There was a time when I actually enjoyed Synergy. It has always been a blend of Pinotage, cab, and merlot and shiraz has also made an ocassional appearance.
Beyers Truter fancies himself the patron saint of Pinotage, and despite having done excellent woth at Kanonkop with other varietals, much of the production of Beyerskloof now incorporates this varietal, and sadly, it uses even more of it than it used to.
The 2001, which I thought pretty good, was merlot 39% Pinotage 36% Cab 25%. This one is 57% Pinotage, 23 shiraz, 14 cab and 6% merlot, and the difference is marked.
It is, as it has always been, a dark wine. This vintage showed a fairly simple sweet fruit nose with a bit of the sauvage side of pinotage, a bit of 'animal' and while it had decent sweet fruit in the middle, the finish was marred by an odd and unpleasant bitterness in the finish.
I had the chance to have an 'off the record' chat with several producers from the Cape when they came to Vancouver some years ago, and when I asked for an honest answer to my question of "Don't you think you'd produce as good or better a wine if you reduced or eliminated the Pinotage in the blend?" they all responded in the positive. Then they all said that Pinotage was their only unique SA varietal, and that they need an advertising peg to hang their hats on, similar to Chile and Carmenere.
There are those that idolize Pinotage, and there are all the others, by far the majority, I'd think, that just wonder why they bother. It is similar to the local BC wineries that make a big deal out of Marechal Foch. Yes, you can make decent wine from these varietals, but on the whole, they'd still be better off ripping them out an replanting some other grapes - cab, merlot. whatever.
I used to enjot Synergy in the past when the Pinotage was a fairly small component, but they are heading in the absolute wrong direction. This is a coarse grape that can be tamed with effort, but the point it that it really isn't worth the effort. I understand that opinons differ and that there are champions of Pinotage out there. They probably like this.