South Africa: Pinotage revisited (part 2)

From www.welgegund.co.za

There's been an energy-saving spotlight on South African Pinotage on this blog with these two posts penned earlier in the year: South Africa: Cape Winemakers' Guild Auction (September) featuring a 'wow' Pinotage from legendary Kanonkop, and South Africa: Pinotage & Shiraz/Syrah (June) including over a dozen tasty Pinotages such as Spice Route, Kaapzicht, Darling Cellars, Boschendal, Brampton and Lutzville.

And so, as all good things sometimes have to come to an end, I'm closing off the year spicily with a couple of gracefully ageing older vintages from "small scale artisan grower-producers," as Russell Wallace put it, general manager of importer and online retailer Exel Wines based in Scotland. These two "premium Pinotage(s)... are the Pinotage that first convinced me that sometimes the grape was worth something!" he quipped. I wouldn't take that too lightly though, since his company lists no less than 57 Pinotage wines (Heinz eat your heart out) including red blends and rosé.

Aaldering is located in the Devon Valley in Stellenbosch, and Russell added "they keep trying to buy back" the 2007 vintage in the limelight below. The 2009 Welgegund comes from this 18th-century property's Wellington farm in the Western Cape, although it looks like they don't make Pinotage any more and Exel claims to have some of the last remaining stock of this vintage. So the 'rarity factor' helps partly explain the quite high prices of these two wines, although you could easily pay that much for comparable quality and maturity from elsewhere in the wine world. And there's a good reader deal now available - see discount codes at the bottom.

2007 Aaldering Pinotage (15% abv) - Still has a fair amount of coconut/vanilla oak on the nose but there's lots more too, liquorice and pepper with complex maturing dried raspberry and blackcurrant fruits, savoury vs minty as well. Powerful mouth-feel with nice and smooth tannins, coco vanilla notes and dried blackberry and spice; turning meaty and punchy but that 15% alc. blends in well to its soft and sweet/savoury texture vs light grip on the finish; concentrated with lingering flavours and power, drinking well but not going to fade away fast. Has none of those dry bitter tannins you can find with older Pinotage, showing fair class and depth with 'thick' but not tannic texture, smoky oak turning to sweet berry fruit and savoury flavours. Next day: 'cheesier' and meatier notes, more like good old Rioja but gutsier. £25.44

2009 Welgegund Pinotage (14% abv) - Complex nose, red pepper blackcurrant and mint/wild herbs with savoury maturing and liquorice tones; concentrated and lush vs crunchier fruit vs dark chocolate and cherry, more of those wild aromatic characters too with oomph and light bitter twist; attractive combo of soft and maturing vs structured and powerful. Good wine. £19.51 sale price.

Exel has set up a couple of reader discounts as follows:

Enter the code WineWriting (click there) to get 5% off across the site (on top of any sale prices and loyalty points with free shipping on 12 bottles or more).

Enter Pinotage for £5 off per bottle of the Welgegund and Aaldering wines only (follow those links).

WineWriting.com & French Med Wine is purely the media for this offer and isn't responsible for order processing etc.

Pinot Noir: 'luv' wine

Lord Byron by Richard Westall
from englishhistory.net

That's the Valentinesque PR angle that came with the bottle of Byron Pinot tasted-noted below, with an obvious nod to a certain hedonistic early-19th century poet; but it's true there's something seductive about good Pinot Noir. "Oh Mr. Byron, don't be such a big girl's blouse." *

Grenache reds: Rhône and Roussillon, Rasteau and Amiel

Here's a diverse trio of 'black' Grenache (as the French call the variety) based winter warmers from the southern Rhône Valley and northern Roussillon, which are new releases or vintages from Cave de Rasteau and Mas Amiel (links to some previous words on and recommendations from those two wineries).

Wild boar lurking outside Mas Amiel's shop
Photo by Vi Erickson

2014 Rasteau Tradition (70% Grenache, 20% Syrah, 10% Mourvèdre and old-vine Carignan) - Actually quite soft and fruity with wild herb/peppery edges, chunky and rich mouth-feel with light bite to finish; a bit too quaffable for a 14% abv red, so food is advised! Cellar door €8.30. Hercules Wine Warehouse in England used to stock these wines, but there were none on their site when I looked. O'Briens off licences in Ireland.

2011 Rasteau Prestige (50 year-old vines: 50% Grenache, 35% Syrah, 15% Mourvèdre; part of the wine spent one year in oak, 14.5% abv) - Lush spicy black fruits with liquorice and wild herb/mint hints, big and rounded palate yet quite structured still although drinking well too. Yum, delicious hearty red. Cellar door €10.30. O'Briens.

2009 Mas Amiel Origine (sourced from three schist-y hillside plots: Grenache from a spot called Cabirou planted in 1914, Carignan from La Devèze planted in 1952 and young Syrah from the same vineyard; the latter two varieties were aged 14 months in large tuns, not fined or filtered; 14.5% abv) - Maturing meaty and leather edges layered with liquorice and sweet black cherry/berry, complex earthy wild herb notes as well; lush and full-on with savoury vs dark ripe and spicy fruit, punchy and grippy still yet rounded and maturing, dense and concentrated too with lingering liquorice and light bitter twist on the finish. Serious wine and serious price inevitably: cellar door €26.50, The Perfect Cellar (London) £30.

Italy: Bottega Prosecco

Or perhaps 'all that glitters is not gold' (read on)... The Bottega winery is found in Bibano di Godega in the Veneto region, a crow-flight to the north of Venice and not far from the pretty town of Conegliano in the (otherwise rather vast) Prosecco zone's epicentre, where there's also a long tradition of making grappa (northern Italy's speciality grape-based spirit that often manages to combine finesse and head-banger). The cellars are housed in the expansive and handsomely renovated 19th century farm-buildings pictured above, and are stalked by 10 hectares of vineyards (25 acres) according to their blurb. The Bottega brand now encompasses additional wines from almost neighbouring Valpolicella and Montalcino in Tuscany following 'recent acquisitions'.
It isn't a small-scale operation either producing '10 million bottles' of fizz, meaning they must buy in grapes as well otherwise the 'math' doesn't add up? Bottega Gold Prosecco, which as you might have guessed comes dressed in a glitzy 24-carat bottle, is obviously an unashamedly gimmicky bit of celeb marketing; but you could see the appeal of having this sitting on your table in a trendy bar or Italian restaurant, and the wine itself is quite attractive although a couple of others in the range (without the Goldfinger touch) are better. Catalyst Brands is the UK agent where these bubblies retail for around £20-£25 a bottle, so they're pretty dear although there are a few festive offers flying around online retail sites at the moment. These Proseccos also come in all sorts of sizes from minis to massive, from jazzy to sober looking... More @ www.bottegagold.com.

Vino Biologico Prosecco DOC 'Extra Dry' ('Quality Aromatic Sparkling Wine', organic, 11% abv) - Elderflower citrus and almond tones, attractively frothy with crisp-ish 'chalky' mouth-feel vs off- to medium-dry finish. Nice fizz although could do with just a little more character.

Fundum 'unfiltered' Prosecco Frizzante Treviso (crown cap, 11% abv) - Cloudy 'real cider' / 'Weizenbier' / 'ginger beer' reminiscent style with flowery grapey nose and yeasty backdrop, fairly dry with lingering yeasty biscuit flavours and crisp elegant finish. Tasty and different.

Il Vino dei Poeti Prosecco DOC Treviso Brut 2014 - Richer toastier and more 'serious' than the others and 'winier' too, quite dry and crisp with toasted nut and savoury biscuit flavours. Good.

Il Vino dei Poeti Valdobbiadene Prosecco Superiore DOCG 2014 'Extra Dry' (Varieties: Glera 85%, Glera Lunga 10%, Perera 5%; 11.5% abv) - Honeyed, almond biscuit and floral aromas, a touch of crisp bite and some depth of character on the palate; pity though it's not that dry (despite the confusing terminology used for sparkling wines) as those appealing complex flavours end up a tad sweeter and blander on the finish (there's about 17 grams/litre residual sugar in their 'Extra Dry').

Bottega Gold Brut Prosecco DOC Treviso - Enticingly frothy light and elegant, quite good with light floral almond and subtle yeast notes, crisp and refreshing style. Attractive and quaffable even if not exactly super exciting.

WES NI wine tastings & courses in Belfast 2016

Vineyards overlooking Pinhao, Douro Valley

Saturday 30 January 2016: Spain and Portugal one-day workshop £90
Including at least a dozen wines tasted with your tutor, two-course lunch at the hotel and course manual - "We'll taste and talk about a selection of quality red, white, rosé and fortified wines highlighting the very different regions, grape varieties and wine styles found across the 'Iberian peninsular'.

Languedoc 2015: "a fleshy vintage..."

I get lots of emails around this time of year crammed with lengthy serious vintage reports and piled high with photos of happy harvesters at work, handsome bunches of grapes, fermenting juice, winemakers sniffing it and barrels awaiting... Nadia and Cyril Bourgne at Domaine La Madura in Saint-Chinian have simply declared this year's wines from their neck of the Languedoc so comfortingly "fleshy," that the Madura team just couldn't resist stripping off in their new shiny winery. Full-bodied and tasty? There's something there for everyone! More on La Madura on this site HERE or www.lamadura.com.

Cahors: special supplement updated

I've updated my Cahors special supplement exploring one of south-west France's most exciting wine regions and 'home of Malbec,' as the PR slogan goes. This report has now expanded to nearly 20 pages of words, wines and photos including new profiles and my notes, views and reviews on/of these ten leading organic châteaux and wineries: Lacapelle-Cabanac, Chambert, Haut-Monplaisir, Le Clos d'un Jour, Cèdre, Mas del Périé, Cayrou, Tour de Miraval, Marjolière and Les Hauts d'Aglan.

It's now available as part of a massive French wine e-magazine HERE.

Photo: "150 to 200 year-old" cedar tree in front of curious round-tower outbuilding next to Château du Cayrou.

Wine tastings & courses: Nov 15 to Mar 16 in Belfast

From Italtrade.com

​​Thursday 26 November 7-8.45pm: Italian wines​ £28.95

​"​At​ ​this wines of Italy ​evening tasting​, we'll take you on a guided tour around several of this very​ varied country's wine producing regions ​by​ tasting and talking about ​a carefully selected range of​ tasty red and white​ wines. These will probably include classics from northern Italy, such as Piemonte and Veneto, central Italy such as Tuscany and Umbria, and the deep south e.g. Sicily, ​Campania,​ Puglia..."