Kanonkop Kadette

Plenty of K's, but none of them refer to the grape variety.

Whilst researching my options for week K (2013), considering this week needs to be red, I found myself heading back towards Hungary.  But I was torn between sticking to my preference for selecting the weekly wine on the basis of grape variety and pursuing variety of a more general nature. 

Red Ks don't seem to occur very frequently away from Hungary and, if they do, they tend to be the varieties that are used in Bull's Blood.  I used that to solve a similar problem for week E (2013).

I decided to head south and week K (2013) is Kanonkop Kadette, 2010, from Stellenbosch SA. Bought from The Savanna, Liverpool Street station, £14.99.

The major component in this week's blend is Pinotage, a South African specialty crossing that was an attempt to produce a grape with the better qualities of both its parents. The complex, delicious subtleties of Pinot Noir and the easy to grow, high yielding and more robust character of Cinsault. 

Its critics say the resulting wine can taste disappointingly like paint and I have had that experience, but Kanonkop is one of the best wineries in South Africa and has a reputation for output that beats Dulux hands down. Unless you are my friend Bob, of course, with his unusual decorating preferences. (See my 'we got both kinds' page.)

Kanonkop produce a range of blends and this Kadette is a 'second wine', a term used more frequently in France (and especially in Bordeaux) by producers to persuade the drinker that he is getting good quality at a more reasonable price than can be demanded for their top flight offering. Mouton Cadet is a reliable Bordeaux sales of which topped 15 million bottles in 2002, so perhaps the name choice hints at the intentions Kanonkop have for this wine. 

The full recipe is Pinotage 44%, Cabernet Sauvignon 41%, Merlot 9%, Cabernet Franc 6%, which means that it is slightly more than half Bordeaux blend and nearly half pure South African.

It has spent 14 months in 225l French oak (from Nevers) barriques, having been fermented in open vessels at 29 C, with the cap manually punched down daily.

It is a fairly full-bodied, dry red wine, with a surprisingly long finish and mostly 'medium' everything else; colour intensity, acid, tannin and alcohol, although the label tells me it is 14% abv . Lots of red fruits with cherry and raspberry lingering longest. I don't think this will develop much in the bottle, so it goes in the 'drink soon' section of the cellar. This is particularly appropriate for my 'cellar', as I don't have the facility to lay down anything worthwhile or the unallocated cash to buy it in the first place. Drink soon is also a personal preference

We know where the 'Kadette' name comes from and the back label helpfully explains the 'Kanonkop'. The 'Kop' part means 'hill', whereas the 'Kanon' part means,........and it is a reference to the days when a canon would be fired from the hilltop to announce the arrival of dutch trading ships into Cape Town harbour.