Advent Wine Cape Spring Pinotage
I absolutely “cheated” today while selecting a bottle from my box ‘o wine Advent calendar. When I determined which wines to earmark as blind tasting challenges I knew anything with a screwcap would immediately be a dead giveaway. Not feeling up to another blind tasting humiliation today, I felt around for a screwcap and came up with a South African Pinotage.
From reading other blogs it seems that Pinotage is something of a controversial grape. There are a lot of haters out there. We don’t see a lot of Pinotage in Turkey (although more than I would expect). From what I’ve had though I do rather like it.
A crossing of Pinot Noir and Cinsault, Pinotage was first bred by scientist Abraham Perold in 1925 but weren’t commercially planted until the 40s. South Africa’s signature grape, its bad reputation comes from the years of it being made as bulk, low-quality “plonk”. However, more and more producers now are treating the grape with the respect it’s due and producing more complex wines with flavors of black and red fruits, spice, leather, and chocolate.
Cape Spring Pinotage, 2017
I could find little, well nothing really, about this winery online. Other than an assumption that this particular wine belongs to the group of bulk wine that has lent Pinotage its bad name. Considering how (relatively) little it cost me here in Turkey…it would not surprise me to learn that this comes from the plonk shelf. So let’s see.
Appearance: brilliant ruby with medium plus opacity
Alcohol: 14.5% abv
Nose: Earthy, savory goodness with red fruit, black pepper, bay leaf, and leather that developed a core of richness as it opened.
Palate: Sipping revealed a spicy sensation on the tongue along with smoked meat followed by a splash of cherry-berry red fruit. Medium-bodied with medium acidity and low (nonexistent really) tannins.
Have I had better Pinotage? Most certainly. But this was still pretty enjoyable.