Pinotage

Marinated lamb to Cape Malay or Cajun-spiced ‘blackened’ fish.

In 1994 Anthony Hamilton-Russell founded Southern Right Cellars as a Pinotage specialist convinced that Pinotage has the intrinsic qualities to produce truly world-class wine with a distinct South African expression and typicity. As an early ripening grape it is Anthony’s belief that Pinotage will perform best in cooler maritime areas where a longer slower ripening season will afford fully developed tannins and a greater fruit complexity. In partnership with winemaker Kevin Grant the team initiated plantings on four carefully chosen clay rich sites in the cool maritime Walker bay appellation.

This stellar vintage was later and cooler than usual. Based on our measure of temperature, the average of the maximum temperatures for the 4 hottest months (crucial to harvest) Dec, Jan, Feb, Mar, 2021 came in at 24.3 Centigrade. This compares to 24.8 Centigrade for a long-term average of the equivalent period in Burgundy. In the last 25 years, only 2001, 2004 and 2008 have been cooler. Winter was wetter than usual with 140mm more rain than average, filling dams and building the water table beautifully. Chill units started accumulating later than usual and a cool Spring and later budding accounted for the later harvest. A warm January was a welcome help towards healthy ripening. Any disease pressure from rain showers during ripening was effectively controlled organically. Yields, as always for us, were low.

9 months 100% Barrel maturation in 56% 228 litre & 44% 400 litre French Oak Barrels. 1st fill: 12% 2nd fill: 8% 3rd fill: 23% 4th fill: 57%