Pinotage

Pinotage was deliberately bred in 1925 by Abraham Izak Perold, a professor at Stellenbosch University, who crossed Pinot Noir with the heat-tolerant, productive Cinsault (then locally called "Hermitage") in search of a variety combining Pinot's quality with Cinsault's resilience — the name is a portmanteau of the two. The original seedlings were nearly lost after Perold left the university, rescued from an overgrown garden by a colleague who recognized their value.

The first commercial Pinotage wines followed in the late 1950s, and the grape has since become South Africa's most distinctive calling card. Early winemaking often produced harsh, volatile examples that gave the grape an uneven reputation internationally, but decades of improved viticulture and winemaking have shown its real range, from smoky, savory, age-worthy reds to lighter, brighter, fruit-forward styles.