Reaping rewards after lots of work

Feb 21 2008 By Laurence Mccoy

THERE once was an ugly duckling...and it's name was Pinotage.

And like all the best fairy stories this one has a happy ending - because although it has taken a long time for this South African grape to outgrow its youthful awkwardness, it is now widely accepted as a world-class variety.

And that's in no small part due to the efforts of its foremost champion, Beyers Truter.

"The future is very bright for this home-grown variety of South Africa," says the man who has the International Wine and Spirit Competition's 1991 International Winemaker of the Year title under his belt.

"Pinotage has established itself with numerous worldwide awards." he continues. "It's special qualities lie in its versatility - you can make anything from sparkling wine to full-bodied red and it has the potential to age and make classic wines."

That's a long way from when the grape was created by a university professor in 1925 in an attempt to combine the highly-prized but fickle Burgundy grape Pinot Noir with the more productive Cinsault.

Despite being healthy, ripening well, with high sugar levels, the result failed to impress at first, however, and the grape waddled along until a group of visiting British Masters of Wine in 1976 dealt it a body blow, describing it as smelling "hot and horrible", with a note of "acetone". One of the more polite descriptions said it tasted like "rusty nails".

A few winemakers kept soldiering on, until in 1987 a Pinotage made by Beyers Truter at the Kanonkop winery scooped a prestigious international award.

British Wine Masters dropped in again in the early 90s and this time they were bowled over. "Excellent wine with tremendous potential", "the future of South Africa", they enthused.

Since then there has been no looking back, but as Beyers Truter explains, the key is to take very good care of the grape.

"It is a great variety to work with in the vineyards," he says. "But care must be taken not to over-crop and is not easy to make.

"It needs winemakers with lots of experience and dedication. It gives great fruit and tannins if extraction is fast and regular and has excellent dark red, even purple colour with lots of red, black and sometimes even purple fruit flavours to work with.

"Pinotage is extremely versatile. You can make very good bubbly and rose's with good crispness and red berry and cherry flavours. It will make very good up-front fruity wines that will last three to five years, but also full-bodied reds with classic balance, that will last for 10 years and even much longer. We even make a Port style wine with it."

Some To Try

Beyers Truter's Beyerskloof Pinotage (£5.99 at Tesco, Sainsbury's and Majestic) is a good place to start. Lots of ripe, dark fruit and savoury spice. Fizzy Beyerskloof Charmat Pinotage Rose (£8.99 at Tesco) is a strawberry and redcurrant flavoured quaffer.

Obikwa Pinotage (£4.49 at Oddbins) has blackberry fruit and a whiff of roasted banana.

Spier Private Collection Pinotage (£9.99 at Asda) is packed with ripe black fruits, a gamut of powerful, rich aromas and a touch of spice and chocolate.