South Africa Wine Tourism Handbook 2010. Guide to the Cape Winelands, by Monika Elias

South Africa Wine Tourism Handbook 2010. ISBN 9780620447232 / ISBN 978-0-620-44723-2

South Africa Wine Tourism Handbook 2010. Guide to the Cape Winelands, by Monika Elias.

Monika Elias' Guide to the Cape Winelands 'South Africa Wine Tourism Handbook 2010' has been designed to give the tourist an overview of the wine region and to discover what makes each route unique.

Pinotage

Pinotage is South Africa's very own varietal, as authentically home-grown as boerewors and braaivleis and it's gaining popularity around the world. Although there are a few winemakers experimenting with Pinotage in Australia, New Zealand and Germany, there are few other places that produce Pinotage commercially, it truly is the South African signature grape. This varietal was created in South Africa in 1924 through the cross-pollination of Pinot Noir and Hermitage (Cinsaut) by Professor Abraham Izak Perold, Dean of Agriculture at Stellenbosch University. It is an unlikely partnership and he left no notes explaining why he chose to cross these particular varieties. Its early life was dotted with a series of lucky incidents. The experiment created four seeds (each genetically different, like children from the same parents) that were planted out in the garden of his residence at Welgevallen Experimental Farm in 1925. Perold left the university two years later to take up a position with KWV, leaving the house uninhabited. The seedlings were saved by a young lecturer who happened to cycle past Perold's former home just as the clean-up team entered the garden. In 1932 the vines were grafted onto newly established rootstock, Richter 99, a fortunate choice because other available rootstocks were later found to be virus infected. Only one plant was healthy enough for further propagation after that: that is how tenuou Pinotage's survival was Elsenburg, which was part of Steiienbosch University, became the experimental vineyard site for the variety and the first wine was made in 1941 by lecturer CT de Waal. Myrtle Grove near Sir Lowry's Pass will go down in history as the farm where the first commercial planting of Pinotage was made in 1943. And so this varietal, born through sheer creative endeavour and rescued from destruction time after time, entered the South African wine market. Having bought vines from Elsenberg, the owners of gellevue and Kanonkop in Stellenbosch and Meerendal in Durbanville planted Pinotage vineyards in 1953. These vineyards are still in production today. The variety's first recognition came in 1959 when Bellevue won the Red Wine Trophy at the Cape Wine Show and the General Smuts Trophy as the overall champion wine. Most winemakers at the time hadn't even heard of Pinotage. Stellenbosch Farmers' Winery (SFW) was first to use the name Pinotage on a label in 1961 when they marketed Bellevue's 1959 champion wine under the Lanzerac brand, international recognition for the quality of this variety came in 1991, when Kanonkop 1989 Pinotage received the Robert Mondavi Trophy for the Best Red Wine at the UK's annual International Wine and Spirit Competition. Kanonkop's winemaker then, Beyers Truter, was also nominated the Winemaker of the Year. Currently the varietal is showing more and more promise as winemakers learn to understand its unique nature; its ongoing international wine show performance is proof of that. Today Pinotage is cultivated all over the world. ABSA top 10 competition: In order to educate both industry and consumers about the varietal, the Pinotage Association was founded in 1995. It focuses on raising the quality of Pinotage grown and made in the country, through research and workshops, and on promoting the variety locally and abroad. [...]

This is an excerpt from the guide: South Africa Wine Tourism Handbook 2010. Guide to the Cape Winelands, by Monika Elias.

Title: South Africa Wine Tourism Handbook 2010
Editor: Monika Elias
Type: Guide to the Cape Winelands
Publisher: The World’s Favourite Publications
Cape Town, South Africa 2010
ISBN 9780620447232 / ISBN 978-0-620-44723-2
Soft cover, 15x21 cm, 271 pages, throughout colour photos