Pining for Pinotage

Tastes like: Red fruit. Cherry. Dark Chocolate. Spice. Touch Oak. Silky Tannins. 

When South African growers crossed the king of noble red grape varieties, Pinot Noir, with a young pretender from South France called Cinsault, their love child was Pinotage.

Almost 100 years later and Pinotage has become synonymous with South African wine - and while recent decades have seen examples with overuse of new oak and intensive farming, producers like Roodekrantz are today making wines with restraint, purity of fruit and a highly sustainable and ethical philosophy.

Roodekrantz combines generations of wine know-how from the Morkel and Burger families who are committed to preserving the region’s precious old vine heritage vineyards. Their first release was in 2015 and their wines - like this one - are already catching the critics’ eyes.

This pucker 100% Pinotage punches well above its weight and comes from vines grown on deep shale and ancient granite soils.

Only a portion of the wine is matured in barrels and this is all old French oak to allow the fruit to shine through. A few more years ageing in bottles means this wine is ripe for uncorking (or unscrewing) right now.

South Africa - 2020 - 13.5% - 75cl

Sustainable - Hand Picked 

Critical acclaim:

91 pts - Decanter Magazine (2021)