A good story has a powerful effect on people. The Story of Pinotage exemplifies this truth profoundly.
It’s a tale worth sharing, for it chronicles the journey of a visionary whose dream outlived him, sustained by the dedication of his allies. Through a series of fortuitous events over time, his vision was realized. Like many great stories, it carries a valuable moral.
The narrative begins with Professor Abraham I. Perold, a scientific academic and the first professor of Viticulture and Oenology at the University of Stellenbosch. Profoundly connected to his homeland, South Africa, Perold aspired to create a wine grape varietal unique to the region. Despite scouring the globe for suitable cultivars among 177 varieties, he found none that met his criteria.
In 1925, Perold successfully crossed the renowned French grape, Pinot noir, with the humble Cinsault (then known as Hermitage). This unlikely pairing produced grapes with early ripening, robust growth, and intense coloration. The name Pinotage was the obvious choice for this new-born.
Perold planted the seeds in his back garden at his university house in Welgevallen, but fate intervened when his successor nearly uprooted the fledgling Pinotage plants. Safeguarded by Prof. Charl Theron de Waal, the plants found a new home at Elsenburg Agricultural College, where they were further cultivated.
In 1941, the first barrel of Pinotage was crafted by Prof. Charl de Waal, yet Perold tragically passed away that same year, never tasting the fruits of his labour. De Waal became the steward of Perold’s dream.
P.K. Morkel, a dynamic figure, completing his Viticulture and Oenology studies at the Stellenbosch University, playing professional rugby for Western Province and the Springbok team as well as teaching at an excellent school in Paarl. He eventually started farming at Bellevue on the Bottelary road outside of Stellenbosch on their family farm.
In 1953 P.K. Morkel wanted to plant a new block of Gamay noir, but unfortunately, he could not find supply of young Gamay grafting’s. He was recommended to plant this unknown, locally crossed Pinotage as the experimental wines from this varietal showed exceptional fragrance, a deep colour yet firm tannins and flourished in even sandy soils.
This brave step resulted in what was the first success story of Pinotage as a varietal with commercial value. In 1959 Morkel entered the handcrafted wine of his seemingly risky project into the South African Young Wine show. This is a wine competition where the young wines from the same vintage are judged to establish the best wines for that particular vintage. It was like the coronation of the Queen at Bellevue when that 1959 vintage of Pinotage was awarded as the best wine at the show.
The very name of Pinotage was printed the first time on a wine label to go into bottle under the Lanzerac label of SFW in 1961. It was a moment in time that sparked the future trade in Pinotage across the globe. The 1959 Lanzerac Pinotage was the start of it all.
Now hailing from the very same vineyards, the 2019 Commemorative Pinotage marks the 60th anniversary of that courageous beginning and celebrates the ingenuity and collaboration that led to the establishment of an enduring South African icon.
