Challenger wine #6

Barista Pinotage Western Cape South Africa 2010

I chose this one because I am not that fond of South African wines but Pinotage is a varietal that I enjoy exploring, it has so many variations on flavour yet always packs a punch.

I know the name gies it away, but I still wasn't expecting the overpowering aroma of coffee. Very odd! It has a lovely taste of coffee, chocolate and cherry. It is a little bitter though, although the tannins mellow and then the red fruit pushes through.

It reminds me of sitting in a diner in the USA drinking "cawfee", with sweet and savoury smells coming from the kicthen, watching the world go by.

Badger and I agreed the wine was well made, with a clever manipulation of the flavours to produce such a coffee intensity, so we give it 4 for quality. Only scores 3 on likeability, because although we would buy it again, it would probably be as a gimmick or for a friend.

Zalze, Shiraz-Mourvedre-Viognier, Stellenbosch, South Africa, 2011 (Price:0)

I am determined to find South African wines I like, I normally find them too harsh and too punchy. I recently found some Italian wines I liked (I'll tell you about these another time), so South Africa is next on the list. I chose this one, because of the blend - Aussie GSM (Grenache-Shiraz-Mourvedre) being one of my favourites. I have high hopes... the only concern before I take a sip is the price, but Tesco tries to keep their wine offer affordable, so here goes...

The smell is exactly as I would expect - punchy and alcoholic, yeah its 14.5%. And first sip, same thing,  woah, that's a slap in the face. But it has more depth as you let it linger. It has lots of black fruit flavours, there's an underlying shrubbery flavour, which lifts into a more fragile finish of herb and spice, which is quite unusual.

I'm being taken back to hot summers in the countryside when you pick fruits from bushes (even if you don't eat them, because you're not sure if they're poisonous), then you slip on loose soil, so take a sharp breath and grab onto a branch to catch yourself and can smell the leaves on the branch as you leverage yourself back into your stroll in the countryside. A mini adventure.