Winemaker Notes
Blend: 100% Pinotage
Professional Ratings
-
James Suckling
Perfumed nose of dark cherries, mocha, sandalwood and baking spices. It’s full-bodied with fine, firm tannins. Layered and textural with a focused and harmonious structure. Well-driven with a lively, long finish. Drink or hold.
-
Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The Kanonkop 2021 Simonsberg Stellenbosch Pinotage Estate Wine brings us to a current release. The wine shows a noticeable oak signature with sweet tones of nutmeg and cardamom that frame a core of dark fruit. It's fascinating to see how far bottle aging goes to change the aromatic profile of Pinotage made at this historic estate. (I tasted this wine next to the 2014 vintage from the library.) These wines undergo quite a radical evolution. Fruit comes from 25- to 50-year-old bush vines, with the oldest reaching 70 years of age. They are planted at high elevations with no irrigation. There is a pretty interlude on the mid-palate that is bright and spicy, with a combination of cinnamon and spearmint. Three and a half days of aggressive extraction is implemented, as the Kanonkop winemaking philosophy stresses a quick extraction in general.
-
Wine Enthusiast
Winemaker Abrie Beeslaar shows the complexity and age potential of Pinotage in his wines. The Estate collection is proof of that. This vintage offers aromas of sweet spices and berries. It's full on the palate, with a good concentration of raspberries and red plums. A touch of licorice lingers on the finish. This is still young, but it's ready to drink now, or hold through 2035.
-
Wine & Spirits
Densely layered, with rich extraction, this wine still has freshness in its core and at the edges. Its zesty, curranty acidity brings the broad grape-skin tannins into focus. Some oak influence shows in its milk-chocolate richness, but the wine’s primary, bright and vinous profile shows in front of that winemaking.
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.