Rijk’s Private Cellar Pinotage 2013

Plenty of vooma.

Pinotage and curry always seem to work surprisingly well and hence a bottle of Rijk’s Private Cellar Pinotage 2013 (price: R240 a bottle) to a accompany a bobotie over the weekend. This is wine where anything too new-wave in its production is resolutely avoided – grapes picked at full ripeness, a 48-hour maceration before fermentation to extract colour and fruit, maturation lasting 22 months in 60% French and 40% American oak, 40% new, alcohol 14.6%.

Looking at the wine before the meal, the nose showed earthy, malty top notes before red and black cherry. The palate, meanwhile, appeared rich and broad with plenty of sweet fruit and relatively soft tannins. I feared it would be rather too plush to make for truly enjoyable drinking but once again its dense fruit offset the mild spice of the dish to good effect when taken together.

Editor’s rating: 88/100.

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