Pinotage: South Africa’s very own grape and SILKBUSH’s first wineWhile we have provided a brief history on the development of the Pinotage grape further below, equally important is why we have selected Pinotage as SILKBUSH Mountain Vineyards first export wine. First and foremost, we know we have a terrific wine made from exceptional Pinotage grapes. Bruce Jack, the highly talented and internationally recognized winemaker and founder of Flagstone Winery (acquired by the upstate New York based Constellation Brands organization) has been purchasing SILKBUSH Pinotage for several years. Bruce has been very laudatory of the fruit and our vineyard manager, Anton Roos. But the payoff was on June 26, 2009 at the Old Mutual Trophy Wine Show, one of the two most prestigious shows in South Africa. The 2009 show attracted over one thousand entries, with international judges and international wines. Medals were very scarce with only 7% of entries garnering a silver medal or better. Rising above the competition, Flagstone Writer’s Block 2007 was selected one of the four best Pinotages at the Show. This wine which retails for over $38/bottle is 100% made from the same Pinotage fruit that goes into Lions Drift Pinotage! Accordingly, our Pinotage should be consistently one of the very best in South Africa. Cognizant of the exceptional grapes from SILKBUSH, Bennie Wannenburg, (shown below) the serious Cellarmaster at Waboomsrivier, our large local coop winery in Breedekloof, started experimenting in 2007 with three different red wines exclusively from SILKBUSH grapes, using new French oak barrels. All three wines were quite good, but our Pinotage was simply remarkable. The 2007 vintage wine from SILKBUSH grapes was largely gobbled up by local grower members of the winery but we lassoed a pallet (56 cases) and brought it to the US so our American partners could finally drink wine from their own African vineyard and to do test marketing. The response from discerning palates in the wine trade, from sophisticated wine collectors at private tastings, and from dozens of friends and other consumers all confirmed we really had a winner. However, by the time we had completed the market research, most of the 2008 vintage Pinotage had been purchased but Bennie still had enough in barrels for about 270 cases. (We have significantly more available in 2012 from the 2009 vintage, and the wine critics are responding with enthusiasm to the 2009 Pinotage, witness the review by Palate Press, the online magazine: "This wine has an interesting blend of black and red fruits, with a touch of vanilla, on the nose. It starts with tart black fruit, blackberry and a little elderberry, but within seconds the tart flavors shade to cranberry, then even more quickly sweetens to strawberry, joined by limestone and vanilla. This is a good wine at a great price. Drink with barbequed beef. Highly Recommended." Palate Press)
The LIONS DRIFT brandThe Lions Drift export brand was developed for SILKBUSH a few years back but awaited the appropriate moment for introduction with a superior product. In the interim, so many wine labels with animals on them came out that, as a grouping, the trade often refers to them as “critter wines.” However, we don’t think many will associate the noble Lion King, emblematic of Africa, with many little critters, as cute as they may be. Further, we were intrigued with the Dutch word “drift” on some Cape highway signs and on the label of the most popular South African brandy, Klipdrift (which literally means “stone crossing.”) When it was explained that a safe river crossing, usually shallow and underlain with stones, was a drift, it all made sense. Such safe crossings were of course used by migrating animals but were also essential to the early colonists who risked getting their wagons stuck in the mud of every stream and river crossing... unless they could find a "drift." Accordingly, we proudly created the Lions Drift brand as an acknowledgement of the continent and country from where the wine originated and the viticultural contributions and history of the early Dutch settlers, who first made wine at their Kaapstad (Cape Town) colony in 1659, now over 350 years ago. By 2008 we had sufficiently mature vines and were enjoying large enough crops that SILKBUSH could supply both our client wineries and have enough grapes available for wines under our own Lions Drift label. The 2008 Pinotage, with SILKBUSH Mountain Vineyards on the label as “vineyard designate,” was introduced into a select few US markets in 2010. In 2012, we have substantially greater wine supplies available from the 2009 harvest so as to be able to open more US states and certain EU markets, especially in Scandinavia, and the Russian Federation. Our LIONS DRIFT labelBelow are the front and back wine labels for the 2009 Lions Drift Pinotage, as well as a "bottle shot.":    The history of Pinotage: South Africa's very own grapeWhile most noble grapes evolved in Europe over hundreds, if not thousands of years, and now have been cultivated in numerous wine growing regions of the world, Pinotage is unique. In 2009 South Africa celebrated only the 50th anniversary of the world’s first Pinotage wine commercially available; and, were it not for a fortuitous chain of events the grape would not exist at all! Eighty-seven years ago, in 1925, Professor Abraham Perold planted in his garden in Stellenbosch the hybrid seeds resulting from a crossing of Pinot Noir and Hermitage grapes He could not have anticipated that this act would forever be part of South Africa’s wine history, eventually growing to become an unique selling point around the world. Professor Perold was a fascinating and brilliant character himself, a fourth generation descendant from a French prisoner of war who arrived in 1814. Due to his early academic achievements, Perold received a bursary (scholarship) to study overseas, receiving a PhD in Chemistry in 1904 at a university in Germany. Appointed first as a professor at the University of Cape Town, the Cape Government soon sent him overseas to collect grape varieties which could be established locally. He returned with 177 varieties which formed the core of a collection still in existence at the University of Stellenbosch’s experimental nursery. Perold was appointed as the first professor of Viticulture at Stellenbosch and later became Dean of the Faculty of Agriculture at the University. Unfortunately, prior to his death, he left no notes explaining his reasoning for crossing two well established French varieties, Pinot Noir, the noblest red grape of Burgundy, with Hermitage, a workhorse variety of the Rhone valley. The cross produced only four seeds which were planted in 1925 in his own garden, not the University’s nursery, perhaps to keep them under his personal care. In 1927, however, when Professor Perold left the University for a position a hour north, his former residence was unoccupied for a time and the garden unattended. A young college lecturer, Dr. Charlie Niehaus, by chance bicycled by the day workmen were spading up the garden and saved the four seedlings. The seedlings were replanted in the nursery at Elsenburg Agricultural College by Prof CJ Theron. Fortuitously, in 1935 the Pinotage scion wood was grafted onto the new Richter rootstocks, narrowly missing being grafted to older rootstock material that proved to be virus infected and were later destroyed. Prof Theron showed the four grafted vines to Prof Perold and Perold was very enthusiastic about the possibilities of the new variety. At that stage the crossing was still merely known as “Perold’s Hermitage x Pinot”, but the name Pinotage, a derivative from its breeding parents, was clinched by Perold and Theron. (Fortunately, they did not choose “Herminot.”) One of these grafts performed markedly better than the rest and was eventually selected to become the mother material of all Pinotage vines. It appears the first experimental vineyard of Pinotage was established at Elsenburg College, since C T de Waal, then a lecturer at Elsenburg and later considered to be one of the greatest red wine authorities ever, made the first Pinotage wine in small casks there during 1941. Since grapes are harvested and fermented to wine in the early months of the year, It seems likely that Prof. Perold would have know of the success of his unique hybrid before his passing on November 12, 1941 at age 61. Thus Pinotage was born, narrowly survived repeated opportunities at a premature demise, nurtured to adulthood by agricultural academics and a single vine has proven the source for all Pinotage vines in commercial production today. Quite a recent and well documented history in a field where the origins of most grapes have been lost forever. So it is now our pleasure and responsibility to share this marvelous wine with the world. Where our wine is available in the US
We anticipate being able to add 4-6 additional states in 2012 now that the 2009 vintage is available. Thank you for your patience.
Press Reviews of Our Wine
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