An interesting find and an old favorite…
My fiance, two close friends, and I went out for good cheap Mexican food tonight, followed by insanely good ice cream. Eventually, we headed to Central Market in Shoreline (just north of Seattle) where I made two amazing wine discoveries (they have a great wine department there):
- 2004 Southern Right Pinotage - $20
- 2000 Paracombe Cabernet Franc - $27
Yes, that’s right: 2000 Paracombe Cabernet Franc! The very same wine that, when I asked about it at Pete’s several months ago, seemingly materialized out of a mystery warehouse somewhere in Washington State. The strange thing is that 2004 is the current vineyard release for Paracombe Cabernet Franc, while 2003 is the current US importer release. The year 2000 release happened 3 years ago or more, but every once in a while some of these wines pop up when you least expect it.
They had 3 bottles available; I bought 1 because, hey, it’s $27/bottle and I just spent a lot on Sea Smoke. I got a bottle because I wanted to give it a good home, but also because they made about 300 cases of this wine and I thought it had sold out months ago. So strange, this wine business.
As it turned out, my friends had a Pinotage in Europe that they really liked, so when we got home we cracked open the Southern Right. Vinography has a terrific article on the 2002 vintage of this wine. Apparently the Pinotage grape is a cross between Pinot Noir and Cinsaut (aka Hermitage); hence, “Pinotage.” Chalk up another wine varietal on my Wine Cenury completist spreadsheet.
In the glass, the wine was an inky purple color, very rich and deep. A nice color. The aroma was, at first, very charred and woody, almost like a good mezcal. I like that. Eventually the char (which reminded me of Jessie’s Grove Carignane) turned to sour cherry and red currant, and the aroma drifted between a rose-like aroma and a woodsy, heady sort of thing. I could smell this wine for hours…it was so dynamic and multi-textured.
From a taste perspective, this Pinotage is dry, it’s got some tannic and acidic bite, but it’s nice…it’s like a Pinot Noir (earthy, red fruit), a Carignane (smoky, charred wood), and an Aussie Shiraz (with those roasted meat flavors) all at once. Very interesting. It needed some time in the glass to develop, though; at first it was imbalanced and too woody, but it smoothed out quickly and tasted good to me.
My fiance didn’t care for it, but my other friends liked it! At $20 a bottle, it’s something of a novelty as that’s a little too much money for an everydar red, but a little too cheap for a special red (like a Domaine Drouhin). For less money, I’d just get a Jessie’s Grove Carignane or some such Lodi wine…but then I wouldn’t be helping to save the Southern right whales, now would I?
POSTSCRIPT: After a day in a decanter, the Southern Right Pinotage is much smoother and better balanced. I love it today. I guess it just needed time to settle down and breathe!