Pinotage wine variety in Australia

Pinotage is a red wine variety which was bred in South Africa from a cross between the red wine varieties Pinot Noir and Cinsaut.

Pinotage comment by Oz Clarke in his book Grapes and Wines

The truth is that it can be used to make truly unpleasant wines, or some very good wines, or in fact plenty of ordinary stuff in between.

The cross was made to try to combine the wine quality of Pinot Noir with the high yielding ability of Cinsaut.

Good Pinotage wines are very good.  They retain, or maybe constrain, the wild rich flavours to make lighter red styles or sometimes deep rich reds.

Two problems which detract from quality in this variety are over-aggressive tannins and volatile acidity.

Pinotage is also used to make Port style wines, sparkling wines, roses and sometimes as a component of blended white wines.

Australian WIneries using Pinotage

• Barrecas Geographe
• Bike and Barrel Alpine Valleys
• Oak Works Riverland
• Ravens Croft Wines Granite Belt
• Thick as Thieves Yarra Valley
• Toppers Mountain New England
• Whyworry Wines New England

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