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!!