You wouldn’t be able to ask me the question above…because I do and I am biased. But luckily there are a quite a few of my kind who do love good Pinotage, and with an better understanding of the grape and the vine, a whole new generation of wine lovers will be seeing much more of these examples.
Abraham Izak Perlod was born in the Cape and schooled here in our own home town, Wellington. His life story sounds like something between Indiana Jones and Darwin. Imagine being asked by the government to go and expand the Capes range of grape varieties… After a scouting mission he brought some varieties back from overseas (a whole 177), but then he also started establishing new ones. Pinotage was borne from a crossing between Pinot noir and Cinsaut. Unlikely parent to this special local grape.
I have always felt that we have a very special connection with Pinotage here in Wellington. We have ample sunlight and a long growing season that fits Pinotage very well (not taking away that there are some awesome cool climate Pinotages out there). The vineyards that we use for the production of our Bosman Family Vineyards Pinotage, is from the farm Lelienfontein in Wellington. It is the same vineyard that is used in the production of the Wellington Wines La Cave Pinotage (a connection that we are very proud of).
We went to the vineyard on Monday to have a look at the grapes before harvest. I`ve added a video of Heinie Nel, our viticulturist, on his thoughts about the 2012 growing season in regards to the Pinotage. Will keep you updated on the harvest itself in the next post.
*Disclaimer: For more lovely news and facts on Pinotage please consult the new South Africa Pinotage Wine Guide published by the Pinotage Association and also Peter May`s book “Pinotage : Behind the Legends of South Africa`s Own Wine”
Today was a great breather from the warmer weather we have been experiencing the last few days. We were very interested to see what the heat`s influence was on our grape`s analysis so this morning we started sampling and testing!
In the photo below, we are testing our Chenin Blanc from a vineyard called Driehoek (or Triangle vineyard). Some of the plantings in this vineyard date back to 1963 and 1979, which makes it quite humbling (note the winemaker and viticulturist not even being a twinkle in our parent’s eyes in those years).
As said in the previous post we had experienced some cloudy weather during flowering, so to make sure that we get samples that paints the best possible clear picture – we are using bunch samples this year.
Results on this vineyard show that we did not have a significantly higher rise in sugar in the last few days, but we did lose a small bit of valuable acidity. Still have a few days before these grapes do come in. In the meanwhile, we will be dreaming of the lovely granny smith and honeysuckle notes released from these little berries. Bliss…
If you were wondering why we were so quiet, go have a look at our Harvest Report 2011 on YouTube. It will give you a wonderful opportunity to see what our cellar looks like, if you haven`t been here before, and I`ll tell you all about the buzz in the cellar. Only some two weeks left of Harvest 2011 for us, and our friends in wine tell us that most cellars will be slowing down this week. Let us know about your thoughts on our post by either tweeting at www.twitter/bosmanwines or join us on our active Facebook page.
Today is a cool but lovely winters day here in Wellington. In the vine nursery our team is grafting new vines and although everything looks very dormant in the vineyards there is a sense that, through the grafting, the circle of life for these vines too is still busy-it never stops!
In the cellar we have been putting together our Adama White blend 2010 and the Adama 2009. Its taken months of tasting and retasting, but we`re there. Now just for the last bit of settling and marrying in the tank before we bottle.
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