotage Rosé. Khulu means ‘wonderful’ in Zulu.

The bottles don’t look different although place them next to another wine and they are not as tall.

That is because these bottles are plastic, not glass. Plastic bottles have many advantages being light, unbreakable and allowed in events where glass is banned, but there have been issues in the past about longevity where wine is concerned, which I raised. I was assured that these bottles are made from a new type of plastic guaranteed for two years. (see below*).

The range is promoted on environmental advantages. The wine is shipped in bulk to Macon, France where it is bottled, thus saving the weight of shipping bottles across seas. The lightweight bottle reduces the carbon footprint in transportation and distribution, fewer carbon emissions are produced than in manufacture of glass, and the entire bottle can be recycled.

The wines are produced under WIETA (Wine Industry Ethical Association) certification, a non-profit, voluntary association committed to the promotion of ethical trade. The WIETA logo appears on both the front and back labels.

I put Khulu Sky Pinotage Rose 2009 (WO Western Cape 12.5%abv) to two tests: is the bottle unbreakable and how tasty are the contents.









So it passed the first test with flying colours. The bottle has a decent long plastic screw cap so I resealed it and took it back upstairs to the apartment.

You noted my surprise on my first taste, shown in the video, on how dry it was. I poured glasses for cameraman Dan and my partner. It was a hot day and the chilled rosé should have been most welcome, but I found it increasingly unpleasantly sour. The other two would take no more than one mouthful. Hopefully this was a faulty sample because I can't recommend it on this sample.

Marketing of these wines focus on ecology and ethical trade but I wonder whether unemployed South Africans think it is ethical that jobs on bottling lines and at bottle manufacturing plants have been exported to well paid French workers.

*This is the reply I received regarding longevity:

"You are right in saying there have been some issues with standard PET and oxidisation of wine causing problems for some retailers.

The multi-layer bottle (MLP) that Paul Sapin has developed has a purely mechanical barrier made up of two layers of Polyethyelene Terephthalate with a barrier material made of nylon mixed with an oxygen scavenger. The entire bottling process is geared towards eliminating oxygen, incorporating state of the art technology and meticulous attention to detail.

An independent laboratory carried out accelerated ageing tests on wine bottled in the MLP and glass under the same conditions. All parameters measured showed no significant differences between the MLP bottle and glass bottle. These observations were confirmed by blind tasting, conducted by a panel made up of winemakers, professional and amateur tasters. At no point was it possible for the tasters to find a difference between the wines.

As a result, Paul Sapin guarantees a conservation period of one year for wines in 18.7cl MLP PET and two years for wines in 75cl MLP PET. "




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Videos: Altydgedacht Estate cellar and vineyards.

I was very impressed with the poise and elegance of Altydgedacht Estate 's delicious 2008 Pinotage when I tasted it for the first time a few months ago. I was manning the Pinotage Association stand at the Wines of South Africa London Mega Tasting in October and this wine got many positive comments.

Etienne Louw made the wine and he invited me to the farm in Durbanville to meet him and owners John & Ollo Parker.

I asked Etienne to tell me about his Pinotage.




The Parkers are the fifth generation to own the farm, which is quite large at 412h and stretches up the side of a high hill. Here the chill sea wind drops the temperature dramatically and its where the Parkers grow Sauvignon Blanc that the Durbanville area is rightly famous for.

A little lower are their Pinotage vineyards. Much of Altydgedacht's vines are farmed on contract basis for wineries such as Nederburg. A central block of Pinotage, marked by coloured ribbons tied to the end of the trellis, are reserved for Altydgedacht and it is these that made the 2008 wine that won the 2009 Top 10 competition -- the first Durbanville wine to do so.

Ollo showed me how he managed the block, pulling out leaves to allow air flow. We're quite high and exposed up here, you can hear the wind buffeting the camera. First I ask Ollo how to pronounce Altydgedacht -- he suggest English speakers should try saying 'I'll take a duck'






Not all the farm grows vines: the Parkers also grow grain and reserve large tracts of the original renosterveld vegetation, on which Ollo's wife is an expert. Ruth Parker wrote the book Renosterveld: A Wilderness Exposed. Her husband, Ollo, is the cellarmaster while brother John is viticulturist.

Etienne arrived in 2006 to take over winemaking duties. He has many plans. He used to work at sparkling wine specialists J C LeRoux and he is experimenting with a methode cap classique at Altydgedacht, and the un-degorged bottle I tried was impressive.

But old favourites are safe. Altydgedacht make one of the Cape's few Gewurtztraminer wines, a nice example which, they tell me, is very popular in America. They also make a rare Barbera, a variety they pioneered, and which I later greatly enjoyed with pasta.

On the way down from the vineyards Ollo stopped to fasten some loose vines. I was intrigued by the tool he used that seemed to work by just pointing at the vine.





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Interview with Kanonkop's Abrie Beeslaar

Marisa D'Vari at A Wine Story has posted an interview with Kanonkop winemaker Abrie Beeslaar about his 2007 Pinotage.

Read it here.

Praise for J Vineyards Pinotage

"Lagrein, colombard, and pinotage were not the most uttered wine terms of 2009 . . . . But they were among some of the most exciting wines of the year to me, especially after a flood of chardonnays, cabernets, pinot noirs and other
standard wines.

I love the excitement you can find in unusual varieties...

Pinotage, a grape native to South Africa, is rarely seen in California, but George Bursick of J Wine Co. in the Russian River made a 2006 pinotage that is probably the best version of the grape I have ever tasted. At $38, the wine isn’t cheap, but it is startlingly excellent."

says Dan Berger in The Napa Valley Register.

Someone else impressed with J was Lycorys posting at CircvsMaximus.com

Had my first taste of this wine on Christmas. Friend of mine brought back a bottle of J Vineyards Pinotage from California earlier this Fall. It was one of the best bottles of red I have ever had. I'm a big fan of bolder reds - Zinfandel, Cabernet Sauvignon, Syrah, and Malbec to name a few. This wine was right in my wheelhouse. It's not often that I'll drop more than $20 on a bottle of wine, but even at $38 this wine is a bargain. It received a rating of 92 in Wine Spectator

Fairview Launch La Capra range

I was reminded of the Beatles tune ‘Being for the Benefit of Mr Kite’ when I opened La Capra 2008 Pinotage. The fab four’s song had been inspired by a circus poster, as surely is La Capra.

The ranges’ back labels promising that “each glass will transport you to a magical place where the wine flows freely, laughter fills the air and you dance until the sunrise” recall Victorian fairground posters.

La Capra seems a strange name for a new wine brand until you learn that it’s a Latin reference to goats and then you understand. For behind La Capra stands someone who George Taber in his recent book ‘In Search of Bacchus’ calls “a man who never heard a pun about goats he didn’t like”.

Yup, it’s Charles Back; chief goat herder, cheese maker extraordinaire, wine maker, tracker down of old blocks of rare grape varieties and consummate marketer whose brands include Fairview, Goats du Roam, Spice Route and who has interests in MAN Vintners, Juno and more.

Da Capra labels’ claim that ‘Fairview presents AMAZING tastes, sounds and sights of the La Capra Festival’ will come true, says Anita Streicher, manager at Fairview Winery’s master tasting room. She tells me that Fairview will be hosting an annual live La Capra fair with stalls, jugglers, fire eaters and other circus and fairground entertainments, and no doubt plentiful wines and goats’ cheese to accompany them.

La Capra is meant to be an easy drinking, non-serious, fun wine range. Individual pricing is not yet announced but for an indication currently any six wines from the nine strong range are available at Fairview for 200 rands (£16.50/$33). The La Capra range includes a Malbec, still an uncommon variety in the Cape and the wine which Anita recommends, as well as Sauvignon and Chenin Blanc, Chardonnay, Viognier, Merlot, Shiraz and Cabernet Sauvignon.

So what of La Capra Pinotage 2008? It is said to be ‘as brooding and complex as a troubadour’, but I am not up to date on the psychology of travelling balladeers. I found it to be a clean, modern, fruity wine for drinking, which is what I did with it. It went down quickly and enjoyably -- but it didn’t sing to me.

In the Press - Spier Pinotage 2006

The Private Collection Pinotage 2006 (rsp: £15.99) is pleasantly delicate and elegant for the variety, with a lovely nose of raspberries and redcurrants and almost like a Kiwi Pinot Noir in the mouth. Clare Hu in Harpers (UK trade magazine)

Harpers reports that Spier are "pulling out of supermarkets in favour of a push in the on-trade and independent merchants", but they do not mention whether this affects the many own-label wines Spier produce for UK supermarkets, for instance the ASDA Pinotage 'wine of year' praised by Tim Atkin, see here.

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Pink Kadette for Kanonkop

Kanonkop Estate’s popular red blend Kadette will soon have a pink partner. The rosé Kadette will be made from Pinotage.

For some years Kanonkop has concentrated on just four wines; as well as Kadette there is varietal Cabernet Sauvignon and Pinotage and the Paul Sauer Bordeaux blend.

“You can’t stand still,” owner Johann Krige told me, “you must keep innovating.” Currently in barrel is a premium Pinotage which the estate will release in 2010 through negocients. “We won’t even sell it at the winery,” said Johan. “It will be a very special wine at a price to match.”


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Wine Society Plants Pinotage

For some years The Wine Society, the world’s oldest wine society, has sourced their own label Pinotage from organic wine farm Bon Cap in the Eilanda valley near Robertson.

In order to meet growing demand and showing their faith in the variety they have contracted Bon Cap to plant a Pinotage vineyard exclusively for their own wines.

The Wine Society is a UK based non-profit making mutual society owned by its members which operates primarily via mail order and the internet.

Pinotage Association Saves Trophy

The International Wine & Spirit Competition’s Trophy for Pinotage has been saved by the swift intervention of the Pinotage Association when KWV withdrew their 13 years sponsorship at short notice.

The Pinotage Association, with the backing of their sponsors ABSA, immediately stepped in to ensure that Pinotage continues as a Trophy category.

The Trophy has been renamed the Abraham Perold Trophy for Best Pinotage to give recognition to the father of Pinotage, Abraham Perold. KWV, who hold the rights to the Abraham Perold brand name, graciously consented to the re-naming of the Trophy. “We believe that this will enable a more collective drive in honouring the legacy of both Pinotage and Perold internationally”, said KWV CEO, Thys Loubser.

The IWSC is one of the world’s biggest and most authoritative wine competitions and South Africa’s own grape variety, Pinotage, was introduced as a category in this competition in 1995.

Frances Horder, IWSC Competition Director, said “with the sponsorship of this trophy now coming from South Africa’s Pinotage Association and their sponsor, Absa, it will for many years be an established and prestigious part of the Wine and Spirit Competition.”

This year the 2009 Abraham Perold Trophy was awarded to Rijk’s Private Cellar for their Pinotage Reserve 2006.


Photograph shows Dave Hughes, South African’s international wine expert and honorary member of the Pinotage Association (left) holding the new Trophy with Sir Ian Good, 2009 President of the IWSC. Photo courtesy of the Pinotage Association

In the Blogs - Ch Leoville-Barton & Rhone?

Nicolas Pierron, Head Sommelier at Hong Kong's Island Shangri-La hotel selects De Waals'Top of the Hill Pinotage for his wine of the week at winebuzz.hk

He says "At Restaurant Petrus I usually use this wine in a blind tasting and most of the guests think that it originates from the Rhone Valley."

While Brian Freedman - WineChateau.com's resident blogger at UnCorkLife.com finds Wildekrans' 2006 Pinotage reminded him "in a lot of ways, of some sort of cousin to a Leoville-Barton, though it never lost its own identity. Just gorgeous."

As he says "Unfortunately, too many people still aren’t familiar enough with Pinotage. But it’s a grape worth exploring. You never know when you’ll find a standout...or two."


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Spiers ASDA Pinotage 'wine of year'

Tim Atkins, writing in The Guardian (London) rates an own label Pinotage made for supermarket chain ASDA by Spier winery as one of the two best wines of the year priced under £5.

2009 Asda South African Pinotage, Spier (£3.78, 14%) Shows Pinotage's better side: gluggable raspberry fruit and a hint of liquorice.

In his round up of 2009 he awards South Africa as the Wine Producing Country of the Year.

Congrats to Spier.

Beyers Truter launches FAITH Cape Blend

There is no doubt Beyers Truter is the King of Pinotage, but he is also a master of Bordeaux varieties, gaining much kudos for them when at Kanonkop and subsequently for his Beyerskloof ‘field blend’ of Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot.

So when he melds Pinotage, Cabernet and Merlot together you know you’re going to get something special as his Synergy Cape Blends have shown.

But now comes Faith, a blend of 30% each of Cab and Merlot with 20% each of Pinotage and Shiraz. You’ll have already noted the FAITH logo on the back labels of Beyerskloof wines. FAITH is a charity set up by Truter to aid those affected by Foetal Alcohol syndrome.

The new Faith blend will directly help the charity. But it also denotes Truter’s faith in the terroir of his vineyards which is not only reflected in the wine but gravel from those vineyards is incorporated in the raised surface of the word Faith on the front label. (pictured below)

And what of the wine inside? It has just been bottled but is surprisingly approachable for a wine meant to be aged. It has an incredible red purple colour with a sweet lavender nose and it is soft on the palate; very soft and sweet. I thought it was a tremendous wine.

Only ten barrels were made and it is expected to sell at around 750R a bottle. Expensive yes, but every purchase helps the FAITH charity.

Beyers Truter is pictured above pouring tastes of Faith to diners in his restaurant.

Recent Wines

The following were enjoyed with dinner in the past week.


Remhoogte 2008
WO Stellenbosch

Subdued blackberry nose and sweet blueberry flavours. An elegant refined wine with a spicy flourish at the end.

Du Toitskloof 2007
WO Western Cape

A little coffee on the nose. Lively welcoming wine. Berry fruits just jump out of glass. There’s coffee and black-forest gateau on the palate. A really enjoyable wine.

Fairview 2007
WO Coastal
Ripe rich berries with vanilla and coffee on the finish, a lovely full bodied wine.

Cardouw 2002
WO Western Cape
Showing signs of age, fruit tasting stewed and fading in the glass. 2002 wasn’t the greatest vintage and if you have any of this wine I’d suggest drink it now.

Welbedacht 2006
WO Wellington
Full bodied, big wine. Galumphing backberry fruits, some grip, great drinking!



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Backsberg Pinotage 2007

To Backsberg near Paarl for their spit-roasted lamb with crunchy potatoes accompanied by some very welcome fresh vegetables; simply steamed broccoli, cauliflower and carrots.

Although it is delightfully warm it is too windy to dine outside under the trees so we go indoors where we are well looked after by friendly Luciano Blouws.

Their wine list suggested that Pinotage makes a good lamb pairing and I needed no encouragement. The 2007 has a dense ruby colour and forthright smoky nose. Oodles of blackberry fruit flavours assail the palate, followed by a sweetness with some medium firm tannins. Lovely drinking now –especially with lamb – and I’d be interested in seeing this with a few more years bottle age as I think it will develop very attractively.

See also this previous post about Backsberg's spit roast lamb here

Rijk’s Pinotage is Best SA Red

Congratulations to Rijks Private Cellar in Tulbagh in winning ‘Best South African Red’ for their Rijk’s Pinotage Reserve 2006 at the Cathay Pacific Hong Kong International Wine & Spirit Competition.

The competition's four-day judging session, featuring an Asian judging panel (pictured), was held in the first week of November. With around 1300 entries the Cathay Pacific Hong Kong IWSC claims to be the largest pan-Asian wine competition.
Picture: Judging panel at work

Isabelo Pinotage Sweeps the Board

Congratulations to all involved in Isabelo Pinotage which swept the board at the annual Fairtrade Wine Competition, announced at Vinopolis in London on 19 November.

The same wine also won the Trophy for Best Overall Fairtrade Red Wine and the Certificate for Best Fairtrade South African Red, thus sweeping the board in every available category.

82 wines from Argentina, Chile and South Africa entered this year, compared to 61 last year, a 34% increase.

The judging panel, chaired by Louise Vaux of the Wine & Spirit Trust, was: Sarah Jane Evans MW, Tim Atkin MW, Patricia Langton, Susan McCraith MW, Jo Ahearne MW, (M&S), Michelle Smith, (Sainsbury’s), Becca Reeves, (formerly of Asda, now Direct wines), Graham Nash, (Tesco), Jaspar Corbett (Alan Titchmarsh daytime TV Show).

Congratulations to all involved.






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Vin de Francois Charity Auction

There's just a week left to run for the on-line auction for the second vintage of François Naudé’s ‘Le Vin de François’.

François’ reputation as a master of Pinotage was earned while working at L’Avenir Estate where he won ABSA Pinotage Top 10 seven times. After retiring from L’Avenir he was besieged with requests for his knowledge and now he offers consultation services to a number of top wineries. And, with Pinotage in his blood, François couldn’t resist making wine for himself. Part of his consultancy fee includes the option of a barrel of Pinotage and he chooses ones best suited to make his dream blend which he named ‘Vin de François’.

The label was designed by well known designer Haumann Smal features a wing-nut design symbolizing the clasping together of family ideals, with the different wines from a variety of terroirs. But it also is a tongue-in-mouth reference to François distinctive ears.

But you can’t pop down to supermarket to buy this wine. Interested parties are invited to an auction. They are taken to a secret venue – this year it was Croydon Olive Estate Lifestyle Centre which ‘was transformed into a 1930’s Speakeasy Club with entertainment and food by celebrity chefs.

This year 36 people made successful bids, paying in total R720,000 for 200 cases of twelve bottles.

Only 2600 bottles of the 2008 vintage were produced, and 3 cases (36 bottles) are being offered to the general public via an online auction at http://www.levindefrancois.com/, with all proceeds being donated to the FAITH Foundation which fight against Foetal Alcohol Syndrome.


I tasted this wine last week with François (pictured) who says that the 2008 vintage “was excellent from a point of view of elegance and balance.” The wine had been in bottle for just a month and had an excellent deep colour with restrained fruit and tannins and the sense of locked up potential.

If you are in the Cape you may be interested in bottles of 2007 vintage which I noted on sale at 400R in Delheim winery’s tasting cellar.


Visit http://www.levindefrancois.com/ for more information and to bid.

Riebeek’s Pasta Pairing Perfection

With only two Pinotages on the restaurant wine list I plumped for Riebeek Cellars 2007.

Gosh, what a pleasure it is. It is unwooded and comes in a screwcap closed bottle so it was clean and fresh tasting and the waiter didn’t have to wave it around while struggling with a corkscrew.

What bowled me over was the amount of smooth rounded fruit flavours they’d packed into it for the price. Just great drinking without having to think too much, but with some spicy herby flavours it’s a bit more than just a fruit bomb. This is the wine to buy a case of to have ready any time you want to just grab a bottle and quickly crack that cap.

And it made a great pairing for my pasta dish.


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Bergkelder Release Mature Pinotages

Celebrating their 25th anniversary the Bergkelder Vinoteque is releasing 25 mature wines including four Pinotages. The price includes delivery in South Africa.


Jacobsdal Pinotage 2000 12x750ml R 877.00
Stellenzicht Pinotage Golden Triangle 2003 12x750ml R 895.00
Tukulu Pinotage 2002 6x750ml R 554.00
Zonnebloem Pinotage (in Wooden box ) 2004 12x750ml R 576.00

For details and order form go to www.vinoteque.co.za

Somerbosch Winery Bistro

Somerbosch is on the R44 close to Somerset West and although I have driven past it many times I have not stopped. But I heard that they do a good lunch there so one dismal day we tried it.

Their bistro is in a flagstone floored old barn. A dozen or so tables are set out, there’s an open fire in a huge fireplace with sofas set in front and a most charming and helpful waitress. Also, rather disconcertingly, a small open office at the entrance where someone is continually clacking away on a keyboard.

What to choose? We plump for the alliterative Kudu Kebabs which come with a goodly portion of roasted veggies, a mound of tiny new potatoes and the most scrumptious black sauce made from mulberries. A neighbouring table have roast duck which they highly recommend and tell us is the reason they keep returning.

A bottle of Somerbosch 2007 Pinotage at 55R (£4.60/$9.20) is a good match. It offers bright red cherry fruit flavours and is soft and generous.

I couldn’t resist Pinotage ice-cream which comes with that delightful Pinotage purple colour but its texture is disappointingly chewy and cloying.

We leave with another bottle of Pinotage (47R retail) and a Shiraz which is on sale at a bargain 25R (£2/$4) (and is almost as nice as the Pinotage) and a determination to return to try the duck next time.



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P & O’s Pinotage Picks

Michael Olivier and Neil Pendock (P & O) recommended 45 Pinotages in their new People’s Guide 2010. (see review posted yesterday). Four of them are singled out to receive Coup de Coeur (blow to the heart) awards. They are

Zonnebloem 2007 (under 50R) which is described as “Elegance and excitement, big yummy, coconut there too. Delicious aftertaste.” Neil adds that “there was cooing around the room when we tasted this wine.”

Beaumont 2006 (50-100R) – “Bright fresh, sweet cherry nose. Plums and vanilla – finishes dry.

Bellevue Morkel 2007 (50-100R) – “Smoky coffee. Big chewy fruit and toasty vanilla with a long and lingering finish.”

Clos Malverne Reserve 2007 (Over 100R) – “Chocolate mint crunch. Sweet chocolate, some banana and plums.”


The omissions are intriguing. No Kanonkop, Ashbourne, L’Avenir Grand Vin, or DeWaal Top of the Hill. Beyerskloof Reserve is included, but not its cheaper standard bottling, although in the book Michael calls that “one of the great wines of South Africa.” Two coffee’n’chocolate Pinotages are there – Diemersfontein and Café Culture – accompanied by swipes at the ABSA Top 10 competition for ignoring them, but Bertus Fourie’s Barista and Boland’s Cappuccino are left out. Stellenzichts second label Hill & Dale makes it but not Stellenzicht’s multi-award winning Golden Triangle.

I have just got to get that Zonnebloem to see if it makes me coo.

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The People's Guide 2010 -- Book Review

Columnist and fearlessly outspoken chronicler of the wine industry Neil Pendock has become increasingly critical of the popular annual Platter Guide for its policy of tasting wines ‘sighted’, in other words reviewers see the label of the wine they taste. Pendock’s feud with Platter is so deep that he cannot now mention its name without using the prefix ‘sighted’.

“It was time I had to put up or shut up,” he told me, handing over a hot-off-the-press copy of his new ‘People’s Guide 2010’. For this review Pendock together with Michael Olivier and a small team tasted 1200 wines unsighted over six days and selected 561 recommendations. The book’s cover claims ‘blind-tasted wines are honest wines.’


The paperback book is most attractively designed and printed in full colour with a photograph of every bottle, and stripes with coloured backgrounds giving an initial tasting note with additional comments from one or more of the judges complete with a ‘Did You Know’ odd fact and technical details of appellation, alcohol and sugar levels.

Wines that particularly impressed the judges are awarded a Coup de Coeur (blow to the heart) and given an entire page to themselves.

Wines are not rated; they are described “using plain language rather than scores out of 20 or 100 or awarding stars. After all, it’s about writing, not arithmetic and best is a matter of personal opinion.”

So inclusion in the book is the recommendation – and almost 50% of the wines tasted were. 76 wines were awarded a Coup de Coeur, (That is around 6% compared with 42 (0.5%) Five Star wines out of 8000 rated in Platter.

So how does the People’s Guide compare with Platter? Platter attempts to rate every South African wine giving a necessarily cryptic tasting note and a rating from zero to 5 stars.

The Peoples Guide uses ‘plain language rather than scores’ and yet the tasting notes are brief in the extreme. Whereas Platter is limited by space, even when a full page is dedicated to a Coup de Coeur wine its description can be as short as six words, for instance Two Oceans Pinot Noir 2007 is summed up as “Wham. Intense sour cherries, smooth fresh.”

However this is a different guide. There are also exuberant food matching comments from ex-restaurateur Michael Olivier which range from “a pasta-sorta wine” (De Grendel 2006 Merlot) to “would go with Karoo Muisies, little liver cakes wrapped in caul fat and cooked over coals” (Long Mountain Reserve Pinotage 2007). Other tasters add in their comments from succinct to wordy plus those intriguing ‘did you know’ quirky facts.

There are signs of a rush to get to print with several typos and one entry being repeated in its entirety, and I wondered whether “Pinotage nose with plums and berries” was an accurate descriptor for a Sauvignon Blanc.

But minor quibbles aside, this is a good looking, readable and interesting book which doesn’t claim to be comprehensive but if you choose your wine from its recommendations you won’t be disappointed.

Here’s hoping Pendock & Olivier can keep it going for the next 30 years!


The People’s Guide 2010:
navigate the winelands in a shopping trolley
by Michael Olivier & Neil Pendock with Anibal Coutinho
99 Rand
304 pages including advertisements.
Published by Whisk Publications
ISBN 978-0-620-44882-6

Five Decades of Pinotage

Beyers Truter, Chairman of the producers Pinotage Association and owner of Beyerskloof Winery, invited a group including winemakers and journalists to his beach side house in Vermont, near Hermanus, this week for a tasting of Pinotages covering five decades from the 1960’s to now. Among those present were Pinotage winemakers Abrie Beeslaar (Kanonkop Estate), Etienne Louw (Altydgedacht Estate), Hannes Storme (Ashbourne, Southern Right), DeWet Viljoen (Neethlingshof Estate) and writers Christian Eeedes, Emile Joubert, Fiona McDonald, Neil Pendock and myself.

There were five flights of wines, one for each decade, starting with the 1960s. The first varietal Pinotage that was commercially available was the 1959 vintage released under Stellenbosch Farmers Winery’s Lanzerac brand.

The tasting was chaired by Pinotage Association Executive Committee member Duimpie Bayley CWM



Abrie Beeslaar pours Lanzerac 1963 for Beyers Truter and DeWet Viljoen shares a joke with Fiona McDonald while pouring the Lanzerac 1969

Lanzerac 1963

Clear brilliant brick colour but not looking as old as its years. The wine has been decanted so there hardly any sediment in the glass.

The nose is of a mature long aged wine and reminiscent of toffee.

First impression on tasting is of a thin wine, soft with cough drop and savoury flavours -- Neil Pendock thought "umami" -- and high acidity. It has a surprisingly long finish.

Lanzerac 1969

Deep red core, bricking at edges and some fine grainy black sediment – though I had a pour from the last of the bottle.

Lavender fruit on nose.

More fruit on this wine, red currants and berries, lick of cedar and again high acidity.

The wine is sweet and drinkable with fruits though thinning.

This flight was a real surprise. Two wines made more than forty years ago from young vines of a new variety, and made for immediate drinking have shown an amazing staying power. Duimpie Bayley says they have been stored in optimum conditions -- around 16 degrees -- in an underground cellar. The corks were in good condition.

Duimpie says they used to harvest between 22-24 brix so the finished wine would be about 12-13% abv and “they had a formula, or recipe, in that they’d regularly add a pound (456 grammes) of tartaric acid to a leaguer (575 litres) of juice. In those days no fining was done, they’d age in large 1,000 and 4,000 litre wooden barrels.

Duimpie worked at Stellenbosch Farmers Winery (SFW), who owned the Lanzerac brand and introduced Pinotage to the market. The first Pinotage was in a claret shaped bottle but from the 1960 vintage they used a bowling pin shaped bottle for the range as it was new and fashionable though not without its problems.

“Bowling pins are designed to fall when knocked and then to tip over neighbouring pins,” said Duimpie, “and when running the bottling line with these bottles when one tipped it brought them all down. There was a lot of down time and staff were always having to be righting fallen bottles.”

The labels were pink because it was the favourite colour of SFW's chairman and pink was used to brand SFW, even to painting their delivery trucks what Duimpie called 'nipple pink'. The package was used until well into the seventies.

Second flight was from the Seventies.

Swartland Winery 1971

Golden red colour with lots of fine gritty sediment.

Sweet berry nose

Sweet berry fruit on palate, good body and a spicy long finish with some acids coming through at the end.

Very drinkable and enjoyable wine with long long aftertaste, though food is needed to alleviate acids at very end.

The wine was made at the Swartland Co-operative in Malmesbury but Gevul en Verouder (bottled and matured) by KWV in Paarl

Zonnebloem 1974

Premium brand for SFW, the grapes coming from Kanonkop and Bellevue.

Attractive red-gold colour, but acrid and acidic at first taste. There are some fruit and herb notes there, but too acidic and sour for me to enjoy.

Meerendal 1976

Meerendal was one of the pioneering Pinotage vineyards and I was looking forward to this wine which had a dark dense black red colour. However a stinky VA (volatile acidity) nose and an unpleasant sour taste showed this wine was spoilt and not drinkable

Stellenryk 1976

Pale, pinking at rim. An aged smell of sweet soft toffee. Restrained, not getting much flavour, some noticeable alcohol and stone developing at end.

Simonsig Estate 1978

Pale browning red colour with a shy, porty nose. Perky up-front fruit acids with caramel and a dusty wood tannin finish. A restrained wine whose fruit had declined.

Some tasters thought they detected Cabernet Sauvignon in this wine, but this was the only label which proclaimed it was "100% Pinotage", a statement that got Simonsig in trouble with the authorities at the time because of the implication that others were not. And indeed, the rules did not then, and still do not, require that a varietal contains nothing but the variety named on its label.

Zonnebloem 1984

Medium dark red, brown pink rim and a cheesy nose. Medium body with sweet thinning cherry and red plum fruits and a floral end that become attractively spicy on a very long finish.

Zonnebloem 1988

Red, brick rim, thin sweet nose, some grippy tannins and fresh fleshy fruits. Nice wine.

Kanonkop Estate CWG 1994

A barrel selection bottling for the Cape Winemakers Guild auction.

Purple dense opaque core, subdued nose, restrained and elegent.

Lavenir Estate CWG 1997

A barrel selection bottling for the Cape Winemakers Guild auction.

Deep red paleing at edge. Cherries on the nose, dense closed fruit at first opening out into ripe cherry flavours, lively acids and soft tannins, a very nicely balanced wine.

Kanonkop Estate 1999

Young purple colour, soft warm nose, generous rich sweet fruits of forest favours. It has a spicy almost Christmas cake richness.

I remember when this wine was first released thinking how soft and approachable it was, unusual in Kanonkop whose wines then needed some years in bottle to be approachable, and I though this was a slight wine that wouldn’t last and I didn’t buy any. I was so wrong. I’ve tasted this twice wine over the past couple of years and it is delicious.

Beyers recalled it had 18 months in 80% new oak, 20% second fill.

Kaapzicht Estate ‘Steytler’ 2001

Dense black with red rim that stains the glass, lively expressive fruits, spiciness and soft old leather, Delightful wine. 15%abv

Simonsig ‘Redhill’ 2003

Opaque purple black with sweet candy nose. Beautiful silky mouthfeel with flavours of black cherries and succulent plums. A rich opulent wine with dense fruit balanced by harmonious acids and tannins. This is a stunner, and my favourite drinking wine of the tasting, just ahead of the 1999 Kanonkop.

Beyerskloof ‘Diesel’ 2006

Bright cherry red colour. Tasting very young in the line-up, the “fruit and oak are still finding themselves” as Abrie Beeslaw, sitting next to me, put it. I think this wine suffers in comparison following the Simonsig and with some grippy tannins from its 21 months in new oak it is a work in progress needing more time.

Lunch and Pinotage at Seidelberg Estate

Torrential rain of the past view days clears and so to Seidelberg Estate near Paarl for lunch. It’s too cool to sit outside but indoors there are open wood fires to take away the chill. And through the glass there is a terrific view over the valley.

Restaurant staff are friendly as is the menu with a range of traditional dishes each with an explanation of their construction and sometimes their history.

I plump for the Cape Malay chicken and yoghurt curry, my partner for the lamb curry (both 78R/£6.50/$13) and we share a starter of delicious delicate vegetable samosas (35R/£3/$6). The curries come in a bowl on a plate with a bowl of rice and a sambal of chopped tomato and cucumber. The waitron removes the very hot curry bowl with her bare hands and places it by the plate then the rice and raita so I can move spoonfuls of each onto the now empty plate as I wish.

Each dish has a recommended wine; Chardonnay is suggested for the chicken but I have a much better idea and order a glass of Pinotage.

The wine arrives cool, which is excellent as too many red wines are served too hot. On a hot day the wine would quickly warm up but today I cup it a little in my hands because the wine is not offering much at first.

This is not an ‘in-your-face’ wine, it’s serious and restrained with black cherry flavours at first then developing layers of complexity revealing seams of pepper and spices and some tannins. One glass is not enough and a second is ordered.

The curry comprises boneless chicken pieces in a thick red tomato based sauce with delicate spices but no chilli heat to speak of. The lamb curry also has potato chunks of which I am envious and I’d have liked some veggies in mine.

An excellent lunch and I call into the cellar burrowed into the valley side to buy a bottle of the Pinotage 2008 I have just drunk (30R/£2.50/$5 a glass, 95 R a bottle in the restaurant, 71R/£6/$12 a bottle ex-cellar) plus a bottle of the Roland’s Reserve 2007 Pinotage (123R/£10/$20 ex-cellar). Both wines are Estate Wine of Origin Paarl

Beyerskloof in Telegraph'sTop 10

Number 3 in Jonathan Ray's list of South Africa's Top 10 wines for the Daily Telegraph is

2008 Beyerskloof Pinotage, 14%vol, South Africa (£5.99 if you buy 3, otherwise £8.99; Wine Rack)

Pinotage, a cross between cinsault and pinot noir, is South Africa's USP, loved for its fruit by some, dismissed as tired and redolent of burnt rubber by others. In the hands of Beyerskloof's Beyers Truter, one of the grape's most vociferous supporters, it works a dream. Here, his entry-level version is ripe, juicy and full of spicy plum fruit, with no hint of rubber. Enjoy with slow roast belly of pork.

read full list here

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Whales, Fish'n'Chips and .......

Hermanus is where the whales are and before spending some time viewing them from the rocks what is better than Rich Man’s Fish and Chips at the Marine Hotel?





But where is the Pinotage? I hear you ask. Top right, in the flute. We order, as usual, a bottle of Villiera Brut Tradition, a methode champenoise sparkler with an amazing amount of tiny bubbles that cease only on streaming up to explode on the surface when the glass is emptied. One of the components of this delightfully zesty toasty fizz is Pinotage.


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Stormhoek 2007

‘Made in Heaven’ it says the foot of this label. The Stormhoek brand now has two incarnations: rights to use the name in South Africa remain with Graham Knox who was one of its founders while abroad the brand name is owned by Origin Wines.

This is Knox’s Stormhoek. Jammy fruit is upfront, it is soft fat bodied with a tannic core. Ideal with a steak and for quaffing not pontificating about.

Stormhoek 2007
WO Western Cape
48 R (£5)

Bertus Fourie on Barista Pinotage 09 (Video)

Michael Olivier talks to winemaker Bertus Fourie who invented the 'coffee Pinotage' category. Michael tastes his new 2009 Barista Pinotage.

Bertus describes the technique behind achieving this unique flavour profile, highlighting the fact that it can only be obtained with Pinotage.

Thanks to A Minute of Wine -- Your online home for films on South African Wine for sharing this clip with us.

(c) Copyright A Minute of Wine. Used with permission.

False Bay Pinotage 2007

False Bay is an inexpensive export label made by Waterkloof at their impressive new winery perched on a high ridge overlooking False Bay.

The wine is light coloured bright red with high toned cherry flavours and a bite of acidity. WO Western Cape, 47 Rand (£3.90)from winery

Is Coffee Pinotage really the best example of the variety?

Richard Hemming, tasting for Jancis Robinson's site seems to think so. He gave his highest score to Diemersfontein's coffee'n'chocolate Pinotage.

The original article is on the restricted part of Jancis's site but Grape magazine has been granted permission to reproduce it here.

Hemming tasted Pinotages at the recent South African Mega Tasting in London, however he doesn't appear to have tasted the 2009 Top 10 Winners from the Pinotage Association stand that I had the honour to staff.

They are considered to be the best Pinotages available and it no review of the variety can be considered comprehensive if missed when available.

Southern Right Pinotage with owner Anthony Hamilton Russell (video)

Anthony Hamilton Russell is a passionate fan of Pinotage which he produces under two labels: Ashbourne and Southern Right. Here he talks about his belief in the variety, how it ages and how he is redefining Pinotage.





This is the last of a series of short videos taken at the Wines of South Africa Mega Tasting held in London in October.

Bosman Family Vineyards Pinotage by winemaker Corlea Fourie (video)

Corlea Fourie is winemaker at Bosman Family Vineyards in Wellington. Here she talks about their new 2008 vintage Pinotage.

Diemersfontein Pinotage by owner David Sonnenberg (video)

David Sonnenberg, owner of Diermersfontein winery in Wellington which pioneered the popular 'coffee'n'chocolate' style of Pinotage, talks about how the wine has changed as it approaches its tenth aniversary.





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Bon Cap Ruins Pinotage with owner Michelle du Preez (video)

Michelle du Preez, owner of Bon Cap Organic winery in Robertson, talks about her popular Ruins Pinotage.







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Diemersfontein 2009 Pinotage gains a fan....

Laurian Clemence blogs about the recent WineX show in Johannesburg:

Of course I pushed my way through the crowds at the Diemersfontein stall. ‘Step aside Junior, I’m going in.’ They served their latest Pinotage – the 2009 – not available on shelves yet – and I almost had a full on orgasm whilst taking the first sip.
They also served it with a Belgian chocolate. God they’re good.

Seems like she really liked it. Read the full entry here.

Beyerskloof Diesel Pinotage with winemaker Anrie Truter (video)

Anrie Truter tells us about Beyerskloof's new flagship Diesel Pinotage, the inspiration for its name and how he decided to make the best Pinotage in South Africa.







The bottle Anrie is holding is the 2007 vintage with the new label that was a 2009 Top 10 winner. The initial vintage 2006 was a 2008 Top 10 winner.

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Riebeek Cellars with winemaker Eric Saayman (video)

Riebeek Cellars winemaker Eric Saayman talks about the versatility of Pinotage which enables him to produce three different styles of the cultivar





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Moreson 2008 Pinotage by winemaker Clayton Reabow (video)

Clayton Reabow, winemaker at Môreson winery in Franschhoek, discusses the 2008 vintage which disappointed. Here he explains how he tweaked his 2008 Pinotage and how it is now developing.




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Swallow's Tail Pinotage - by Harriet Tindal (video)

Harriet Tindal of Tindal Wine Merchants in Ballina, County Mayo, Ireland talks about her new Swallow's Tail Riserva 2008 Pinotage and the inspiration behind its excellent label.





The wine is priced at €8.15 a bottle and is made by the Tindal family in conjunction with and by Major's Hill in Robertson. Tindal Wines also carries the Major's Hill range of wines.

Three Cape Ladies Cape Blend -- by Mike Ratcliffe (video)

I met Mike Ratcliffe of Warwick Estate at the South Africa Mega Tasting this month and asked him to tell me about his Three Cape Ladies Cape Blend.



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Pinotage triumphs at WineX

The public overwhelmingly voted for 'coffee and choc 'Pinotages at last months three day wine show, WineX, held in Cape Town.

Visitors are given a voting form on which to record the best wine of the show. This year the three top red wines were Diemersfontein Pinotage 2008, KWV Café Culture 2009 and Barista Coffee Pinotage 2009, and the Diemersfontein Pinotage was the most ordered wine at the show.

South African wine columnist Neil Pendock contrasted the popularity of this style of Pinotage with its lack of success in the Pinotage Top 10 competition winners and its lack of stars in the Platter Guide, which Pendock bizarrely blames on Platter tasting wines sighted although this style of Pinotage is unmistakeable when tasted blind.

As Christo Volschenk commenting on WineGoggle said "It’s the only industry I can think of where you are praised when you reproduce yesterday’s tastes (products) perfectly and ridiculed when you produce (apparently quite legally) new tastes (products)."

Interesting that Barista came last since that was the one made by Bertus Fourie who invented this style while at Diemersfontein and later created KWV’s version. Have his students surpassed the master, or is it that more people tasted the well known brands than the newly released Barista?

WineX will be held in Johannesburg 27 - 30 October 2009. Will Pinotage triumph again?


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Oregon Joins the Club

Oregon has joined the family of Pinotage growers. Melrose Vineyards, located in the delightfully named Umpqua Valley, near the town of Roseburg in southern Oregon, planted Pinotage in 2004 on the banks on the South Umpqua River and currently they have one acre of Pinotage.

Melrose is owned by Wayne and Deedy Parker who started their vineyards in 1996. The Parker family decided to plant Pinotage for “the unique wine experience and for the challenge of growing a grape unknown in the Umpqua Valley.” Wayne Parker says “the vines are doing exceptionally well.”

Rachael Miller at Melrose says “customers are intrigued by the delightfully fragrant nose that almost seems to contradict the unusually rich berry flavours.” She adds that “Pinotage makes a great reduction for pork tenderloin and is very flexible when pairing with food.”

Melrose released their first varietal Pinotage, from the 2006 vintage, last November and so far it has won a bronze medal at the 2009 San Francisco Chronicle Wine Competition and a silver medal at the 2009 Oregon Seafood & Wine Festival.

Oregon joins fellow US states California and Virginia in growing and making commercially available varietal Pinotage along with Montana, New York and North Carolina which are growing Pinotage.

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Just Fancy That

From the Arniston Bay Blog, posted 21 September

A roast rack of Karoo lamb is just the right dish to prepare on Heritage Day.
This dish maybe time consuming to prepare but the result is an amazingly delicious dish which is well worth the effort.
To keep within the heritage theme, serve this meal with a uniquely South African Pinotage. The Arniston Bay Pinotage 2008 is a well balanced wine with vanilla tones and savoury flavours. This wine is a great match for the South African Karoo lamb.

From the Kumkani blog, posted 21 September

A roast rack of Karoo lamb is just the right dish to prepare on Heritage Day.
This dish maybe time consuming to prepare but the result is an amazingly delicious dish which is well worth the effort.
To keep within the heritage theme, serve this meal with a uniquely South African Pinotage. The Kumkani Pinotage 2006. This well balanced wine has a ripe berry fruit nose and French oak aromas adding vanilla and spice with a excellent finish.

Both blogs posted Sally Schneider's December 1969 recipe copied from a US site and although temperatures have been converted to Celcius from Fahrenheit the lamb pictured is not Karoo but "American lamb, because it is corn fed, is milder in flavor than Australian or New Zealand lamb, which is grass fed."

How come both Kumkani and Arniston Bay blogs happened to post the same thing on the same day? Seems that the brands have outsourced production of their blogs to the same PR Agency, Bivio Consulting.

Bivio Consulting also run the blogs of several other wine brands including Boschendal , Four Cousins ,Tall Horse and Versus . Content is mostly cut and paste items from other websites with minimal original content or news about the winery, it staff or its products.

No doubt Bivio managed to impress the wineries with the importance to a business of blogging, however Bivio themselves are not leading by example. Bivio's very own blog, hosted by the free Blogger service, has had only 3 items posted this year, the last one on 10 April declared "Our site is currently under construction".

I think these wineries are missing the point. Surely a blog is a way to communicate with their customers and to let us who cannot visit the winery to know what is going on throughout the seasons. It isn't rocket science and it needn't cost money. I can imagine the winery MD smugly boasting that 'Oh, yes, we have a blog' but I don't think that paying a PR agency to post content culled from the web that has no connection with the wine brand that owns the blog makes sense.

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Succesful Erections at Neethlinghof

Neethlingshof have now formally announced the renaming of their Lord Neethling Pinotage to Owl Post, as revealed here in May.

They say that the redesign emphasises elegance and rejuvenation. “The new-look labels, adopted across the range, have also created an opportunity to highlight the winery’s commitment to eco-sustainability, having recently become a member of the Biodiversity & Wine Initiative (BWI).”.

“the reserve tier, made exclusively from hand-picked grapes, has been named The Short Story Collection. Drawing attention to Neethlingshof’s rich and varied narratives, the three-limited edition wines in the collection each focus on a specific aspect of the estate’s philosophy or history.”

They include the Owl Post, a single-vineyard Pinotage.


“The Owl Post recognises Neethlinghof’s integrated pest management system. Owls play an important role in keeping rodent infestations in check (and without the use of chemicals). To encourage the return of these nocturnal birds of prey to the estate, Neethlingshof successfully erected breeding-friendly owl posts in the vineyards.”

No mention how many posts were “successfully erected” or whether any owls have moved into the new accommodation.

Flat Roof Manor add Pink Pinotage to Portfolio

Flat Roof Manor have added a pink wine to their list. It’s called Pinot Rosé and is a 70-30 blend of Pinotage and Pinot Grigio.

No reason given for the inclusion of the Grigio but I guess it adds to the flavour profile and the fashionable Grigio name will help sales. Or is it they just didn’t have enough Grigio to make enough pink wine on its own?

The wine is made at Uitkyk winery by Estelle Lourens. On the property is an historic manor house which is one of only three 19th century Georgian flat roofed manors still standing in the Cape.

The brand’s label shows the flat roof with a cheeky cat that legend says preferred to stay on the roof long after its owners left the estate.

(Pinot Grigio – Pinot Gris in French – is a mutation of Pinot Noir whose skins vary in colour from grey to a dark pink. Usually used to make white wines, the recent international popularity of rosé wines coupled with the current popularity of Grigio have seen increasing numbers of pink Grigio’s.)

On the Couch with Guy Webber

Pinotage loving winemaker Guy Webber has ventured into the world of blogging.

On the Couch with Guy Webber started on 20 July and now has three posts.

Guy is winemaker for Stellenzicht and Hill and Dale and it is on the latter’s site he is musing – mostly about women it seems.

Head over there and say hello.

(I don't think that is Guy sitting on that sofa)

Pinotage News Snippets

Snippets

• Kanonkop 2005 Pinotage won the only Gold medal awarded to varietal Pinotage in the 2009 Decanter World Wine Awards. Judges described it as “Violets, red fruit, subtle spice, a bit of oyster shell. Fresh and appealing palate, with lovely concentrated strawberry fruit and some pencil shavings, tomato paste and truffle. Balanced elegant tannin”. Beyerskloof Synergy 2005 Cape Blend (with 33% Pinotage) won a Gold medal. (As previously reported, a varietal Pinotage from Kaapzicht won the International Trophy for Red Single Varietal over £10 and Kaapzicht’s Vision Cape Blend won a Gold medal at the same competition.
  
  
• Wine Spectator gave 92 points to J Vineyards 2007 Russian River Valley (California) Pinotage.
  
  
• The successful Golden Kaan brand is now 100% owned by KWV after they bought out founding partners Racke.
  
  
• Café Culture Pinotage 2009 is about to be released. Richard Rowe, chief winemaker at KWV, says "The 2009 Café Culture Pinotage is one of the best Café Culture wines we have produced; in fact the cooler season and absence of any heat wave conditions resulted in ideal growing conditions for the grapes. Consequently the taste experience is richer and softer, and we have been able to release the wine a few months earlier than normal - a bonus for Café Culture fans."
  
  Rowe recommends cooling it before serving. “The 2009 has intense, fresh coffee and mocha flavours, which are more pronounced than other years. This is a stylish wine which can be enjoyed for all occasions," says Rowe. "I recommend chilling it slightly in summer as South Africa's room temperature can get fairly high. This will ensure that your Café Culture tastes just as delicious when sipped around the pool."
  
  
  
  
• Another coffee accented Pinotage has been launched: Cappucino by Boland Cellars
  
  
  
• Pinotage is being made in Oregon. Melrose Melrose Vineyards in Roseburg Oregon released their first vintage of 100% Pinotage last year and it a won Silver medal at the Oregon Seafood & Wine Festival 2009. Unfortunately I have not received a reply to my request for information.
  
  
• “Like a lot of people, I started out with Yellowtail; however, I have moved on to other wines now. My regular drink now is a wine from South Africa called The Ruins Pinotage.” Dr Kelly Fletcher of the University Hospital of the West Indies Department of Anaesthesia, interviewed by Christopher Reckord in the Jamaica Observer 3 September
  

Pinotage Scoops Best Red Varietal Trophy

Kaapzicht Estate’s Steytler Pinotage 2006 has won the International Trophy for Red Single Varietal over £10 at the 2009 Decanter World Wine Awards, it was announced this week.

The same wine had earlier won the Trophy for South African Red Single Varietal over £10 Trophy – watch Yngvild Steytlers reaction to that award here – and their Kaapzicht Steytler Vision 2006, a Cape Blend containing 35% Pinotage, won a Gold medal in the same competition.

Five years ago, at the 2004 International Wine and Spirits Competition in London, the 2001 vintage Vision won the Trophy for world’s best red blend, the first Cape blend to so recognised.

The fruit for the winning Pinotage and Cape Blends came from the same block of old bush vines. Danie Steytler, cellarmaster and co-owner of Kaapzicht Estate said “Bottelary Hills is a prime winegrowing terroir for red wine. The northwestern slopes have the perfect combination of direct sunlight and cool prevailing sea breezes from False Bay and Atlantic Ocean. The hills on our estate are situated only 20 km from the coast of False Bay. The medium potential soils and dry land vineyards produce low yields of 4 to 8 tons per hectare, thus creating small berries with concentrated flavours.

“Pinotage is a very versatile red wine variety and the Kaapzicht Steytler Pinotage from those vineyards is a shining example of the serious, well-oaked, full-bodied style to be enjoyed with food, especially venison, red meat, traditional South African dishes and cheeses.”


From left Danie jr Steytler (winemaker), George Steytler (owner and viticulturist) and Danie Steytler (owner and cellarmaster)


Decanter’s judges described the winning Pinotage as “Voluptuous, heady nose with very precise black fruits, plums, mocha and tar. Full-bodied and opulent in the mouth, ripe and supple fine-grained tannins with plenty of spice to enliven the finish.”

The Gold winning Vision 2006 had “Abundant blackberry fruit with pencil shaving, white pepper, cocoa and spiced oak aromas. Multi-layered ripe fruit, sleek tannins and linear progression from aroma to palate.”

Decanter World Wine Awards claim to be the world's biggest wine competition; this year there were 10,285 entries.

Congratulations to the Steytlers and the Kaapzicht team.

2009 Pinotage Top 10 Winners

Winning Wines Announced Today

• Altydgedacht 2008 (Durbanville)
  
• Beyerskloof Diesel 2007 (Stellenbosch)
  
• Cathedral Cellar 2006 (Coastal)
  
• Darling Cellars Onyx 2006 (Darling)
  
• Flagstone Writer’s Block 2007 (Worcester vineyards)
  
• Kanonkop Estate 2005 (Stellenbosch)
  
• Longridge 2007 (Stellenbosch)
  
• Lyngrove Platinum 2007 (Stellenbosch)
  
• Viljoensdrift River Grandeur 2008 (Robertson)
  
• Windmeul Reserve 2008 (Paarl)

Results of the 2009 Absa Pinotage Top 10 Competition were announced today 27 August at a ceremony following lunch at Val de Vie Wine and Polo Estate near Paarl.

Half the wineries represented are first time winners: Altydgedacht, Darling Cellars, Flagstone, Lyngrove, and Viljoensdrift.

Kanonkop wins for their eighth time and Beyerskloof for their fifth with the second vintage of Diesel which has also been awarded 5 Stars in the 2010 Platter Guide.

This year there were 139 wines competing, the 2nd highest number of entries, and these included three wines from New Zealand, the second year running the competition has attracted international interest.

This year’s judges were Duimpie Bayly (convener), Francois Naudé, Allan Cheesman, Neil Pendock, Wendy Burridge, Chris Roux and Gert Boerssen who over two days drew up a short list of 28 wines from which were selected the winners and 10 runners-up.

Duimpie Bayly said that 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.”

Co-judge Neil Pendock said it was a hard task to select the top 10 from the final 28 wines. Allan Cheesman, former Director of Wine for UK Sainsbury’s supermarkets said that he'd been tasting wine for 37 years and this was a great experience with all the superb wines.

Runners up were: Bellingham Bernard Series Bush Vine 2007,
Cathedral Cellar 2007, DeWaal Top of the Hill 2007, Diemersfontein Carpe Diem 2007, Fort Simon 2006, Kanonkop Estate 2006, Simonsig Redhill 2007, Spier Lesebo 2007, Stellenzicht Cellarmaster's Release 2007 and Wildekrans Barrel Selection 2007

The winners of the 2009 Absa Top 10 Pinotage Competition share with their award. Front from left are Anri Truter (Beyerskloof), Francois van Niekerk (Windmeul), James Slabbert (Managing Executive of Absa Corporate and Business Bank), Fred Viljoen (Viljoensdrift) and Danielle le Roux (Lyngrove). Behind from left are Abé Beukes (Darling Cellars/Onyx), Clinton Le Sueur (Longridge), Abrie Beeslaar (Kanonkop), Etienne Louw (Altydgedacht), Gerhard Swart (Flagstone) and Thys Loubser (KWV/Cathedral Cellar).

Photographer: Hannes Oosthuizen