Beeslaar Pinotage 2021

Beeslaar Wines is a small family-run business, specializing in the production of handcrafted, high-end Pinotage wines, originating from a single-vineyard site in the heart of the Cape Winelands. Abrie  Beeslaar was raised in the town of Worcester, situated in a major wine-growing region of the Western Cape. Initially he wanted to study medicine, but fate (and the student culture at the University of Stellenbosch) steered him in another direction and he obtained a BSc degree in Viticulture and Oenology in 1997. In 2003 he took over the role as winemaker at the world-renowned Kanonkop Estate, also famous for its production of world-class Pinotage wines, which further cemented his belief that South Africa’s national grape is worthy of competing with the best the world has to offer.

In 2011 his dream of making a truly unique Pinotage from a site-specific vineyard was realized when he was offered the opportunity to work with grapes from a parcel of land in the Simonsberg region outside Stellenbosch, and Beeslaar Wines was born. The grapes for the Beeslaar Pinotage are sourced from a two and a half hectare vineyard, situated on a south-eastern slope at about 200m above sea level and is in close proximity to the Simonsberg Mountain. 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 – not only cooling down the vineyards, but also limiting the growth of the bush vine plants. The predominantly shale soils found in this vineyard impart a unique earthy character to the wine, while the old bush vines always result in a smaller bunch and berry size, producing a wine of immense colour and flavour concentration.