This year’s ABSA Top 10 Pinotage Awards marks Flagstone Wines’ 8th placement among the competition’s leading wines. Listed alongside top South African wine producers such as Kanonkop, Beyerskloof and Rijk’s Wines, Flagstone Wines’ Writer’s Block Pinotage 2020 held the wine producer’s flag high in its 14-year participation (since 2009) in the prestigious annual wine challenge. 

The Awards are coordinated by the South African Pinotage Association. The Association aims to improve widespread knowledge and appreciation of the uniquely South African cultivar.

“The Absa Top 10 Pinotage award is a special accolade for us,” says Flagstone Wines’ head winemaker, Gerhard Swart. “Pinotage is at the heart of Flagstone’s red winemaking processes. Every year, the cultivar’s production makes up for most of our capacity. We’re a proud Pinotage producer with four single varietals in our portfolio. Aside from the Writer’s Block Pinotage, this includes the Time Manner Place Pinotage, Truth Tree Pinotage and Poetry Pinotage. Our portfolio also includes a Pinotage blend, namely the Dragon Tree Cape Blend.”

Flagstone Wines’ Writer’s Block Pinotage is crafted from a single vineyard block high in the Waaihoek Mountains, above the Breedekloof valley, an hour and a half’s drive north of Cape Town. It’s the highest vineyard in the area, planted in ancient, decomposed granitic soil. The site itself makes for the wines’ excellent profile: the combination of soil, slope, climate, aspect and grape variety works brilliantly.

On the nose, the wine provides a balance of ripe, dark red fruit like mulberry and blackberry, with mocha chocolate and Indian spice, underpinned by a hint of bramble and mint. The palate is surprisingly rich and beautifully balanced. It provides flavours of very ripe strawberry, cherry and darker blackberry wrapped up in soft, comforting oak hints and a caress of vanilla and dark chocolate. 

The Writer’s Block is versatile enough to pair across a large spectrum of dishes from braaied Springbok fillet, spicy lamb stew and even Indian curries.

Find the wine online at https://flagstonewines.com/product/writers-block-pinotage/