Radford Dale Frankenstein Pinotage 2014
By Christian Eedes, 11 March 2015
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1
Monstrously good.
A quiet revolution is happening when it comes to Pinotage. There will always be super-ripe, super-oaky examples on offer but increasingly we’re seeing wines made with much more lightness of touch and a prime example is the Frankenstein under The Winery of Good Hope’s Radford Dale label, the 2014 having just been released.
From a 42-year-ol d vineyards in Stellenbosch, the wine underwent spontaneous fermentation and was matured for some 10 months in French oak, 20% new. Lavender and fynbos as well as black cherry on the nose before a palate which shows great fruit concentration, snappy acidity and firm but not astringent tannins. It’s still extraordinarly primary but has lovely proportions and a real vinosity about it. Price: R285 a bottle.
Score: 92/100.
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Alex Dale11 March 2015
…we use no new oak at all in the Frankenstein -that’s par of the point of difference (sorry if we gave you the wrong impression). Natural ferment, partial carbonic maceration, neutral oak, no fining or filtration, low sulphur usage and much lower alcohol than is the norm. Combined, these allow us to produce from these beautiful old bush vines a wine which reflects its environment and the climate of the vintage, rather than the winemaker’s ‘techniques’.. But most of all the tiny pocket of extremely rare, deep white sedimentary clay the roots are grown in makes this a genuinely unique wine and limits our production to just a few hundred cases per annum. Glad you enjoyed it and cheers to our friends in the industry giving Pinotage a respectful new look… Alex