Beeslaar Pinotage 2018

Beeslaar Wines is a small family-run business, specialising in the production of handcrafted high-end Pinotage wines, originating from a 2,5 hectare single-vineyard site in the Simonsberg region outside Stellenbosch.  The vineyard is stituated on a south-eastern slope, about 200 metres above sea level on shale soils. The area gets around 650mm of rain a year mainly through the winter. One of the key quality factors is the south-easterly wind that blow through most of the summer, that cools down the vineyards and limits the growth of the bushvine plants.

Abrie Beeslaar, winemaker at Kanonkop since 2002, released this Pinotage in 2011, explaining that it is every winemaker’s dream to have a wine bearing his own name with the aim to produce wines that embody the many beautiful characteristics of a grape variety that was born and bred in South African soil.  ‘Pinotage is not for sissies’ were the words Jan Boland Coetzee used to explain the challenges of Pinotage to other winemakers and it was this challenge and the exposure to great old vines bearing unique grapes that started Abrie’s love affair with Pinotage. ‘If you are lucky enough to have the right terroir and put in the effort that Pinotage deserves, there is no wine more rewarding,’ he says.

His wife, Jeanne is in charge of office administration and logistics. His son Ben and daughter Emma are also often seen lending a helping hand when it comes to preparing orders.