Perched in an attic at Longridge Winery on the Helderberg for the last two days, eight judges have put 115 Pinotages through their paces at the annual ABSA Top Ten Pinotage Competition. Yesterday sixty-odd wines from the 2006, 7, 8, 10 and 11 vintages were dealt with and the most pleasant thing was the smell of fried onions from the kitchen wafting up the stairs as the kudu for lunch was being cooked. To say the wines were disappointing would be like claiming SA taxpayers got a good deal from European armaments manufacturers in the ANC arms deal.

Not Anne Frank in the attic but eight Pinotage judges

Things got so bad, convener Duimpie Bayly warned judges not to tell anecdotes outside the attic and to wait until the 51 2009 vintage wines had been tasted today. Well the first flight this morning was impressive but the second blew the lid off the Pinotage pot. Was this the perfect set of Pinotages? Superlatives flew in English, Afrikaans, Flemish (Guido Francque and Fabian Scheys are the two foreign judges) and BS and the maximum score of 18+ was called with monotonous regularity. But what impressed this judge was the variety of styles hitting all the right notes: a vibrant Pinot Noir expression, a berry blend with a dash of Cabernet, the popular coffee/mocha variant, the traditional iron banana beloved by bru’s in KwaZulu Natal.

Fabian and Guido had dined the previous evening at the Test Kitchen in Salt River as guests of WOSA with charming host André Morgenthal (who must keep many of Cape Town’s top end restaurants afloat in these depressed days). The 12 course menu dégustation was accompanied by wines from the Swartland Supremes (Eben Sadie as Mary Wilson and Adi Badenhorst as Diana Ross, but with bigger hair). Both Belgians called the meal “the best I have ever eaten in SA.” Guido’s own Hertog Jan restaurant in Brugge is a Michelin two star spot so he knows from food and he rates TK chef Luke Dale-Roberts a two star stunner although the service is on a lower level. In particular Luke’s imagination and matching an oyster to Adi’s Funky White was for Guido, a culinary triumph.

Guido Francque

With WOSA understandably reluctant to take advice, it will probably fall to the Pinotage Association to commission Luke to repeat his tour-de-force with a Prodigious Pinotage Production: the Pinot Noir expression is delicate enough to complement sustainable fish, the exotic berry incarnation is heaven sent for game and the coffee/mocha variant would suit tiramisu. A Pinotage Rosé would do for aperitif and either a Pinotage Port or Brandy for digestive. Once the wrinkles have been ironed out, the package should be dispatched to Shanghai, Singapore and Seattle to promote Pinotage in cities beginning with “S.”

The first commercial bottling of SA’s contribution to ampelography was the 1959 vintage and fifty years later, the 2009 vintage welcomes the prodigal son back into the bosom of grateful grape-loving nation. In several years judging the ABSA competition, these 2009 wines are the best I’ve ever tasted.

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