At Pinotage on Tap UK - Video

Pinotage on Tap came to England this weekend. The South Downs of coastal Sussex vibrated with Afrikaans, rocked to South African songs, were scented with bobotie, potjiekos & malva pudding and flowed with purple Pinotage.

Diemersfontein had brought a barrel of their famous coffee Pinotage and flown in musicians from the Cape to remind ex-pats of home and they’d installed a kitchen and a team of chefs to produce platters of home-style cooking.

The location was a farm on the crest of the rolling low chalk hills along the coast known as the South Downs. This area is home to English sparkling wine and next to the PoT field was a newly planted vineyard of Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Meunier.

Diemersfontein’s celebration of its new Pinotage vintage was first celebrated with Pinotage on Tap in 2005. Since then the annual event has grown and spawned satellite PoTs in Johannesburg and Durban. 2012 saw the first international PoT in England.

The recipe was straightforward. Erect a marquee to cover the musicians' stage and shelter the kitchen, place a oak barrel of 2011 Pinotage on a stack of hay bales, clear the skies of clouds, let the sun blaze down and have the mercury settle around 28C.

Then arrange a shuttle bus to bring participants from the nearest railway station on the London-Brighton line and give out goody bags filled with water bottles, biltong, beef rolls and the all important Pinotage on Tap wine glass, garnish with a welcome from the organiser and open the Pinotage barrel.

In the Cape PoT now hosts 2,500 people, but a more modest number attended this first UK event. “We are expecting around 300 people today,” said organiser and Diemersfontein owner David Sonnenberg. Unfortunately the second day of the event was cancelled because of low bookings.

Those of us who did attend sat on hay bales relaxing in the sun, listening to South African musicians Lonesome Dave Ferguson, Albert Frost & Robin Auld, eating our fill and sipping Pinotage straight from the barrel on an idyllic afternoon. What could be better?





David Sonnenberg talks PoT with Peter F May of The Pinotage Club.

Registration on arrival at PoT

Heading towards the marquee.

David Sonnenberg, owner of Diemersfontein, officially opens PoT UK 2012.

The famous barrel.

Albert Frost gets it on.

Owl Post Pinotage with winemaker De Wet Viljoen - Video

I met the ever charming De Wet Viljoen of Neethingshof Estate on Tuesday this week at the London International Wine Fair and asked him to tell us about his newly released 'Owl Post' 2010 Pinotage.



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Owl Post is one of Neethlinghof's reserve range of wine, now called 'The Short Story Collection' with each wine named after some aspect of the Estate. Owl Post refers to posts placed throught the vineyards as vantage points to encourage pest eating owls. This is part of the estate’s integrated pest management intending to reduce its dependence on pesticides.

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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.