Pinotage: South Africa's Red Grape, Taste and Food

Pinotage is South Africa’s own red grape, a cross of Pinot Noir and Cinsaut created at Stellenbosch University in the 1920s. It makes dark, full-bodied reds with black cherry, blackberry and a smoky or gamey edge, and it comes in more styles than most grapes: juicy everyday reds, oaky “coffee” Pinotage, serious age-worthy wines, rosé and even sparkling. If you want to try a red that tastes of South Africa and nowhere else, start here.

What Pinotage tastes like

Wine Folly calls Pinotage “a chameleon” because its style varies so much. Its profile lists the grape as full-bodied, with medium-high tannin and medium-high acidity, and notes that warmer climates tend to give higher alcohol. The main flavors, per Wine Folly, are black cherry, blackberry, fig, mint and game. Tannin is the drying, grippy feel from grape skins; acidity is the fresh, mouth-watering tang.

Wine Folly adds that cooler sites give fresher red fruit and warmer ones jammy dark fruit; oak brings vanilla and spice; and aged bottles can show leather, smoked meat and chocolate. Wines of South Africa (WOSA) says Pinotage can make complex, fruity wines that develop with age, but is also often easy to drink young.

Trait	Typical Pinotage
Sweetness	Dry
Body	Full (lighter in unoaked styles)
Tannin	Medium-high
Acidity	Medium-high
Alcohol	Often high, especially from warm sites
Main flavors	Black cherry, blackberry, fig, plum; smoke, coffee or mocha in oaked styles

Don’t buy it expecting a light, silky red. For how it compares with other reds by body and tannin, see our guide to the types of red wine.

The paint question

Pinotage had a rough reputation for years. Wikipedia explains that some winemaking can produce isoamyl acetate, a compound with a sweet, pungent smell often compared to paint, and Wine Folly mentions rubbery or paint-like aromas in poorer wines. Wine Folly says growers and winemakers reduce the problem by controlling yields and the vines’ water supply, choosing better clones and managing fermentation temperatures. In our view, the grape’s old reputation shouldn’t stop you from trying a modern bottle.

The story: from a garden at Welgevallen

Pinotage was created by Abraham Izak Perold, the first Professor of Viticulture at Stellenbosch University. WOSA dates the cross to 1925; Wikipedia’s history gives late 1924 for the crossing itself. Perold crossed Pinot Noir with Cinsaut, which South Africans then called Hermitage, and the name Pinotage combines the two. Wine Folly says he hoped to combine Pinot Noir’s quality with Cinsaut’s adaptability.

The grape nearly didn’t survive. According to Wikipedia:

1. Perold planted the four seeds from his cross in the garden of his official residence at the Welgevallen Experimental Farm.
2. In 1928 he left the university for the KWV cooperative, and the garden became overgrown.
3. During a clean-up, a young academic, Dr. Charlie Niehaus, rescued the seedlings.
4. The young plants moved to Elsenburg Agricultural College under Perold’s successor, CJ Theron, who grafted them onto new rootstock at Welgevallen in 1935. The best vine was selected and named Pinotage.
5. The first wine was made in 1941 at Elsenburg, and the first commercial vineyard was planted at Myrtle Grove, near Sir Lowry’s Pass.

Recognition followed. According to the Pinotage Association, Bellevue’s 1959 Pinotage, made by P.K. Morkel, was named the best wine at the South African Young Wine Show, and Stellenbosch Farmers’ Winery released it under the Lanzerac label in 1961 as the first commercially released wine bearing the Pinotage name. After falling out of favor in the early 1990s, the grape bounced back: by 1997, per Wikipedia, it fetched higher prices than any other South African grape.

Wine Folly notes that International Pinotage Day falls on the second Saturday of October.

Where it grows

Pinotage is overwhelmingly a South African grape. Wine Folly, citing University of Adelaide data for 2021, gives these plantings:

Country	Area
South Africa	7,052 ha (17,426 acres), under 10% of its vineyard
New Zealand	38 ha (94 acres)
United States	20 ha (50 acres)
World total	7,132 ha (17,624 acres)

Wikipedia lists smaller plantings in Brazil, Canada, Germany, Israel, Switzerland and Zimbabwe as well.

Within South Africa, Wine Folly highlights two areas:

• Stellenbosch, where Pinotage was born. Wine Folly singles out Simonsberg, the warmest sub-region, for dark fruit, chocolate, coffee and spice. Wikipedia names Stellenbosch-Simonsberg as the grape’s notable region.
• Paarl, which Wine Folly describes as giving black cherry and raspberry, a velvety texture and balanced acidity.

Our guide to South African wine explains the Wine of Origin system and the country’s other regions, from Swartland to Constantia.

Pinotage styles

Few grapes are made in as many ways. Wikipedia lists rosé, barrel-aged reds, a fortified port-style wine, red sparkling wine and even white Pinotage.

Style	What to expect
Fresh, unoaked Pinotage	Juicy red and dark fruit, softer tannin; drink young
“Coffee” Pinotage	Pronounced coffee and mocha aromas from barrel ageing; Wikipedia calls it the latest and fastest-growing trend
Classic barrel-aged Pinotage	Dark fruit, smoke, spice; Wine Folly says many develop over 5 to 10 years, the best for 15 or more
Cape blend	A red blend built around Pinotage (see below)
Rosé and sparkling	Pink or red, fruity, made for summer

In our view, the coffee style is the easiest way in if you like oaky, smooth reds, while the classic barrel-aged wines from Stellenbosch are where the grape shows what it can really do.

Cape blends

A Cape blend is South Africa’s signature red blend. According to WOSA, the term generally refers to a red blend in which Pinotage makes up 30 to 70 percent of the wine. Our guide to red blend wine explains how blends like this are labeled.

How to read the label

• “Pinotage” as the grape name means a varietal wine. Check the back label for oak ageing, a clue to the style.
• “Coffee” or “mocha” in the wine’s name usually signals the coffee style, in our view.
• “Cape blend” means a Pinotage-based red blend.
• A place name such as Stellenbosch or Paarl tells you where the grapes were grown. Our South African wine guide explains the Wine of Origin system behind it.
• Rosé or sparkling on a Pinotage label means one of the lighter styles.

Food pairing

Pinotage loves the grill. Wine Folly suggests grilled and smoked meats and barbecue in general, then matches food to the style:

Pinotage style	Wine Folly’s suggestions
Easy-drinking	Pepperoni pizza, hearty beef stew
Earthier	Roast duck, mushroom risotto
Full-bodied, mature	Braised short ribs, pepper-crusted steak

We’d add South African braai (barbecue) favorites such as boerewors sausage, sticky ribs and lamb chops, and burgers with smoky barbecue sauce. A coffee Pinotage works with chocolate-rubbed or espresso-rubbed meats and with chili. For steak ideas, see our guide to wine with steak.

Good-value bottles to try

We don’t name specific Pinotage bottles on this page yet. Our picks follow how we rate wine: every wine needs a published critic score for a named vintage and a US price checked at two or more retailers, and we haven’t completed that check for a Pinotage.

What to look for: in our view, South African reds often give a lot of wine for the money, and a varietal Pinotage or Cape blend from Stellenbosch or Paarl is a good place to start. Under our thresholds, a Pinotage scoring 90 to 92 points is a Great Value at $20 or less and a Good Value at $30 or less.

How to serve it

• Temperature: Wine Folly suggests 60–68°F (15–20°C). We’d serve rosé and sparkling Pinotage well chilled.
• Glass: Wine Folly suggests a universal wine glass.
• Decanting: up to an hour, per Wine Folly, for full-bodied styles.
• Aging: Wine Folly says many well-made Pinotages develop over 5 to 10 years and exceptional bottles can last 15 years or more. Drink unoaked and coffee styles young.

Tip: If a young Pinotage smells a little sharp or solvent-like when you open it, pour it into a decanter for 30 minutes. A slight chill, around 60°F, also keeps the fruit in focus.