Painted Wolf and Rhinofields surprise in Pinotage Top 10

Painted Wolf Wines join
“Pinotage brotherhood”

NO KANONKOP or Beyerskloof wine among the Pinotage Association’s Absa Top 10 competition! Can this be? And it doesn’t stop there: there’s also no L’Avenir, no DeWaal and no Stellenzicht Pinotage among the award winners – not even among the Top 20! On the other hand, top performers in the competition to date who were called up to the podium again this year included Rijk’s Private Cellar, Simonsig Estate, Spier, Wellington Wines and the Windmeul Cellar – which makes it three Top 10 awards in a row for Rijk’s, six in the past 10 years!

So no, it’s premature to be talking about a changing of the guard. It’s happened before that some of the big guns don’t quite hit the spot, and it’ll happen again. Besides, it’s interesting to consider the newcomers to the Pinotage premier league, and it’ll be interesting to see if they can keep it up: Painted Wolf Wines had already received good reviews for the same vintages in the SA Wine magazine (2011) and at the Trophy Wine Show earlier this year, whereas the 2009 vintage of Rhinofields Pinotage won gold at Veritas and a 4 Star rating in the Wine mag last year.

Just announced then, the results of the 2012 Absa Top 10 Pinotage Competition are as follows – in alphabetical order:

WINNING WINES IN THE 2012 ABSA TOP 10 PINOTAGE COMPETITION

Altydgedacht Pinotage 2011 (Durbanville)
Diemersdal Pinotage 2011 (Durbanville)
Durbanville Hills Rhinofields Pinotage 2011
La Cave Pinotage 2010 from Wellington Wines
Painted Wolf Guillermo Pinotage 2009 (WO Swartland, Paarl Producer)
Rijk’s Pinotage 2008 (Tulbagh)
Simonsig Redhill Pinotage 2010 (Stellenbosch)
Spier 21 Gables Pinotage 2010 (Stellenbosch)
Swartland Bushvine Pinotage 2010 (Malmesbury)
Windmeul Reserve Pinotage 2011 (Paarl)

RUNNERS-UP IN THE 2012 ABSA TOP 10 PINOTAGE COMPETITION

Beaumont Pinotage 2010 (Bot River)
Delheim Pinotage 2011 (Stellenbosch)
The Den Pinotage 2010 from Painted Wolf (WO Coastal, Paarl Producer)
Fairview Pinotage 2011 (WO Coastal Region, Paarl Producer)
KWV Cathedral Cellar Pinotage 2009 (WO Western Cape, Paarl Producer)
Riebeek Cellars Reserve Pinotage 2011 (Riebeek-Kasteel)
Rijk’s Reserve Pinotage 2008 (Tulbagh)
Springfontein Jonathan’s Ridge Pinotage 2009 (Stanford)
Three Peaks Pinotage 2011 from Mount Vernon (Paarl)
Tukulu Pinotage 2009 (Darling)

For the ex-cellar prices of the above wines and other Pinotage recommendations, click here.

For the Pinotage Association website, click here.

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