KANONKOP BLACK LABEL 2010

KANONKOP SKIPS A VINTAGE AND RELEASES
ICONIC BLACK LABEL 2010
In a situation that could be described as one of great vinous irony, Kanonkop Wine Estate did not produce its iconic Black Label Pinotage from the 2009 vintage which has been described in wine circles as one of the best South African vintages in living memory. The last Kanonkop Black Label released was from 2008, while this year sees the release of the 2010 vintage.
“Skipping a vintage of the Kanonkop Black Label Pinotage was never going to be an easy decision,” says Johann Krige, co-owner of the illustrious property on the slopes of South Africa’s Simonsberg. “Since 2006 – when wine from a special parcel of Pinotage vineyard was first kept aside for the Black Label we have waited for the grapes with great anticipation and watched the development of this rare wine with excitement.
“However, the all-round excellence of the 2009 vintage threw a curve-ball at us,” says Krige, a former University of Stellenbosch baseball player. “The quality of all Kanonkop Pinotage was generally of such a superb standard that we had to admit that the parcel used for the Black Label was not going to stand-out as much from our other Pinotage as it has been doing up until now.”
Paradoxically thus, Kanonop’s great 2009 Pinotage harvest will thus only be found in the Estate’s traditional Pinotage and not under the sought-after Black Label.
“The objective with the Black Label as always been to provide a wine that is not only rare in terms of availability, but also a uniquely excellent wine of the stand-out variety,” says Krige. “If it is not going to stand-out in a specific vintage, it will not be released under the Black Label.”
The Kanonkop Black Label 2010 will be launched in December. Only 1500 bottles will be sold through three wine negotiants at R1100 per bottle, inclusive of VAT.
Since the release of the inaugural Kanonkop Black Label Pinotage 2006 in 2009, this wine has generated tremendous interest among local and international wine lovers wishing to obtain the premium product from one of South Africa’s leading wine estates.
Made exclusively from a small patch of Pinotage vines planted in 1953, the scarcity of the Kanonkop Black Label has also led to a secondary demand with eager collectors buying from willing sellers who managed to get their hands on a few bottles.
According to Krige the quality of the first three Black Label releases – from the 2006, 2007 and 2008 vintages – has led to immensely favourable reaction from international wine critics, collectors and industry commentators.
“The wine has a cult following – not only due to scarcity, but also quality,” he says. “We are getting fantastic feedback from people now drinking the 2006 for example and finding that the wine delivers what Kanonkop set out to deliver – world-class excellence worth paying a premium for.”
The other reason behind the Black Label concept was to create a secondary market for a South African wine, something Krige says the local industry deserves. “The South African industry is making some of the best wines in our history, wines that are internationally competitive and deserve recognition as such. By providing limited-release wines of superb quality, the South African industry can develop a secondary market in which demand outstrips supply to the extent where a number of collectors and wine-lovers partake in a healthy willing-buyer, willing-seller scenario as is the case in the French industry.”
Abrie Beeslaar, Kanonkop Cellarmaster who was named International Winemaker of the Year at the International Wine and Spirits Competition in 2008, says 2010 was a spectacular year for Pinotage, with the emphasis on loads of refined fruit.
“The Black Label vines may be 59 years old, but in 2010 they showed bright, youthful fruit,” he says. “The fermenting juice was removed from the skins after four days, with malolactic fermentation commencing in the stainless steel tank, before being completed in new French oak barrels. Maturation in new wood was done over 16 months, allowing the fruit concentration to be complemented by softer, deeper flavours of wild veld brush with savoury notes.”
Beeslaar says that whilst being elegantly drinkable in its youth, it will develop magnificently over the next 20 years.
Each wine is individually numbered and labelled with a hologram to ensure authenticity.
The wines will be available from Monday, 28 November 2011