When I first became obsessed with wine, I recognized the importance of tasting as many grapes from as many regions as possible, something I still preach. But opportunities to encounter profound wine are rare. It was then I realized a visit to Wine Spectator’s New York Wine Experience was in order.
It’s a “bucket list” weekend where consumers mingle with the trade and you can speak to winemakers, who are farmers eager to discuss their wares, alongside sommeliers, chefs and other enthusiasts. There are ballrooms filled with great wines for tasting, seminars and three-course luncheons with a table full of wines for mixing and matching.
Seating is at random; you usually end up sitting with seven fellow consumers from across the country. One year, however, I happened, by chance, to share a table with Donald Hess (owner of Napa’s Hess Collection) and the winemaker for his new investment, South Africa’s Glen Carlou. We had a fascinating lunch. I learned firsthand about the burgeoning wine industry in the coastal region just east of Cape Town.
The Glen Carlou winery makes wonderful, elegant chardonnay — both oaked and unoaked — and Mulderbosch Vineyards produces a sauvignon blanc comparable to white Bordeaux or the citrusy bottles from Marlborough in New Zealand. There are even some chenin blanc producers that many feel rival world-class Vouvray (remember: Old World wines are labeled by region, not grape) from the Loire Valley.
South Africa largely sticks to these well-known varietals, but its special wild card is pinotage (pronounced pee-no-tahj), a red wine grape. It was created in 1925 when a local professor decided to pollinate pinot noir with cinsault, a blending grape from southern France that was formerly called hermitage — hence the mashup name. While pinotage wines mostly show red fruit flavors, sometimes with berry and banana notes, they may have a brambly, earthy, smoky side. Better versions come from cooler climates, old vines with at least two years in oak and then a decade of aging to show best. They’re worth the encounter, though.
I had a notable pinotage from Klawer Cellars through PRP Wine, which specializes in home wine tastings. B-21 Fine Wine & Spirits in Tarpon Springs stocks a few, including the 2015 Kanonkop, a top producer from the lush Stellenbosch region, South Africa’s answer to Napa Valley. The wines have character, with a splash of minerality, that sets them apart from many New World bottles that primarily display fruit-forward ripeness.
In this country, the winemakers at Sonoma’s J Vineyards & Winery, the home of celebrated sparkling wine, have also embraced pinotage, producing a single-vineyard bottling from their Backdoor Vineyard in the Russian River Valley.
As always, what you eat with any wine makes a difference. Pinotage is a good match for barbecued ribs, aged Cheddar and roasted game (venison, duck or quail). Superstar sommelier Andrea Immer Robinson even tells a story about pairing it with warthog.
Good luck with that one. I’m ready if you are.
This article appears in Aug 31 – Sep 7, 2017.