Today's a mightily cold day here in Southern Ontario, what with the stiff westerly wind and -16ºC reading. What better wine to reach for with dinner than a "sunshine red" - and being a fan of South African reds, my natural choice is always Pinotage.
The Graham Beck Pinotage recently featured at Vintages is listed at $16.85. It apparently contains 5% Cabernet and 5% Tannat; the rest is of course Pinotage.
The top foil is pulled back to reveal a silly plastic cork (I don't hide the fact that I dislike these closures, especially on reds). 14.5% alc./vol. Attractive dark mulberry-garnet hue with a deep garnet core. Beautiful smoky leather on the nose with hints of cured meat - fantastic. Some leather/banana and savoury sun-dried tomato on the nose with swirling. Big on the entry with excellent grip and balance; very fine acidity and high-quality oak rounding out the flavours on the mid-palate. A big but balanced wine; very dry and warm. Wonderfully savoury the more air it gets, with velvety/grippy tannins and a fine leathery warm finish rounded out by fine oak spice. Just a hint of Pinotage's wonderful bitterness in the finish; I'd have preferred more.
Overall, an excellent Pinotage.
Either way, it's apparently that particularly persistent strain of brett that's behind the aroma. I've read it described very variously - coal dust, rubber (I don't think of it as rubber myself, but more as a sulfury/irony/industrial/factory aroma), bandaid, medicine, cured meat, smoke ... and for me it occasionally even veers into Lapsang Souchong territory.
