2010 Harvest Reports

Harvest reports are coming in

Ilse van Dijk, winemaker at Deetlefs Estate, is poetic when describing the intensity of the 2010 harvest: “It feels like walking into a perfume factory, with hallucinations of palm beaches and pineapple cocktails every morning when opening the cellar doors for yet another creative day. ”
Van Dijk says the Sauvignon Blanc is looking good, with exotic tropical fruits and good structure. While the Pinotage, which is still fermenting, already has a deep intense colour and fresh berry flavours.

Willie Burger, cellarmaster at Badsberg Cellar says: “The harvest is smaller this year, but the quality definitely makes up for it. Pinotage is the only red cultivar harvested so far, and the wines made from this variety look very promising. “What really stand out are the soft tannins and the deep, red colour. Overall 2010 promises an exciting vintage, although a bit smaller.”

Gerrit van Zyl of Botha Cellar says the harvest is smaller than expected – about 10% to 15% less than 2009. Cultivars already harvested are Chenin Blanc, Sauvignon Blanc, Chardonnay and Semillon, while they have started with Pinotage. The Pinotage at Botha also has good colour and the wine is fruity but with tannins that are both ripe and soft in the mouth


At KWV they say 'so far we received Pinotage, Merlot and Shiraz grapes. We are almost finished with the Pinotage and we’ll start on the Merlot shortly. The grapes are definitely coming in later than in 2009 because of the cool weather and today’s weather has made things challenging…. However, the quality of the Pinotage that has come in is amazing and from the Merlot grapes that we have seen, KWV Wines is expecting a good vintage from this year’s crop too.'

Corlea Fourie, winemaker at Bosman Family Vineyard harvested their Pinotage grapes early February. By mid-month she was blogging "Beautiful purple/crimson juice-maybe the most rewarding cultivar to work with purely because of the instant gratification of oodles of colour. Loving it!"

But Delheim is reporting "only the Pinotage has not fared as well as hoped."

Pinotage is a Majestic New Year Resolution

Lawrence Bowden manages Majestic’s Leith Walk wine warehose. His new year resolution is to “be more adventurous; to stop playing it safe and get out of the repetitive gastronomic rut I’ve been in for the past year. I’ve stopped buying wines I know I like in order to get to grips with varieties and styles I normally avoid and I’ve filled my wine rack with Pinotage.”

He reports on three Pinotage’s from the Majestic range:

Zalze Pinotage 2008 - “By the second glass I was nearly enjoying it”

Beyerskloof Reserve 2007 - “fruit here shifts to darker berries” with “hints of coffee”

Kanonkop Pinotage 2007 – “have to say that, despite not being the world’s biggest fan of Pinotage, I really did enjoy this wine”

Read Lawrences full report on Majestic’s blog here

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Canada's The View Winery produces Second Pinotage

Another Canadian winery has joined the Pinotage family. The View Winery in Canada's Okanagan Valley wine region is about to release their second vintage, the 2008 Red Shoe Pinotage.

"Our first release, Pinotage 2007, is a delicate medium bodied red. It is lightly oaked and is quite fruit forward with cherry aromas and flavours. We produced 260 cases," says Jennifer Turton-Molgat.

"Pinotage 2008 has quite a different profile - an extended maceration compared to that of the 2007 has achieved a much fuller bodied, complex Pinotage. The peppery spiciness of the Cinsaut shows itself in this vintage. It was aged for 12 months in a combination of Hungarian, French and American oak barrels."

The View Winery will be bottling it in the middle of March and producing approximately 585 cases. They have four acres of Pinotage ranging in age from 8 - 10 years.

Jennifer tells me "the vines are thriving on our property. The early ripening nature of Pinotage appears to suit our climate and location and we are excited to be planting another five acres in the spring.

"I am happy to say that, more and more, the response from the public at tastings is, "Oh Pinotage! I've heard of that. 'Or, "Pinotage! I tried a great one last week!', instead of the response I used to get back in 2007 when I first started marketing ours which was, 'Pinotage... What's that a blend of?'

Can't wait to taste it!



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Pinotage Party Roundup

One message from Friday’s Pinotage Party, organised by Dezel of My Vine Spot, in Virginia, is that participants in the USA had difficulty in finding Pinotage.



image copyright Dezel Quillen
used with Dezel's kind permission
Veronica Castella of in Tampa, Florida went to five wine stores and found only one bottle of Nederburg ‘Winemakers Reserve’ 2007. “It was the only one in town. There was not even a second bottle. There were no other Pinotages at all anywhere,” she told me. Veronica and three colleagues tasted the wine blind against a California Pinot Noir costing twice as much and the Pinotage did pretty well, being the favourite of one taster. See the video of the tasting here.

Steven at terroirists.net couldn’t find any varietal Pinotages in Walla Walla, Washington so bought Gallo’s Sebeka Shiraz-Pinotage 2007 which they thought was a “non-offensive wine with a somewhat offensive finish.”

Tanisha of the grapevine4wine.blogspot.com in Washington DC opened Golden Kaan 2007 which she found “amazing” with food.

Ben from Vintology Wine Blog in west Texas chose Fleur Du Cap 2007 which he “kind of enjoyed it overall” although its smell reminded him of “ham”.

In Brazil, Keith from BrainWines who instigated the Pinotage Party with Dezel tasted three Pinotages, Kaapzicht Estate 2002 (“Kaapzicht folks obviously are great
winemakers, as this held up beautifully - long after their recommended aging length”)and Hill & Dale 2007 (“Brilliant”) from South Africa, and Marcus James Pinotage 2007 (“Simply quite terrible”) from Brazil.


Sue Courtney at New Zealand's WineoftheWeek.com opened Kerr Farm Kumeu Pinotage 2004 from Auckland and said "a fascinating wine, it's changing in the glass as we sip it - and it reconfirms why I like this intriguing, funky and always interesting variety called Pinotage."


Dezel himself tried Spier 'Private Collection' 2006 which he found "mouth-filling and ripe". I thought he'd be tasting a Virginia Pinotage!


I brought to the party Beyerskloof 2008 and Kanonkop 2006 and described them here



Many thanks to Dezel for organising this.

Pinotage Party - Beyerskloof 2008 - Kanonkop 2006

Encouraged by Dezel's Pinotage Party I opened a Kanonkop 2006 and Beyerskloof 2008


Beyerskloof Pinotage 2008 with its white label is the standard bottling from Pinotage king Beyers Truter's winery. The 2008 example is just delicious with bags of ripe blackberry and strawberry fruit and soft tannins on the finish. This one is lovely to drink on its own and it makes a cracking match with a takeaway from the Indian restaurant. I love this wine for its sheer drinkability. It is classic Pinotage.

Beyerskloof
Pinotage 2008
WO Stellenbosch
abv 14%



Kanonkop Estate is probably the most famous Pinotage producer internationally. From the time they started bottling their own wines more than forty years ago they have specialised in only a few wines and varieties of which Pinotage is one. They were among the first to plant the variety and now have one of the oldest Pinotage vineyards planted with sixty-year old gnarled stubby bush vines on a low clay hill.

Winemaker Abrie Beeslaar (pictured right) is only Kanonkop’s third winemaker and he smoothly took the baton from Beyers Truter and ran with it, winning the IWSC International Winemaker of the Year award in 2008

2006 was a good vintage. I first tasted this at the winery on release in March 2007 and I was delighted with it. In June 2008 I said it was “showing all the signs of being another cracker. It is elegant, showing restrained berry fruits, balanced by tannins and fruit acids,” and I purchased a couple of cases intending to age them.

Opening this bottle for Dezels’s Pinotage Party I was struck first by its inviting mulberry bouquet. But on the palate is seemed to have closed up. The spicy berry flavours, so noticeable when it was young, were subdued. What we had here was a medium bodied, well balanced beautifully coloured restrained tight wine, enjoyable and serious but not as exuberant as I’d like. The maturation chart on the back label (see below) shows 2010 as the year it should reach optimum drinking, but I think I’ll age it more for maximum enjoyment.

Kanonkop Estate
Pinotage 2006
WO Estate Wine Simonsberg-Stellenbosch
14.5% abv

Join the Pinotage Party next Friday 12 February 2010

Dezel Quillen at My Vine Spot is organising a Pinotage Party next Friday 12 February 2010 and you're all invited.

Dezel says

Remember the 60’s hit by Nina Simone “Don’t let me be misunderstood”? Well that song title fits Pinotage like a leather glove. The idea here is to show that Pinotage is a wine worth buying and trying despite what you may have heard

Idea is everyone opens a bottle of Pinotage and posts their impressions of it next Friday. Post on your blog or at Twitter #pinotageparty

Dezel will co-ordinate, so contact him with your blog details.

If you don't blog or tweet just use the comment form at My Vine Spot or email Dezel with your tasting note.

Good on you, Dezel!!

Kanonkop 'Limited Release' Black Label Released

The promised "very special wine at a price to match", as described here by Johann Krige last month is on sale.

Kanonkops black label 2006 Pinotage is available only from two outlets,
Cybercellar.com and Wade Bales Wine Society. Only 1000 bottles have made, the grapes coming from the oldest vines on the farm, and the first 600 have been released with a price of 1,000 ZAR per bottle (82GBP/132USD). The last tranche of 400 bottles will be released later this year. There is a limit of 36 bottles per customer, but according to .Angela Lloyd's blog all the available bottles sold out instantly.

Angela was at the winery for the launch party where she tasted the new wine which she describes as follows:

It is as concentrated as one might hope from such venerable vines but the aromatic and flavour intensity is deep and refined rather than showy. The family likeness of spice (some cinnamon), a mix of red fruits (redcurrants, plums and raspberries) melded with a subtle savouriness and lifted by great freshness lend a clear Kanonkop signature, if on a different level from the standard and CWG wines. It is a fabulous wine, regardless of variety

Web Reviews: Fairview, Te Awa, Diemersfontein and Makulu

Over on eBob (Robert Parker's forum) Chaad Thomas thought Fairview's 2005 Pinotage was a great wine.

"Dark garnet, with some ruby reflections. Bright. Bold nose is smoky, gamey, and herbal. My wife says it smells like an Italian [spiced] stable! It's definitely redolent of wild berries and true to that SA funk.

Fresh and lively up front, the wine shows ripe, supple fruit and good weight. It's quite harmonious, with a good balance of earth tones and savor. The fruit is a juicy blend of cherry, raspberry, and cranberry...maybe blackberry.

Nicely knit all the way through the middle, too. The finish is a progressive evolution from the palate, allowing a nice glow of salty, beefiness at the end. Mouthwatering.

In all, this is still a great wine, true to my memory of it a few years back, on release. It's so satisfying and enjoyable to drink! It's not profound,but it is distinctly flavorful and "original" tasting."

In New Zealand, Sue Courtney at Wine of the Weektested a gizmo called SpinWine that is supposed to aerate wine. Sue compared three distinctly different wines, Tempranillo, Montepulciano and Te Awa Hawkes Bay 2007 Pinotage. The SpinWine didn't impress but the Pinotage did.

Concentrated, impenetrable, blackberry red hue. There's a tomato character to the aroma and a hint of a barnyard character too. A full-bodied wine in the mouth with soft tannins and bright, spicy, meaty flavours.

Actually the tannins are quite powerful but the juicy dark berry fruit cuts right them down. Acidity pops up like a speed bump, it's here and then it's gone, and the finish is chocolatey with a hint of liquorice. Fermented with natural yeasts and matured in French oak for 12 months. A fascinating wine - the most fascinating of the three - in that's it so different. Liked it

Amanda at The Travelling Grape 'was so excited' about tasting her very first Pinotage which a friend of a friend had brought back to her in California. It was Diemersfontein Pinotage 2008 .

Wow, a chocolate bomb on my nose right away with dark rich coffee beans. Could this be a Café Mocha lover’s answer? At first it was a bit hot and tickled my nose but that dissipated in time. The front of the palate was quick but the middle, whoa nelly…smooth like velvet with a hint of smoke and leather but the coffee and chocolate certainly stole the show. The finish lingered around a bit and left me yearning for a chocolate covered cherry. Very unique and I encourage each of you to get your hands on some to try.

Ellen at A Life in Reviews loved Makulu Iswithi Pinotage 2006, which she summed up as "Impressive and sustainable - it's like getting buzzed off a Toyota Prius." (?)

Hooray!!! A wine that is inexpensive, scrumptious, and organically/sustainably grown. For the price, it doesn't get much better than this. I haven't had a lot of South African wine, but I'm hooked. This Pinotage is sure to be a crowd pleaser. It's quite sweet and will appeal to the Pinot fans (Iswithi means "sweet" in Zulu), but it's cherry-sweet rather than sickly-sweet, and it's also full-bodied enough to win over Cab and Syrah fans.