We are of the belief that South African Pinotages improve hugely the longer they age and this wine, which we opened on International Pinotage Day, August 18th, supports that view. It was absolutely at its peak. The first Pinotage, harvested in 1959 and released in 1961, was grown and made on the Bellevue Estate in Bottelary, Stellenbosch and the wine was sold under the Lanzerac label by Stellenbosch Farmers Winery. It was named for the Lanzerac Hotel in the Jonkershoek valley in Stellenbosch, which was not making wine at the time. The Bellevue and Lanzerac estates are about to celebrate the 60th anniversary of Pinotage and we have been invited. Lanzerac now has its own Pinotage vineyards and that is where the 2012 was made by Cellarmaster Wynand Lategan. We drank a toast with it to the memory of Duimpie Bayly, who was a great proponent of Pinotage
The nose is full of dark berries, cranberry, mulberry and prunes; there is a hint of spice and pencil shaving wood. On the palate, it is silky, juicy, fruit forward with black cherry, dark plums, prunes and milk chocolate. Complex, with a hint of salty minerality and dark licorice on the long end. It is made for serving with good food and made our meal superb. It was a great match with Lynne’s classic waterblommetjie bredie, a traditional lamb stew made with the flower buds of an indigenous water lily
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