Greg Sherwood MW: Why Pinotage deserves the Zinfandel treatment

Autumn is well and truly in the air here in the Northern Hemisphere. Before long, young trick-or-treaters will be thronging the middle-class suburban streets of West London on Halloween, and the smell and crackle of bonfires and fireworks will begin to permeate the evening air.

With the wider wine trade still stuck in an incredibly sluggish, lethargic mode, wine importers, generic bodies, and PRs are doubling down, doing their utmost to reignite some energy and inspire renewed optimism across the various sectors of the market.

For most fine-wine merchants and buyers, all eyes are now firmly on Burgundy and the upcoming en primeur crusade to the hallowed slopes of the Côte d’Or in November and December — to taste the meagre quantities of the 2024 vintage as well as the more generous 2025s still in barrel. These are the well-versed rituals of a fine-wine trade clinging to the hope that some kind of normality might miraculously return. I fear, however, that the “standard operating procedures” of the past will not be returning anytime soon.

It’s hardly all doom and gloom, though. The Liv-ex fine wine exchange seems to be mapping a degree of new-found stability, with bid-to-offer ratios improving and importers dealing in both Bordeaux and Burgundy reporting that an unfamiliar realism is finally settling over key producers and négociants. More realistic pricing expectations – and indeed a genuine softening in many categories – appear to be taking hold.

I too am preparing for a week of intensive visits and tastings in Burgundy at the end of November. In the meantime, however, I recently managed to make my way, for the first time, to the southern Croatian vineyards near the historic walled city of Dubrovnik. Created in the 13th and 14th centuries, Dubrovnik acted as an independent trading state for around 700 years, controlling and financing much of the important trade around the Adriatic and further afield in the Mediterranean, often in direct competition with the great Venetian trading houses.

Wines from Dubrovnik-Neretva County owe their high quality and premium characteristics to their specific vineyard exposures, the low-rainfall Mediterranean climate (around 750 mm annually), the rocky limestone soils, and, importantly, the renewed efforts of local vignerons in recent years. Their significance in terms of both tradition and tourism is clear from the numerous wine tours now offered to visitors seeking to discover the authentic flavours of this rejuvenated region.

When discussing red wine varieties from the Dubrovnik-Neretva County, Plavac Mali is inevitably the first name on every connoisseur’s lips, securing the Pelješac coastal peninsula – located just north of Dubrovnik – a prominent place on the global wine scene. Plavac Mali is the most recognisable and widely planted red variety in Croatia’s deep south, with two notable appellations: Dingač and Postup. Both lie on the Pelješac peninsula, home to some of the steepest vineyards in the world, superbly exposed to sunlight thanks to their southern orientation.

Although not as well-known as Plavac Mali, Tribidrag – also known as Crljenak Kaštelanski – is another indigenous variety worth singling out. It has a rich history and, unlike Plavac Mali from Dingač and Postup, typically produces wines with more moderate, supple tannins – fleshy, deliciously accessible, and highly appealing to drink.

Crljenak Kaštelanski wines pair beautifully with meat dishes and local Adriatic cuisine. Their aromas are dominated by ripe raspberries, blackberries, and black cherries, supported by notes of vanilla pod, black pepper, and milk chocolate – a combination that has made them especially popular with visiting wine tourists.

Crljenak Kaštelanski also enjoys global fame because, in 2001, it was genetically proven to be identical to American Zinfandel – the same cultivar brought to California by Austrian and other European immigrants in the 19th century, producing full-bodied, richly coloured wines with high alcohol, generous tannins, and balanced acidity.

After numerous tastings on my recent visit, comparisons with South Africa’s very own Pinotage were unavoidable. Both cultivars share a similar opulence, hedonistic ripeness, and sensual texture, displaying plush red, black, and blue berry fruits and showing a clear affinity for maturation in new oak – whether French or American.

Interestingly, Zinfandel’s stylistic evolution over the past few decades mirrors that of Pinotage in many ways. Producers have long debated how ripe to pick the grapes and how “big” to make the wines –  questions often guided by shifting market tastes. The gnarled, century-old Zinfandel vines of California’s Lodi region were always destined to yield intense, super-opulent, almost jammy styles, while cooler coastal vineyards offered lighter, brighter expressions with lower alcohols, softer tannins, and fresher red fruit. Sound familiar?

Another key similarity – perhaps the most important – between Zinfandel and Pinotage is that both can be enjoyed equally well in youth or with age. They do not require time to “mellow” or “improve” as structured Cabernets or burly Bordeaux blends might. Over the years, many producers have argued that the wines don’t necessarily improve with age – they simply evolve into something different: more earthy and savoury, yet always retaining their hallmark sweet, brambly berry fruit.

Having tasted a great deal of premium South African Pinotage over recent months, I find myself agreeing with critics like Michael Fridjhon that it is time for the South African wine trade – and consumers – to re-examine their attitudes toward top-quality Pinotage (see Fridjhon’s recent article on the subject here).

Crljenak Kaštelanski, while once rare, required its reconnection with Zinfandel to spark a local revival in Croatia. For Pinotage, the old clichés simply no longer hold water. Heaven forbid that foreign merchants and international consumers come to appreciate our home-grown cultivar more than our own pernickety local wine industry does.

• Greg Sherwood was born in Pretoria, South Africa, and as the son of a career diplomat, spent his first 21 years traveling the globe with his parents. With a Business Management and Marketing degree from Webster University, St. Louis, Missouri, USA, Sherwood began his working career as a commodity trader. In 2000, he decided to make more of a long-held interest in wine taking a position at Handford Wines in South Kensington, London, working his way up to the position of Senior Wine Buyer over 22 years. Sherwood currently consults to a number of top fine wine merchants in London while always keeping one eye firmly on the South African wine industry. He qualified as the 303rd Master of Wine in 2007.