Pinotage - South Africa's savoury grape variety

Mainly grown in South Africa. In 1925, Professor Abraham Perold, a South African researcher, crossed the Pinot Noir grape variety with the Cinsault (Hermitage) variety at Stellenbosch University. This was the birth of Pinotage. The wine itself tastes full-bodied and spicy and has good ageing potential. Pinotage grows on more than a fifth of the red vineyards in South Africa. Good representatives of the variety are characterised by finely spiced aromas with the scent of berries and cherries. However, Pinotage only produces good products if the yield is drastically limited.

More about Pinotage

Profiles

Pinotage is considered a typical New World wine with a high potential for development. The grape variety produces full-bodied wines with a fruity character and the flavour of sweet berries. The high sugar content of the grape leads to a high alcohol content in the wine. The wines are often characterised by a dense structure with ripe tannins and an intense aroma. The varietal wines have a dark red colour, are round and soft in taste and have a velvety texture.

Fruit★★★★

Body★★★★★

Tannin★★★★

Acidity★★

Alcohol★★★★★

Flavours

Good Pinotage wines offer notes of red and dark fruits and tobacco, which speaks in favour of a balanced and complex wine. In cooler vintages, flavours of sweet and black cherry dominate, in warmer vintages notes of fig and blackberry. Some wines also smell of banana and tropical fruit.

Dominant notes:

- Black cherry
- blackberry
- fig
- menthol
- Pot roast

Possible notes:

- Herbs/flowers: roasted pepper, violet, menthol, mint, eucalyptus, black liquorice, rooibos
- Red fruit: cherry, cherry syrup
- Dark fruit: black cherry, blackcurrant, plum sauce, blackberry
- Earth/other: Tar, sweet and sour sauce, camphor millet, braised meat, cured meat
- Stored in oak: grey bread, wood smoke, barbecue smoke, tobacco

Harmonises with

Wines made from the Pinotage grape are dark red in colour and delight with a fruity aroma and notes of plums and tropical fruits. These very full-bodied red wines are the ideal duet partner for dark meat and game dishes.

General information

South Africa is the only country outside of Europe that has its own indigenous grape variety - Pinotage. Pinotage is the national grape of South Africa and THE flagship of the Cape wine country. It is considered South Africa's contribution to the world's wine history and is the most widely planted red wine grape in the country.
Pinotage originated in 1925 from a cross between Cinsaut (then called "Hermitage" in South Africa) and Pinot Noir. Its creator, the first professor of viticulture at Stellenbosch University, Abraham Izak Perold, wanted to create a vine whose wine would taste like a Pinot Noir, but which was robust enough for the South African climate. The result was a grape variety that inherited the sweetness and berry flavour of Pinot Noir and at the same time tasted as fruity as Cinsaut.

The crossing attempt was successful in the professor's garden in 1925, but the indigenous grape variety was not planted by South African winegrowers until many years later. The first wine was produced from Pinotage near Elsenburg in 1941. The first commercial plantings in South Africa took place in 1943, and wine from the new grape variety was first marketed under the shortened name Pinotage in the early 1960s. It came from the Stellenbosch Farmers' Winery and did not have the best reputation. It was considered to be very rustic and simple and did not spread further at first. Only since the 1990s have very high-quality Pinotage wines with a unique character been produced. Today's Pinotage is the result of strict selection and further refinement of the original vine.

Pinotage is mainly cultivated in South Africa, where it is grown on an area of around 7000 hectares. The Pinotage grape thrives almost exclusively in the hot climate of South Africa. Attempts to cultivate Pinotage in other parts of the world have often failed. The wine-growing countries of Australia and Argentina, for example, have completely removed Pinotage from their range and even in New Zealand, where the red grape is still cultivated, its share of the total yield is low. Only in California, Canada, Brazil and Israel are smaller areas successfully planted with Pinotage vines.

Pinotage prefers dry and very warm growing regions and slopes with good water retention. The small, dark blue grapes are extremely resistant and very easy to cultivate. The vine sprouts relatively early and can ultimately produce up to 120 hectolitres of wine per hectare. For premium wines, however, the yield is significantly lower. The rule of thumb here is: the lower the yield, the higher the potential. There is no need to limit yields on older vines; after around 10 years, they only produce half the grapes anyway.

Pinotage is traditionally vinified as a single-varietal, full-bodied wine, but is now also increasingly found as a component of cuvées in combination with other powerful grape varieties such as Shiraz or Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon. When Pinotage matures in barriques, it develops smoky flavours and hints of mocha, spices, chocolate and vanilla. The grape is also ideal for rosé wine.