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The Pinotage Rosé full of awards and delight
Marius Labuschagne
After a very long wet and windy winter (the Cape winelands is not complaining, another good vintage should be on its way), we can now at last again braai outside barefooted with short pants while talking politics and sport. Now it is time for a good Rosé, especially if you want her to laugh at your jokes.
The annual Veritas Awards is South Africa’s biggest wine competition, mainly due to the very high number of entries and the whole industry that participates, there is a brotherhood among most of the people.
If you look at the results of this year’s Veritas Awards you are quite surprised at the small number of Rosé wines that were entered, only 15, of which 9 received bronze, 5 silver and only one gold, the Avondrood Blush Pinotage Rosé 2009. At the Veritas Awards that one gold awarded Rosé wine clearly stood out on the big screen. It is the same wine that this year received the National Certificate as the Top Rosé at the annual SA Terroir Wine Awards.
Avondrood belongs to the Van Rensburgs and is situated just outside Goudini in the Breedekloof. And it is interesting to note that out of the five Rosé wines which received a Silver Veritas Award, two were made from Pinotage, one from Cabernet Franc, one from Merlot and one from Shiraz. Making a Rosé wine must be a lot of fun, the colour comes from the skins of red wine grapes and is stopped at a certain stage to prevent the dark redness and full-bodied flavours from taking over, and white wine can be blended with it.
The Avondrood Blush Pinotage Rosé was praised by two panels because it is not just a simple fresh wine. No matter how nice it tastes, there are also lots of flavours which makes you concentrate, even if you don’t want to.
It is always recommended that you must serve a Rosé wine cold, or cooled, before pouring it. But with this one it must not be too cold. When it comes out of the fridge, the flavours are there on the nose and in the mouth it carries on, the cherry, raspberry and strawberry is prominent. But after the third sip when the wine is not completely cold anymore, a very nice aftertaste and mouth feel comes to the fore (remember wines are not judged totally cold), namely vegetable oils and soup. And somewhere there is a hint of rice flavours and light yogurt that melt together in perfect harmony.
If there was something such as a dry cream cherry cake, the Avondrood Blush Pinotage Rosé 2009 would represent it in the bottle. But the barefooted braai is over, time to sit down for dinner. Take another bottle of this wine from the fridge if one of the following dishes is served: light beef, chicken, ostrich or snoek, and you can also try it with venison. If the main course is heavy meat and spice, serve the Rosé earlier with salty cracks that also contain bits of fruit such as apple and red berry. Enjoy your meal with friends and family, with a glass of Pinotage Rosé as the bonus.
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The view from Avondrood's Berghuis in the Breedekloof.
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