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Pinotage: Hey, You Got Your Pinot Noir in My Cinsault! And You Got Your Cinsault
in My Pinot Noir!
If you’re of a certain age, then you probably remember the old Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups commercials referenced above. Two strangers – sometimes a girl and a guy, other times two guys – are wandering around, distracted by their specific choice of food product, either a chocolate bar or a jar of peanut butter (and just an aside from this willing suspension of disbelief: how often have you walked down the street or wandered around your school or office carrying and eating straight from an open jar of peanut butter? Two times? Three times? If you’re like me, then the answer is two. But I’m wondering if we aren’t missing out on something here...). They turn a corner, bump straight into each other, and a catchphrase was born:
“Hey, you got your chocolate in my peanut butter!”
“Hey, you got your peanut butter in my chocolate!”
Certainly memorable, and surprisingly useful for a variety of other situations in life (“Hey, you got your onions in my ketchup!”, “Hey, you got your fabric softener in my laundry detergent!”, “Hey, you got your whing-ding in my hoo-hoo-dilly” well, you get the idea; we’re not in fifth grade anymore). Including wine grape cross-breeding (how’s that for swinging the pendulum back in the other direction?). Genetically creating and growing new grapes by crossing the genes from parent grapes works just like Reese’s commercial too. You find two seemingly disparate items with traits you’d like to merge, then go through the painstakingly detailed, meticulous, and strife-ridden process of . Come to think of it, it’s not nearly as simple as those Reese’s commercials at all...
Most cross-bred grapes were created with a specific purpose in mind. For many of the Native American hybrid grapes we’ve covered here during our “United Grapes of America” feature last year (Marechal Foch, Vignoles, and Seyval Blanc), they were created because winemakers wanted to utilize classic Old World Vitis vinifera grapes in their wines, but found those grapes could not or would not grow where they were planting (namely the East Coast and Midwest of the United States). In the case of our previous grape Ruby Cabernet, the viticulturist was trying to retain the elegance and quality of Cabernet Sauvignon in a more vigorous vine that would be resistant to drought and heat, like that of it other parent grape Carignan. Pinotage was born from a similar concern: a south African viticulturist named Abraham Perold (the first Professor of Viticulture at South Africa’s esteemed Stellenbosch University, incidentally) wanted to find a way to merge the elegance, quality, and fine winemaking ability of the notoriously fickle and difficult Pinot Noir grape with the vigor, productivity, and relative ease of growth of the Cinsault grape. Pinot was tough to grow, Cinsault was basically stick it in the soil anywhere and it will thrive (especially in hotter climates); Pinot made fine, balanced, complex, subtle, nuanced wines; Cinsault was typically only used in small amounts as a blending grape in the Rhone or to produce rosé wines (despite being the prominent grape at that time in South Africa). Again it seemed like a no-brainer. So in 1925, Professor Perold set about to create his brand-new grape and planted his first four seeds into the ground of an experimental garden in South Africa.
Now, we should note here for the sake of clarity that Pinotage is not a hybrid grape. That name is a misnomer. Hybrids are only created when different species of grapes are crossed (such as the aforementioned American grapes, which are bred from traditional Vitis vinifera grapes and the native North American Vitis riparia species. Pinotage, on the other hand, is a cross-breed to two Vitis vinifera grapes, which doesn’t make it a hybrid, just a cross-breed.
Now, back to Professor Perold and his marvelous Pinotage grape. So the good Professor plants his Pinotage seeds into the ground and they start to grow. Unfortunately, he then left the University two years later, and the garden was more or less forgotten by the university and left untended. It wasn’t until a few years later when the university sent a team in to clean up the garden that a young associate professor named Charlie Niehaus recognized the burgeoning hybrid vines, rescued them, and delivered them to Perold’s viticultural successor at the University, C.J. Theron. He grafted these early Pinotage plantings onto some new, indigenous rootstock, and by 1935, the first grapes were harvested from these newly christened Pinotage vines. However, it took until 1959 before the name Pinotage first appeared on a wine label (which made 2009 the official 50th anniversary of the first Pinotage wines). Because of its ease in production and vigorous growth, South African winemakers immediately took to the grape and began to plant it en masse, and in the years that followed, the grape enjoyed periods of both popularity and reticence, due to ever-changing tastes in South Africa.
But let’s not forget that the policy of Apartheid was still going strong in the nation during the birth and adolescence of Pinotage. And while its notoriety grew in-country, because of the sanctions against South Africa, the Pinotage grape and its subsequent wines were rarely seen outside of the country’s borders, lending to its relative anonymity among wine drinkers both great and small the world over. When Apartheid was finally repealed in 1991, what should have been a blessing to Pinotage actually became a curse. To complete with the flood of imported wines entering into South Africa, and to cater to the taste of all those wine markets around the world that had not developed a taste for the wine, many South African winemakers chose to tear up their Pinotage plantings and instead plant vines more well-known to wine drinkers. It took over half a decade for Pinotage to get back on its feet, make its way to international markets, and finally gain a foothold among wine drinkers looking for something different.
But despite all this fascinating history, we’re ignoring the real Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup question at hand: did Pinotage result in “the two great tastes that taste great together?” Did the hybrid grape take on the best qualities of both grapes and become some kind of super-grape? Well, not exactly. Despite the fact that both grapes are classically French and hail from esteemed wine locales (Burgundy for Pinot Noir, the Rhone Valley for Cinsault), the Pinotage grape has a decidedly New World character about it: big fruit forward, heavy tannins, high sugar leading to high alcohol content. While Pinotage vines certainly display the rigor, heartiness, and ease of use of their Cinsault parent, and the wines do have some of the raspberry and cherry flavors of Pinot Noir – not to mention its same smoky, leathery nose – the end result is not so much a sum of their parts as an entirely new creation. This has made Pinotage a polarizing grape to wine lovers and aficionados around the world, and especially within the South African winemaking community. There are many winemakers in the country who champion Pinotage’s place as South Africa’s most recognizable and namesake grape, while others believe it has no place whatsoever in South Africa and should be replaced with more of the classic Old World grapes.
Well, I guess not everything can be as popular as Reese’s. But however you feel about Pinotage, the Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups of Forgotten Grapes, you can’t say that Professor Perold didn’t have a good idea in his head. And if you like big, bold, meaty, fruity red wines that show just enough complexity and Pinot-esque character to let
you know where it came from, then the South Africans (and winemakers in other
locales) have just the wine for you. Just make sure you’re not carrying an open
bottle of it around the next time you turn a corner and bump into a stranger...
What It Looks Like, What It Smells Like, and What It Tastes Like
As we mentioned above, you will get some traditional Pinot Noir scents on a Pinotage, most notably smoke, cherries, and Cassis. The Rhone side of things will be represented with the aromas of brambles, earth, tobacco aromas. You may even pick up some hints of coffee or chocolate on the wine, depending on the producer and where the vines were grown. Lastly, one consistent underlying scent on a lot of Pinotages is bananas. Pinotage grapes are notorious for producing high levels of isoamyl acetate (a mix of isoamyl alcohol and acetic acid), which smells like either bananas, paint, or Juicy Fruit gum, depending on your individual palate. Pinotage winemakers have tried numerous tricks to reduce the amount of isoamyl acetate in their wines, from green harvesting the vines to lower the overall yield to long and cool fermentations, but still some traces of isoamyl acetate can creep into the wine, giving it a very distinct artificial banana scent.
Big, big tannins will be one of the first thing you notice on a Pinotage wine. Not as large as an Alicante Bouschet or a Carignan, but definite tannic presence front and center on the wine. Pinotage grapes have thick skins to them, so despite the predilection of many Pinotage winemakers to limit maceration contact on the skins, a lot of tannins will still creep into the wines. You should also get a very soft, velvety, round mouth feel to a Pinotage wine. Flavor-wise, you may get some dark, rich chocolate or coffee flavors right off the attack of the wine, but those should quickly fade into blackberry and blueberry flavors, or perhaps as rich as plum. It’s in this mid-palate region that the Pinot nature of the wine will start to show, with lighter, brighter reddish berries and more cherry, along with some additional complexity and a softness to the wine. The Rhone side of the wine may also come out with gamier, earthier, plummier flavors. Again, a lot of this depends on the producer, age of the vines, and style of winemaking. Pinotages typically have higher alcohol levels but remain remarkably balanced, although every now and then you’ll feel that sparkle of heat on your tongue that lets you know you’ve got a high one.
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• At this point, you’re probably saying to yourself: that’s a lot of fantastic information about Pinotage, Chris, and we thank you for that, but you still haven’t answered the one question we’ve been waiting for – namely, how did this grape get the name Pinotage? I mean, we get the Pinot part, but what’s the “tage” all about? To which I would say, thank you and be patient, as I’m about to tell you. Well, you clearly got the Pinot from Pinot Noir, but how did they get “tage” from Cinsault? Well, at the time that Professor Perold came up with the idea for his new super-grape, the dominant red grape in South Africa was Cinsault, or as the South Africans called it, “Hermitage.” No one is quite sure exactly how Cinsault came to be known as Hermitage in South Africa, but there’s a pretty straight light you can draw between Cinsault’s origins in the Rhone valley, and Hermitage being one of the primary appellations in the northern Rhone (although it’s not that straight a line, seeing as Syrah is the only red grape permitted in the Hermitage appellation). But for South Africans, Pinot Noir and Hermitage became “Pinotage” (and yes, Herminoir was also considered as a name for the new grape as well but ultimately rejected.)
• Despite being a grape synonymous with the nation of South Africa, Pinotage is not the most popular or most widely grape grown in South Africa, not by a long shot. That honor would go to Chenin Blanc (known in South Africa as Steen), which commands roughly 20% of the total vineyard space in South Africa (which is actually down from the late 1990’s, when Chenin/Steen controlled a third of all vineyards in the country). Sadly, Pinotage is not even the most widely-planted red grape in South Africa. Cabernet Sauvignon (13.1%) and Syrah/Shiraz (9.6%) currently occupy more total vineyard space across South Africa than Pinotage (6.7%) does. And lest we not weep for poor Cinsault a.k.a. Hermitage, once the most populous red grape in South Africa. It now accounts for less than 3% of the total grape production in the nation.
But fear not, Pinotage lovers! The low production number in South Africa does not mean that the grape is not catching on and making inroads in other locales. And when you consider that the grape itself is really less than 100 years old and thanks to Apartheid and sanctions against South Africa has only been on the international scene for two decades, then the growth of Pinotage into other countries has been nothing short of amazing. For example, New Zealand has taken a shine to the grape with just under 100 total acres of Pinotage planted, as its thick skins and vigor mesh well to the hotter, humid climate of New Zealand’s North Island (as opposed to the cooler, drier South Island, which produces exemplary Sauvignon Blanc and Pinot Noir). And as you’ll see below, California and Virginia have their own Pinotage plantings (some 30 years or
older), and have been producing stellar examples of the grape for quite some time.
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Fun Facts to Impress/Bore People At Parties
From Brein’s Brain to Your Plate
“With all of those tannins in the wine and those big, darker fruit flavors, the first thing that came to my mind was venison: big, gamy, meaty, and all things that need an even bigger tannic wine to cut through them. But then someone else in our Tasting Squadron thought that these Pinotages would go well with Greek food, which I guess makes sense, since it’s so lamb-centric. But it got me thinking. So the first dish I’d put together for a Pinotage wine is that roasted venison from before, but paired with a tabouleh made with roasted red peppers. And I’m talking charred roasted red peppers, where you still get some black char flakes in the tabouleh. You’re going to need that type of contrast to cut through a big wine like this, which is going to cut through the big gamy flavors of the venison. So it all kind of works with each other. Like that board game Mouse Trap. Remember that game? I used to love playing that!”
“So if venison isn’t your thing – and I know it’s not a lot of people’s thing – my next food pairing for a Pinotage would be baby back ribs. Pinotage to me is a terrific rib wine because of all that savory luscious sinew and fat on the ribs and because the pork flavors is pretty subtle, but you’re going to have to sauce these ribs to pair with the Pinotage, and you can’t use your typical off-the-shelf barbecue sauce. No, I’d slather your ribs in a Hoisin sauce, give them a little Asian kick. The darker, tarter plum-based flavors are really going to coalesce well with the darker fruit flavors in the Pinotage, and you need a sauce that’s not overly sweet. Hoisin should be just the ticket with that.”
“Okay, last, because Pinotage comes from two classically French grapes, I wanted to pair the wine with a classically French dish. But I also wanted it to be something that acknowledges the wine’s South African roots. So the combination I’m thinking of is rabbit. Classic French grilled, roasted or braised rabbit served with fennel and a mustard sauce. Very Rhone and Burgundian, very French, but South Africa is also knows for its rabbits. Just be warned though, you need a lighter style Pinotage for this pairing, a wine that’s not to heavy. They do make them in lighter styles, so that’s what you should seek out if you do this pairing. A bigger, heavier Pinotage will just drown out the subtle flavor of the rabbit and smoke the mustard and
fennel back into Kingdom Come.”
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Chef Brein Clements is the chef/owner of Bistro O (formerly Restaurant Omakase) in
Riverside, CA, which is quickly becoming SoCal’s answer to Taillevant. Minus the
molecular gastronomy. He began his cooking career at Domaine Chandon in the Napa
Valley and moved on to become Chef de Cuisine at the famed Balboa Bay Club before
opening his own restaurant. Plus he’s only 28. My man knows his wine and he knows
his food. Each week he’ll provide ingredient and dish recommendations that match
up well with the week’s forgotten grape. You should heed what he says. No, seriously,
heed it.
2006 Kanonkop South Africa Estate Pinotage
If you’re going to be tasting Pinotage, you’ve got to start with one from the birthplace
of the grape, so we pulled out this 2006 Kanonkop we had in our cellar (thanks, Kati!).
Kanonkop is one of the largest and most esteemed producers of Pinotage in South Africa,
and their wine certainly served as a strong benchmark for the varietal. A big, big
nose of tobacco, mint, and Cassis, it initially had elements of a Merlot/Bordeaux
style wine before it aerated and developed more Pinot Noir notes on the nose. One
of our Squadron members thought the wine smelled like a cigar room at a posh club,
and that it tasted the same way too, with lots of smoke and tobacco. The fruitier
Pinot-esque cherry and Cassis flavors were very apparent on the wine’s attack, but
then they mellowed and darkened mid-palate, developing into the more traditional
plum and banana flavors of a Pinotage before finishing with a slight sparkle of alcohol
and a whiff of smoke. Very light tannins on this particular vintage, but with a very
round, soft, velvety mouth feel. Really a classic example of a Pinotage. As we said,
Kanonkop is a fairly ubiquitous brand, so you should be able to find this Pinotage
near you. Happy hunting!
2006 Steltzner Vineyards Stags Leap District (CA) Estate Pinotage
We mentioned above that after years of being restricted to only its home turf in
South Africa, Pinotage has started expanding its scope with plantings in New Zealand,
California, and Virginia, among other places. Well, no winery in the U.S. has been
growing Pinotage longer than Steltzner. Their Pinotage vines date back to the mid-1970s,
and though the winery only had 12 total rows of Pinotage vines, they’re producing
a consistent 500 cases a year. The Stags Leap district of Napa is known for producing
big, tannic red wines that need a couple of years of rest in bottle to tame them,
and this Pinotage is no different, which is why Steltzner is just releasing their
2006 vintage of Pinotage now. You could definitely smell and taste the age of these
Pinotage vines in the wine, as it had a more rugged, earthier nose to it, very much
capturing the Rhone aspects of the grape, with a lot of brambles and brambly fruit
yet also some more subtle plummier notes. In the mouth, this wine was much, much
softer than its nose would have let on, with a lot of classic southern Rhone style
flavors coalescing together. Almost hints of Grenache stepped forward as the wine
wended its way across the tongue. On my tasting notes, I wrote down one phrase in
big block capital letters: LEAN AND MEAN. And I mean that in the best way possible.
A really, really yummy wine that was one of the more everyday drinkable Pinotages
we tasted (typically it is a varietal that needs to paired with some food). The exceptionally
nice folks at Steltzner were kind enough to send this bottle our way (and we should
point out that while their website references their 2005 Pinotage vintage and the
tasting notes we link to above are for the 2005, but they’re nearly sold out of that
and releasing this 2006 vintage we tasted. They explained to us that the vintages
have ended up remarkably consistent to each other). You can order the 2006 Pinotage
from Steltzner in one of three ways: downloading their order form and faxing it back
to them, e-mailing them at retailsales@steltzner.com, or giving Gretchen, their
head of retail sales (and a very, very nice woman) a call at 800-707-WINE. We highly
recommend doing all three.
Our Friend of the Forgotten Grapes Tasting Squadron tastes all of the wines you see
here ahead of time to ensure that you aren’t getting anything rotten or clunky. We
also try to ensure that most of the wines highlighted here are affordably priced
($20 or less) so you can try them out for yourself without having to take out a second
mortgage or sacrificing your kid (or future kid’s) college fund to do so. Lastly,
the Friends of the Forgotten Grapes has relationships with all the fine wine purveyors
we link to in this section. We know them, we trust them. You can order these wines
from them online right now and be trying them out in the next couple of days. Do
yourself a favor and order from them by using the links below. It’s totally worth
it. And tell them that ForgottenGrapes.com sent you, too.
One of the greatest wines I’ve ever had in my life was a 1968 Remoissenet Pere et Fils Vosne-Romanee. After an hour of surgically removing the cork and pouring it into our glasses, the best description we had for the color of the wine was “brick cola”. And while that may not sound appetizing (and believe me, we were terrified that the wine was ruined), it was one of the most sumptuous and wonderful things I’ve ever put in my mouth. I bring up this story only because many Pinotage wines come in a color that moves even farther past “Brick cola”. They are dark wines that often appear to be black or even brown in the bottle. You will get some reddish hue on the wines, but it will be a dark rust color, beyond crimson. The color of rusty nails would be an excellent descriptor (and the fact that when tasting one of the early, overproduced Pinotage wines, a group of British “Masters” declared that the wine had the taste of rusty nails is not lost on me). So be prepared for a very dark, very brown, not traditionally colored wine when you open a Pinotage, but rest assured that the wine inside will be highly drinkable. Unless the wine inside has spoiled, in which case you’re on your own.
Go On. Try It. You’ll Like It. 
2007 Horton Vineyards Virginia Pinotage
Well, if you’re going to try a California Pinotage, then you’ve got to give Virginia
Pinotages equal time as well, and that’s what we’ve got here. There are allegedly
only 3 wineries in all of Virginia producing Pinotage (as opposed to around 2 dozen
in California), but our favorite is Horton, and that’s not in the least because the
folks there are experts when it comes to growing and producing Forgotten Grapes.
They call their Pinotage the “Quiver Tree Red” after an indigenous tree in South
Africa, and its crafted in a style similar to the native wines from that country.
We got big smoke, coffee, and chocolate aromas coming off the nose, as well as some
cola scents as well. The tannins were definitely a bit bigger on this wine than some
of the other Pinotages we tasted, but it had that same smooth mouth feel and dark
berry-to-plum flavors recognizable in a Pinotage. It did fade out a little quickly
on the end, and has a touch of sweetness to it on that finish, but we found it super
delicious. It existed in kind of a natural sweet spot between a Merlot and a Pinot,
if that helps guide you. Horton has their 2007 vintage all ready to go for you; all
you need to do is check out their price sheet, and either fax them at 540-832-7187,
call Neil over there at 540-832-7440, or shoot them an e-mail at vawinee@aol.com
to get yours (oh, and image courtesy of myvinespot.com).
2007 J Vineyards Russian River Valley Pinotage
A lot of people only know J Vineyards for three things: Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, and
Sparkling wines. But the truth of the matter is that J is actually producing a decent
variety of wines featuring Forgotten Grape varietals, including a Viognier, a Vin
Gris, and of course this Pinotage. This wine had a lovely mix of smoke and cherries
on the nose and something that one of our tasters noted as “that fresh shirt from
the dry cleaners with the cardboard in it” aroma. We’ll take that as a positive.
All in all, this wine had aroma notes much closer to a classic Pinot Noir than some
of the others, which we suspect comes from the relative coolness of the Russian River
Valley. Flavor-wise there was quite a bit of chocolate on the attack before the wine
settled into a chocolate-covered cherry and blueberry flavor through the full palate.
It didn’t have the length that some of the other Pinotages we tasted had, but it
made for a highly drinkable wine. Our friend George at J Vineyards wanted us to mention
that this wine typically retails for $38 and is only available at the winery itself,
through J’s Wine Club or on their website. So consider those mentioned. If you’re
looking for a Pinotage that drinks very easily without food and embraces more of
the classic Pinot Noir elements, then this is the Pinotage from you. Here’s a link
to the J Vineyards website where you can buy it. Go get it!
2007 Moonstone Crossing Amador Country John Bree Vineyard Pinotage
A big Pinotage with an even bigger name. If you’re a fan and follower of ForgottenGrapes.com,
then you know the respect and adoration we have for Amador County; it’s a haven of
not only Forgotten Grapes, but just-slightly-left-of-center winemakers willing to
grow and experiment with said Forgotten Grapes. Our new friend Donald Bremm at Moonstone
Crossing is just one of those guys (and as a complete aside, don’t you love both
the name and the logo for his winery? I mean, come on, that’s cool!).Don produced
only 210 cases of his 2006 Pinotage, and could not keep them on the shelf at his
tasting room. We were lucky enough to get one of the last two bottles he had, which
is what we tasted, but he’s going to be bottling his 2007 vintage very soon (and
it will be a smaller bottling than previous vintages), which is what you can pick
up to try: a Pinotage from a very different part of California. The nose of the wine
took a bit of time to develop in the glass, but once it did we got smoke, cocoa,
and some very, very dark fruits. The tannins were a little more pronounced in the
wine, and it wasn’t as round as some of the others, but there were plenty of straight-ahead
cherry, chocolate, and smoke flavors on the wine. At 14.9% ABV, you can taste the
coolness of the region and the higher alcohol at times, but that makes sense because
this is a big, dark, rich example of a Pinotage, perhaps the biggest and boldest
one we tasted. If you’re looking for adventure, you can find it in Moonstone Crossings
Pinotage, and you can order your bottle of his 2007 vintage now by calling Don at
707-677-3832, faxing him at 707-822-8842, by e-mailing him directly at donbremm@yahoo.com
or by visiting him in his tasting room in Trinidad,California.
2007 Vino Con Brio Lodi Estate Pinotage
Last but certainly not least is Vino Con Brio, a winery similar to Steltzner in leading
the charge of Pinotage production in the United States. Vino Con Brio actually has
the largest block of Pinotage vines anywhere in the United States, at a full 8 acres,
and while they accept and respect the traditions of Pinotage, they produce their
varietal wines in a slightly different way. Their Pinotages have been described as
“Pinot Noir on steroids” and you can see why after giving one a taste. Right off
the bat, the wine was lighter and brighter in color than the other Pinotages we tried,
with more of a garnet/violet color than the standard brown/black/rust of other Pinotages.
The nose had an incredible complexity to it, with the expected scents of raspberries,
brambles, and grilled meats sharing the space with olives and florals such as hibiscus
and violets. The wine had that classic velvety mouth feel to it, but wasn’t as round
as some of the others. It was sharper and brighter, with more acid and less tannin
in the wine. Plummier flavors throughout the sip, though they got darker the longer
the wine stayed on the tongue. You certainly knew you weren’t drinking a Pinot Noir,
although you could pick up traces of it now and then. All in all, a very satisfying
wine in a very different style than many of the others. We should also point out
that they blend in just a bit of Petit Sirah to their Pinotage (about 7% worth) to
fill it out and give it more depth and backbone. You can buy this fascinating Pinotage
directly from Vino Con Brio themselves on their website (and again, another winery
name we just love!). They just released their 2007 vintages, so it’s well worth trying
and buying a
second bottle to give some age.
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