Wake up and smell the coffee
Pinotage style a growing trend
A pleasing development has been to witness the growing popularity of coffee-chocolate style of Pinotage wines, once denounced by wine purists.
It seems these detractors may have woken up and smelled the coffee, quietly bowing to the dictum “live and let live”.
Coffee-chocolate Pinotage is so-named because its flavours and aromas invoke an association with coffee and chocolate, which is the result of a technique applied by a winemaker during the fermentation process in the cellar.
To create this style of wine, the winemaker would use a well-toasted French oak barrel during and after fermentation to induce rich, toasty notes, resulting in the sumptuous chocolate and coffee flavours that complement the usual ripe plums and red berry fruits of the Pinotage grape.
Winemaker Bertus Fourie was the first to introduce this style of Pinotage while operating as cellar master at Diemersfontein wine estate nearly a decade ago, and later continuing to craft wines tinged with these elements as winemaker at KWV.
Diemersfontein claims the uncontested title of being “the home of coffee-chocolate Pinotage” today because Diemersfontein Coffee Pinotage (R89) popularised the style.
Café Culture Pinotage (R68), a funky Pinotage with “distinctive mocha, dark chocolate and toffee flavours”, is no doubt the product of Fourie’s legacy during his tenure at KWV.
Fourie, who has earned the nickname “Starbucks”, now makes his own blockbuster coffee-chocolate Pinotage under his Barista label, at R89 a bottle.
Meanwhile, creating a buzz among Pinotage fans nowadays is Le Chocolat Pinotage 2017 (R55), a new easy drinking wine that brims with a yummy twist of chocolate. Produced by the Grande Provence winery as part of its Angels Tears range, this wine also exudes a rich splash of ripe plums and red berry fruits. It is a wonderfully smooth medium-bodied wine that can serve as a friendly introduction to this style.
Grand Province winemaker Hagen Viljoen is quick to dispel the notion that such wines are spiked with caffeine, as initially suspected.
“Off course, no chocolate or coffee is allowed in winemaking,” he quips.
Viljoen is relishing the idea of Le Chocolate being the new kid on the block hogging public attention. No wonder it was the show-stopper at the Pinotage & Biltong Festival held at Perdeberg Cellar in the Cape winelands last Saturday and Sunday.
The wine was among 18 different Pinotages sampled with South Africa’s favourite chewy delicacy.
A special treat to visitors to the Grande Provence in Franschhoek is the Taste of Heaven Angels Tears paired with handmade nougat. But the pièce de résistance is a trio of vibrant Méthode Cap Classiques with fresh West Coast oysters, all prepared with a passion by chef Guy Bennett.