The Cape Blend

The deal clincher

Wine quality alone is what is going to rehabilitate the concept of the Cape Blend.

Those wine drinkers who cannot see the charms of Pinotage have been known to describe the so-called Cape Blend as an invention to sell it by stealth. Cleverly assembled, so they argue, such a blend simply conceals the distinctive varietal flavours and aromas, making the wine more saleable than the pure varietal version.

 

This is a short-sighted fix. If you dislike Pinotage in its pure form, you might tolerate it better in the diluted version, but you are never going to become a passionate consumer.

Does this mean that the whole Cape Blend enterprise is doomed to failure? Should the opinions of the naysayers even be considered? There's precious little common ground to share between those who say the earth is round and those who persist in believing that it's flat. The two clubs must remain entirely separate and you cannot have voting rights at the one if you're a member of the other.

Discounting the opinions of those who think the world would be a happier place without Pinotage, we are left with two groups: the pro-Pinotage lobby and those who treat every wine (Pinotage or otherwise) purely on its merits. I'm willing to bet that the first is actually quite small, but the second (to the chagrin of the anti-Pinotage brigade) is probably quite big.

It is primarily in wine buff/fundi/snob circles that Pinotage is excoriated on an almost daily basis. However, it is worth offering one of these dedicated Pinotagophobes a smart, untypical example in a blind tasting - and then to reveal that the wine which enjoyed favourable comment was the dreaded P and to watch the extraordinary mental and verbal gymnastics which usually ensue to create a distance between the opinion and the grape. This is the environment of prejudice and it's no place for a rational discussion.

There are - in my experience - a lot of people who are open-minded about Pinotage in general but who strongly dislike certain styles (which used to be more common in the past than they are now).

You have to be blindly patriotic if you can find no fault in the pongy, bretty, hardtannined, varnishy and coarse examples which still exist at the very end of the spectrum. But equally there are wines with fruit and finesse, a well-managed mouthfeel and a polished, plush finish.

Maybe they are a little too tutti-frutti to be anything except the show-stoppers they have been designed to be - like the most pungent examples of Kiwi Sauvignon Blanc or some of the more intense Alsace Gewurztraminers. But this is where Cape Blends come into their own: such flavours and aromatics can and do add complexity to the sometimes boringly repetitive Cabernets and Shirazes that form the basis of the amorphous red blend classes.

The blender's task is not easy: he/she must find wines which are complementary, rather than supplementary - with less tannin and with fruit characters that are harmonious but from elsewhere on the flavour spectrum. No wonder it's not often done very well.

In addition, the wine needs longer to knit than most other reds. Since the category does not attract the same demand at the top end as the more conventional blends, the wines are often released too soon - before the component parts have come together.

If we want to do right by Pinotage and by Pinotage blends, we're going to have to ignore those wine drinkers who can never be persuaded. We are then going to have to invest in what is produced - as people do when they truly believe in what they're doing: the walk, not the talk.