Okay what is up with S. African red wine? This is getting ridiculous. Either they have a whopping Brettanomyces problem ( a yeast contaminant that makes wine unpleasant with flavors/aromas likened to, wet animals, barnyard odors, band-aids and host of other yucky things no one wants to smell, or they have a terroir that is nasty--either way.................
Several years ago I had an Excelsior Cabernet Sauvignon which I loved and bought several bottles. The following year I bought more of the new vintage and noti9ced this nasty band-aid aroma which carried through to the palate. Subsequent years also gave off the same offensive nose and flavor and having tried several other S. African reds, it seems to be more and more common.
I stopped buying South African red wine until I found this Petit Pinotage which I bought in the quest of checking of another varietal in pursuit of the centi-varietal club.
It is a lighter hued pruple wine with pink rim and some nice black cherry and raspberry aromas. A good start but then the first taste was like gargling with a mouthful of liquid which had been soaked in band-aids. How do I know that? Okay you got me; I have never tried band-aid laced tonic but this is what it would taste like!
I breathed the wine hoping it would disappear but it did not. It is still ucky and in fact, I am planning to take it back and get my $11 returned.
Someone tell me if you have had similar experience with S. African red wines. I am about through trying them. Don't raise a glass unless you are some kind of weirdo taking a dare to drink to an adhesive, bandage cocktail. Gross!
I tried the Petit Pinotage about a year and a half ago, expecting something tasty. I certainly got a taste! I thought the bottle I tried tasted a bit more ashy/smokey than bandaids. Really, to me, it tasted like I was serving the wine out of a dirty ashtray. Yuck.
ReplyDeleteTime to give it another try. My local wine store put the 2008 Pinotage on the tasting, and it was delicious. Light and soft in the mouth, fruity on the nose, but very nicely balanced, with a fair amount of soft tannins in the finish. The kind of easy-drinking, well-made wine that you could blow through cases of in the summertime.
ReplyDeletedefinitely time to try again, the 2008 petit pinotage is exceptional. a great buy.
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