2011 Kanonkop Pinotage.

Last night our food tasting group met for annual Christmas feast. The 2011 Kanonkop Pinotage (brought back from SA) was one of the wines of the night. I was hugely impressed, not a wine one sees often in my Alberta area. Will post asap.

Kanonkop's Pinotage is probably the best from that grape which I have ever had, so out of curiosity I searched for its availability here in France. I was surprised to see that it costs >€40 for the 2020 vintage. At that price, there are very many wines available which are much more classy than I think Pinotage can be. I'm pretty sure that in the days I bought some (over 10 years ago) it cost less than half that! What is the Canadian price?

Kanonkop has always been a champion for Pinotage (a varietal not high on my all star list) and have done a very decent job with it. Don't ignore their other wines, though. Their Bordeaux blend called Paul Sauer is superb. The 1993 which I last opened a couple of years ago was really excellent (you can ask Jenise - she shared it with me). Sadly, the BC LDB doesn't seem to list their wines much any more.

Thanks Bill. One of the stores carries Kanonkop.

Caution, friends

Kanonkop make 3 red Pinotages (and one pink)

The main two are the Estate Pinotage - Estate in South Africa legally means that the grapes are grown on vineyards owned by the Estate and contiguous to the winery where it's made, matured and bottled.

At less than half the retail price of the Estate is Kanonkop Kadette. This is made, matured and bottled by the winery but uses non-Estate grapes, i.e. from leased vineyards. You'll note this doesn't have the word Estate on the label and is Wine of Origin (i.e. appellation) Stellenbosch whereas the Estate is WO Simonsberg-Stellenbosch. (Although Kanonkop have just bought the nearby Laibach Estate which is in WO Simonsberg-Stellenbosch so maybe we'll see this WO on future Kadettes)

About 3 times the cost of the regular Estate is another Estate this time with a Black Label. This is a barrel selection from a single bush-vine vineyard planted in 1953. Kanonkop was one of the first planters of Pinotage and these vines are among the oldest Pinotage vines in existence; the only older is De Waal's 'Top of the Hill' vineyard planted in 1950.

Wine lists tend to name only Kanonkop and what seems like a reasonable price on the list becomes unreasonable when a Kadette wine is produced

Kanonkop grow only black grapes and make only red wines plus one dry pink.

Estate Wines Open fermenters, hand punch down every 2 hours, aging in new French oak barrels
Pinotage
Cabernet Sauvignon
Paul Sauer ( a blend of Cab S, Cab F & Merlot - named after the Estate's founder and ancestor of the owners)

Kadette Open fermenters, mechanical punch down, older French oak barrels, shorter aging
Cape Blend (A blend of Pinotage, Cab S, Cab F & Merlot) - this was an Estate wine blended from barrels that didn't meet the criteria for the other wines, e.g. from young vines, but demand increased to more that they could grow on the Estate so they bought in grapes to increase production. That was so successful they introduced the other Kadettes)
Pinotage.
Cabernet Sauvignon
Rosé Pinotage


Tim, the Estate Pinotage 2020 is available in UK for £30, which is less than €40 and without UK wine taxes should be much cheaper. It's R525 at the winery. But, don't buy it, the demand already is too high and the price has been shooting up.