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Brew Cru Black Label Pinot Noir 2019

Published by

Christian Gott – An Island Chef

on

Brew Cru Black Label Pinot Noir 2019

Brew Cru Black Label Pinot Noir 2019. Today is International Pinot Noir Day and while as chef I sometimes struggle with events such as National Frozen Custard Day, with my wine drinking hat on, I rarely need an excuse to reach for a bottle of Pinot Noir. Looking at my previous posts Pinot will now be the most popular grape variety I have reviewed. This is quite surprising as my love for Pinot is relatively recent.

Brew Cru Black Label Pinot Noir 2019

Why is Pinot Noir so special?

Well for a start did you know even though it is a black grape it is added to some champagne to give body and richness. Pinot Noirs’ spiritual home is Burgundy and names such as Domaine de la Romanée-Conti and Domaine Leroy are some of the most famous and expensive wines in the world. Pinot Noir wines can be incredibly expressive and have an amazing potential to age.

However, the grapes themselves are one of the most difficult to propagate. It is susceptible to disease, and the bunches ripen unevenly. For that reason, Pinot is not normally mass-produced, so if you buy one from Chile, California, Oregon, or New Zealand you will normally be buying a wine made with care and skill. Pinot Noirs flavours can range from herbaceous and earthy in France to cranberry and tart cherry from Oregon and black cherry and caramel from California and New Zealand.

Brew Cru Black Label Pinot Noir 2019

Brew Cru is a partnership with Johann Fourie of the award-winning Benguela Cove winery in Walker Bay, making Chardonnay and Pinot Noir wines in the Western Cape of South Africa.  Top of the range is Black Label Pinot Noir made using grapes grown from a single Hemel-en-Aarde Ridge vineyard.  These vines are cooled by the intense, constant winds from the Atlantic Ocean, resulting in a long, slow ripening period. 

The grapes are then handpicked and sorted before a four-day cold soak or maceration to extract maximum colour and flavour extraction. Following a weeklong mixed fermentation of whole berries and bunches the wine is pressed, settled, and transferred to French oak barrels for malolactic fermentation. The wine is then matured for twelve months. The result is a bold Pinot with lots of dark, ripe cherries and garden herb aromas. The wine is full-bodied with plenty of alcohol and lots of ripe plum flavours backed up with a savoury, earthy hint, and plenty of tannins from the cold maceration. A full-on Pinot Noir with a good finish that would be great with a big, fat roast duck. A delicious wine for International Pinot Noir Day.

Grape variety                                 Pinot Noir

Country of origin                           South Africa

Region                                             Hemel-en-Aarde Ridge, Walker Bay

Vintage                                            2019

Alcohol                                            14.3%

Notes

The average maximum temperature of Hemel-en-Aarde was 24.5 Centigrade during the 2018 /19 ripening season versus an equivalent long-term average for Burgundy of 24.5 Centigrade. 

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Welcome to The Caskaway

Personal, subjective and in no way definitive but I hope The Caskaway reveals a little of the passion I have for wine and beer. I’m no expert but I love to learn and wanted to share my knowledge and discoveries with all my drink writing in one convenient place. Why am I doing this when there is so much information out there already? Well, if one person reads and tries something new, I will call that a win.

There are honest tasting notes that you might hopefully find helpful, entertaining and maybe even instructive. Some posts try to help with the confusing and often obscure specialist terminology and language in both the beer and wine worlds and yes, there is a lot! Finally, there are links to all of my favourite recipes made using wine and beer (see below), and finally some expanded reviews of great pubs and other bits and pieces.

Formerly a full-time chef and publican, I’ve worked for two breweries, an award-winning Jersey based wine merchants and now try to write and broadcast about food and drink for local and national media including What’s Brewing and BBC Local Radio.