Pinotage: "Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood"
Hello Friends,
Remember the 60’s hit by Nina Simone “Don’t let me be misunderstood”? Well that song title fits Pinotage like a leather glove. Pinotage is a wine that turns some wine drinkers away, even in the grapes homeland of South Africa. Some of this reaction may be fair. Before vineyard and winery techniques improved, there were some harsh examples released for public consumption coming out of South Africa. Nowadays, there are some nice examples of Pinotage waiting to be uncorked or unscrewed and enjoyed. Pinotage is largely unique to South Africa and is a cross between Pinot Noir and Cinsaut. Pinotage was bred at Stellenbosch University in the 1920’s and came to prominence some four decades later after winning numerous awards. Other wine producing regions doing good things with Pinotage are California and New Zealand. Believe it or not, we are doing good things with Pinotage right here in Virginia.
Join us for the Pinotage Party, friends!
This week a few of my Twitter friends joined the #pinotageparty with Keith of Brain Wines and me with the plan to review a bottle of Pinotage and post it to our respective blogs next Friday - February 12th, 2010. The idea here is to show that Pinotage is a wine worth buying and trying despite what you may have heard. To search the Pinotage Party on Twitter use the #pinotageparty hash-tag. The Pinotage Party-Goers include:~~~ The Pinotage Party Roll ~~~
John of Anything Wine
Benjamin of Vinotology
Randy of The Wine Whore
Tonisha of The Grapevine
Lindsay of Ronga's Rant
Peter May of The Pinotage Club
Tammy of To Close to the Mason-Dixon
Gwendolyn of wine.com blog
Check out these great blogs, friends !!!
Pinotage Grapes
Stay tuned friends ... lot's more to come!
Please Click Here to vote Dezel's My Vine Spot as your favorite wine blog - You can vote 1x per day! Many Thanks :)
Happy Sipping Friends - Tell your friends about www.myvinespot.com and thanks for your support and kind emails !
Dezel's My Vine Spot © 2006-2010. All rights reserved.
Please Click Here to vote Dezel's My Vine Spot as your favorite wine blog - You can vote 1x per day! Many Thanks :)
Happy Sipping Friends - Tell your friends about www.myvinespot.com and thanks for your support and kind emails !
Dezel's My Vine Spot © 2006-2010. All rights reserved.
Share Me !!!
Dezel's My Vine Spot © 2006-2012. All rights reserved.
Subscribe to Vine Spot RSS Feed
Posts
14 comments:
This is good stuff. Dezel and I planning a #TannatParty after this one. Doing our part to clear the names of these much maligned grapes is honorable work. I think we are on to something here with this #MisunderstoodGrapeParty thing. Dezel mentioned in a tweet today he could not have imagined meeting all these cool wine peeps via his laptop. I concur completely. Even weirder for me, is that this Californian is planning to log on to the #PinotgaeParty and discuss South African wine from Brazilian wine country. An amazing inter-connected world we now live in. Love it ! and I'm honored to met all of you. Keith @brainwines
Hey Keith,
Both tastings sound exciting to me bro! There are some good examples of Pinotage out there, but it gets a very bad rap. Let's find some good ones. How cool, from California and blogging about South African Pinotage from your vacation spot in Brazil. You lucky dog! LOL BTW, I love the social media wine bridge man, I'm crossing it all the time and meeting great wine peeps like yourself. Look forward to the Tannat tasting, let me know how you want to do it! Safe travels.
Cheers!
Dezel
Right on!
I'll taste a bunch of Tannats on my travels....and save the ratings up for when we do the #TannatParty in late March?
Hi Keith in Brazil!
Why not blog about a Brazilian Pinotage???
There is at least one Brazilian Pinotage under the brand Marcus James -- maybe more.
Nice to meet you Peter. Amazing Pinotage knowledge you have! You are absolutely correct, and last June I was in Brazil and bought both the Marcus James 2008 Pinotage and their 2008 Tannat. Did not crack, but both are still resting down there waiting for me. I will see if I can find more. Thanks so much for joining our little #PinotageParty. Both Dezel and I are quite happy to have such a Pinotage expert with us on this!
I am very interested in whatever you can find out about Brazilian Pinotage.
Only one I have tasted was 1999 vintage which someone brought back from Brazil and we opened in Cape Town at the first International Pinotage tasting in 2001.
It didn't do too well, I was told the vineyards were in a wet area but I don't know.
BTW -- (advert follows) eveything and more that you might want to know about Pinotage is in my book, available from Amazon (of course) or cheaper and signed directly from me at pinotage.org or pinotagebook.com
I am very interested in whatever you can find out about Brazilian Pinotage.
Only one I have tasted was 1999 vintage which someone brought back from Brazil and we opened in Cape Town at the first International Pinotage tasting in 2001.
It didn't do too well, I was told the vineyards were in a wet area but I don't know.
BTW -- (advert follows) eveything and more that you might want to know about Pinotage is in my book, available from Amazon (of course) or cheaper and signed directly from me at pinotage.org or pinotagebook.com
I've had pinotage once and it is not a wine you forget easily. The one I had tasted like smoked meat or even bacon. Definitely Interesting. Which Virginia wineries grow Pinotage?
Hello Sarah,
You are spot-on with your tasting notes on some of the styles of Pinotage that many people don't find appealing. You get the smoke, bacon, subtle cherry, and they can be a tad bit austere. That being said, there are a lot of nice refined examples out there too. VA producers doing Pinotage are Horton, Lovingston, and Grayhaven.
Taste nothing like any SA examples I have tried; more fruit forward in style. Let me know what you think.
Happy Sipping!
Dezel
Dezel et al:
I am loving reading this. We are actually making a small amount of Pinotage from Honah Lee Vineyard this year. I have also tried a couple from British Columbia that were interesting. Will be neat to try making, lots of color, no shortage of structure and great earthy notes. But also interesting to hear that the fruit seems more fruit forward here in VA. We will see.
Keith@BrainWines, if you are in Uruguay at all check out Bodegas Carrau and ask for Anibal. He consulted for our vineyard and has a wealth of knowledge for your upcoming Tannat tasting.
Jordan-Tarara Winery
Hello from Brazil...
Peter = I did indeed have the Marcus James Pinotage picked up for me again, and will try tomorrow...
Jordan-Tarara Winery = thanks so much for the post, and I know I speak for both Dezel as well... we'd love to try your Pinotage when it is ready! As for Uruguay - I won't get down there this trip, but thanks so much for the recommendation. Lots of Uruguay tannats for sale in Brazil.. so I should be able to find a bunch.
Thanks !
Hi Dezel,
My review of Kerr Farm Kumeu Pinotage 2004 from Auckland, New Zealand, now posted at
http://www.wineoftheweek.com/blog/blog201002.htm#20100212
Cheers,
Sue Courtney
www.wineoftheweek.com
www.wineoftheweek.com/blog
Jordan,
I look forward to trying that; I had no idea. How many cases of it are you making? Peter May would be highly interested in another Virginia Pinotage!
Cheers,
Dezel
Thanks Sue :-) Love the review. Shame NZ examples are so difficult to find here. Sounds delicious.
Cheers,
Dezel
Post a Comment