‘Is this the world’s greatest Pinotage?’
– Tim Atkin, 97 points
The 2021 Kanonkop Black Label Pinotage straddles the line between luxury and fine wine. Light-footed and balanced, it showcases the clarity and vibrance of this superb vintage.
The 2021 Black Label seduces with dark, bruised florals and raspberry fruit, wrapped in an aromatic blanket of fine vanilla, cocoa bean, and dark cherry tobacco. The nose promises elegance and the palate delivers – offering concentrated mid-palate fruit and subtle tannins for a juicy, yet finely constructed backbone. Surely their best vintage yet, this is the ultimate expression of Pinotage.
From Kanonkop’s oldest block on the slopes of the Simonsberg, the vineyard is now entering its seventh decade. Its old bush vines yield small, concentrated berries which allow Abrie Beeslaar’s minimal-intervention approach in the cellar to coax a refined, seamless, super-energetic wine.
Abrie follows in the legendary footsteps of Jan ‘Boland’ Coetzee and Beyers Truter, whose reputations were largely built on the Pinotage they made at Kanonkop. Considered an ‘SA First Growth’, Kanonkop’s Black Label Pinotage is the pinnacle of this grape.
Tasting Notes:
Kanonkop Black Label Pinotage 2021
‘Is this the world’s greatest Pinotage? It’s certainly in the top one, as the English football manager, Brian Clough, used to joke. Sourced from a 70-year-old vineyard of 3.9 hectares, it’s an intense, focused, concentrated red that handles its new French oak easily, showing layers of blueberry, wild strawberry and liquorice, lots of energy and succulent, polished tannins.’ – Tim Atkin MW, SA Special Report 2023, 97/100
