2007 - Free Webs



2007

KWV

Café Culture

WO Western Cape

Pinotage

$13.95

CSPC# 72710

(XD) [pic] 14.5%

August 2, 2008 Vintages Release

NOTE: Personal observation … most reviewers mention: mocha, chocolate or coffee to describe the nose of this unique wine. I call the aroma Tiramisou.

Awards

Gold – 2007 Michelangelo International Wine Awards

Best Red Wine – 2008 Vinnordic Wine Challenge

Commended – 2008 Decanter World Wine Awards

Best SA Red – 2007 Vietnam International Wine Challenge

Beppi Crosariol (CAN)

Issue: August 2, 2008 – Globe and Mail

Recommended

“But it’s obvious that many consumers, and certainly no shortage of powerful wine critics, still love the added velvetiness, subtle sweetness and mocha-coffee-toasty quality of overt oak. That toastiness, by the way, comes from varying degrees of actual charring of the wood over an open fire. In the right context, say, a barbecued-rib cookout, I can be fond of the style myself. (Just don’t report me to the International Sommelier Guild, please.)

So it’s refreshing, in a manner of speaking, to come across a wine that wears its oak on its sleeve. Café Culture Pinotage 2007 from South Africa ($13.95, Ontario product No. 0072710) is what you might pejoratively call an oak bomb. More generously, you could call it a Triple-shot Vente FrappuVino. In fact, the name Café Culture is not coincidental. Winemaker Bertus Fourie specifically wanted to showcase the uncanny, roasted-coffee flavours imparted by aging in heavily charred oak. The term for coffee roasting, torrefaction, is in fact also used in wine.

This wine is full-bodied and almost syrupy, with a lusciously smooth texture, flavours of sweet blackberry and plenty of creamy, smoky, earthy sweetness. Unlike most pinotages, this one barely exhibits that familiar burnt-rubber flavour. The wine also won a gold medal at South Africa’s Michelangelo International Wine Awards competition.”

Ref: servlet/story/LAC.20080802.CROSARIOL02//TPStory/Entertainment

Gordon Stimmell (CAN)

Issue: August 2, 2008 – Toronto Star

89 pts

“The most amazing barbecue red this release is Café Culture 2007 Pinotage (#72710, $13.95, 89). Why? The aromas give off hints of charcoal, bacon and smoky mocha. Try this smokin’ South African red with sirloin shish-kebabs sizzled over hickory chips on your outdoor grill.”

Ref: article/469337

Michael Vaughan (CAN)

Issue: August 2, 2008 – Vintage Assessments

2 ½ - 3 stars (out of 3) & Recommended & Best Buy

“SMOKE, COFFEE, CHERRY & MOCHA. Extremely deep intense purple colour. Rich, smoky and complex, smoky, maple syrup, black cherry and mocha on the nose. Dry, very well structured, medium-full bodied, extracty, juicy, slightly smoky, plumy, black cherry flavours with a long, slightly sweet, lingering finish. Not for everyone.”

Ref: liquid_assets_80731.html

Vic Harradine (CAN)

Issue: August 2, 2008 – Winecurrent

4 ½ stars (out of 5)

“This is a stunner—flavourful, interesting, well structured, tremendous value. The robust nose offers aromas of ‘camp coffee’, a liquid concentrate of coffee and chicory essences giving off slight aromas of tar, as well as coffee. The rich and concentrated flavours include mocha, ripe and juicy black berry, cassis and spice box. It’s medium bodied and medium textured. The tenacious finish replays the previous flavours. Stop reading, pick up a case.”

Ref: newsletter-mainmenu-43

Rod Phillips (CAN)

Issue: August 2, 2008 – Wine Pointer

3 stars (out of 5)

“This is a weird wine. It’s made to highlight the coffee flavours that barrel-aging can produce, and in that it’s very successful. But although winemakers make wine to achieve particular results, there’s something odd about this. The flavours are so distorted that it tastes as if the wine has been infused with essence of espresso. The rest of the Pinotage is drowned by it. It’s a sort of novelty wine (“Look what we can make this wine do!”), but give it a go. Maybe I’m too narrow-minded for this, but if I want coffee, I’ll go to a coffee shop.”

Ref:

Dan Kislenko (CAN)

Issue: August 2, 2008 – Hamilton Spectator

Recommended

“An interesting comparison to the previous Pinotage (Long Mountain). Perhaps get one of each and taste them side by side with a holiday weekend cookout. As the name reflects, they’re deliberately emphasizing the smoky/ roasted coffee bean angle that is part of the grape character, along with plump blackberry and elderberry flavours.”

Ref: article/413288

John Szabo (CAN)

Issue: August 2008 - Wine Access – First-in-Line

85 pts

“Café Culture 2007 Pinotage*1/2 stars Western Cape, South Africa

This wine earns its score based on sheer concentration; it’s hard to imagine this much wood stuffed into a $14 wine. If you dig aromas of Tia Maria and Kahlua with mocha, coffee and charred wood wrapped around an off-dry, jammy fruit core, then this wine is for you. I call it a dessert style Pinotage.”

Ref: liquid_assets_80731.html

Peter May (UK)

Issue: September 2007 – Pinotage Club

Recommended

“KWV today launched a new Pinotage under the brand Café Culture – and the name suggests they are aiming at the market for coffee-toned Pinotages pioneered by Diemersfontein with its cult ‘coffee & chocolate’ Pinotage. Not that KWV is using the ‘c’ word – oh dear me no – please note that it is ‘mocha’

KWV say “Café Culture is a new Pinotage wine, produced in an innovative style and presented in a trendy packaging that mirrors its vibrant target market perfectly. Café Culture is a brand that has been specially created for trendy, upmarket enjoyment. It has an air of the avant-garde and bohemian. It is associated with debate and banter. It is the Café Culture - a lively, vibey social spirit with a sense of adventure and exclusivity...even decadence. The modern, understated label emphasises the social nature of the wine, and recalls the smart café society of the Twenties and Thirties.”

The wine was crafted by winemaker Bertus Fourie who says the wine “is the most controversial style of Pinotage wine in the world. Most people crave it. It does not speak of ‘terroir’ as oak plays the dominant role. This accounts for its mocha and chocolate flavours – the richness of coffee beans, the smoothness of creamy chocolate and the freshness of ripe fruit. ”

Prior to taking up his post of Senior Winemaker at KWV, Bertus Fourie was the winemaker at Diemersfontein responsible for creating their innovative popular coffee’n’chocolate Pinotage. In a prescient item for South African magazine ‘Grape’, diarist ‘The Widow’ wrote in November 2005 that KWV were looking for ways of “making their red wines taste of coffee. ‘Go out and hire Bertus ‘Starbucks’ Fourie at any price' was the directorial demand!”

The 2007 vintage wine (although the bottle image on the KWV site says 2006 – I wonder what happened to that wine) was harvested and underwent wood maturation (where it presumably picked up its coffee mocha flavours from the toasted oak) for 3 months before being blended and bottled July 2007. It has a hefty 14% abv and is recommended for drinking on its own or as an accompaniment to meat and pasta dishes as well as chocolate and berry desserts.

I like to think of myself as ‘trendy’ and ‘upmarket’ (I’m not so certain about ‘vibrant’ but ‘decadent’ probably fits) and so I look forward to tasting it…..”

Ref:

Vintages (CAN)

“Café Culture is designed to emphasize the vivid coffee characteristics that can be achieved through barrel ageing. Winemaker Bertus Fourie is an expert in this style of Pinotage. The mocha flavours intertwined with the ripe berry fruit of the Pinotage grape makes this wine a truly decadent experience. A Gold Medal winner at South Africa’s prestigious Michelangelo International Wine Awards 2007.”

Ref: feature/2008southafrica/index.html

Resources

Merchandising sheet from Wine Magazine (SA)

wine.co.za/Directory/Wine.aspx?WINEID=15485&CLIENTID=1113

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