World First Sparkling Pinotage Released for Valentines Day!

Blanc de Noirs = White (wine) from Black (grapes)

Today, Valentine’s Day, you can toast your love for the first time in sparkling white Pinotage, but you have to go to Los Gatos, California to do so.

Loma Prieta winery, the USA's largest producer of Pinotage, has created the world’s first 100% white sparkling wine from black Pinotage grapes.

Last August about ten tons of  Pinotage grapes were harvested at 19 brix from the Amorosa vineyard in Lodi, California to be pressed in Geyserville for sparkling wine.

Paul Kemp (photo courtesy Terry Reilly)

The finished wine was released this weekend. Loma Prieta's owner Paul Kemp says, “I am very excited about this wine.”

Beyers Truter, Chairman of the South African producers’ Pinotage Association told me last week, “they’re the first. I don’t think anyone else has done this.”

Pinotage has been used as a component in several sparkling wines in South Africa over the years, both pink and white but no single varietal white sparkling Pinotage has been produced.

Congratulations to Paul Kemp and the Loma Prieta team. I look forward to tasting this world first.

 (photo courtesy Terry Reilly)

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Arizona Joins the Pinotage Family

Arizona is the sixth* US state to be both growing and making Pinotage on a commercial basis. 

The vines are in the Dragoon Mountain Vineyard, 4300 ft above sea level,  near Willcox,  South-Eastern Arizona.

The McLoughlin family bought 320 acres of bare land in 2002 and after two years of preparation started planting vines. Pinotage was first planted in 2007, one of more than 100 varieties and clones in an experiment to see what grows best in the terroir. There are now three blocks from four  Pinotage clones.

John McLoughlin is the winemaker and the label is Jerome Winery. The first vintage of Pinotage was 2009. Jon Clements over at Pinotage US managed to get a bottle shipped to him and he reports that he found

the Jerome Winery’s 2009 to be deep ruby in color all the way to the rim.  The nose was full of red fruits with hints of plums and vanilla.  The initial pour and taste brought black cherries and tight tannins.  After a hour in the decanter this wine truly opened up with raspberries, cherries and pipe tobacco.  The once tight tannins had settled down and provided a long smooth finish that had me holding out my tongue to get the last drop out of the glass.

Jon had more luck – or persistence – than me in getting a response for info from Jerome Winery and there’s more ito read about the wine  on Jon’s site at www.pinotageus.com

Jerome Winery Pinotage is available from the tasting room in Jerome AZ, see http://cellar433.com

Thanks to Jon Clements.

*The other states are California, Oregon, Virginia, Maryland and Michigan. Pinotage wine is infrequently made in some other states by buying in California grown grapes or juice, and in some instances by using condensed juice from South Africa.

Some other US states are growing Pinotage but not as yet producing wine on a commercial basis.
 

WoTM - Rijk's Private Cellar 2009

My Wine of the Month for January 2016 is Rijk’s Private Cellar Pinotage 2009.

It was one of the wines in my wine tasting club’s annual blind tasting competition, and this particular bottle is the  ‘runners-up’ prize we enjoyed with dinner the evening afterwards.

Rijk’s do make excellent Pinotage. I recall when they started planting some pundits said Tulbagh was too hot to make fine wine. They were wrong and Rijk’s have proved it.

 

This  maybetheir basic Pinotage (their 2011 Reserve has 5 Platter stars and is a 2015 Top 10 Winner) but it’s darn good. Rijk’s tend to release their wines with a little bottle age, and this 2009 is currently available in the UK.

I loved its seamless combination of fruit and tannins. It’s a real food wine, straight down the core with no wild edges. Suave and sophisticated. 

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Abrie Beeslaar 'My Doctor Friends Want to be Winemakers'

Abrie Beeslaar

South Africa’s News 24 has an  interview with Abrie Beeslaar on winning Winemaker of the Year at the 2015 International Wine and Spirit Competition.

The article discloses that Abrie went to London to accept the trophies SA Producer of the Year, and  Best Pinotage trophy for the Kanonkop Pinotage 2012, (see  here)  but he didn’t know until it was announced at the IWSC gala dinner that he had won Winemaker of the Year Trophy.

Abrie says he switched to studying for a BSc in Agriculture after failing to make the cut to study medicine.  He says “I am so happy about my career path. I look at my friends who studied to be doctors and they all want to become winemakers now.” #

Read the full interview here.


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WoTM - SAAM Mountain Vineyards Pinotage 2013

My Wine of The Month for December 2015 is SAAM Mountain Vineyards Pinotage 2013.

 I  often choose it at Chez Mumtaj which features French-Asian fusion cooking by talented owner-chef Chad Rahman. But no more.

I visited this month with a group of friends and asked for a bottle of the Saam Pinotage before seeing the wine list. It wasn’t too long before we requested another bottle but the wine menu no longer had Saam. The waiter told us that there were only three more bottles in the cellar. We took that as a challenge and there were none left in the cellar when we departed.

We were told their supplier no longer listed Saam, which surprised me as Bibendum (one the UK's biggest wine companies) is their supplier and Saam was a joint project between Bibendum on the marketing and distribution side, and Perdeberg Winery on the production, as I wrote here.

Saam Pinotage was an excellent pairing with Chez Mumtaj’s innovative cuisine. Opaque almost black in the dim restaurant light, with a berry nose and restrained dense blackberry flavours. There’s spice and that inherent Pinotage sweetness that goes so well with spicy food, also soft tannins to give body and a good length.

Farewell Saam…

Wine Enthusiast Picks Lovingston Pinotage

Wine Enthusiast’s tasting team were asked to recommend American wines to have with Thanksgiving. 

Alexander Peartree, Assistant Tasting Director, chose Lovingston’s 2013 Gilbert’s Vineyard Pinotage from Virginia, which he says “seamlessly balances racy red-fruit tones with savory herbs and smoky game. It’s easy to pair alongside the cornucopia of dishes on the table, yet it also lends an exotic kick to an otherwise traditional affair.”

Read the article here.

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After 25 Years Dave Eckert Gets Pinotage

Dave Eckert didn’t take to Pinotage when he first tasted it in the 1980’s. But now he’s found three that impress enough to feature on his Thanksgiving table. 

“Now I know why they created Pinotage all those years ago. It’s just took me 25 years and three new bottlings to figure it out,” he writes in the Kansas City Star.

The three are Kanonkop, Simonsig and Stellar, although the article doesn’t mention their vintages.

Dave Eckert is the producer and host of “Culinary Travels With Dave Eckert,” shown on USA's PBS-TV and Wealth TV for 12 seasons.

Read the article here