Pinotage: Quo Vadis? Michael Fridjhon

Pinotage is one of the unique selling points that South African wine has to offer the world. But the debate about the definitive style which should be representative of this grape continues. Michael Fridjh on exhorts producers to take a leaf out of Bordeaux's book.The Pinotage Producers Association, concerned that overcropping and short cut production strategies are compromising its marketing efforts, is attempting to formulate a set of prescriptive guidelines aimed at achieving a level of coherence and cohesion in the production and aesthetic of bottled Pinotage. These include a minimum alcohol content of 12,5% (rising to 13% in time), with a sugar free extract of at least 25g/l, (increasing to 28 g/l). On the surface this is a noble aspiration and it will undoubtedly yield more than a smattering of support. Any programme driven by a genuine desire to see an improvement in the quality and marketability of Cape wine deserves careful reflection. Given the Association's credentials it would be difficult to question its sincerity: quality wine is in everyone's better interest, while poor wine compromises the efforts of the industry as a whole.

It might therefore seem a little ill natured to question this latest initiative. However 'clubby' the organisation might be, its good intentions cannot be in doubt. Too bad that many of the country's top Pinotages suffer from visible quality defects - appalling tannin structures, pong associated with bound sulphurs and over-reductive winemaking - and that the association has seen fit to promote these 'styles' through its annual awards programme. Since these features don't bother the Pinotage mafia, they have become acceptable, while the viticultural and cellar strategies of the 'light wine' producers are destined to be stamped out by legislative fiat.

Pinotage is an important weapon in South Africa's quest for a share of the world's wine market. Correctly handled it offers a point of difference, particularly in markets susceptible - and sympathetic - to so-called New World wine styles. The jury is still out on its status as a noble or premium varietal. It can yield dramatic wines of ready accessibility and reasonable ageing potential; it does not appear to deliver the true complexity which emerges when time converts the primary fruit features of, say Cabernet or Shiraz, to secondary and even tertiary qualities. Notwithstanding the undoubted pre-eminence of Pinot Noir and Chardonnay (if not necessarily in our climes) there are no legislatively imposed guidelines to determine how these grapes may be handled. The sole restriction - which applies equally to Pinotage - is the power of the Wine and Spirit Board to refuse certification to any wine which, in the subjective opinion of the Board, fails to manifest the organoleptic features ordinarily associated with that varietal.

So why then should the Association consider restricting - in so uncompromising a way - the sale of these more dilute versions of its prized varietal? Could it be that the discount structure of such wines undermines the efforts of the premium producers to elevate their selling prices to stratospheric proportions? Is it merely that, with the passing of the ancien regime, South Africans cannot live without restrictive regulations?

The truth sadly is probably much simpler to access: the Pinotage Producers - like most of the other old-fashioned souls in the wine industry - prefer to forget that the market will always prevail in the end. Instead they think they can manage what is bought and sold by writing the rules of what can be produced.

Coincidentally sectoral interests are served by this strategy, though many who innocently applaud the proposals are driven by well-meaning sentiments rather than by hidden agendas. The solution to their dilemma is in fact so simple - though somewhat unpalatable - that it obviates the need for any intervention at all. If light Pinotage is junk, buyers will steer clear of it; if not, they will find value despite the injunctions and pleadings of those who prefer to produce opulent and (often over-) oaked examples. If the super-premium wines are worth their prices, they will sell notwithstanding the burden of the bottom end of the market.

This is a lesson they can most easily learn from Bordeaux: there table red has not seen a price increase in the past 10 years and actually sells for less than even our cheapest Pinotage. This ocean of very ordinary red has had no impact at all on the image - or pricing - of the region's great growths, many of which have seen a three fold increase in their market prices in the last nine months.