Mail & Guardian Wine of the Week:
Kanonkop Kadette Pinotage Rosé 2013, R40-R50

This could solve a dilemma if you’re a) a red wine lover but want something cold in summer’s heat; b) nervous about rosé because so much of it is sweetish, pink stuff for a girls’ night out of the more trivial kind. What’s more, I spotted this at Pick ‘n Pay last week for under R40, making it an even better buy than usual. Kanonkop is one of the truly great names in Cape wine, so don’t expect dumbing down from them – not that their rosé, while packing some muscle, is other than delicious and easy-going. Kanonkop is also one of the most experienced, ambitious vinifiers of pinotage (you could buy about 30 bottles of this wine for the price of the magnificent Kanonkop Black Label 2012). Pinotage is a grape that’s excellent for rosé, giving gentle, berry flavours and a good earthy tang. The little bite of tannin comes from the brief contact with black grapeskins that also yields the coppery-pink colour before the juice is whisked away to be made much like white wine. Best drink cold, to beat the heat, but not chilled to death. Beer it ain’t.

From the Mail & Guardian, 21-27 February 2014