WTN: 2005 Fairvalley Pinotage

2005 Fairvalley Pinotage, South Africa

Recommended, or actually sort of tossed at me by the wine shop clerk as they were preparing to close for the day. The wine was his response to my "What's your best cheap red" question. This Pinotage is made by a coop of South African growers and comes in at about $9.

Color: Inky purple

Nose: My wife immediately said "flour", not "flower". I agreed. Also got some earth and bit of cherry.

Taste: The few Pinotage I have tasted have been on the light side, akin to Beaujolais. Not this one. It is a hearty Pintage with lots of red fruit and a bit of leather. More drying tannin than I would have liked, but I think that this wine is quite young and will benefit from some aging. Decanting for an hour or so would have helped as well. Definitely a "Cotes du Rhone" feel to this Pinotage. We drank it alone, but it would be a good food wine. Certainly a pleasant surprise for $9.

Sam, thank you very much for your note. It comes across to me as providential, and of great timing, since I had in fact corresponded with Peter May the other day about this very wine. Peter wrote:

Fairvalley is the Black Empowerment business of the workers of Fairview.
Bought in grapes, I believe. Platter gives it 1.5 stars (casual quaffing)
saying 'packed with dark fruit, palate roundly ripe. Bold 14.9% alc'

We don't have it here in Ontario at present, though I wish that the LCBO would bring it in. Your comment about drying tannins really perked me up - were they puckery, or more of the bitter sort? I love a good bitter Pinotage with lots of leather. This cherished old style is getting quite hard to find nowadays of course.

With many thanks again.

We don't have it here in Ontario at present, though I wish that the LCBO would bring it in. Your comment about drying tannins really perked me up - were they puckery, or more of the bitter sort?

Paul,

The tannins were toward the bitter end. What I would call "youthful" tannins. Some bottle age, or even time in a decanter would probably take care of them.