Beeslaar Pinotage 2018
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Offering lifted aromatics with notions of incense and a floral component, there’s a touch of spice and earthiness to the dark cherry and dark plum notes on the nose. Medium fuller bodied this has engaging fruit purity and concentration with a sleek texture and finer tuned tannins to the juicy dark berry fruit flavors. This wine maintains its freshness and vibrancy and fleshes out with aeration suggesting that this will age beautifully over a good number of years.
Professional Ratings
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Wine Spectator
A round and ripe red, with lightly mouthwatering acidity providing good energy and definition. Black cherry and black raspberry fruit, licorice, violet and loamy earth notes glide across the palate, layered with silky tannins.
Other Vintages
2019-
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Suckling
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South Africa’s signature grape, Pinotage is a distinctively earthy and rustic variety. In 1924 viticulturists crossed finicky Pinot Noir and productive, heat-tolerant Cinsault, and created a variety both darker and bolder than either of its parents! Today it is popular in South Africa both as a single varietal wine and in Cape blends. Somm Secret—The name “Pinotage” is a subtle portmanteau. The Pinot part is obvious, but the second half is a bit confusing. In the early 1900s, Cinsault was known in South Africa as “Hermitage”—hence Pinotage.
South Africa’s most famous wine-producing district, Stellenbosch, surrounds the historic town with the same name; fine winemaking here dates back to the late 1600s. Its valleys of granite, sandstone and alluvial loam soils between the towering blue-grey mountains of Stellenbosch, Simonsberg and Helderberg have the capacity to produce beautiful wines from many varieties. The climate is warm Mediterranean, tempered by the cool Atlantic air of nearby False Bay.
Perhaps most well-known for its Pinotage and Bordeaux blends, Stellenbosch also produces noteworthy wines from Syrah, Chenin blanc, Chardonnay and Sauvignon blanc. The district’s wards—Banghoek, Bottelary, Devon Valley, Jonkershoek Valley, Papegaaiberg, Polkadraai Hills and Simonsberg-Stellenbosch—all produce distinctive wines from vines with relatively low yields.