2022 Kanonkop Estate Pinotage Stellenbosch 6pk 6x750ml

Kanonkop Estate is the birthplace of serious Pinotage — Paul Sauer and Danie Rossouw planted the first vines here in 1941, and twenty years later they won the Cape Wine Show with fruit from this same Stellenbosch ground.

By 1987, Beyers Truter had claimed Diner's Club Wine of the Year for his Pinotage from Kanonkop. That legacy is what you're holding: one of the world's finest expressions of South Africa's signature grape, from the formidable leader of the Cape's red wine pack.

The 2022 vintage came late — the latest harvest in 25 years, two weeks behind schedule thanks to a cold winter and a cool, drawn-out season.

The delay paid dividends: the fruit shows depth and integration you don't get from rushed seasons. Grapes were handpicked, sorted, and vinified in open concrete fermenters with manual punchdowns, then aged 18 months in French Nevers oak, 80% new.

The result is a wine built for the long game — Kanonkop's Pinotage can cellar for 25 years.

In the glass: opaque purple-red, with bold plums, blackberries, mulberries, vanilla, smoke, and roasted nut on the nose.

The palate is packed — plums, cherries, black figs, pomegranate, dark chocolate, blood orange acidity, and spicy oak. Plush, creamy tannins, satisfying structure, a savoury finish of fragrant spice and tarry smoke.

Mint-chocolate and cedar on the edges, licorice and pink peppercorn underneath. This is Pinotage at its most complete.