Pinotage - Spring 2020

[MJD]

With all the CV-19 shakeup to things, I put plans in motion a little later than normal to get going on spring winemaking.

Since a planned South Africa trip this summer has been postponed due to CV-19, I was inspired to see South African grapes and juice buckets available from M&M in Hartford.

I have my Chilean Viognier already pretty well planned out. I'm also grabbing a SA Chenin Blanc 6 gallon juice bucket. My question is on my Pinotage approach:

To produce a Pinotage a little on the lighter side but still get the benefits of a bit of skin contact, I am getting a 6 gallon juice bucket and 36 lbs of grapes (as opposed to all grape).
My plan is to destem/crush the grapes, mix in the grape must with the juice from the bucket, and ferment in the 60-70 *F range. My planned yeast is D254 to maintain fruitiness, and I was planning on a MLF coinnoculation.

Any general advice or thoughts, I would love to hear from members with Pinotage experience since this is my first go with this grape.

Heck if you have Chenin Blanc or Viognier experience, I'm all ears too. I've followed @4score and @NorCal in their ongoing California Viognier thread with considerable interest.

Everyone stay safe!

 

[Johnd]

With all the CV-19 shakeup to things, I put plans in motion a little later than normal to get going on spring winemaking.

Since a planned South Africa trip this summer has been postponed due to CV-19, I was inspired to see South African grapes and juice buckets available from M&M in Hartford.

I have my Chilean Viognier already pretty well planned out. I'm also grabbing a SA Chenin Blanc 6 gallon juice bucket. My question is on my Pinotage approach:

To produce a Pinotage a little on the lighter side but still get the benefits of a bit of skin contact, I am getting a 6 gallon juice bucket and 36 lbs of grapes (as opposed to all grape).
My plan is to destem/crush the grapes, mix in the grape must with the juice from the bucket, and ferment in the 60-70 *F range. My planned yeast is D254 to maintain fruitiness, and I was planning on a MLF coinnoculation.

Any general advice or thoughts, I would love to hear from members with Pinotage experience since this is my first go with this grape.

Heck if you have Chenin Blanc or Viognier experience, I'm all ears too. I've followed @4score and @NorCal in their ongoing California Viognier thread with considerable interest.

Everyone stay safe!

Seem to recall that @heatherd did Pinotage a few years back, perhaps she can comment.

 

[MJD]

Thanks Johnd - I was a little surprised there weren't more threads in this forum when I did a search on it, but no wonder considering the dearth of US plantings.

 

[mainshipfred]

You right it's not a very common grape. When I thought of making it people advised me to buy a commercial bottle first to see if I liked it. From what I gathered it has an offsetting taste to some people so I decided against it. @pgentile did one in 2018 I believe.

 

[MJD]

The several bottles that we have had all were quite pleasing and I really liked the intersection of fruit, tannins, aroma, and acidity. With the ongoing pandemic having delayed our trip to South Africa, I figured I'd go ahead and take this spring to get a taste of what we are missing!

 

[mainshipfred]

I was real close to getting it this year but they came in a lot earlier than my Cab and Shiraz and it's a 3 hour drive each way.

 

[Ct Winemaker]

Hello MJD,

Two year ago, we made 80 gallons of South African Pinotage as part of the Musto Wine Grape Co., boot camp (where we learned to make wine). We split the batch into two 40 gallon batches to allow us to try two different yeasts, BDX and D254. The overall process was "standard" but we did allow for a full week of cold soak before pitching yeast. Other than that, adjusted acidity, sugar was OK (25 brix), Lallyzime EX, FT Rouge Tannin, Opti Red, Oak powder during fermentation, etc. We also oaked using Medium toast American Oak cubes for several weeks ( in Carboys).

The BDX was WAY better than the D254, so I would suggest BDX.

The wine was very good from the start, nothing wierd of out of place, however, we did open a bottle last weekend and found that after two years, it was actually really good, aged beautifully smoothed out and well rounded. So good, that we considered trying to get some grapes (right now), and get another batch going.

I will say that we have tasted Pinotage at a local (very small) vineyard that normally grows their own grapes (hybrids in Northeast Ct), and found their Pinotage not to our liking at all (frankly, one of the worst wines I have ever tasted that someone was trying to sell). I have no idea what they did.

I wouldn't hesitate to do a batch of Pinotage.

Hope this helps a little

 

[MJD]

@Ct Winemaker , this is an incredibly helpful array of information!

I'm likewise getting the grapes and juice from Musto (I'm based in western Mass). I'm expecting them to come in ~ next week.

Your data point on BDX is great - do you happen to have tasting notes on the attributes of the BDX innoculation vs D254?

 

[Ct Winemaker]

We were all "brand new" at wine making, so no notes. It was just clear that we all liked the BDX better. In fact, at the end of the bootcamp, it was decided that we would mix the two batches before splitting up the wine to take home, other wise we would have all been fighting for the BDX batch!

We'll be making Petit Verdot when the Chillean grapes arrive (at Musto, mid May) to use as a "blender" with some of our other wines. If we weren't doing that, we probably would go ahead with more Pinotage.

 

[MJD]

Haha, got it. Thats enough of a ringing endorsement for me.