Abraham and the Heretics’ Pinotage 2020, Stellenbosch

A fruit forward Pinotage, with red cherry notes, an easy drinking smooth style.

Pinotage rarely gets a good press – even within a nation that somewhat naively considers it South Africa’s ‘signature’ variety. One can imagine the brief given to Abraham Izak Perold who perfected the crossing of Pinot Noir and Cinsault in 1924: ‘Professor, we want you to create a uniquely South African grape variety that has all the nobility of Pinot Noir but the high-yielding potential of Cinsault’. Pinotage is what they got.

Abraham and the Heretics is something of a tongue-in-cheek challenge to those non-believers to accept the variety into their vinous lives.