Sugar with your coffee?

www.wineconcepts.co.za : Mike Bampfield-Duggan

Once known as the smallest winery in the Cape, Seymour Pritchard, along with his family team have taken this exciting winery to a different level. Seymour bought the 10-hectare farm Malvern Heights in 1969 from Colonel Billingham, who had named the farm after the rolling hills around Malvern in England.

The grapes grown on the farm had always been sold to Stellenbosch Farmers Winery, until over a Christmas braai in 1985. After an evening of good food and wine, Seymour along with Jeremy Walker (who now owns Grangehurst winery) decided to start a wine making venture. With this in mind and knowing that in the mid ‘80’s France was still being hailed as the preferred wine country he “Frenchised” the name to Clos Malverne.

During the 90’s Clos Malverne increased their vineyard plantations to include pinotage, merlot and shiraz with the idea of producing blended red wines for the market place. In 1995 Clos Malverne was one of the very first wineries to produce a classic Cape blend.

The wine was such a success that their flagship wine, the Clos Malverne Auret, was changed from a Bordeaux style blend to a Cape blend (cabernet sauvignon and pinotage). The Auret 1998 was the first Cape blend to receive five stars in the prestigious Platter Wine Guide.

Clos Malverne today produces predominantly red wines and two whites, a sauvignon blanc and chardonnay. An exciting addition to their red range is their “coffee style” Le Cafe Pinotage 2010 which adds a new dimension to their already very successful Pinotage Reserve.

“I would compare our classic pinotage reserve with its many local and international awards to Hollywood screen siren Dame Helen Mirren, while our new Le Café Pinotage 2010 is more like Hannah Montana in a bottle,” explains new Clos Malverne winemaker Suzanne Coetzee, who believes the new coffee-style will appeal to a much wider audience with its vivacious, versatile and velvety character.

“We have always been a huge fan of pinotage and welcome the tremendously positive affect that coffee-style pinotage has had on consumer attitudes towards our favourite varietal. By following this latest fashion trend with our new wine, we hope even more people will start drinking pinotage,” adds Suzanne.

The grapes of the Le Café Pinotage 2010 were harvested by hand at optimal ripeness with no bitter tannins left on the skins. Following Suzanne’s time-honoured winemaking philosophy of keeping things simple and true to their original state, the grapes were fermented on the skins in open top fermenters and then gently pressed in basket presses. The wine owes its coffee character to the eight months of maturation on heavily toasted French and American oak.

The wine has a dark velvety youthful colour with aromas of licorice, spice, plum and savoury dark chocolate. Delicious rich ripe plum flavours follow with hints of seductive roasted coffee beans which continue onto the long finish.

We enjoyed the wine with grilled fillet steak, with pecorino potato croquettes, baby spinach and a marrow-truffle jus which is from the menu at The Restaurant at Clos Malverne. Highly recommended — both the wine and the food!

Expect to pay: R80.00