While this proudly South African grape is today enjoying a renaissance in style and popularity, it’s fair to say that South African winemakers were slow to realise the true potential of Pinotage.
Professor Abraham Izak Perold, the first Professor of Viticulture at the University of Stellenbosch, created Pinotage in 1925. He cross-pollinated two classic French grape varietals – Pinot Noir and Hermitage, also known as Cinsaut – to create Pinotage, a grape that has become synonymous with South African vineyards. His cross-pollination only produced four seeds, but he planted and carefully tended these in the garden of his Welgevallen residence, little more than two kilometres from the historic manor house at Lanzerac.
But by the late-1950s Perold’s creation was still unknown to many wine lovers, and you certainly wouldn’t find a bottle of Pinotage on offer in Cape Town’s finest restaurants. That all changed with the harvest of 1959, when the Stellenbosch Farmers’ Winery cooperative, then owners of the estate, realised the potential of that year’s vintage, and, in 1961, created the world’s first bottled Pinotage, using the Lanzerac label.
Six decades after that landmark vintage, just a few bottles of the 1959 Lanzerac Pinotage remains in the estate’s vinoteque, closely guarded icons of this remarkable South African grape. Over the past 14 harvests Lanzerac Cellar Master, Wynand Lategan, has continually refined the estate’s winemaking philosophy, seeking the balance of elegance and boldness that has become the subtle signature of Lanzerac Pinotage. It’s a signature that has evolved over time, says Lategan: “For us at Lanzerac it’s all about finding the sweet spot between freshness, elegance and power.”
For Lategan the journey to crafting memorable Pinotage begins out in the vineyards, where Lanzerac’s Viticulturist, Danie Malherbe, focuses on bush vines and careful canopy management to ensure true balance and phenolic ripeness in the fruit. Part of that innovative viticultural approach is the dedication to showcasing the unique mountain terroir of Lanzerac’s Pinotage vineyards, most of which are set high on the slopes of the Jonkershoek valley. Here at altitude the vineyards benefit from soaking winter rains and cooler temperatures during the summer ripening season, the vineyard roots reaching deep into soils of decomposed sandstone and granite, with a layer of water-retaining clay.
In the cellar Lategan strives to preserve that unique character of the vineyards, gently guiding the grape from lug-box to barrel to bottle. “Because the grapes give us so much, our approach is to treat the fruit gently,” says Lategan. “The terroir delivers plenty of colour and fruit character, which means that in the cellar we look to work softly with the wine. The magic is to find the balance between power and elegance.”
That meticulous attention to detail and craftsmanship is evident across the three examples of Pinotage in the Lanzerac portfolio. The range begins with the approachable Lanzerac Pinotage Rosé, the fruit picked from the vineyards that surround the estate’s Tasting Room and Deli. An ideal pairing for lazy summer lunches, this dry and perfumed rosé is brimming with notes of rose petals, redcurrants and crushed strawberries. Limited skin contact delivers a delicate rosy hue to the wine, balancing fruit and freshness in a wine that’s simply superb for summer sipping.
While the Lanzerac Pinotage Rosé has proven enormously popular, and is an approachable introduction to the cultivar, the premium Lanzerac Pinotage is an altogether more serious expression of the varietal. Full-bodied and complex, with a balance between fruit expression and tannin structure, the deep colour and bold fruit palate makes it an ideal match for venison dishes. Sourced primarily from vineyards in the Jonkershoek valley, “this wine is really about showcasing Pinotage from the region,” says Lategan. “The emphasis here is on the fruit character of Pinotage, with soft tannins to make it approachable from the day it’s released.”
But if there’s a wine that truly exemplifies the potential of Pinotage it’s the Lanzerac Pionier Pinotage, flagship of the Heritage Range that honours three centuries of Lanzerac’s history. Picked from a single Jonkershoek vineyard planted in 1996, Lanzerac’s flagship red wine is also the one that requires the least intervention in the cellar. “This vineyard is in perfect balance,” explains Lategan, who relies on small open-top fermenters and wild yeasts for the Lanzerac Pionier Pinotage. After fermentation the grapes for the Lanzerac Pionier Pinotage are basket-pressed and the juice transferred into oak barriques, up to half of them first-fill new oak. Here the wine will age for up to 22 months, developing further complexity and integrating the oak tannins that will contribute to exceptional longevity in the bottle.
For as much as the Lanzerac Pionier breaks new ground in raising the profile of this proudly South African cultivar, this is also a wine for the long-haul. “The Pionier will certainly improve with time in the bottle,” says Lategan, who recommends cellaring this remarkable wine for up to a decade to see it realise its full potential.
Nearly a century after this remarkable South African cultivar was first planted, and precisely sixty years after that iconic harvest of 1959, Perold would surely be proud of how far his creation has come.
For more information on Lanzerac Wine Estate and our acclaimed range of Pinotage wines please visit www.lanzerac.co.za or contact Eske Cilliers on winesales@lanzerac.co.za