South African Pinotage
WINEMAG Rating
Few grape varieties are as loved or hated as Pinotage. With established proponents in every camp, from producers and retailers to wine writers, judges, and consumers, it's easy to overlook a middle ground and opt for an extreme to represent one's own Pinotage position.
But why has the dialogue about Pinotage reached this point? How could a grape, praised by many as a unique South African varietal and for decades serving as the country's distinctive calling card, become so controversial?
After all, many wine regions have succeeded in building a nationwide identity on the global wine stage by promoting a specific varietal or wine type: Argentina became famous thanks to its Malbec, Sauvignon Blanc is king in New Zealand, and for many, Australia is practically synonymous with Shiraz. Not only do producers benefit from the synergy between varietal and terroir, but consumers also ultimately rely on such established connections, associating a sense of typicality and character with the wines of a country as a whole.
However, if consistent quality and identity are not present and firmly established, or are established through less good examples and display a profile with poor characteristics, such branding can become problematic. For consumers in the USA, both situations contributed to Pinotage's historical struggles, which is why opinions on the grape varied so widely.
“Pinotage is the victim of many unfortunate factors coinciding,” says Johan Malan, third-generation winemaker at Simonsig Estate. “Bad wines were made and sold because the variety was not respected – high yields and financial desperation, but also a lack of understanding and viticultural skill.”
Before drawing a line or sticking to one already drawn, consider the grandeur of viticultural evolution.
As an agricultural product, wine is subject to constant change – climatic conditions, winemaking technology, winemaking techniques, and much more are constantly changing and ultimately shaping the final product. Today's Bordeaux bottlings are not the same as those of decades ago; the same applies to wines made from Pinotage.
South African Pinotage has grown up. It has matured. It no longer needs to beg for every ounce of attention your taste buds can muster. It has learned to value itself and shies away from indulging your palate with an overly opulent, ripe, soft, and sweet embrace you thought you wanted, instead proudly showing a little more restraint and respect for its origins. It’s a new day for Pinotage, and a perfect time to become better acquainted.
A brief history
Pinotage was developed in 1925 by Abraham Izak Perold, a chemist who traveled overseas on behalf of the South African government to find grape varieties that could be grown in the region. Perold returned with 177 samples, but was not satisfied with that. He decided to cross two of them, presumably to combine the best characteristics of both varieties: the robust nature and easy cultivation of Cinsault (known as Hermitage in the region) and the delicious sophistication of Pinot Noir.
“Great Pinotage has good fruit purity in its youth and then evolves into a very complex, flavorful wine with age,” says Emul Ross, winemaker at Hamilton Russell Vineyards, Ashbourne, and Southern Right in the Hemel-en-Aarde Valley.
The first recorded commercial planting of the grape variety occurred in 1943 in the Western Cape, and the variety first appeared on a wine label in 1961, from the 1959 vintage. As an early-ripening variety, the first releases had a deep ruby red color, a strong vinous character, and good structure. Pinotage wines won titles at the Cape Wine Shows in 1959 and 1961.
Early Pinotage bottlings, especially in their youth, however, exhibited an acetone-like quality. For some, this was intriguing; for others, unpleasant. Even if this characteristic dissipated after a few years of aging, for some it was too difficult to overcome this flaw.
This stigma persisted for years, as more mass-produced wines regrettably perpetuated a bad stereotype alongside additional descriptions such as chemical or rubbery.
“It is a variety that can produce a large harvest and many tons per hectare,” says Thinus Krüger, owner and winemaker of Fram Wines, who has worked repeatedly with Pinotage for 21 years. And then you get a bland wine with a terrible analysis. In my opinion, the love-it-or-hate-it reputation of Pinotage is largely due to a lot of bad Pinotage being on the market for many years.
“The general perception that Pinotage is a big, sweet, high-alcohol, astringent wine is wrong – that’s simply bad winemaking,” says Ross. “Pinotage has thick skins, deep color, and a lot of tannin. It also tends to accumulate sugar quite quickly at optimal harvest time. It is an early-ripening grape, often planted in warm to hot areas, and without great care in these areas, it tends to overripe with low acids and high pH values. If the grapes are grown in an area less suited to the style the producer is aiming for, this can result in wines that are excessively sweet, alcoholic, and tannic at the same time.”
SETTING A BENCHMARK
“Pinotage was only first put on a wine label in the 60s – that’s not that long ago,” says Bernhard Bredell, owner and winemaker of Scions of Sinai Wines in Stellenbosch.
“Of course, there are many trial-and-error phases, and I think that will continue for a while. There are many different soils and areas where Pinotage has since been planted, most of them just for the ‘name’ and not always according to the terroir. This then leads to many different winery practices in dealing with the grape – some treat it like Cabernet Sauvignon, others like Pinot Noir.”
The Pinotage Association was founded in 1995 to improve the reputation of the grape variety and to bring greater uniformity to the category. The group enabled Pinotage producers to discuss and share experiences, while also developing criteria to define a distinctive South African Pinotage style and to identify top examples. The association organizes an annual Absa Top 10 Pinotage competition, which aims to promote the selection of grape varieties as a benchmark, and hosts #PinotageDay every year on the second Saturday in October.
Quality-conscious producers worked to better understand the optimal cultivation techniques for the variety, as well as the ideal climatic conditions and terroirs for its diverse final expressions.
“Pinotage, like all great varieties, is site-specific – that is the most important factor,” says Beeslaar. “The second is how you grow it. We have found that bush vines play an important role in the potential quality of the wine. The winemaking itself is significantly different from other varieties, and you have to understand the grape to get the best quality. As with any great wine, certain characteristics must be present: structure, balance, elegance, length.”
Efforts to raise the bar for this traditional grape variety are promising. The camaraderie among winemakers and the sharing of information, combined with technological and viticultural advances, have ushered in a new era for Pinotage.
“The perception of old-school Pinotages still has a certain negative influence on the grape variety, but that is changing over time,” says Tremayne Smith, owner and winemaker of The Blacksmith Wines. “These wines were worked hard and excessively soaked... and slowly but surely, there are more winemakers taking a more elegant path, using older barrels, large format barrels, whole bunch fermentation, and less extracted wines to showcase the parents of this variety. So the appreciation for Pinotage is growing.”
A new wave
“The average quality of Pinotage today is much better than 20 years ago and is also better understood and respected,” says Beeslaar. Those who don’t like Pinotage have not enjoyed the great examples of this grape variety.
Currently, South Africa's third most widely planted red grape variety is experiencing a renaissance. With increasing experience in growing and producing Pinotage, the understanding of the various factors that ultimately affect the wines has improved.
“Both viticulture and winemaking techniques have changed over the years,” says Smith. “In the vineyards, where Jaco Engelbrecht is the viticultural consultant for The Blacksmith Wines, we focus on techniques to ripen the fruit physiologically earlier so that we can get the grapes off the vines before a major heatwave. We achieve this through earlier pruning in the winter months, mulching, good canopy management – removing superfluous shoots and grapes, leaf-plucking to expose the grapes to sunlight at the right time, etc. – and in some cases, if the shoots are too thin and weak, we leave one grape per shoot.”
There are still classically bold, concentrated, and powerfully structured examples, but they are overall more balanced and complex than the examples from a decade or more ago. While these well-made bottlings are attractive when young, they also show the great longevity that the grape can possess, often aging for 10 or more years after release.
“With extended bottle aging of older examples, Pinotage better showcases its parents, Cinsault and Pinot Noir, if you give the grippy tannins time to develop and catch up with the faster-aged nose,” says Bredell.
“We have refined our viticulture significantly in terms of leaf and shoot removal, as well as green harvesting,” says Beeslaar. “In the cellar, we still do a very short fermentation with intense extraction at the beginning and less towards the end of fermentation. We are much more aware of the high pH and will manage each vintage accordingly. We don't want to over-extract and produce aggressive, unbalanced wines. The big difference will always be the vintage. Our style has always been very similar to what we do today, but I believe that the wines show a purity that may not always have been present in the past.”
Pinotage winemakers today rely on less aggressive winemaking techniques and new oak aging processes to allow the grape to better express its inherent characteristics and terroir.
“When I joined Simonsig after my studies, our Pinotage was light and fruity, with a distinct fermentation ester aroma suitable for early and easy enjoyment,” says Malan. “The Pinotages we produce today show a more concentrated ripe fruit with more richness and body. The influence of new oak is diminishing so that the delicious Pinotage fruit is at the center of the wine. The tannins should be supple to be drunk young, but still provide structure for aging.”
“We prefer to work with a light hand when it comes to Pinotage to highlight the bright aromatic qualities of the grape,” says Smith. “For fermentation, we use about three different techniques: destemmed grapes, whole bunches, and carbonic maceration. This depends on the vintage and the fruit coming into the cellar. Aging is also quite simple – older French oak barrels, and perhaps a small portion is aged in stainless steel tanks.”
The grapes respond well to all these subtleties.
“Of all the grape varieties I have worked with, this is the one that responds most to different techniques,” says Krüger. “Higher or lower fermentation temperatures result in two completely different wines. The same applies to carbonic maceration, harvest timing, aging, etc.”
A vibrant stylistic perspective is found in bottlings from winemakers who treat the grape with more reverence for its lineage. These Pinotage wines, often referred to as “new wave,” surprise with their nuanced, restrained, and delicate structure, which leaves a fruity impression when young and is overall more in line with the characteristics of the original grape varieties – the elegance of Pinot Noir and the juiciness of Cinsault.
“I like characteristics in Pinotage that remind me either of Beaujolais Gamay (think Moulin-à-Vent) or the Italian Dolcetto grape (think d’Alba),” says Bredell. “Sour cherry, plum, a hint of raspberry, lilac, and some fascinating earthy or herbaceous notes. No new oak notes. The tannin is part of the grape’s identity and should always be present in the soft, granular, natural tannin profile of the grape, which allows for a grippy freshness with balanced acidity and not too bold alcohol content.”
“I want to challenge people to drink a good bottle of Pinotage – not under 12 francs – and then decide if they like it or not,” says Beeslaar. “Pinotage is still a baby compared to other varieties, and the progress we have made in the last 20 years makes us very enthusiastic for the next 20 years.”
Discover our Pinotage selection now:
Kanonkop
Pinotage – 2018
94 Points by WINEMAG SA
Produced from over 55-year-old vines. Shows a young, vibrant ruby red with some violet, very rich, spicy bouquet with aromas of ripe red berries, very refined, powerful on the palate, already very accessible and open, subtly spicy and mouth-filling, with perfect silky tannins, wonderfully balanced, great class!
Promotion
KANONKOP
Pinotage – 2018
CHF 39.00 instead of CHF 45.00
L’AVENIR
PINOTAGE SINGLE BLOCK – 2018
94 Points by Decanter
The L'Avenir Single Block Pinotage delights with an invitingly fresh and complex aroma of fragrant violets, dried cranberry, and dark chocolate. The palate is caressed by lively and lush fruit nuances of fresh cherries and delicately sweet spices, as well as well-integrated oak tones. Its full-bodied structure and fine, soft tannins complete this wonderful pleasure experience and linger in a long-lasting and pleasantly soft finish.
Promotion
L’AVENIR
Pinotage Single Block – 2018
CHF 39.90 instead of CHF 49.90
Hamilton Russell
Southern Right – Pinotage – 2020
93 Points by Tim Atkin
Southern Right redefines Pinotage with this intense, classically styled wine from clay soils, packed with complex berry fruit, beautiful tannins and subtle oak spice. The full ripeness and extended hang time offered by the cooler sites, combined with the complex, classic fruit flavours and structure resulting from the clay soil, make this wine a highly individual expression of South Africa's unique grape variety.
Promotion
HAMILTON RUSSELL
Southern Right – Pinotage – 2020
CHF 29.00 instead of CHF 35.00
Spier
Signature – Pinotage – 2018
3 Stars by Platter’s
This classic South African Pinotage offers a generous bouquet of dark cherries, juicy plums, and a hint of cinnamon with soft and silky tannins.
Promotion
SPIER
Signature – Pinotage – 2018
CHF 9.90 instead of CHF 12.90
WARWICK
FIRST LADY – PINOTAGE – 2019
2.5 Stars by Platter’s
The nose displays dark cherries, strawberries, dark chocolate, and cured meat. The palate is light and vibrant with great fruit and fine powdery tannins with the same cherry notes carrying through on the palate along with rooibos tea and a hint of oak spice.
Killer Deal – from 6 bottles
WARWICK
First Lady – Pinotage – 2019
CHF 10.90 instead of CHF 14.90
Wine Enthusiast issue of February 24, 2022
All prices in CHF incl. VAT. Daily price from 08.03.2022.
Offers valid while stocks last. Errors and price changes reserved.
