A premium red from a single Stellenbosch vineyard
Pinotage, South Africa’s unique cultivar, enjoys its centenary this year. It’s been 100 years since Professor Abraham Izak Perold was in his sunny Stellenbosch garden, smudging a male cinsault flower with pinot noir pollen. From that experiment he created four seeds, planting them in 1925.
Pinotage took a bit longer to become available commercially, with it appearing on a wine label for the first time for the 1959 Lanzerac. Since then it’s had a host of champions, none more perhaps than world-famous Kanonkop, the Stellenbosch estate where winemaker Abrie Beeslaar brought 23 vintages to bottle.
A dream realised
While Beeslaar started his eponymous brand in 2011, it took him a while to go on his own. He left Kanonkop towards the end of 2024, with the purpose of pouring all of his energy into his own brand.
“I wanted to make a truly unique pinotage from a site-specific vineyard,” he says about the genesis of Beeslaar Wines. This dream was realised when he was offered the opportunity to work with grapes from a single parcel in the Simonsberg. These days he continues to produce a premium pinotage from that bushvine site. Augmenting the portfolio is a Stellenbosch chardonnay, making it just two hyper-focused wines for the range.
“I aim to produce wines that embody and personify the many beautiful characteristics of a grape variety that was born and bred in South African soils,” says Beeslaar speaking of his love of pinotage. The family-run business sees everyone jumping into help, with his wife Jeanne in charge of office administration and logistics. Their two children, Ben and Emma, are also known to get roped in when things get busy.
“I guess one could argue that I didn’t pick pinotage, instead, it picked me.”
Beeslaar Pinotage 2023
From a 30-year-old bushvine single vineyard. Considered winemaking respected the signature of the site, which included fermentation taking place in open top concrete tanks and skins being punched down by hand. 20 months maturation in 225-litre French oak barrels, 50% new – the perfume of vanilla-toast-spice complementing its bright redcurrants, and mix of blackberries, and cherries. Succulently framed in round, polished tannins with a long fruit-coated finish; it more than does the variety justice.
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