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Pinotage, SA’s home-grown grape variety, celebrates its 100th anniversary today on national Pinotage Day — a fascinating story of an experiment that almost didn’t come to fruition, now a signature of SA wine on the global wine stage.
Pioneering Stellenbosch University viticulturist Prof Abraham Izak Perold crossed the two French varietals of pinot noir and cinsaut (then known locally as Hermitage, hence the name Pinotage) — seeking to combine pinot’s elegance with the hardy, robust growth properties of cinsaut.
Pinotage was “born” on the day in 1925 when Perold planted the first seeds of his experimental grape, mainly as an academic project, in the garden of his official residence at the university’s Welgevallen experimental farm.
And then the project nearly lapsed into history — Perold left the seedlings behind when he moved to Paarl in 1928, and it was only thanks to the eagle-eye of young viticulture lecturer Dr Charlie Niehaus that it did not.
Niehaus knew about the experiment and spotted the seedlings while cycling past Welgevallen, just as a cleanup crew was about to get to work on the overgrown garden.
He rescued four of the young vines and they were replanted at Elsenburg Agricultural College — and then almost forgotten again.
A decade later, the vines were grafted onto rootstocks, enabling them to flourish, and in 1941 Elsenburg lecturer CT de Waal produced the first-ever pinotage wine.
Sadly, Perold died just a few months prior, never having tasted the fruits of his experiment.
It took until the 1950s before substantial commercial plantings were undertaken, at Uiterwyk, Bellevue, Kanonkop and Meerendal.
“Estate wine” was rare back then, with most farmers selling their grapes or wine to large co-ops like Stellenbosch Farmers’ Winery (SFW), as PK Morkel did with his 1959 pinotage grown and made at Bellevue, which had just won the General Smuts Trophy for the best wine overall at the Cape Wine Show.
SFW owned the Lanzerac trademark at the time and so decided to bottle the wine under that label and released it in 1961 — making it the first commercially bottled pinotage.
Pinotage first found its way out of SA when it was planted in New Zealand in the 1960s and California in the 1970s, while producers like Kanonkop, Delheim, Audacia and Spier led the way in local production.
That journey was almost derailed in 1976 when a group of visiting British Masters of Wine declared pinotage “has no future”, dismissing it as “hot and horrible”, tasting of “rusty nails”.
Local producers persevered, however, and pinotage today is refined, elegant and versatile, found in softer floral, silky styles as well as big, dark and bold; some highlighting its savoury, spicy, smoky characteristics, others more juicy and fruit-focused.
Lanzerac Pinotage today is made from its own vineyards, in its own cellar and under its own label, having bought the trademark back from SFW successor Distell in 2002.
Lanzerac cellarmaster Wynand Lategan has expanded the estate’s pinotage plantings and its range of styles, because its Jonkershoek terroir, cool by Stellenbosch standards, lends itself to expressive, elegant pinotage and because the wine “tells a uniquely SA story, we can own it and promote it with pride”.
Lategan brought the Lanzerac Pinotage story full-circle in 2019, marking the 60th anniversary of the maiden vintage by partnering with Bellevue to produce Lanzerac Commemorative Pinotage 2019 — made from the very same vineyard at Bellevue which produced the first vintage, planted in 1953.
The history and attention to detail in the packaging alone — a weighty, very similar bottle to the original, and faithfully reproducing the original label, telling the story of its origins — makes it a perfect gift (R2,100) for the lover of pinotage, great stories and history, plus it has five Platter’s stars and a 94-point rating from UK Master of Wine Tim Atkin.
Lategan says: “Sixty years later, the reincarnation of this wine displays some of the same characteristics as the original.
“Red and black berries with hints of tea-leaf combined with an earthiness and finishing with soft silky tannins speaks to its ancestors of pinot noir and cinsaut.”
A perhaps more accessible choice for Pinotage Day is the “standard” Lanzerac Pinotage 2022 (±R250) from its Jonkershoek range.
Youthful and fresh, really enjoyable now but offering ageable promise.
Ripe inky berries and dark fruit (think baked plums), touches of violets and chocolate, full-bodied with an opulent texture — perfect for a proudly SA pinotage celebration with some venison potjie or bobotie with apricot chutney.
• With thanks to Joanne Gibson/winemag.co.za and the Pinotage Association for the historical information.
The Herald
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