WOTM - Pelican Ranch 2010 Pinotage

My Wine of the Month for August is this deliciously and plumply juicy single vineyard offering from Pelican Ranch, an artisan winery located near Santa Cruz in California.

 

Owner/winemaker Phil Crews is a professor of chemistry at UCSC’s Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, a noted expert in marine sponges and teacher of classes on Wines and Wine Chemistry. Hence the nicely informative back label.

It looks to me that the grapes come from John Bree’s 5+ acre Pinotage vineyard at Sutter Ridge in Amador County, planted more than twenty years ago and thus some of the oldest in California.

 

 

 

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2013 Cape Blend Competition Finalists

Just announced are the ten finalists of the Perold ABSA Cape Blend Competition. Cape Blend rules requires minimum of 30% and maximum of 70% Pinotage in the blend.



2012 Anura LB Cape Cuveé
2011 Clos Malverne Spirit of Malverne
2011 Flagstone Dragon Tree
2011 KWV Abraham Perold Tributum
2011 Namaqua Cellar Door Pinotage/Malbec
2009 Sumaridge Epitome
2011 Viljoensdrift River Grandeur Cape Blend
2011 Warwick Three Cape Ladies
2010 Welbedacht Hat Trick
2012 Windmeul Cape Blend

The three winners and two runners-up will be announced on 20 September 2013.

This year's finalists KWV and Windmeul were winners last year with their 2010 Cape Blends.

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Pinotage Icewine - World First for Canada

Pinotage grapes have made many styles of wines including red, white and pink, sparkling, dessert and fortified.

Now comes a world first from Canada: Pinotage Icewine.

Stoneboat Vineyards, near Oliver in British Columbia’s southern Okanagen Valley, picked their frozen grapes on 11 January 2013 at minus 11 degrees Celsius (12.2F) and 39 Brix.

The resulting icewine, sold in a frosted half-sized bottles, is a lively pink colour with 8.3% abv and residual sugar of 230g/L, TA 12.3 g/L and pH 3.43.
 
Owner-winemaker Lanny Martiniuk says it “has intense aromas of fresh raspberry and candied apple. Subtle notes of dried cranberry and raisin are nicely balanced by spicy undertones on the palate. Cellar now through 2025”.

Stoneboat Pinotage Icewine 2012 is available at the winery for $74.90 CDN per 375ml bottle.

Congratulations to Stoneboat Vineyards!

See here for videos from my visit to Stoneboat

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Pinotage Top 10 2013 Finalists

Just released are the 20 finalists for the ABSA  Pinotage Top 10 Competition. The 10 winners will be announced at the end of this month

Producer Name	Description	Vintage	WO
Anura	Anura Pinotage Reserve	2011	Simonsberg-Paarl
Baarsma	Lyngrove Platinum Pinotage	2012	Stellenbosch
Black Elephant Vintners	The Back Roads Pinotage	2012	Wellington
Diemersdal	Diemersdal Pinotage	2012	Durvanville
Diemersdal	Diemersdal Pinotage Reserve	2012	Durvanville
Fairview	Primo Pinotage	2011	Paarl
Kanonkop	Kanonkop Pinotage	2010	Simonsberg Stellenbosch
Kanonkop	Kanonkop Pinotage	2009	Simonsberg Stellenbosch
KWV SA Pty Ltd	KWV The Mentors Pinotage	2011	Kusstreek
L'Avenir	L'Avenir Pinotage	2011	Stellenbosch
Manley Private Cellar	Manley Pinotage	2011	Tulbagh
Moreson	Moreson Pinotage	2011	Kusstreek
Rijk's Cellars	Rijk's Reserve Pinotage	2009	Tulbagh
Rooiberg Winery	Rooiberg Winery Pinotage Reserve	2012	Robertson
Simonsig Landgoed	Simonsig Pinotage Redhill	2011	Stellenbosch
Springfontein Wine Estate	Jonathan Ridge Pinotage	2010	Walker Bay
Waboomsrivier Wynkelder Edms Bpk	Wagenboom Pinotage	2010	Breedekloof
Wildekrans Wine Estate	Wildekrans Pinotage	2011	Botrivier
Windmeul Kelder	Windmeul Pinotage Reserve	2012	Paarl
Windmeul Kelder	Windmeul Pinotage	2011	Paarl

 
Among the well known names and previous winners is a name new to me of which I know nothing, - Black Elephant Back Roads Pinotage. Also new to me is the Wine of Origin (WO)  'Kusstreek' which I cannot find on any WO list but according to Google translations  Kusstreek is Afrikaans for 'Coastal'.

Congratulations to all. 

WOTM Delheim Bush Vine Barrel Selection 2007 Pinotage

My Wine of the Month for July is my last bottle of Delheim Bush Vine Barrel Selection Pinotage 2007.

 Just four 225 litre barrels (new French oak, aged for 13 months) were selected for this special bottling, so that’s no more than 1,200 bottles or 100 cases produced. I don’t know if this was available anywhere else than the winery where it cost 120 Rand in 2009, about twice the cost of the standard bottling.

 

I accounted for case of it myself when I was in the Cape in 2009 and also brought a few bottles home of which this was the last. We drank most of them in Delheim’s glorious garden restaurant with friends.

 One was American author Tom Mullen who later wrote about lunching at Delheim in his book Wine and Work - People Loving Life

“There weaver birds live in a huge oak tree on acres of land coated by pine trees and fynbos vegetation. We sit on a porch overlooking lush greenery with a view of distant Table Mountain. While drinking a glass of Pinotage I eat ostrich meatballs with organic cabbage, then follow that with a dessert of Pinotage ice cream – the color of blue berries.”

 

I remember how lush the wine was then, how exciting and vibrant with rich plum and berry fruit flavours and a spiciness that made your mouth water in anticipation of the next sip. This wine is now starting to show signs of aging, with the upfront fruit receding uncovering more complexity, and it’d be interesting to see how it would develop, but I’ve no regrets because I have so loved drinking this wine.  

 

 

Pinotage Recipe Competition

 

 

I was taken with Christiaan Steyn’s recipe for Ostrich skewers with Pinotage Onion Marmalade and Sweetcorn soufflé, particularly his instruction at the end of the second sentence

Start a coal fire.

Boil the kettle, pre-heat the oven to 180 degrees, clean the sweet corns, pour your first glass of Pinotage.

Christiaan blogs about food at TASTE BUDS and his recipe for Karoo Tapas is an entry in a competition run by South African supermarket chain Pick’n’Pay. They list a set of ingredients and challenge food bloggers to produce a meal from them.

The current challenge is to use traditional South African ingredients: DrostdyHof Pinotage, Ostrich sausage, maize meal, Waterblommetijes (water lily flowers – a local delicacy), Chutney and mixed dried fruit. One of the ingredients may be omitted and contestants are allowed to add some, but part of the meal must be cooked over coals.

 

Christiaan’s recipe is here and you are invited to vote for it by pressing the green button.

The competition score board with links to all recipes entered is here. As far as I can see, Christiaan is the only one who had the very good sense to enjoy the Pinotage he didn't use in the recipe while cooking.

 

Image (c) Copyright Christiaan Steyn at  TASTE BUDS and used with his permission.

 

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Kanonkop launch red Kadette Pinotage

Kanonkop are launching a new varietal red Pinotage under their Kadette label with the 2012 vintage due for release sometime in next two or three months. The Kadette label, named in homage to Bordeaux’s Ch Mouton-Rothschild ‘Mouton Cadet’ was originally a blend of wines that didn’t make it into Kanonkop’s main labels.

As demand for Kadette grew output could only be increased by using bought in grapes. The 2010 vintage saw a Kadette rosé made from Pinotage join the lineup, and now, with the 2012 vintage a red Pinotage.

The red Kadette Pinotage is made and barrel matured for 14 months at Kanonkop and will cost between 5 and 10% more than the Kadette Red.

My thinking  is that Kadette is now the name for Kanonkop’s non-estate  wines, i.e. those made from grapes not grown on the estate.

However I can see myself ordering Kanonkop Pinotage from a restaurant winelist and getting Kadette while being charged the Estate wine price, as has happened recently with L’Avenir who also have three Pinotage labels.  

 

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WOTM - L’Avenir Estate Pinotage 2005

 

My Wine of the Month for June is L'Avenir Estate Pinotage 2005.

Showing signs of full maturity, with plenty of sediment, this is a sleek elegant city slicker of a wine.

I believe this was the last vintage that Francois Naudé was responsible for , shortly afterwards the estate was bought by Laroche and Francois handed over the winemakers baton to Tinus Els.

By the time the 2005 vintage was bottled the labels had changed to the brown Laroche label, but this bears the old label at the request of The Wine Society in the UK who’d were stocking several other L’Avenir wines.

Pinotage in the Blogs

Marcia at The Peppered Heath writes

 I have never had the opportunity to taste a Pinotage before. I have to say I don’t recall ever hearing about it either. Wow, I have been missing out on a wonderful wine. At first pour, this is a beautiful deep ruby colored wine. It has wonderful aromas of blackberry, black cherry, plum and oak but don’t go thinking this is yet another Pinot. This wine is incredibly complex with delightful flavors hidden from your first taste but waiting for you to discover them with subsequent sips. Luscious vanilla, cedar, dark chocolate, and tobacco are just flavors waiting for you.

The Pinotage that impressed? 2006 Fort Ross Vineyard, Sonoma Coast Marcia marks it 5/5 and says "I think I would invest in two cases – yes, it’s that good."

It's Doolhof Dark Lady of the Night 201, Wellington  Pinotage that gets 5/5 at Sipping Sediments
 

 Holy Mother of Macaroni, forgive me, for I have sinned. Numerous times, with numerous glasses. This is by far my favorite discovery this year.

 The aroma? Once you open this sucker and let it breathe(this time, because I was cleaning under the kitchen sinks and the upper cabinets, it was closer to two hours), oh my, what a glorious aroma. Right off the bat, you can smell the richness of the wine. I’m not kidding when I tell you I swear I smelled coffee or some mocha(various investigation on Snooth.com shows it is indeed espresso I was smelling. I’m NOT insane!). Of course, being a coffee-holic, I’m sold right there. But oh, no, my friends, the festivities were only beginning.

 The taste? Superb! Boysenberry, Chocolate, Espresso, Plum, and a multiple of others that many more bottles of imbibement(is that a word? wordsmiths, help!) will no doubt help me solve eventually. It’s an elegant finish. Meaning, with all of these flavors co-habitating, you would expect a lot of deep flavor. it is there, but it’s not overpowering. I have had pinotage that was too much going on all at once. This is, happily, not the case here. It’s so smooth, that it’s not odd that you suddenly discover several glasses have been consumed.

 That was not a confession. That was a revelation.

McNab Ridge “Napoli Vineyard”  2010, Mendocino County Pinotage impresses Joe Dolce at Dolce Drinks

  The wine is full on the palate and powerful at 14.4% alcohol. In the glass it just oozes raspberry fruit, showing on both the nose and palate. It is surrounded by soft touches of vanilla and wood spice with a somewhat creamy mouth-feel. The wine has dusty, coco-powder like tannins that are firm but approachable.

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Bruce Jack on Pinotage

Bruce Jack, winemaker for Flagstone and Kumala has a way with words and a love of Pinotage and he's put the two together in a brilliant new article.

Bruce starts

Like its mother, Pinot Noir, brilliant examples of Pinotage are few and far between. But like Pinot Noir, those examples are life-changing if you are fortunate enough to encounter them. They are so enticing and beautifully satisfying, it’s like a light goes on in your mind; like a secret trap door opens and you step into another world – a fabulously ethereal world of heady aromas, seductive flavours and intense, luscious sensations. Your head spins and you fall in love.

My personal experience is that wines like these aren’t readily crafted from varieties that are generally of better standard quality, like Cabernet Sauvignon, Tempranillo, Merlot or Shiraz. Rather, they seem to be made from the recalcitrant, edgy varieties like Pinot Noir, Pinotage, Monastrell and Nebbiolo.

I have no idea why this should be. But something magical happens when these shy, tricky varieties unexpectedly shine. The effect is momentous. It is as though they rocket you up to heaven, blazing past those other consistent and trustworthy achievers.

Bruce admits he's "made all the winemaking mistakes there are to make with the variety," and goes on to discuss making both large volume and exclusive - 1,000 - bottlings. He goes into detail abou the challenges of growing and making Pinotage, discusses 'burnt rubber' and suggests it's connected with uneven ripening and the influence of soil. The technical details are there, but so is poetry...

Each bottle reflects how the vines prospered, or the grapes suffered in the scorching summer heat. Each glass tells how the leaves were battered by the drying wind, and the canes grew heavenward. Each sip reveals how conscientiously and lovingly the wine was crafted, and how well it has survived the journey to your lips. In each aroma and flavor molecule is a memory of this collective energy and effort. Nature, human intervention and luck combine to tell a story of circumstance and cycles.

Please do read the full article Pinotage - APhilosophical Obsession