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Pinotage

Southern Right is re-defining Pinotage with this intense classically styled, clay-grown wine, packed with complex berry fruit, beautiful tannins and subtle wood spice. Full ripeness and the longer hang-time afforded by cooler sites, combined with the complex, more classic fruit aromas and structure resulting from clay-rich soil, make this wine a highly individual expression of South Africa’s unique grape variety.

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Latest vintage available online via Port2Port.

  • Soil: Low-vigour, stony, clay-rich, shale-derived soil

 

  • Alcohol: 13.19
  • Acid: 5.20 g/l
  • ph: 3.61
  • Residual sugar: 1.90 g/l

 

  • Barrel ageing: 9 months

 

  • Wooding: 56% 228 litre french oak barrels, 44% 400 litre french oak barrels
  • Tight grain: 100%

 

  • 1st fill: 12%
  • 2nd fill: 8%
  • 3rd fill: 23%
  • 4th fill: 57%

 

  • Blonde Toast: 60%
  • Medium Toast: 40%

 

  • French coopers: Various

 

  • Yield: 28.20 hl/ha 4.54 tons/ha
  • Production: 2 900 cases of 12 bottles equivalent

 

  • Fruit Origin Hemel-en-Aarde Valley 13%, Overberg 61%, Swartland 26%

 

  • Vegan Friendly

 

  • Release date: March 2022

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Views on the vintage

Growing Season

This stellar vintage was later and cooler than usual. Based on our measure of temperature, the average of the maximum temperatures for the 4 hottest months (crucial to harvest) Dec, Jan, Feb, Mar, 2021 came in at 24.3 Centigrade. This compares to 24.8 Centigrade for a long-term average of the equivalent period in Burgundy. In the last 25 years, only 2001, 2004 and 2008 have been cooler. Winter was wetter than usual with 140mm more rain than average, filling dams and building the water table beautifully. Chill units started accumulating later than usual and a cool Spring and later budding accounted for the later harvest. A warm January was a welcome help towards healthy ripening. Any disease pressure from rain showers during ripening was effectively controlled organically. Yields, as always for us, were low.

92 Points - Tim Atkin, June 2022

92 Tim Atkin, June 2022

Stony reduction and smoky bacon aromas segue into flavours of plum and black cherry and a sheen of subtle oak spices. Will age well in bottle.

Neal Martin, Vinous, September 2022

This is highly perfumed and very floral on the nose with scents of dried violet petals and iris flower. The palate is medium-bodied with grainy tannins on the entry. This should offer pleasure over several years.

David Lawrason, WineAlign, Canada, January 2023

This firm, very well constructed pinotage opens with a reductive/flinty note yet there are many other complexities with wild berries, pepper and cinnamon and some meatiness. It is firm, juicy, and very well balanced. Righteous pinotage, among the best in the land.

John Szabo, WineAlign, Canada, January 2023

From the Hamilton-Russell stable of fine wines from the Hemel-en-Aarde Valley, the Southern Right range focuses solely on sauvignon blanc and here, pinotage. This 2021 is a sophisticated and sleek wine, with lovely, silky texture and succulent acids framing abundant, fresh black and blue fruit alongside fully integrated wood influence, gentle spice, and an appealing streak of green, resinous botanical flavours. I’d suggest enjoying this over the next 3–4 years to capture the vibrant fruit.

Michael Godel, WineAlign, Canada, January 2023

Hamilton-Russell’s Southern Right takes the claim a step further because it is a wine of origin made in the way pinotage must be made. Alcohol clocks in at a manageable 13.5 per cent and fruit is simply the be all end all of this pinotage.

90 Alison Napjus, Wine Spectator, July 2023

A bright, brambly red, with abundant herbes de Provence and sweet smoke accenting a core of ripe raspberry and blueberry fruit. Juicy, well-spiced finish.

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