Melvyn Minnaar : Potable pleasures
Now that even the country’s largest banking group has climbed on to the bandwagon, it can be confirmed: our lowly, once-shunned- for-tasting-like-duco, home-grown pinotage has arrived in the Big Time.
A week or so ago the country’s top ten pinotage wines were selected under the auspices of the recently established South African Pinotage Association. In a good, calculated move not to jump into the usual boring race to find a single winner (which, oh, so often, lets the side down after a couple of years resting in the stable), the ten wines were awarded equal status – their superiority to be proclaimed by a handsome sticker on each bottle.
Absa Bank was the sponsor. What they paid for, however, is not clear, other than perhaps the stickers and the rather silly, awkward “trophies” of faux VOC glasses. (Financial institutions seem to find affirmation of their importance in this kind of upmarket wine involvement.)
Among the 10 top pinotages — chosen by a pre-selected “pinotage-sensitive” panel from 51 entered by about 120 producers – there were some surprises. Also revealing were the absentees at the prize-giving.
Of the 10 best, most came from Stellenbosch – the acknowledged pinotage region.
The happy exceptions and surprises were the winners from Malmesbury (Swartland 1996), Robertson (Rooiberg 1995) and Franschhoek (Bellingham 1996). Because the humble co- ops of Swartland and Rooiberg have always offered splendid value for money, their winnings should be toasted with generous glasses of the good stuff.
The other winners were Clos Malverne 1996, Grangehurst 1995, Kaapzicht 1996, L’Avenir 1996, Jacobsdal 1994, Beyerskloof 1996 and Kanonkop 1995.
The latter two wines come from Beyers Truter – perhaps the one person who did more for the promotion of the varietal than Dr Perold, the original creator of the crossing of pinot noir and cinsaut in 1926, himself. The double award is well deserved.
So is the one to Cornelis Dumas of Jacobsdal. (The farm where one of South Africa’s most famous international artists, Marlene Dumas, grew up. Cornelis is her brother.)
This family estate is on the edge of the Stellenbosch region and faces the sandy, dry Cape flats. Since 1974 he has produced only one wine, a fine, landmark pinotage from bushy vines. The winning 1994 is one of the best ever from Dumas and a purple charmer with plenty of plummy fruits upfront.
Although people like Dumas and Truter persevered with their passion for pinotage, the present yuppie state-of-grace of the wine was reached only after many years of passage through the fickle drinkers’ doldrums.
Typical snobbery of opinion-makers who shunned the concept of “local is lekker”, kept pinotage in the shadow of serious vinous consideration. In his pioneering first Book of South African Wines in 1980, John Platter’s description hardly hid the prevailing snootiness: ” … a useful hardy hybrid, usually imparting a sweetish `duco’ nose and `acetone’ style to the wine, popular among the sweeter-toothed but shunned by devotees of drier, less full and fruity reds”.
Well, 17 years down the line, the wines and tune have changed quite dramatically. Writes Platter: ” … virtually proclaimed the national grape of South Africa. Substantial, flavoursome, very individual, fruity, robust …”
This is the pinotage story as a tale of the folly of fads. (Is there another money company or bank that will spearhead a revival of cinsaut (Tassenberg) and steen (Lieberstein)?)