A love story about pinotage. Beeslaar Wines is a small family business, specialized in the production of handmade, high-quality Pinotage wines, from one vineyard in the heart of the Cape Winelands. Abrie Beeslaar's love affair with pinotage led him to found the Beeslaar Wines brand in 2011, with the aim of producing wines that embody the many beautiful characteristics of pinotage. This grape is a cross between pinot noir and cinsault developed in South Africa, made by Professor Izak Perold of the wine faculty in Stellenboch in 1924.
The grapes of the Beeslaar pinotage come from a 2.5 hectare vineyard, located on a south-eastern slope at about 200 meters above sea level, in the vicinity of the Simonsberg north of Stellenbosch. The area receives about 650 mm of rain per year, mainly during the winter. One of the most important quality factors is the south-easterly wind that blows most of the summer, which not only cools the vineyards but also limits the growth of the stocky bushvine vines. The predominantly slate soil in this vineyard gives the wine a unique and earthy character, while the old bush vines always result in a smaller truss and grape size. This allows a wine with immense color and flavor concentration to be produced.
The winemaking philosophy is simple: fermentation in a concrete fermentation vat, with the skins immersed every two hours, 'pigeage' in French. This ensures a homogeneous temperature distribution during fermentation and prevents the extraction of undesirably aggressive phenolic compounds. This exposes the fermenting juice to more oxygen, which in turn helps to fix the color of the wine. After 3 days, the juice and peels are separated and the peels are gently pressed. The wine is then transferred to 225L oak barrels, where malolactic fermentation and maturation will follow over a period of approximately 20 months. The Beeslaar pinotage is an expression of an incredible vineyard, showing the strength and concentration of the old stocky vines.
