Funny to learn that they IMW group trips (as an “arrogance” – LOL) are written up but the accounts are not made public! So how did the 1977 and 1994 trip reports wield such influence outside the Institute?

Cathy, I think you’ve missed my point somewhat. I have tasted a number of good wines either wholly or partially pinotage. However, I don’t think I have tasted any such wine which is ever likely to be excellent. I pointed out that I rated a rose best on the ’04 trip, as well as also rating highly a top-end wine. However, I believe the South African industry is making a mistake to use pinotage as a USP cultivar for the simple reason that I don’t think it’s good enough to do so. I’d much rather see effort on promoting chenin, semillon (of which is very little but a lot seriously good), Bordeaux-blands (Ken Forrester’s views notwithstanding) andRhone wines (bearing in mind the aforementioned Ken’s views LOL!). The really interesting thing is to look at the graph of plantings in South Africa in the last 20 years: under-planting of reds generally and pinotage, the alleged star of the show, static or dropping as a % of total. This suggests that many South Africans are not overly keen on the grape.
In re the peripatetic nature of the Institute, we visit the world all the time in organised groups (the collective noun for a group of MWs is either a nose (you like us) or an arrogance (you know us well!)) but the reports are solely for the members – one good reason to become an MW!
All in all, I find that carmenere, for example, is a far more widley acceptable cultivar than pinotage and I think the South Africans could learn a huge amount from the Chileans in re marketing.
Anyway, quite an interesting post, given the number of responses. I cannot, however, agree with the comment that I wouldn’t sell any; I can think of 5 to 6 solid producers who get the best out of pinotage whose wines I would both happily sell and drink.

Dermot

I’ve tasted decent pinotage from Warwick, Kanonkop, and Southern Right, and a surprisingly pleasant cheapie from Ken Forrester called “Petit Pinotage.” The best pinotage I ever had came from Mendocino–John Parducci’s McNab Ridge.

I can’t say my complaint with the variety has been just the off smells but also the lack of balance. Interestingly the balance has not been off in only one direction. Some have had high alcohol but a thin body and some have had a big body but insufficient acidity to provide balance. The worst of the lot just tasted like a bad cup of coffee.

FYI – Beyers Truter was the one from the panel who most vehemently rejected any discussion of pinotage’s controversial character and twice mentioned the succulence of eggs cooked in pinotage.

But no one can deny that Pinotage is prone to developing isoamyl acetate, and smells like — not “burnt rubber” to me, but latex paint. I have had any number of wines from Pinotage since 1969, when I entered the wine trade, and I can count the number of wine that *I* thought were very good on one hand: three, one of which I thought was excellent.

That one excellent wine was never sold in the US, but hand-carried back from South Africa by a friend. But it ended up being like when one plays golf for the very first time: the one shot you hit that was great leads you to think, “Wow, this could be a fun game!” while every other time you swing a club, you really just want to toss the entire bag of clubs into the nearest water hazard and walk away, never to return.

Buffering does not separate chemicals of different pH rather it adjusts the pH of the overall mixture.

If a wine is characterful then it will have those that love it and therefore thus must also have those that don’t. That doesn’t make a variety controversial, we all have likes and dislikes. What is unusual is how vocal the dislikers are.

Regarding ‘burned rubber’, yes some South African Pinotages were badly affected by this, but at the same time so were many other South African reds. It is not a characteristic of the variety. The cause is unknown, though thought to be microbiological, and there is a team at the University of Stellenbosch investigating because of complaints raised about a whole slew of top South African red wines in 2007 and 2008 – though it’s worth pointing out that no Pinotages were among them.

Seems to me this item focuses on the bad – it refer to someone who loathes the variety, not someone who loves it, it mention the negative comments of visiting MWs in 1977 but not the positive comments of visiting MWs in 1994.

Going to a wine seminar with an open mind and then wanting winemakers to focus on examples of poor winemaking and problems in the past and asking what they’re doing about it seems to invite the answer – ‘taste what’s we’re making now. That’s what we did, why dwell on the past?’

Yes, there are some unexciting Pinotages being made – name a single variety where that is not true, but there are also some real good Pinotages, something recognised last month by Decanter when they awarded the Trophy for Red Single Varietal over £10 to Bellingham ‘The Bernard Series’, Bush Vine Pinotage 2010 at Decanter World Wine Awards.

Re Pinotage… I saw a parody of “wine glass manufacturer designs glass specifically tailored for Pinotage”. When I opened the picture it was a wine glass with a hole in the bottom. I got it. Most that I have tried have been not particularly exciting and some have been quite bitter. If you have Carignan in your heritage you have to be on the back foot.

Also, at a recent blind tasting in the Ningxia region, ~800 km west of Beijing, we tried 39 local wines, including quite a few made with a grape popular there, Cabernet Gernischt, which some say is Carmenere. One of the tasters, Liz Thach, called it an “acquired taste, like a Pinotage” and cautioned against it being used as signature grape and suggested it would be better for blending given that is has a spicy character.

Cheers, Boyce
Cheers, Boyce