The promotion of uniquely South African grape variety Pinotage is breaking new ground with new international markets discovering the country’s signature taste at least 85 years after it was created by Abraham Izak Perold, the first professor of viticulture at Stellenbosch University.

Pinotage wines have recently been welcomed in several states in the US and certain European Union markets, especially Scandinavia, and Russia.

The Pinotage Association is targeting Canada and Asia as some of the wine has already reached the Japanese market.

“Prof Perold is the man without whom we wouldn’t be savouring Pinotage wines here and now … he is to the wine industry what our former president Nelson Mandela is to humanity and SA,” says Mr Beyers Truter, founder and chairman of the Pinotage Association.

Pinotage is a red wine grape that Prof Perold bred in 1925 with a cross between Pinot noir and Cinsaut. The Cinsaut is known as Hermitage in SA, hence the name Pinotage.