The Grinder 2011 Pinotage

I've seen this label on the shelves for awhile and have consciously ignored it because I have a dislike of the "cute/obscure names for wines" that proliferate mostly in Australia. I often think the Aussies sit around in the pub and have contests to see who can come up with the most ludicrous names for wines, with the winner getting free beer for the day, I mean seriously Ladies who shoot their lunch ? But I digress, the wine in today's tasting is a South African Pinotage, a uniquely South African grape that is a cross of Pinot Noir and Cinsault . There is isn't a lot of Pinotage available so I finally got over my aversion to the name and brought home the wine.

I'm happy I did.

First off the naming isn't actually a cute marketing ploy for the wine displays nothing if not the characteristics of coffee, or mocha to be more precise. With your eyes closed the nose could easily make you think that it was not a glass of wine in front of you but rather a bowl of chocolate covered espresso beans, I mean it really reeks of coffee and chocolate. The colour is dark, dark red and in the mouth the mocha is again present, along with a bit of red berry and bramble and spicebox. The tannins are smooth but there's enough acid to make it food friendly and the finish is long and full. I had the wine with roast chicken rubbed with thyme, rosemary, garlic and lemon and it was great though next time I'd like to give The Grinder a workout with some grilled lamb or spareribs.

There's lots of this wine around, over 2,000 bottles in the BCLDB system and it has wide distribution, for $14.99 a bottle it's well worth having around for the summer grilling season. A recommended buy, even if you don't have it for breakfast.