Misunderstood
Misunderstood
Foreign perceptions of Pinotage are slowly changing, but we've still got a long way to go.
Revista Gosto is a Brazilian gastronomic magazine, so when it asked for an interview on Pinotage, I realised that coffee Pinotage had well and truly arrived - until I received the questions.
The first flashed a warning light: "What are the main difficulties for Pinotage producers?" The question answers itself: negative perceptions.
Within SA, Pinotage is extremely popular; it invariably tops the polls of favourite wines at consumer shows and in January Kanonkop released 1 000 bottles of Black Label Pinotage 2006 priced at R1 000 a bottle, making it the most expensive SA red released in reasonable volumes.
Six hundred bottles sold in two hours and the remainder within the month, confirming it as the first local icon. Alas, foreign perceptions are not always so rosy, with UK blogger Jamie Goode calling Pinotage "vile". "In fact," he said, "I've thought of both a new competition, and also a new way to assess wine show judges based on this variety.
The new competition is for the World's Least Vile Pinotage, and perhaps I should brand this with my name to make it an exercise in ugly self-promotion (as some other, nameless, writers do with top 100s and the like). And the new way to assess wine show judges is to give them a glass of Pinotage. If they say it's OK, they're sacked. If they dislike it, they are in. If they take a sip, cuss loudly and expel the contents from their mouths rapidly, then they are senior judges."
These bigoted perceptions are slowly changing - in fact, Jamie now claims his comments were made in jest. That Abrie Beeslaar, Kanonkop winemaker, was voted Winemaker of the Year at the International Wine & Spirit Competition in London in 2008 certainly helped, especially when you remember that Abrie was following in the footsteps of the Prince of Pinotage, Beyers Truter.
Kaapzicht Steytler Pinotage 2006 winning the trophy for Top Red Single Varietal over £10 at the Decanter World Wine Awards last year was a slam dunk.
The next question accentuates the negative: "Why did it take so much time for Pinotage to be accepted by consumers and the market?" To which I replied that the first commercial bottling of Pinotage occurred 50 years ago. SA wine exports struggled against apartheid-era sanctions until Nelson Mandela was released from prison 20 years ago, so SA exports of Pinotage only took off fairly recently.
"What Pinotage characteristics made it so hard for some consumers?" is the bacchanalian equivalent of "When did you stop beating your partner?" Pinotage is made in various styles.
The so-called coffee/mocha school uses wood fermentation and maturation to produce a telltale flavour profile some serious wine lovers do not appreciate, although very popular with consumers. Poor winemaking techniques can result in wines with hard tannins or overtly tropical flavours (banana, for example), although such wines are becoming increasingly rare.
The final question was a curious one: "What peculiarities or characteristics has a grape created by breeding two grapes from within the same species?" I replied that lovers of dogs and cats will relate to ‘hybrid vigour' - how a mongrel can become a dear pet with a wonderful personality while pedigree animals may suffer from too much inbreeding and become hysterical and unstable.
Pinotage exhibits positive characteristics inherited from both parents: accessibility and a robust constitution from Cinsault; fresh fruit and a potential for ageing and complexity from Pinot Noir.
In the same way that some regard Cabernet Sauvignon as superior to its parents Cabernet Franc and Sauvignon Blanc, so too is Pinotage better suited to some terroirs in SA than either of its parent cultivars.
Neil Pendock is wine writer for the Sunday Times and Financial Mail.
