A sweet spot for Pinotage
It will always be emphasized that Pinotage is a versatile red grape variety, you can produce an absolute top quality full-bodied food wine, or medium-bodied wine to be enjoyed on its own, or rosé wine or sparkling wine. And now the Pinotage sweet spot has also shown top quality.
At the annual South African Young Wine Show wines from the current vintage are judged shortly after the harvesting, pressing and fermentation has been completed. Many of the wines entered are tank or barrel samples. The entries come from all the wine growing areas in South Africa and in 2009 the Stephan Smit Trophy for Other Red Cultivar was awarded to Namaqua Wine Cellar in the Olifants River region, for their semi-sweet Pinotage wine.
Although Pinotage is categorised as one of the noble varieties and therefore does not qualify for the Other Red Cultivar category, Namaqua could enter this Pinotage in that category because the sugar content is 21 g/l. And with that sweet spot it received a national trophy.
In an article published in Wineland magazine, featuring on the SA Young Wine Show winners, Namaqua’s red wine maker Reinier van Greunen said that the wine was made for a special reason and that the Germans in particular love this style of Pinotage wine with higher sugar.
“This Pinotage vineyard produces 16 tons per hectare, but if the vine is in balance a higher production is not something to be ashamed of, and this block is a good example.”
However, skilled craftsmanship and modern technology also played a crucial role. According to Reinier, Namaqua is one of the most advanced wine cellars in South Africa with technology and one of very few cellars that are equipped to remove alcohol by means of reverse osmosis followed by perstraction.
Experiments such as this sweet spot tasting during the reverse osmosis of the semi-sweet Pinotage is a very high point for the production team at Namaqua. Reiner said that they particularly gave this wine the sweet spot for the SA Young Wine Show and the result showed that their technology is in a very good working order.
This 14 00 liters wine was treated with American oak and this year they are planning to also experiment with French oak with the same style of wine.
The combination of nature, creativity and technology will always make the end product in the bottle something special, and it will never stop, especially not with South Africa’s versatile Pinotage.

Analysis: Alcohol: 14,5%. TA: 6,1 g/l. pH: 3,65. RS: 21 g/l