Pinotage - The Mirage Grape!

What if I say that some things in life are not what they look like or even what their same sounds like. Well, we have certain aspects attached to certain grapes that not only make them deceiving but also builds them a very interesting character. One such grape is Pinotage.

Pinotage is South Africa's leading “hero” grape and ambassador in the wine industry with over 98% of total world plantings, while Hawke’s Bay, Auckland in New Zealand and California in USA & Israel have rest of the minor plantings. It makes everything from low-quality table wines to rich, concentrated wines in its native land, producing excellent reds in regions as diverse as Franschhoek, Elgin, Citrusdal Mountain, Paarl, Voor Paardeberg, Swartland and Stellenbosch.

@Pinotage Grape Bunches.

The name is a little bit misleading because it sounds so much like Pinot Noir. It is easy to assume they taste alike. Not true. In fact, this South African grape looks and tastes more like Shiraz even though Pinotage is technically related to Pinot Noir. Told ya’, it's deceiving.

Let me tell you a bit more about our hero!

It is a crossing of Cinsaut and Pinot Noir. It was first crossed with just four seeds in South Africa in 1925 by a scientist Abraham Perold in his backyard garden and eventually forgotten. In fact, the 1920s saw a wave of grape crossings: - Zweigelt in Austria, Scheurebe in Germany besides Pinotage saw daylight during this era only. Perold after observing that Pinot Noir struggled in South Africa’s climate, crossed it with a very productive species: Cinsaut (called Hermitage). His goal was to create a wine that was as delicious and flavoursome as Pinot Noir but was sturdy and bold as Cinsaut. So, there’s more twist in the movie, sit back and relax.

The result of the crossing between Cinsaut and Pinot Noir was unusual. The result grapes were extremely dark in colour and the wine they created was bold and high in tannin and anthocyanin (water-soluble pigments that, depending on their pH, may appear red, purple, blue or black). Unfortunately, Dr Perold never got to taste the wine made from his very own creation.

Fast forward a few years and the vines were found and saved by Dr Charles Niehaus, a young lecturer at the University of Stellenbosch, grafted onto disease-resistant rootstocks and the first commercial plantings came out only in 1943.

@Abraham Perold.

Over the years this grape, like any other hero, has its share of ups and down as well. In the 1980s and 1990s, Pinotage was a tricky wine to make “well”. Also, conventions (led by the South African Co-Operative Wine Growers Association, or KWV) favoured quantity over quality. Hence, it’s popularity dipped to the lowest during that time. Things got better in the late ’90s when the apartheid sanctions were lifted and later, in 1995, the Pinotage Association was established, to uplift its image and quality.

Although being a hardy, productive variety, it has issues with viral diseases and it can be fussy about both terroir and winemaking (Hero tantrums, you see!!!). The finest examples are trained in ‘bush vine’ style (Cinsaut, in France, is done in the same way). It prefers sunny sites however too much heat at the end of the growing season or even during fermentation can cause the grapes to develop an unpleasant acetone aroma or take on a burnt rubber character.

Pinotage is dense in colour and bold in flavour with notes of plum sauce, tobacco, blackberry, tar and liquorice. Occasionally you’ll taste amazing red fruit flavours of raspberry, red liquorice and even red bell pepper (in well-made vintages). With oak cask maturation, it can become smoky and spicy. Tannins are bold but have a pleasant finish. Acidity is usually low, so most winemakers especially in hot climates acidify their wines early in the fermentation process so the acids are more integrated.

When made in a bad style, it will smell very pungent and sharp, almost like nail polish remover. This smell is a clue that the wine has high levels of Volatile Acidity (VA) which is caused by a high proportion of a ‘bad acid’ called acetic acid. (A good actor can make bad films too.)

@Groot Constantia Pinotage, Constantia.

Some of the finest examples are:

- Kanonkop Black Label Pinotage, Stellenbosch

- Groot Constantia Pinotage, Constantia

- Fairview Pinotage, Coastal Region 

- Beyerskloof Diesel Pinotage, Stellenbosch.

Article by – Ravi ‘Chand’ Punia, Introductory Sommelier.