Pinotage on Tap in UK - Saturday 26 May 2012

This coming Saturday, 26  May sees  Pinotage on Tap (POT) festival held  near Brighton, the first ever POT staged outside South Africa.

Update:  Sunday's POT has been cancelled. The event will now be on one day only -- Saturday 26 May. See you there.

POT, hosted by Diemersfontein Wines to celebrate the new vintage of their famous coffee'n'chocolate Pinotage, regularly attracts thousands of fans to the wine farm in Wellington, South Africa and in recent times POTs have also been held in Johannesburg and Durban.

The location is Poyning Grange Farm, Fulking, South Downs, Sussex, near Brighton.

Nearest rail station is Hassocks on the First Capital Connect ThamesLink line from London and Bedford. Shuttle busses from Hassocks station to the festival have been arranged and seats can be booked via Diemersfonteins web site. Tickets to the festival cost £65.00 per person.

I was talking to a South African couple at a tasting last night and they went all misty eyed at the list of music performers, they had fond memories of listening to musician Robin Auld back home. Also playing are Londesome Dave Ferguson and Albert Frost.

Diemersfontein say the festival will involve a variety of culinary treats, from various bowl foods and canapés, to the much spoken about "strawberry and chocolate fountains". Wine lovers can enjoy a fantastic day out, whilst sipping this delectable wine, eating a variety of interesting foods, playing games and listening to great live band music. Promising to be an authentic South African party in every possible way, with typical South African cuisine and entertainment by South African musicians.

And of course, Diemersfonteins original Coffee Chocolate Pinotage will be flowing from the barrel, literally "Pinotage on Tap"

More information about the event can be found on the Pinotage on Tap 2012 page, as well as Facebook and Twitter.

Enquiries to online@diemersfontein.co.za


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Making Mellasat's White Pinotage - video

I recently posted about tasting Mellasat's 2010 White Pinotage. Just realised I have a video of Mellasat's owner-winemaker Stephen Richardson describing how he made the wine. .

Jancis Likes Fairview's La Capra Pinotage

Jancis Robinson has been considering her current favourite still pink wines. Most are European but there are three new world rosés, Pinot Noirs from  Australia and Chile and then there’s Fairview La Capra Pinotage 2010:

‘With its Victorian fairground label and big, brash fruit fashioned by South Africa’s trademark red wine grape, it shouts “I’m different”. Like many pink (and white) wines at lower prices, it is kept fresh by dissolved carbon dioxide – but in this wine there is just so much fruit to counterbalance it that this ploy seems sensible rather than tricksy. Bring on the braai.’

Read all Jancis has to say about it at http://www.ft.com


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Mellasat's White Pinotage

WoSA held a tasting in London this week with the theme of wine tourism to publicise Cape Wine 2012 in Cape Town and the new Vindaba tourism show.

The London tasting showcased wines from properties with tourist attractions. Of the whites I was most impressed with Mellasat’s Enigma White Pinotage 2010. I’ve tasted and enjoyed earlier vintages but this seems to be the most complex and interesting yet.

Serve this one blind and see what happens. I reckon a white Burgundy would be the guess.
 

Four Pinotages made the Top 100 South African Wines competition.

Congratulations to:

• Allee Bleue Pinotage 2009 - WO Piekenierskloof
• L'Avenir Grand Vin Pinotage 2009 - WO Stellenbosch
• Neethlingshof The Owl Post Pinotage 2010 - WO Stellenbosch
• Swartland Winery Bushvine Pinotage 2010 - WO Swartland

366 wines were judged submitted by 136 wineries.

Full details at www.top100sawines.com .

Delheim Pinotage Rose: Video

Delheim owners Victor Sperling and Nora Sperling-Thiel take us from their tasting cellar into the vineyard to see Pinotage harvested and then into winery to meet winemaker Reg Holder as they tell us about how they make their award winning Pinotage rosé, in this excellent video made by A Minute of Wine.

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Silkbush Mountain Vineyards

Silkbush Mountain Vineyards are located in the Breede River Valley, roughly midway between Worcester and Tulbagh.

The name is probably unfamiliar because they have only released a couple of vintages wine under their own label but you may have drunk wine made by others from their grapes, including Flagstones Writer’s Block Pinotage which has twice been a Pinotage Top 10 winner.

Silkbush was bought in 2000 by Californian Dave Jefferson and a consortium of American investors and comprehensively replanted by his South African partner, General Manager and viticulturist Anton Roos who lives on the farm.
Just before returning home from the Cape I visited Silkbush where Anton (pictured above)found time in his busy schedule to drive me up the mountain to the Pinotage vineyard. On the way he told me the farm covers 140ha of which 87ha are planted to vines. Cabernet Sauvignon, Shiraz, and Pinotage are the most planted varieties and they also grow Merlot, Petit Verdot, Malbec, Cabernet Franc, Viognier, Semillon and Sauvignon Blanc.

The Pinotage vineyard is at the highest point of the farm at 730 metres, on the upper corner of the hillside.(arrowed in above picture) Mountains rise steeply beyond; one of them is Sybasberg which translates as Silkbush Mountain and gives its name to the farm. Looking over the vineyards, I could see the valley stretching out into the distance to mountains opposite. The sky was deep blue without a cloud with a raptor lazily circling above.

It is a most beautiful location and there is a guesthouse on the property that can be booked. It was originally intended for the investors but (it seems amazing to me), with the exception of Dave Jefferson, none have made the journey to this most beautiful of winelands.

The vineyard slope faces West-North-West and is always two degrees C cooler here than the valley floor. The soil is shale and quartzite. It is naturally loose and stays loose but there aren’t many nutrients so they don’t get vigorous vine growth.

Silkbush aim to harvest just seven tons per hectare. Quality is the driving factor so they remove half of the crop at 80% véraison. Leaving it this late maintains berry size.

Up to now Silkbush have concentrated on producing grapes for partner wineries but they have reserved some rows of the high Pinotage vineyard for themselves which they market under the Silkbush label in South Africa and export as Lions Drift Pinotage. Already Lions Drift is listed on Silversea Luxury Cruise Lines and American Airline’s Business Class.

I tasted the 2009 vintage. It has good dark red colour with an inviting nose. There is an explosion of ripe fruits on the palate, blackberry with damsons underneath. There’s a touch of oak, really nicely integrated, that leaves a trace of vanilla and a pleasant grip. This is a clean, fresh, modern fruit-forward Pinotage with a good fruit-acid balance of making it very food friendly. It’s great drinking now but I’d like to drink it in a couple of years to develop because I think it is going to be a stunner.

Silkbush don’t yet have their own wine making facilityry so the wine is made at Waboomsrivier, a stone’s throw away, under the auspices of Bennie Wannenburg who’s made many a prizewinning Pinotage. Great fruit, great winemaker, great wine.


Silkbush labels. Left is the Silkbush label for South Africa, on right is the export Lions Driftlabel.

Te Awa 2003 Pinotage

Te Awa estate was founded in 1992 in Hawkes Bay on New Zealand’s North Island. Their vineyards grow on the famed Gimblett Gravels, which used to be the wide bed of the Ngaruroro River until it changed its course in 1876. The land was considered worthless for more than a century until some pioneers proved it was premium terroir for red wines. The ground comprises small flat pieces of grey gravel causing vine roots burrow deep down to find pockets of soil.

Te Awa’s 2003 Pinotage was dark black and opaque with bright red highlights where it caught the light. Spicy and crisp with deep tangy red berry fruits and a lingering finish. It was in excellent condition and ideal drinking showing again what fine Pinotage is made in New Zealand. Very more-ish and finished all too soon.


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Camberley 2005 and L'Avenir 2007

I decided to open some of my older wines. I stick them away to mature and time goes by faster than I imagine.

Camberley 2005 was first. I’d really enjoyed this wine before when I visited the winery in March 2007 – oh, gosh – was it really five years ago? I have drunk three bottles subsequently. This was the fourth, and my last, of this vintage. It was at that odd stage where it was tasting a bit faded and yet offered the possibility of hanging on and transforming into one of the soft sweet decades old Pinotages I’ve enjoyed. This one was a little porty, it's 15.5% abv showing. Enjoyable but I should have drunk it a year ago.

L’Avenir ‘Grand Vin’ 2007 was just perfect with a delicious balance of fruit and maturity. It’s from a single block of the oldest vines on the farm and had ten months in new French oak barrels. One of those wines that you pause to look at the glass because it is giving so much pleasure.

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Pinotage Number Plate

Pinotage takes pride of place on Loma Prieta's car number plates. The gold medal count of the California winery's 2010 Pinotage has reached six, exceeding the five golds won by their 2009.

Kanonkop Pinotage 2010

I went to Kanonkop Estate as soon as I arrived in the Cape in January excited to taste their 2010 Pinotage, as I had tasted the 2009 in January the previous year. It seems to take six months for the wine to make it to England so I wanted the heads up. But the 2010 was not yet released.

The day before I left the Cape to fly home, owner Johann Krige kindly offered to open a bottle of the 2010. “I haven’t tasted it myself for some time,” he said.

Standing in the tasting room I was able to compare the just opened 2010 with the 2009 on the counter.

The 2010 is much in the style of 2009, but didn’t have the knockout appeal that the 2009 had at the same stage last year. 2010 was bright red and a bit more tannic, a bit leaner and not as soft rich and rounded as 2009 about of which I said “This is going to be a stunner.” It has potential and I’ll be buying some when it finally appears in my local wine shop, but if you have the chance, get some 2009 before they sell out.

Kanonkop didn’t release a 2009 vintage Black Label because the outstanding quality of the entire production meant there wasn’t a barrel that was superior enough to warrant a black label bottling, but there will be a 2010 Black Label.

The 2010 vintage was small following wind damage to vines in 2009 and this carried through to the 2011 vintage but production is back to normal levels with the 2012 vintage which was just about to happen.





Open top fermentation tanks at Kanonkop. Cleaned waiting for the arrival of the imminent 2012 vintage. The metal radiators in them carry cold water to conntrol fermentation temperatures.


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Wine Enthusiast Prefers Pinotage Blends

A correspondent with a mathematical bent has analysed scores from Wine Enthusiast magazine and suggests that submitting varietal Pinotage's to the magazine for review is a mistake.

Over a period of 13 vintages (1996 to 2009), Wine Enthusiast magazine has reviewed 289 Pinotages.

During that period, they have only awarded 22 (7.6%) scores of 90 or higher. The highest scores they have given are 92 twice, both to Remhoogte blends from vintage 2003 where Pinotage played a very minor role (perhaps 20% to 30%). Of the 20 others scoring 90 or 91, 5 (25%) were red blends as well with Pinotage in a minor role.

What is therefore perhaps fair to conclude:

1. The highest score a Pinotage will ever receive from this publication is 92. (We also note one of the finest Pinotages ever produced, the Beyerskloof 2007 Diesel Pinotage (Stellenbosch) only received a score of 90!)

2. In general, if a producer wants his Pinotage to score 90 or greater, we suggest using Pinotage as a minor blending component.

3. Given the buying public’s infatuation with scores of 90 or greater, we suggest they not submit their Pinotage to Wine Enthusiast but rather to other publications.


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Bosman Harvesting Pinotage - Video

Bosman Family Vineyards have started harvesting their Pinotage and took along a video camera.

In the first video, above, Heinie Nel, viticulturist at Bosman Family Vineyards, give a rundown on the pre 2012 season, then in the video below, winemaker Corlea Fourie explains how they decide when to pick.


Follow Bosman's vintage at blog - bosmanwines.co.za/blog/

Maryland Joins the Pinotage Family

US east-coast state Maryland is growing and making Pinotage.

Paul Vigna of The Patriot-News tasted Pinotage barrel samples at Woodhall Wine Cellars in Parkton, Maryland on Saturday 11 February.

Paul's favourite was the Pinotage. "While he's [winemaker Chris Kent] making more this year than last of the South African native grape, there still isn't much, so futures are limited to a half-case. Jenny Schmidt, who planted the Pinotage vines a few years ago at her Golden Run Vineyard, is planning to plant more, perhaps as early as this spring. It's a pleasant-tasting wine with a rich color, although not as dark as the Merlot. At this point, it has as much appeal because of its uniqueness; no other winery in the state makes it."

This is the second vintage of Pinotage made at Woodhall. I have tried without success to contact the grower to get details of Pinotage plantings.

Thanks to Paul Vigna for permission to use his photograph. Read Paul's full report here.

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Pinotage from Perold's Welgevallen

In my book PINOTAGE I described visiting Welgevallan, Professor Perold’s Stellenbosch University home and seeing students working in a small winery in the grounds. Now the winery is open to the public for the sale of their wines made from grapes grown in the university vineyards.

And the Pinotage grapes have a direct line of descent to one seedling grown from a seed Perold bred and planted in the small garden of Welgevallen eighty-seven years ago.

De Laan is the label, named for a walking lane used by courting students that runs alongside the banks of the Eerste River in front of Welgevallan.

I tasted and bought the fruity well balanced Pinotage and elegant plush Cape Blend (Pinotage/Cabernet Sauvignon/Petit Verdot).

Perold’s house is much as it was when he lived there, apart from the addition of security bars, a wheelchair access ramp and a satellite dish. The bungalow is currently used by a faculty of the university.






Welgevallen is located near the end of Suid Wal street which runs parallel to Dorp Street. Coming from the R44 onto Dorp Street turn right onto Piet Retief then left onto Suid Wal.


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Pinotage on Tap (POT) comes to the UK

The annual Pinotage on Tap (POT) festival is coming to England. POT, hosted by Diemersfontein Wines, regularly attracts thousands of fans to the wine farm in Wellington, South Africa and in recent times POTs have also been held in Johannesburg and Durban.

26 & 27 May 2012 will see the first international POT to be staged. The location will be Poyning Grange Farm, Fulking, South Downs, Sussex, near Brighton. Tickets are £65.00 per person, It will be a two-day festival, and visitors can choose to buy a ticket for either one day or both.

Diemersfontein say the festival will involve a variety of culinary treats, from various bowl foods and canapés, to the much spoken about "strawberry and chocolate fountains". Wine lovers can enjoy a fantastic day out, whilst sipping this delectable wine, eating a variety of interesting foods, playing games and listening to great live band music. Promising to be an authentic South African party in every possible way, with typical South African cuisine and entertainment by South African musicians.

And of course, Diemersfonteins original Coffee Chocolate Pinotage will be flowing from the barrel, literally "Pinotage on tap"

More information about the event can be found on the Pinotage on Tap 2012 page, as well as Facebook and Twitter.

Ticket sales will go live on Computicket on 1 March 2012. Enquiries to online@diemersfontein.co.za


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Landzicht Pinotage from Northern cape

Landzicht Pinotage 2011 was surprisingly pale, it was more a clairette — a dark rose. That wasn’t the only surprise in store. It was just 12% alcohol, and it came from the Northern Cape.

I think this was the first South African wine I’ve ever had that wasn’t grown in the Western Cape, the province at the tip of Africa which has Cape Town as its government seat.

Landzicht wines are made in the town of Douglas about 900 kilometres or 560 miles north-west of Cape Town.

Landzicht Pinotage 2011 was light bodied and berry fruited with gentle refreshing acidity, a nice drinking wine. The low alcohol level was very welcome.

The Landzicht website at www.landzicht.co.za isn't working at time of writing.

California’s Oldest Pinotage Vineyard Sold

Steltzner Vineyards, on the Silverado Trail in Napa Valley’s Stags Leap region has been sold to the Plumpjack Group.

Steltzner’s vineyards were first planted in the 1880s and were acquired by Dick Steltzner in 1965. Steltzner planted Pinotage in the late 1970’s after he returned from a trip to South Africa, although his first varietal Pinotage release was the 1996 vintage.

The property has 36 acres planted to Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Malbec, Cabernet Franc, Sangiovese as well as Pinotage.

The Plumpjack Group owns a number of resorts and two Napa wineries, Cade Estate and Plumpjack, a highly reputed California producer of premium Cabernet Sauvignon. Plumpjack’s plans for Pinotage are not known.

The Steltzner family retain the Steltzner brand name and will continue to produce wines under that brand from their other properties.

Three lovely Pinotages new to me

Bordeaux uses the term ‘petite chateaux’ to describe the many modest small wineries making good wine at reasonable prices.

There’s not really a term for similar in the Cape and Ken Forrester has taken Petit Pinotage as the brand for one of his wines. So I don’t know a collective noun to describe them but I’ve been impressed recently with wines from labels I’ve not encountered before.

First up is Arniston Bay — well, of course I’ve previously come across this heavily promoted brand and posted about their Pinotage Rose in its innovative pouch in October 2007, and I had a bottle or two of Savvy in Cape restaurants— but I haven’t drunk a bottle of their red Pinotage.

I was very pleasantly impressed with Arniston Bay ‘Bushvine Selection’ 2009 (WO Western Cape) which “comes from 20 year old bush vines” aged 16 months in French Oak barrels. The appellation is Western Cape, thus the grapes are sourced from various places so it unlikely that all the vines were exactly 20 years old, but that’s the sort of thing only a pedant like me would question. Good fruit and oak integration, a very posh wine that was a real pleasure to drink.

Aan de Doorns in Worcester was new to me. Its back label, on a pleasingly heavy bottle, says it was produced from ‘specially selected vineyards’, which I guess is true of every single wine everywhere. According to cellar master Johan Morkel in Platter, the cellars “most importent focus” is supplying leading UK brand FirstCape.

I wish them the best, but I think they could blow their own trumpet a little louder because this Aan de Doorns 2010 Pinotage (WO Worcester) was a real cracker that made me stop mid-meal and stare at my wine glass. Good depth of fruit, nicely rounded, complexity and superb drinkability. It was one of those wines that is finished before the meal and has you checking the punt to see if the wines has been leaking away.

Lutzville Vineyards is up the coast several hundred kilometres from Cape Town in the Oliphants River region, a place I have never been, yet intend visiting in the next couple of weeks.

Lutzville ‘Cape Diamond’ 2010 Pinotage (WO Lutzville Valley) was jucily fruity, with ripe mulberry and red plum flavours and was an enjoyable lip-smacking wine. No information on the label about age of vines or wood aging.

Three cracking good wines, all beautifully made and all offering real drinking pleasure, and all new to me. Even after so many Pinotages, I’m still learning.

So many wines, so little time....


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Is Good Pinotage Atypical?

Joe Roberts at 1 Wine Dude puts out a call to 'Stop hating on pinotage already'. His 'plea against the undeserved hate' asks readers 'what bargain-basement version of any variety doesn’t have its fair share of sh*tty-tasting bottlings?'.

He goes on to enjoy a 2008 Kanonkop Pinotage that overachieves because it

'deftly captures the entire BBQ picnic in a single bottle; toast, smoked meats, red fruits, bananas, leather purses & all. In the grand scheme of things, it’s a great introduction to high-end Pinotage and actually delivers quality and complexity levels a bit above its price point.'

Pinotage hater and anorak about town Jamie Goode has found one he likes! Scali Pinotage 2006

'Now this was superb: it is a Pinotage that doesn’t have Pinotage character, which is a good thing. I guess with a few year’s bottle age like this it is closest in flavour profile to a top Chateauneuf, with rich, warmly spicy flavours and focused cherry and berry fruits.'

Is it my imagination that when Pinotage detractors find one they like it is always because it is atypical? In my book it's the badly made ones which are atypical.

That was the second 'atypical' Pinotage he's tasted this year, last week he found Stellar Organics Running Duck No Added Sulphur Pinotage 2011 to be

'Fruity, bright and lively with nice cherry and berry notes, showing admirable purity. No heaviness, and really drinkable. 86/100'.

Meanwhile I lunched with friends at Neetlingshof Estate yesterday. Cellar Master DeWet Viljoen was also there there having a business lunch with potential foreign clients but he found time to put a glass of pale red wine on our table. It was light bodied and tasted like a fine old claret, yet had lively sweet fruit. What could it be? DeWet then revealed the bottle - a 1984 Neethlingshof Pinotage. My, how this variety can age. Atypical? I don't think so.

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Pinotage Wine Guide Launched

A spiffy new Guide to South African Pinotage was published on Friday by the producer’s Pinotage Association. The event took place in Wellington at Diemersfontein Winery, the home of the original coffee’n’chocolate style Pinotage.

The main part of the 156 page full colour pocket sized Guide is a listing of wineries producing Pinotage and Pinotage blends with descriptions of their wines and wine land maps to guide visitors.

The book also covers Pinotage history and food and wine matching with several Pinotage recipes including Pinotage ice cream and Beyerskloof’s signature Pinotage burger.

The subtitle 1995-2011 refers to the year the Association was formed till the most recent Top 10 Competition. The book lists the most successful wineries in the 15 years of the competition, which commenced in 1997.

The Top 10 producers, as classified by winning entries in the competition are, in alphabetical order:

Beyerskloof
DeWaal Wines
Kanonkop Estate
L’Avenir Vineyards
Rijk’s Private Cellar
Simonsig Estate
Spier
Stellenzicht Vineyards
Wellington Wines
Windmeul Cellar

And the winemakers with the most wins, in order of wins, are:

Beyers Truter, of Beyerskloof (and previously Kanonkop Estate)
Danie Steytler Snr, of Kaapzicht Estate
Daniel de Waal, of Super Single Vineyards (and previously DeWaal/Uiterwyk)
Francois Naudé, of Chateau Naudé (and previously L’Avenir Vineyards)
Guy Webber, of Stellenzicht Vineyards
Pierre Wahl, of Rijk’s Private Cellar

Association Chairman Beyers Truter said that better Pinotage was being made now than ever before, with sales of bottled Pinotage increasing 11% year on year in South Africa and annual exports from 5.5million to 9.5 million bottles in the five years to 2008.

Beyers Truter also announced a further five years of sponsorship by ABSA Bank worth ‘a few millions’, although he declined to name the exact figure.

Beyers said that when the Top 10 competition started Pinotage makers were dreaming in black and white. Since then much has been learned about growing and making good Pinotage and their dreams are in colour, and over the next five years they will be dreaming in 3D. The future is a “full bodied, balanced Pinotage with an accessible alcohol level.”

We finished outside together with the farm workers standing around bins of freshly gathered Pinotage grapes for the ceremony of blessing the harvest.


Photograph: Winemaker Francois Roode (left) with Diemersfontein owner David Sonnenberg blessing the harvest

Sultry, Heady & Tantalizingly Delicious!

Wines of the Month

Diemersfontein Pinotage 2009
Sultry, Heady & Tantalizingly Delicious!
(Wellington, South Africa.)/$18-$22

This hallmark expression of Pinotage is characterized by not-so-subtle hints of roasted coffee and dark chocolate…and it has earned so much praise and achieved so much popularity that a number of cognoscenti attribute this highly distinctive version of Pinotage from David Sonnenberg with having saved and lifted Pinotage from longstanding commercial obscurity. Folks, not all Pinotage will taste like this…or be this amazingly wonderful…so seek this one out and give it a whirl. Once you do…I’m certain of two things – 1) you too will be singing its praise -- and 2) it won’t be your last bottle

From Ricks Wine Skinny January newsletter - sign up for the monthly USA based newsletters by emailing Rick Davis ricksgrapeskinny (at) gmail.com

Pinotage Wins Best Israeli Wine

At the 6th Terravino Mediterranean International Wine and Spirit Challenge held in Israel last month, the Grand Champion Trophy for the Best Israeli Wine in Competition was won by Barkan Winery’s Superieur Pinotage 2007. That wine also won the Best Kosher Israeli Wine, and Barkan’s winemaker Irit Boxer-Shank won the Best Israeli Winemaker award.

Ms Boxer-Shank told the Jerusalem Report “I knew it was something special, I think it will help many wine drinkers move beyond Cabernet and Merlot.”

Barkan have been making Pinotage since 2001, and were the first to do so ,but this is only the second vintage accorded Barkan’s Superieur designation, reserved for wines of "exceptional quality wines which represent the best that the winery knows how to make".

Congrats to all.

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Christmas Pinotages

Christmas was an opportunity to open some special bottles.

Loma Prieta 2009 – Been keeping this for a few months (see http://www.pinotage.org/2011/08/paul-kemp-of-californias-loma-prieta.html ). This is a beautiful wine with soft dense fruit flavours, especially damsons. Just about perfect. I found this more immediately appealing than the 2008 and excellent drinking. Been garlanded in Platinum, Double Golds and Best of Classes in US wine competitions. I’m going to have to visit California to catch up on how they’re mastering this grape.

Kanonkop 2006 – intense compact brooding power, albeit restrained. Serious statement wine and beautiful with it. This was a Top 10 winner this year, tho’ I don’t know you can buy 2006 vintage. There’s a lot of sludgy sediment which leads me to think this wines evolving. I have a few more bottles so it’ll be interesting to try again, say next Christmas.

Stanford Hills Estate Jacksons 2007 – young fresh fruit flavours, red currants and blackberries from a newish estate in Walker Bay. Clean, lively and refreshing, tastes youthful, it’s a delightful drink. Deservedly 4 Platter stars.

Wishing you many fine Pinotages in 2012

Australia Joins the Pinotage Family

Say hello and welcome to Topper’s Mountain ‘Wild Ferment’ Pinotage Viognier 2009, the first varietal Pinotage grown and made in Australia.

Owner Mark Kirby told me:

Topper’s Mountain is in northern NSW in a region known as the New England Tablelands which was recently granted a wine GI “New England Australia”. Being so close to the equator in viticultural terms at 29degS, the cool climate we experience is a result of altitude – the vineyard is at 900m above sea level. Being this far north in eastern Australia means our climate has summer dominated rainfall – we receive about 500-600mm in the growing season. This makes thin skinned, tight bunched varieties such as Pinot noir & Sauvignon blanc a bit of a challenge for us. This was the genesis of my selection of Pinotage – it has looser bunches and much thicker & tougher skins than Pinot noir (leading to less split from rain & fewer berries being popped off the rachis), but retains a lot of Pinot noir’s elegance & complexity.

I originally planted ~ 200 vines (1 row in our “Fruit Salad” experimental block or 0.1Ha) in 2003. Up until 2008 vintage we were using the Pinotage in various red blends. In 2009 our winemaker Mike Hayes and I decided to have a look at the Pinotage as a standalone variety and the initial results have been very encouraging; 91 points from James Halliday, a silver and a high bronze medal. On the strength of this potential I grafted another row over to Pinotage two months ago.

In the winery Pinotage doesn’t get much special attention other than extra effort to extract colour as it is like Pinot noir & Nebbiolo in that it can produce pale wines if you’re not careful.

It is a co-fermented wild ferment with less than 15% Viognier. We do wild ferment for the first 4-6 baume of all our wines & for the Pinotage Viognier & straight Viognier, we let the wild ferment go all the way. We did the co-ferment because Mike is of the belief that this is done a bit in South Africa with high end Pinotage to fill out the mid palate.

Taste Pinotage Sunshine on 16 Dec

South African Wine News site wine.co.za is calling on every South African living abroad to share a drop of sunshine with a local on 16 December.

We would love every South African out there to open up a bottle of South African wine, and show your mates just how good our wine is - taste some sunshine, sunshine!

We have chosen the 16th December as it is a very special day for us South Africans, and it is right in the middle of the northern hemispheres winter... just when they need a little bit of sunshine in their lives - so spread a little bit of our sunshine, sunshine!

Get a great bottle of South African wine and sit down quietly and taste it with your mates.

Let them taste some of our sunshine. And of course, you don’t have to stop there...you could even open up a second bottle and then not so quietly share some of our sunshine.

And for those ex-pats out there in the land of OZ, or down the south of America, they might not need the sunshine, but you have to agree...
they do need to taste some good wine for a change, so get them to taste what makes us shine.

Then, please take some pictures and videos, and show us all what you did by posting them on the social networks (#tastewinesunshine) and at wine.co.za

And please tell us at wine.co.za so that we can organise this again next year.

So sunshine, what great South African wine are you going to taste this year !

And the answer is, obvious: PINOTAGE - Yea!!

Presenting The Abraham Perold Pinotage Trophy

The Pinotage Association’s Abraham Perold Trophy for Pinotage, was won by Spier Wines for Savanha Naledi 2009 Pinotage.

Andrew Milne, Chief Executive Officer of Spier was presented the Abraham Perold Trophy by Peter May, honorary Member of the Pinotage Association, in the presence of HRH Prince Robert of Luxembourg, the IWSC President pictured left at the IWSC awards ceremony in London’s 600 year old Guildhall on Wednesday 16 November 2011.

The International Wine and Spirits Competition (IWSC) was founded in 1969 and is a premier competition of its kind. Its aim is to promote the quality and excellence of the world's best wines, spirits and liqueurs. This is achieved through a rigorous two stage judging process of professional blind tasting and detailed chemical and microbiological analysis.



The IWSC Judges said of Savanha Naledi 2009 Pinotage:

Opaque with bright purple rim. Highly perfumed nose with dark cherry, some truffle and lots of spice. Big, well rounded in the mouth with loads of body and fully packed with ripe fruit where as well as what the nose had plum and strawberry join the complexity. Supple tannins. Creamy flow and long, fruit filled finish.

Naledi, which is pronounced Nah-leh-di, is the Sotho word for ‘star’. The wine was made by Frans Smit.

The Pinotage Association’s Trophy is named on honour of Abraham Perold, South Africa’s first Professor of Viticulture & Oenology, who bred the Pinotage grape variety in 1925. The Pinotage Association exists to promote and maintain South Africa’s leading role in the production of quality Pinotage wines.






Gold winning South African wines on the tasting table in the Guildhall crypt


See also http://www.pinotage.org/2011/11/spier-wins-abraham-perold-trophy-for.html and http://www.pinotage.org/2011/11/spier-is-iwsc-producer-of-year.html


(photographs courtesy of IWSC. See photo's of the awards ceremony at http://www.iwsc.net/mediagallery/images/8?pg=1 )

Spier is IWSC Producer of the Year

Spier won the South African Producer of the Year Trophy it was announced on Wednesday evening 16 November
Andrew Milne, Chief Executive Officer of Spier received the Dave Hughes South African Producer of the Year Trophy from Dave Hughes in the presence of HRH Prince Robert of Luxembourg in front of 500 members of the international wine and spirits industry at the IWSC awards ceremony in London’s Guildhall.

Pictured left to right: HRH Prince Robert of Luxembourg, Dave Hughes, Andrew Milne.

Spier was picked from a shortlist comprising Kaapzicht Estate, Kanonkop Estate, Fleur du Cap, KWV and Nederburg.

Spier wins Abraham Perold Trophy for Pinotage

This evening I am in the splendour of London’s 800 year old Guildhall at the International Wine and Spirits Competition (IWSC) awards ceremony. I am representing The Pinotage Association to present the Abraham Perold Trophy for Pinotage sponsored by the Pinotage Association to Spier Wines for their Savanha Naledi Pinotage 2009.

Spier, whose winemaker Frans Smit is pictured left, are on a roll. They also won the IWSC Mission Hill Trophy for Chardonnay for their Spier Private Collection Chardonnay 2009 and are on the shortlist for the IWSC Dave Hughes Trophy for South African Wine Producer, plus Best in Class Gold medals. And earlier this year Savanha Naledi Pinotage 2009 was a ABSA Pinotage Top 10 winner.

Spier is on the agenda of most people who visit South Africa’s winelands. Not only are there wines to taste but a hotel, restaurants and a large garden with a river and lake plus a cheetah outreach project where visitors can get close to these beautiful endangered creatures.

I’ve been going there for the past 15 year but until this year I knew very little about the wine side. Sure there’s a tasting counter but you can’t see any vines nor had a winery and I had assumed Spier was a sort of virtual operation, buying in grapes and renting winemaking space in other facilities.

How wrong I was. Not only do Spier have many hectares of vineyards behind the garden, just out of sight over a ridge and they also own or lease vineyards in other areas of the Cape. Their large winery is surrounded with trees and equipped with some of the most modern equipment in the world. They practise sustainable farming, for their vines and food served in their restaurant and are undergoing a vigorous programme of removing alien vegetation to replace with indigenous plants that they breed in their own nurseries.

I enjoyed lunch in ‘Eight at Spier’. This airy restaurant with outside seating has an open kitchen and serves a daily changing menu that depends on what is harvested on their own estate farm and other nearby farms. The food here is delicious, light and tasty and there is a good selection of meat free dishes.

I met winemaker Frans Smit and tasted a range of his Pinotages. They have several different levels, Private Collection, Signature Series and Vintage Collection, the new premium 21 Gables range plus the Savanha label used for some export markets.



In the winery I watched in amazement a new grape sorting machine (above) being put through it spaces. This high tech machine scans individual grapes passing through it on a conveyer belt at up to 30 km an hour If one of its lasers encounters something other than a perfect grape a puff of compressed air shoots the rejected item up where another burst of air jets it into a discard hopper.

The machine can be set to recognise different grades of grapes so it is possible to sort grapes destined for various bottlings. Spier hand sort grapes for their premium labels but there is not enough time to hand sort all the grapes for all their labels, but with the new machine they will be able to.

Congratulation to the team at Spier Wines and to winemaker Frans Smit.

Chamonix Pinotage Wows Wine Soc

More than 120 members of The Wine Society in the UK attended a tasting of a selection of South African wines featured in their latest shipment and voted on their favourite.

Steve Farrow from the Society's Cellar Showroom reports that

"the clear winner was, unexpectedly, the most expensive of the offerings on show: the deliciously ripe and full Chamonix Greywacke Pinotage, 2007 from Franschhoek (£10.95). Pinotage is almost purely South African, being a crossing bred there in the 1920s from pinot noir and cinsault and rarely grown anywhere else.

It makes a real variety of red styles and when treated with proper care, as it has been by Chamonix, it can really shine. This example is made in the ripasso style more familiarly seen in the Veneto of Italy which provides it with real velvety depth and richness. Our tasters bought more of this than any other wine and understandably so."

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Jennifer Molgat of The View talks Pinotage - video

The View is a fifth generation farm set in fruit orchard country south of the town of Kelowna, British Columbia, Canada. The winery name comes from the amazing view of Lake Okanagan from the highest part on the farm where the tasting room was planned to be built. But that is on hold and tastings take place at the winery and office in an old apple packing facility next to the roadside.

Here I met the ebullient owner, Jennifer Molgat (pictured left inspecting Pinotage), winemaker Bernhard Schirrmeister and vineyard manager Willem Semmelink. It is Jennifers red stiletto shoes that have become the winery's logo and each wine comes with a shoe pairing recommendation.

Eight years ago they planted 4 acres of Pinotage and because the variety was successful they have planted another 4 acres. The soil is sandy loam with some clay on the lower slopes.

Four varietal Pinotages are produced. “We make North America’s only Pinotage Rosé,” says Jennifer. Named Distraction, 2010 is the second vintage and is bright pink, clean and fresh and dry with a tang of red grapefruit flavours. This is a grown–up’s rosé and it won ‘Judges Choice’ and a Gold medal in the rosé category at the Okanagan Spring Wine Festival. (Shoe pairing: “Nothing…you will want to feel the sand in between your toes”)

The View wines are in demand from restaurants and Red Shoe Red is a Pinotage produced for the on-trade and closed with a screw-cap because that’s what restaurants request for wines served by the glass. I tasted the 2009 vintage. 60% is aged in old oak. It is dark red with soft red-berry fruit flavours, cracked black pepper and a dry finish. It’s lovely stuff. (Shoe pairing: 4 inch Red spike heels)

2009 Pinotage Reserve had some juice bled off to intensify the remaining wine by increasing the skin to juice ratio. This has an inky dense black red colour and a tangy taste at first that ends in lingering smooth dark chocolate and cherry flavours. I really enjoyed this serious delicious wine. (Shoe pairing: Anything Jimmy Choo) 2008 Pinotage is lighter, with an expressive nose and bright strawberry flavours and a touch of sourness on the finish. (Shoe pairing: Louis Vuitton penny loafers)

Jennifer drove me up the hill behind the winery to see the views of Kelowna and the lake. We passed vines laden down with large black bunches of Baco Noir which will be sold to other wineries, and pale green Riesling.


Pinotage is grown on high trellises and some of the older vines are on their own roots but phylloxera has been detected nearby and the new Pinotage vineyards (pictured above) are grafted.

While in the mature Pinotage vineyard with its ripe bunches soon to be harvested, I asked Jennifer to tell us about her Pinotage:




The View produce the funniest winery video's I have seen. Make sure you see the Red Shoes in winery action at theviewwinery.com/video.html

Sizanani Pinotage and Empowerment - Randall Peceur on Video

Earlier this month I met Randall Peceur (pictured above) at Cape Wine Europe. I’d first encountered Randall some years ago in Bellevue Estate winery when he was working in their tasting room pouring wine for visitors. Now he is the managing director of Sizanani Wines, the empowerment company set up by Bellevue and now 100% owned by the workers at Bellevue.

Randall told me “The main focus of the company is the upliftment of the farm workers. Before they would work all day in the vineyards and winery but had no knowledge of what their future would hold for them. Now with this project they have a tangible link to their future and more importantly in the future of their children. We strongly believe that if we can empower them and uplift them and give them something to live for, they will become stronger, be homeowners and heads of households and be more caring.”



In the above video Randall talks about the benefits of empowerment to the workers and tells us about the 2008 Sizanani Pinotage.

Sizanani has had export success including a contract to supply own label Chenin and Pinotage for UK supermarket chain Morrisons.

I was keen to taste Sizanani 2008 Pinotage. I was surprised at that 2008 vintage was still current but Randall explained the wine had long aging in old wood barrels.

The wine had an attractive lavender nose, it is light in colour and lightweight in the mouth. Randall said the intention was to make an easy drinking wine to attract those that didn’t usually choose wine. It is certainly easy pleasant drinking but my own tastes lean to Pinotages with a bit more ‘oomph’ about them.

Lake Breeze, Okanagan - Video

Lake Breeze wine farm occupies a commanding position above Lake Okanagan, on a strip of ancient shoreline known as the Naramata Bench. There are around 25 wineries along this strip of land between mountain and the lake.



Lake Breeze is the only one to describe itself as a 'wine farm', a common term in South Africa, where the first owners had lived for 25 years. Lake Breeze was the first winery in Canada to plant Pinotage, and 1999 was the first commercially released Pinotage vintage. Only small quantities are made from a lakeside plot less than half an acre in size.

Garron Elmes is the South African born winemaker. I managed to grab him away from th harvest for a few minutes to tell us about Lake Breeze Pinotage.



I found Lake Breeze 2009 Pinotage bright ruby red, clean and fruity with red cherries on the palate and a hint of cigar box. There was some depth and it was a most enjoyable wine. It costs $29.90 CDN (+tax) at the winery.

Diemersfontein Exports "Coffee Lite"

Diemersfontein invented the coffee accented Pinotage category eleven years ago. Their wine has been described as a cult and has a sell out annual festival, Pinotage on Tap, in its honour. A dozen other wineries have followed their lead by making coffee Pinotages.

The latest vintage available in Europe, 2010, now says COFFEE PINOTAGE on its front label. But that is not all that has changed. In a move that reminds me of the ‘New Coke’ story, export versions of the wine have had the coffee accents reduced. “This is to let the fruit be more prominent,” says Aubern Williams who staffed Diemersfontein’s stand at Cape Wine Europe this week. “But the original format will continue to be sold in South Africa,” he explained.

I found the wine seemed a lighter, thinner version of the wine I remembered - more Birds Mellow blend than Starbucks...

I don’t understand why the winning formula has been toned down for the export market at the same time as ‘coffee’ has been added to the front label for the first time and I asked Aubern to explain.





Aubern works in the Diemersfontein tasting rooms and he was in London to show Diemersfontein and the Thokozani empowerment project wines

If you are in the Cape then you should be going to Diemersfontein on 22 October for the annual POT day to celebrate the release of the 2011 vintage 'coffee Pinotage' (original recipe) - see here for details.

Cape Wine Europe opens London 11 October

Cape Wine Europe 2011 opens its doors tomorrow, 11 October, to the public from 18:00-21:00 in Earls Court’s Brompton Hall

More than 200 wines will be available for tasting, with competitions and biltong and South African Macadamia nuts sampling.

The producers Pinotage Association stand will be showing the following wines:

Altydgedacht Pinotage 2010
Beyerskloof Pinotage Reserve 2008
Diemersdal Pinotage Reserve 2010
Fairview Primo Pinotage 2009
Kanonkop Pinotage 2009
KWV The Mentors Pinotage 2009
L'Avenir Pinotage 2009
Laibach Pinotage 2010
Lyngrove Platinum Pinotage 2009
Meerkat Pinotage 2009
Neethlingshof The Owl Post Pinotage 2009
Rijk's Private Cellar Pinotage 2007
Simonsig Redhill Pinotage 2008
Spier Private Collection Pinotage 2008
Wellington La Cave Pinotage 2009
Windmeul Pinotage Reserve 2009 (Limited Release)

Tickets can bought online (delivered by email) for £12.50 per person from http://blog.winesofsa.com/events/cape-wine-europe-11th-october/ or on the door at £15 per person

A Visit to Stoneboat Vineyards - Video

Lanny Martiniuk invited me to meet him at his winery. We’d corresponded about Pinotage while I was writing my book and at last I was able to visit his vineyard where he grows eight acres of Pinotage and taste his wines.

Stoneboat Vineyards and winery are on the eastern bank of the Okanagan River which connects the 85 mile long glacial Okanagan lake with Osoyoos lake, part of linked series of lakes in a very long glacial valley that runs north-south through British Columbia through the US border.

The land here was once all underwater and then as waters receded it left flattened benches that used to be shore lines. Stoneboat is on the Black Sage Bench where the soil is sand over gravel. “We have half a metre of good sandy soil on top of 50 metres of gravel.”

It is the sand that gives protection from phylloxera and Lanny’s five acres of Pinotage, like the rest of his vines, grow on their own roots. “Phylloxera isn’t a problem like the cold is,” he says. “When a vine is killed during a cold winter I just clear a depression in the soil and the roots send up a new cane and the vine regrows.”

The vineyards are 3,500 metres about sea-level and 30.5 metres above the river. Lanny adds nitrogen to the soil and sometimes has to spray sulphur as a fungicide but he doesn’t need insecticides. Stoneboat uses drip-feed irrigation on the Pinotage rows: the southern Okanagan is desert and no crops can grow here without watering.


In this video Lanny talks about growing Pinotage on Black Sage Bench.

Lanny and Julia have three sons: Chris who works on the farm when not training as a pilot and twins Jay and Tim who work on the farm. Jay is responsible for winemaking and Tim manages marketing. Here they talk about winemaking and more.



Stoneboat also grows six different Pinot Noir clones, Pinot Gris and Pinot Blanc plus some white Germanic varieties: Kerner, Muller Thurgau, Oraniensteiner and Schonburger.

We left the vineyard to taste wines on the tasting room patio. I had to tell Lanny that I had already tasted Stoneboat Pinotage. A few days before we found the 2008 on the wine list of a restaurant in Penticton. We’d loved its intense fruit flavours and complexity.

Lanny started us with Pinot Gris which was dry with a pleasant acidity. Chorus 2010 had an attractive floral nose. Its blend of Pinot Gris, Pinot Blanc, Kerner, Muller Thurgau and Viognier offered a delightful fruitfully complex drink. 2009 Pinot Noir was a pale red with soft fruit and a clean finish.

Pinotage 2009 was recently released. It was bright garnet, rather subdued, with a pleasant fruit nose but a little disjointed on the palate. It needs longer to come together.

Pinotage 2007 had a leathery nose and was lively in the mouth. It is an exciting wine with cedar wood and spices in abundance. This wine won the Lieutenant-Governors Award of Excellence in British Columbia Wines, one of twelve selected from 248 entries. “We checked the wines were tasted blind because there are some preconceptions about Pinotage”, said Lanny, “and there were some surprised faces when the awards were announced.” ($25)
Pinotage 2008 is dense and complex with black fruits, damsons, cherries and a spiciness that makes it so drinkable. ($25)

Pinotage ‘Solo’ 2007 is a reserve made from the best barrels. It is a bright red-black colour with a ripe fruit richness and cedar-wood flavours and is absolutely beautiful. ($33)

We finished a enjoyable tasting with Verglass 2009, a very sweet botrytis wine made from Oraniensteiner with 5% Pinot Blanc. Just 10.2% abv and a residual sugar of 30g/L from grapes picked at 50-55 brix, this smelled of whole baked apples and had an unctuous sweetness with enough acidity to encourage another mouthful.

Lanny is a viticulturist who started in the business by propagating and planting vines for other vineyards, and his business continues to propagate thousands of vines for others.

This was the first time I have encountered a Pinotage varietal made from vines growing on their own roots. Lanny says he selected individual vines which performed well in Okanagan conditions to propagate so this vineyard is making a truly Okanagan Pinotage that expresses the terroir of this beautiful lake and desert area.




Stoneboat’s name refers to the wooden sled (pictured above) used to haul unwanted stones from the vineyard. Lanny says that no matter how many they take out, others work their way to the surface and now they leave them there. The stones are smooth and rounded from millennia in rivers that flowed through here in times long past.

Feedback on the book from NZ

Just posted on the blog

Hi Peter,

We are a Belgian couple who have lived for 9 months in South Africa near Cape Town. During this period we fell in love with the Pinotage wines and we tried to taste as much of Pinotage wines and visited many of the estates. I Bought your book "Pinotage ..." in South Africa and found it very interesting.

Today we are in New Zealand for a couple of months and I remembered that you wrote about a Pinotage wine in New Zealand.

Today we visited the Te Awa Estate and I begged to taste the Kidnapper Cliffs Pinotage ... and it was ... fantastic.

Of course I bought a bottle to take home.

Kindest regards

Hans and Veronique.

PS; Thanks for writing the awesome book about the Pinotage. It helps to resolve many of the discussions we had with friends about Pinotage and it has now a special place in my wine Library.