Fairview Pinotage 2006 – South Africa

Gerd and I got hooked on Pinotage while out in San Diego the end of last year. So we’ve been picking up bottles here and there when we can find them. I’m not a wine connoisseur, so you’ll just have to bear with my description from a layman’s perspective.

This Pinotage is a deep red with a smoky flavor with a bit of spice – you’ll know what I’m talking about after the first sip. It’s very full-bodied, but not very dry at all (which I’ve found is pretty rare). Don’t get me wrong, it’s not sweet, but it’s kind of a fat big flavorful red. I thought, this would be perfect with some serious steak, and then I looked at the back of the bottle and it said it’s great with curries and braised or barbecued red meats. It also says it would go well with a rich cheese, which I would agree with. But seeing how I only have Kraft Singles in the fridge, I thought better of it. Though I wonder if I could pair some sort of wine with Easy Cheese… now THAT’s got me thinking…

Top 5 things about Fairview Pinotage
1. Big fat wine without being dry enough to suck the moisture out of my mouth and make me thirstier
2. Sounds fancy when you recommend a wine from South Africa to your friends
3. A couple glasses of wine makes for top-notch quality on my take-home final
4. I’m glad I didn’t bring this to someone’s house and only get one glass
5. Makes me look forward to my other reds since I know I have considerable red meat in my freezer

Bottom 5 things
1. Gerd was looking forward to drinking this with me
2. I didn’t eat this with a juicy steak
3. Had to drink it alone
4. I’ll be re-writing my take-home final tomorrow night
5. Now I’ll have to go buy more (after I drink a couple other bottles)

www.fairview.co.za