Decanter critics loving Pinotage, Winemag not so much

Decanter critics loving Pinotage, Winemag brains trust not so much

02/2022 Mike Froud Leave a comment

THE “SECOND EVER” panel-tasting of Pinotage by Decanter in the UK was described by judge Greg Sherwood MW as “a huge success”, with the results published in the Feb 2022 issue of the magazine. It had been over 20 years since the publishers last reviewed this class of red wines in such a focused manner and the jury praised the “significant evolution” since 1999. Apparently taking a different view, however, the publishers of South African online publication Winemag chose the same month to announce that they had reduced the number of their annual category reports, with one of the casualties being Pinotage – the most successful of the wine grape varieties born in the Cape.

UK retailer, columnist, Master of Wine and regular visitor to South Africa, his country of birth, Sherwood was joined on Decanter’s team of critics by wine writer Roger Jones, a former restaurateur in England, and Victoria Mason, a wine buyer for UK supermarket chain Waitrose. There were 142 Pinotages on the tasting bench, current releases assessed over two days, of which seven were considered to be ‘outstanding’ and 69 ‘highly recommended’.

Scored 95/100, the panel’s favourites comprised wines mostly associated with the industry’s benchmark producers. Among these were: Beeslaar, as in Abrie Beeslaar, also winemaker at ‘first growth’ Kanonkop in Stellenbosch, whose wines didn’t fare quite as well on this occasion; Pinotage specialist Beyerskloof, the Stellenbosch cellar of Anri Truter (winemaker) and Beyers Truter (chairman of the Pinotage Association); and Rijk’s of Tulbagh, whose cellarmaster for 20 years, Pierre Wahl, recently moved to the Overhex winery outside Worcester, taking over responsibility for the Survivor range of wines made primarily from Swartland grapes. Surprise inclusions among the Top 7 were the 2020 ‘Chocoholic’ Pinotage from Darling Cellars, which will have the purists raising eyebrows, and the 2020 ‘Wolf & Woman’ Pinotage from Jolandie Fouché in the Swartland, using grapes from the Paardeberg in this instance and having only recently gone solo after “earning her stripes” at various cellars in Australia, California and South Africa, of course.