Last Minute - The Lethbridge Journal

The Next Big Thing: Pinotage
By Kyle Baines
Submitted to the Lethbridge
Journal
To say Pinotage is controversial
is to say far too little.
Some people, myself
included, consider Pinotage
to be a South African
national treasure, just as
Chile has embraced Carmenere.
That said, South
Africa’s “wine establishment”
has always been
very Euro-centric, believing
that the only way to be
taken seriously as a wine
region was to focus exclusively
on “proper” grapes
like Cabernet, Chardonnay,
and Chenin Blanc. The
result of this was that Pinotage
was treated at best as
an embarrassment, and at
worst as a noxious weed, fit
for nothing more than uprooting.
South Africa has
a bit of an identity problem,
which is at the root of
all of this. For a very long
time, (up until about 1990)
being Old World was the
only way to be taken seriously
as a wine-producing
region. “We’ve been making
wine since 1659” was
the tagline that the South
Africans used to separate
themselves from the
Johnny-come-latelys like
the USA, Canada, Australia,
and South America.
That blew up in their faces
nicely when, in 10 short
years, the New World was
FAR more relevant to export
markets than the Old,
and South Africa found
themselves with a serious
branding problem.
Modern Pinotage is generally
made by small, independent,
and New-World
focused winemakers. They
also tend to be the more
successful winemakers,
as the New World style is
a great deal more commercially
viable. They also
have embraced Pinotage,
despite being a relative
newcomer (first bred in
1925, at Stellenbosch University),
and have given
it the careful treatment
it needs to ensure that it
produces consistently high
quality wine, as it is very
easy to make very dreadful
Pinotage. We are just at the
beginning of “the wave”
with South Africa, just as
we were with Argentina
about five years ago. And
just as the Argentine surge
in popularity was based
around the Malbec grape,
so too will the South African
frenzy-to-come be
based around Pinotage.
The nice thing about right
now is that we are ahead of
the curve, and we haven’t
yet seen either the attendant
price increases or the
influx of affordably priced,
utterly terrible “designer
wines” that tend to plague
a “hot” region.
At its best Pinotage smells
absolutely unique, with
massive mocha notes,
mulberry, blackberry, and
something smoky and
savoury, like wild game.
There is also, in the very
best examples, an aroma
that while distantly related
to coconut, can only be described
as “toasted marshmallow.”
Never more than
medium-bodied, Pinotage
can be anything from austere,
smoky, and decidedly
Pinot-like, to generous,
coffee-scented, and bursting
with vanillin fruit,
more like an Australian
Shiraz or Californian Petit
Sirah than anything else.
Pinotage is something truly
unique, neither Old World
nor New World, not a big,
bold red like Shiraz, but not
a delicate or pale wine like
Pinot Noir. It doesn’t have
the great provenance of a
classic grape like Cabernet
or Chardonnay, it simply is
what it is. Unique, charming,
and a very tasty glass
of wine, if you don’t try to
over-analyze it to death.
Three Great Pinotages to
try:
The Grinder Pinotage:
$15.95 (South Africa)
Barista Pinotage:
$15.25 (South Africa)
The Ruins Organic Pinotage:
$17.95 (South Africa)
212 - 3 rd Avenue South
403-320-9464
www.andrewhiltonwine.ca
Canada’s Oldest Wine Store!
MAY
11 TH & 12 TH
New Arrivals
Week 1
MAY
18 TH & 19 TH
New Arrivals
Week 2
FREE
Weekend Wine Tasting
every Friday and Saturday
after 2 pm
41068438
Southern Alberta’s largest selection of
Wine, Scotch and Micro Brewed Beers
www.andrewhiltonwine.com
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8 LETHBRIDGE JOURNAL • WEEK OF MAY 11, 2012 • www.lethbridgejournal.ca