Winemaker Notes
This wine features the classic characteristics of South Africa’s famous home-grown grape variety. Autumnal, juicy dark fruit is complemented by an enticing savory character with just a hint of underlying sweetness. Ageing in used French oak barrels produces a lean, muscular structure and supple tannins.
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
Aromas of plums, mulberries, grilled meat, dried herbs and charred bark. Medium body with fine tannins. Balanced, creamy and vibrant with fresh acidity and a precise, flavorful finish. Excellent expression of pinotage.
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Wine Enthusiast
Initial aromas of sweet oak and wood spice set the stage but settle in with time to allow ripe cherry and plum flesh flavors to come to the fore. Abundant spice continues through to the medium-weight palate along with plush fruit flavors, wrapped in medium tannins that lend a solid structure and grip through the close.
Editors' Choice -
Wine Spectator
Aromatic hints of bay leaf, black pepper and smoke ride the ripe flavors of cassis, black raspberry and fig cake in this bright and brambly, medium-bodied red. Creamy finish. Pinotage, Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon and Cabernet Franc.
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.