Ruarri asked me to write some pieces about Pinotage for this site, and I’m going to look at this variety by focusing on the winery that is most closely linked with Pinotage - Kanonkop Estate.

Part 1 - The Pinotage Buzz
by
Peter F May

Kanonkop Estate’s 2004 Pinotage is causing an online buzz. Gary Vaynerchuk of Wine Library TV opened a bottle in his vidcast (Episode 218) on South African wines. He was so impressed that he featured four bottles of it in the following episode to experience the differences that opening times and decanting made.

He first tasted the bottle he’d opened 24 hours earlier which he used in the previous vidcast. Then he compared two Kanonkop 2004’s that he had opened 5 hours previously; one had been decanted while the other had been left in the bottle. The fourth was opened on camera and tasted immediately.

Gary said “I like this wine, beautiful red cabbage profile, oil & vinegar & olives. Bananas are jumping, (I Iove bananas), structured like Bordeaux, terroir driven, this is essential class Pinotage. Comes from granite soil, you’re getting some of this. It’s really polished, but young, need another three years. Now getting dark liquorice flavour, gets olive & smoky on finish. I highly recommend it, I’m giving it 91 points. If you like extremely well polished and intriguing wines, seek this bottle out.”

The word ‘estate’ has a legal meaning in South Africa; it tells us this wine was made from grapes grown only in vineyards owned by and surrounding the winery. That it was made, matured and bottled in the winery.

Kanonkop is a well respected winery on the road to Paarl, just north of Stellenbosch. From the road its vineyards stretching back to a clump of trees in which is the winery. Behind and to the sides of the winery are low hills covered in vines. At the entrance is a cannon. For the name Kanonkop means Cannon Hill and refers to guns placed on hills in olden times that were fired when ships were seen along the coast to alert farmers to load up their wagons with produce to take to the harbour. Sailing ships travelling down around the southern tip of Africa would stop at the harbour to take on fresh meat, fruit, vegetables and water. And wine. The reason the Cape was settled in the mid 1600s was to provision ships and wine was first made there in 1659 because it was known that wine prevented scurvy among sailors.

Kanonkop Estate was established in 1910 and now is considered one of the ‘first growths’ of South Africa. It makes only red wines, and just four of them. A flagship Cabernet dominated Bordeaux blend named ‘Paul Sauer’ after the second owner, a 100% Cabernet Sauvignon, a 100% Pinotage and a second label named Kadette which is a varying blend of Pinotage, Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot. Up till 1973 Kanonkop, as with most other vineyards, sold its grape to co-operatives. Since first making its own wines 35 years ago there have been only four winemakers, owner Jannie Krige, Jan “Boland” Coetzee (now owner of Vriesenhof Winery), Beyers Truter (now owner of Beyerskloof) and since 2002 Abrie Beeslaw.

Peter F May is the founder of The Pinotage Club - www.pinotage.org - an international cyber-based fan club for wines made from the Pinotage variety. Peter was awarded Honorary Membership of the producers Pinotage Association in 2004 and was a judge at the annual Pinotage Top 10 Competition in 2004 and 2005. Peter is a wine writer, educator and author. His book ‘Marilyn Merlot and the Naked Grape - odd wines from around the world‘ was published in summer 2006.

The 2003 Saxenburg Private Collection Pinotage is a testament to the ability of the varietal when made by an experienced wine maker to appeal to the US palate. Unfortunately badly made Pinotage gave most pinotage a bad name, and this was done by KWV who sent bucket loads of bad wine to the US after ‘94, and the varietal has struggled ever since because many wine enthusiasts are at loathe to try it. Saxenburg’s offering is devoid of the negative profiles such as acetone, nail polish or bananas - and instead its just shy of being called a fruit bomb with distinct plums on the nose, coupled with vanilla pods and prunes with a wisp of smoked venison. Soft round tannins and a modest 13.5% alcohol make for an elegant finish, making this a wine that does not leave the consumer wanting.

.

Let’s face it - we can all go a week without watching our favorite show, everyone can deal with the loss of a treasured piece of clothing, stolen cars can always be replaced and we can all deal with small amounts of distance from our friends and loved ones. Nothing however, besides obvious things like oxygen can be more important than food. So one must wonder, if eating is something we do regularly - then surely it’s something we should learn about. If you’re doing okay financially it makes little sense that you should know everything there is to know about sport, have a good fashion sense, be geographically and politically aware - and know next to nothing about food.

Read the rest of this entry »

[video http://www.viddler.com/player/50ed6325/ nolink]

That was the first item in the Scavenger Hunt, here is the next –> Gary Can Wine Nerd It All Day If You Want

Have Fun!!

Have you ever seen a camelopard? I can tell you now that you have: it was just by a different name, Giraffe. I’ve just finished reading Zarafa, Michael Allin’s remarkable tale of a 19^th Century Giraffe, sent from northern Sudan to the heart of Paris as a gift. The Parisians, having never seen such a thing, called it a ‘camelopard’ because it had a head like a camel and the spots of a leopard; whilst others mistook it for some kind of tall horse. A book which traces the cultural history of the giraffe is called ‘Tall Blondes‘, by Lynne Sherr, which looks at the cultural history of the giraffe as an object of public fascination. As a result, giraffes were sent around the world by African kings as gifts, and the tradition dates all the way back to 270 BC. Can you imagine seeing a giraffe if you had never seen such a thing before? It must have been amazing. Read the rest of this entry »