And the underdog wins.....

Friday was stressful. Shoot, this entire past week was stressful - at work, at home and on my heart.

 I needed a pick-me-up but didn't want anything extravagant or that required much thought or energy on my part.

Since I wasn't at work that day, I convinced the Evil Red Genius to leave early for a two-hour mental health break at my happy place.

 

While we partook of the usual Friday night tasting, earth-shattering quotes were born, such as

 

"That's a fallback Malbec"

and

"Stinky... the new sexy"

and

(my personal favorite)

"We're bringing stinky back!"

 

 

We decided to share two pizzettes of which one was the Meat Lovers which includes pepperoni, sausage, bacon and gyro meat. No ham! That's my happy place. Yuck - ham.

 

 

We could have chosen the stinky Pinot-like wine that was on the tasting table because it was quite enjoyable, but my gut told me to go with something else.

 

As I perused the wine shelves, I found something I had once, thanks to Connor's advice, but I didn't remember much about and which the Evil Red Genius had not tried before.

 

2012

False Bay

Pinotage

South Africa

 

 

A pinotage is a red grape that is almost exclusive to South Africa. Obviously, it is part Pinot but my inquisitive brain was curious as to what the "age" meant.

Upon further research, I found that it is a crossing of the Pinot Noir and Cinsaut grapes.

 (But there's no "age" on the end of Cinsaut, Val.

Yes, I know that. Be patient. I'm getting there.)

 

The pinotage grape was created in Stellenbosch, South Africa in 1925.  The pinot half of the name was given priority because of the prestige associated with Burgandy's Pinot Noir grape. The "age" suffix was taken from the end of "Hermitage" which is one of several local names for the French Cinsaut.

Poor Cinsaut was given the back end of the word because of its lowly status compared to the Pinot Noir grape.

 

 

I also found out that Pinotage is often considered somewhat of a poor man's wine or the stepchild of red grapes. Evidently, most Pinotages are really cheap and you get what you pay for. While this one was around $17, it definitely wasn't a cheap-tasting wine. It was light like a Pinot Noir, not as stinky as we like, but delicious. I also thought it was interesting that this grape is grown as a bush vine (comparable to a twisted bonsai plant) and not trellised. Supposedly, the looser, wilder and freer a vine grows, the fruiter and fuller its wines.

 

Pinotage may not be a sleek, sexy, internationally-acclaimed red, but it was just what I needed after a wretched week and as a complement to our yummy pizza.

 

"I'm a big fan of the misunderstood, the vilified, the underdog, the breaking of myths."
- Dominic Monaghan