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Pinotage is the cilantro of the wine world -- you either love it or hate it, but very few people sit on the fence.
A cross between Cinsault and Pinot Noir, Pinotage was created in 1925 by a Stellenbosch, South Africa university professor. The idea was to reap the best of both grapes and combine the sturdiness of Cinsault in the vineyard with the world-class taste of Pinot Noir in the glass.
Unfortunately, sometimes beautiful parents produce an ugly child, and though Pinotage lovers would disagree, I think this grape falls squarely in the "do not cross" category. Why? Because, more than its good qualities, the wine is known for its burnt-rubber aftertaste.
There are a lot of wine descriptors that critics enthusiastically use to describe a high-quality wine. Cat's piss. Horse leather. Barnyard funk. But burnt rubber? Definitely not on the list.
Read more about this wine after the jump.
To be fair, not all Pinotage has this taste in spades. In some wines, it's more subtle, and in others, nonexistent. But no one advertises on the bottle: "Warning: This wine tastes like burnt rubber," so you never know what you're going to get.
We had a wine tasting last weekend, and I threw a bottle of Pinotage in. I tasted everything before our guests came over, and at first the Pinotage lured me in: It was a an inexpensive Westerland 2005 Pinotage from South Africa ($10), and it smelled of leather, smoky flint, and dried cherries and prunes. A sip confirmed the nose, but then -- oh, then -- the burnt rubber crept over my tongue like a stealth fungus, and I gagged and stuffed cheese in my mouth to mask the horrible taste, which lingered for a couple of hours. Talk about a long finish.
I put the bottle aside, but people got interested in it, so I warned them to try at their own risk. To my astonishment, several of our guests not just tolerated the Pinotage, but actually preferred it to the other wines. One friend experimented with giving the wine some air for 10-15 minutes, and the acrid rubber was less obnoxious, but still there. I was amazed anyone liked it at all, but it's a good lesson about wine and food taste in general: One person's burnt rubber is another person's paradise.
Have you had Pinotage? Do you like it or hate it? Vote in the poll below!
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| Hate it |
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3-30-2009 @12:52PM Mel Kozek said... This is one of the only wines I won't drink. I've even tasted some expensive ones and I just can't do it.
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3-30-2009 @5:35PM Sarah said... I had the opportunity to visit a few wineries in Stellenbosch SA and it was there I fell in love with it. Pinotage will forever be one of my favorites! A must try for sure.
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3-31-2009 @11:18AM agent54 said... hm. i don't feel very strongly about it either way. it's pretty alright. not my favorite but i'll take it over a cab any day.
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3-31-2009 @1:37PM Peter May said... I think you are mistaken in your opinion of Pinotage. You admit that not all the Pinotages that you have drunk tasted of ‘burned rubber. You have assumed that BR is typical of the variety and that, presumably, lack of BR is atypical.
I would suggest that it is the other way around.
At a press tasting organised by the official Wines of South Africa body in April 2008 of top rated SA wines Jane MacQuitty of the London Times said they “proved to be a cruddy, stomach-heaving and palate-crippling disappointment … South Africa’s tell-tale dirty, rubbery red wine pong was there in abundance.” T
The previous October MacQuitty had written that South African red wines have a “peculiar, savage, burnt rubber and dirt odour.”
None of the wines were Pinotage. Not one.
Wines of South Africa have set up a committee of experts to investigate. They have not yet reported but have stated that burned rubber is not restricted to any one variety or region.
So, although South African Pinotage wines may have exhibited such
flavours, so have other SA red wines and they are not a characteristic of the variety.
Another complication is that it seems also that the flavour you call burned rubber is experienced more by some tasters than others. You yourself note that the wine you found unpleasant was enjoyed by others. Jancis Robinson was at the same event in April and not only did not remark on burned rubber but generally praised the wines.
I wonder if you have encountered BR in Pinotage from elsewhere, New Zealand California or Virginia?
My take is that the unpleasant taste you encountered in a Pinotage wine was a fault of the wine, and not a varietal characteristic.
Cheers
Peter F May
www.pinotage.org
author of
Pinotage: Behind the Legends of South Africa’s Own Wine (to be published April 2009)
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3-31-2009 @1:57PM Gretchen Roberts said... Peter,
I appreciate your comment. I'm sure you noticed that this post is strictly my opinion and clearly not everyone's (just look at the poll results, with 68 percent saying they love Pinotage).
Are you suggesting the burnt rubber is a condition of terroir rather than varietal? That's intriguing. I haven't had a Pinotage from anywhere but South Africa, and as I said above, I like the overall flavor profile save the one thing. It would be interesting to try one from elsewhere in the world. Got any suggestions?
Gretchen
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4-01-2009 @7:23AM Peter May said... Hi Gretchen
Of course it is your opinion and it is perfectly valid and I would probably not have commented if post was a criticism of the wine that you tasted, but you extrapolated that to encompass the entire variety. Again, quite understandable if ones exposure to the variety is limited. And I quite understand and accept that not everyone will like the variety – we all like and dislike different things
I cannot answer your question on whether BR is a result of terroir for two reasons. Firstly the scientific panel investigating the matter hasn’t yet reported, secondly it is not certain whether the BR reported by some is the same as an ‘earthyness’ reported by others. Both are experienced strongly and found offensive by some people and not by others. Earthiness can be a result of terroir; areas like Simonsberg are known for it.
My opinion is that BR is the result of a particularly virulent form of brettanomyces that is in SA or other microbiological infection and that Pinotage does appear to be susceptible to it. BR also seems to develop in the bottle so that an affected wine seems clean when young, but if kept, develops BR.
My point, though, is that BR is a result of winemaking, not a characteristic of the variety, since other varieties have been affected and not all Pinotages have. (The whole question of burned rubber and Pinotage is discussed in a chapter in my book).
As for suggestions: I don’t know where (in the USA?) you are. If you can get hold of any Pinotage from any other country, try it. Look for Fort Ross, Vino Con Brio, Sutter Ridge and Steltzner in California, Horton and Lovingston in Virginia, Inniskillin in Canada, Muddy Water, Marsden, Te Awa in New Zealand. From SA Kanonkop 2004 or 2006, Simonsig (unwooded) & Simonsig Redhill (wooded) are well distributed, Beyerskloof Reserve.
Feel free to email me if you come across a Pinotage in a shop and want to know about it.
Peter F May
www.pinotage.org
author of
Pinotage: Behind the Legends of South Africa’s Own Wine (to be published April 2009)
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