Neil Ellis 2011
Pinotage - $16.99
South Africa, Stellenbosch
Charles - 3.0 stars
Melissa - 2.5 stars
We have been getting into South African wines. I know what you are thinking... "Wow, what a great idea to try out new regions and varietals, I've always wanted to do that myself." Well before you give me any credit at all, I can tell you that this is the result of a spur of the moment grab of a wine due to an attractive label while the liquor store was almost closing. The wine I'm referring to is a lovely S. African blend by the name of Secateurs by A.A. Badenhorst. It turned out to be a really good wine for a good price, and one we have bought several times since that day. As a result we thought, hey maybe we should see if there are some other good ones from that region. We bought a cheap Shiraz from South Africa. It was remarkably good, but we didn't rate it or keep track of what it was. I'll try and buy it again.
Ok, so you are sick of me going on about how I got into South African wines. So lets get to it. A lot of the blends and wines in this region of the racks mention the grape "Pinotage." I like checking out new grape varietals. Some of them turn out to be wonderful, some are horrible, others are just better when they have a 1% next to their names. So lets get to Pinotage. What the hell is it, and why don't I see it very often. Well its a cross between Pinot Noir and Cape Cinsaut developed by a vitaculture professor in South Africa. This was back in 1945 and its gone through some ups and downs, but it remains a grape more or less only grown in South Africa.
Its known for having cherries and other tart flavors and bringing a dose of tannins along. Apparently one of the other well known characteristics of the wine is that it can smell like Acetone (nail polish remover) if it is bad, or fermented incorrectly due to is the tendency to develop isoamyl acetate during the winemaking process. It can be thought of the Zinfandel of South Africa and is known for producing a rustic red product. It is very hardy and fairly easy to grow, but it sounds like it takes some skill to produce some good wines from this grape.
To me, it comes across like a spanish red. Its got a lot of fruit forward flavors, followed by decent body and a heaping dose of tannins. Its concentrated and flavorful and it makes me want to try some other Pinotage wines. Because of the price, I don't know if I'll be revisiting this one in particular, but I'm hoping to find some in the $10-$15 range.
