I grew up in 1970s South Africa with the radio advertising jingle ‘braaivleis, rugby, sunny skies and Chevrolet’. The first three of those are also inextricably linked to wine-making history, at the centre of which is Stellenbosch and Pinotage.
Now the uniquely South African grape – which had a tricky mid-life crisis – is 100 years old, and the estates of Kanonkop, Beyerskloof and Kaapzicht are leaders of the Pinotage pack. An intriguing red wine of great character and personality, made across many styles and price points, it goes with braaivleis (bbq), rugby and sunny skies like smoked salmon and English sparkling wine at Glyndebourne in the rain.
The ‘Prince of Pinotage’, Beyers Truter, of Beyerskloof, never had any doubts about the Pinot Noir / Cinsault hybrid’s future, persevering when others gave up. Still spearheading the Pinotage Association he helped to form in 1993, he is looked to by young winemakers for advice and inspiration.
At a grape-focused birthday party in London thrown by South African specialist importers Seckford Agencies, the Royal Court of Truter senior, his son and successor Anri, Danie Steytler of Kaapzicht and recently crowned Kanonkop winemaker Francois van Zyl, shared their insights and their wines.
And while wine was foremost, rugby was definitely part of the conversation.
It was in 1924, In a corner of Stellenbosch, that the first professor of Viticulture, Abraham Izak Perold, made a breakthrough, creating a unique heritage variety by crossing Clone 115 of Pinot Noir with Cinsault (aka Hermitage). The vines that grew and the grapes produced in the summer of 1925 were forgotten until a few years later, when Perold’s successor grafted them on new new rootstock.
Pinotage quite literally took root as South Africa’s trademark grape, the hybrid showing good vigour on sandy soils, great fragrance, a deep colour and firm tannins. The first wine was made at Elsenburg Agricultural College in 1941 (Perold sadly did not live to taste it) and the now-fabled Kanonkop estate did its first planting that year on the lower slopes of the Simonsberg.
A young winemaker who planted Pinotage on his family farm, Bellevue, in 1953, went on to win the South African Young Wine Show in 1959 and there followed a wave of planting in the subsequent decade.
The first label to carry the name Pinotage was Lanzerac in 1961 and those 65-year-old vines are still producing wine on the estate.
The wider wine world was not quite so welcoming, and in 1973 a group of British Masters of Wine described it as reeking of nail varnish and tasting like rusty nails. That judgment was a huge setback, and many wine makers turned away altogether in favour of Bordeaux varieties but the most famous Sauer family estate of Kanonkop and others persevered.
Beyers remembers those “bad times”, and how he and a small band made their commitment to standing up for the grape, but also to improving wine making and quality standards. They started a Pinotage Association encouraging experimentation, competitions for best blends and older wines, encouraging young winemakers along the way, and Pinotage was back on track.
They were rewarded in 1993 when another group of international sommeliers and masters of wines visited South Africa and declared the variety a jewel in the country’s vinous crown.
In the three decades since, the quality, demand and supply of Pinotage grew significantly (exports grew from 8 million litres in 2001 to 19 million litres in 2017).
Danie Steytler, winemaker at Kaapzicht, a family-owned farm in the Bottelary Hills since 1946, pointed to the strengths and weaknesses of the grape and how the style has switched from heavy oak and extraction to freshness and refinement, retaining acidity and aiming for no more than 14% abv, a tough balancing act. “Picking dates are critical here,” he says. “as well as cellar management. Pinotage ferments fast and loads sugar, so it doesn’t spend too long on skins.”
“We choose to inoculate with cultured yeast to control microbes [present on the grapes and in the winery] that can cause bad odours and flavours.”
“We started with bush vines, then in the 90s started trellising, which is easier for machine harvesting but uses more water so we’ve gone back to bush vines, which provides shade and encourages the vines to develop deep roots and find water.”
We tasted the Steytler Pinotage 2015 made from older vines, rich and concentrated and full of bold new oak. “We like it, it goes with steak!” he says.
Each vintage delivers a unique wine: the 2020 Skraalhans (named for tall, skinny weed that grows in the vineyards), has just 12.5% alcohol and is fresh and bright with crunchy red fruit flavours, a crowd-pleasing light red for chilled summer drinking.
In 2022 two distinct Pinotages emerged, the Rooiland – picked late, with dark plum and berry intensity – and the Steytler, which is still maturing and not yet released.
Anri Truter, filling big boots at Beyerskloof, has his father’s twinkly eyes and easy manner.
“The deal was that for the first five years I listened to him, the next five we listened to each other, and now he listens to me,” he chortles.
His father, garlanded with awards from every quarter from his days at Kanonkop before striking out on his own in 1988 with 7.8 hectares of Stellenbosch flatland and a donkey called Peanut.
The first Pinotage was planted in 1993 and the estate now encompasses 190 hectares (the last 50 bought from Kanonkop), of which 115 are planted, 74 are Pinotage and 37 are bush vines.
“The rest is a bit of everything,” says Anri. “Chenin, Pinot Noir, Cinsault …” Keep a look-out for a very unusual Chenin Blanc/Pinotage blend that is in the making. “You just wouldn’t believe it, but it’s great,” he says.
Beyerskloof makes six Pinotages: the iconic original, a Woolworths-only label, a Reserve, a Winemakers, Kriekbult single-vineyard and Diesel, the flagship.
And this range is undeniably pure, terroir-driven wine, crafted to allow each vintage to speak for itself.
The 2015 entry-level wine is red-fruit driven with light oak, made for early drinking but still doing well 10 years later. Anri advises drinking it (and more recent vintages) chilled at no more than 14C.
The 2015 Reserve is beautifully balanced, the fruit and alcohol perfectly integrated with freshness on the finish. Six months in oak (20% new), smooths out the edges.
The 2018 Diesel, made from the best five barrels and named to honour the family’s beloved Boerboel (“the best dog”), delivers length and complexity, structure and finish. The 2022 vintage is available in the UK from winedirect.co.uk for £70.
Francois van Zyl, while recently appointed winemaker at Kanonkop, came to wine 36 years ago via rugby, brandy and Coke (IYKYK) and, predictably, Beyers Truter. The son of a carpenter, he resigned from the family firm the morning after attending a wine tasting hosted by Truter in his home town of Robertson, and dedicated himself to winemaking.
“Our winemaking is very traditional,” he says. “Dry-farmed bush vines, fermentation in old concrete tanks, maturation in 80% new oak. The only innovation is optical sorting, which helps with consistency.”
The 160 hectares at Kanonkop is 90% Pinotage. We are honoured to taste five vintages, four of them ‘Library Stock’ and not available to buy.
The 1997 Estate Pinotage, made by Beyers, was a cool vintage and there are green, herbaceous notes alongside ripe black fruit. It was a wet summer, resulting in a late harvest that feels quite Continental in style.
2015 was warm and the alcohol in the Estate Pinotage is nudging 15% but it doesn’t feel out of kilter, the dark fruit, ripe tannins and oak beautifully in harmony.
By contrast the 2022 is a youngster, all shouty green tannins and oak still prominent but showing great promise for the future.
My favourite was the belting 2003, ripe black fruit, tannins still chewy, great structure and flavours of burnt sugar and warm spice.
Absent from the lineup but integral to the story of Pinotage in South Africa is Abrie Beeslaar, who followed Beyers to Kanonkop in 2002, and where he won IWSC Winemaker of the Year in 2008, 2015 and 2017. While at Kanonkop he established Beeslaar Wines sourcing old bush-vine grapes from the Simonsberg region. “I guess you could say I did not choose Pinotage,” he says. “It chose me.” He departed Kanonkop last November to focus on Beeslaar Wines. His production is small and bottles are hard to come by; if you’re offered a glass, don’t hesitate.
In South Africa’s still mainly pale and male wine heartland, Praisy Dlamini, wine maker at the all-black, all-female HER Wine collection (part of the Bosman Adama family), makes more than highly-rated Pinotage. Also an Elsenburg graduate, and a Cape Winemakers’ Guild protégé, Dlamini wants to open avenues for others, and make a difference in and beyond the vineyards.
Other top Pinotage producers include heritage estates such as Spier, Simonsig and Groot Constantia.
1925 was a year of significant historical events around the world, and it started with a bang on January 1 with the dissolution of the Syrian Federation swiftly followed by Mussolini declaring his takeover of Italy.
The year saw cultural innovation (The Great Gatsby was published, Ravel’s opera L’enfant et les Sortilèges premiered in Monte Carlo, and the first successful synchronised transmission of pictures and sound took place); major political developments (Hitler published Volume 1 of Mein Kampf , a report into Slavery by the League of Nations prepared the way for the 1926 Slavery Convention, and Europe started preparing for war.
Pinotage has its own place in history now.
© Linda Galloway 2025