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Pinotage Red Wine
Pinotage
Pinotage
Pinotage is a cross between Pinot Noir and Cinsault.
Pinotage was created in South Africa in the early half of the 20th century by Abraham Izak Perold, a professor at Stellenbosch University. Perold was attempting to combine the best qualities of Pinot Noir, a great wine making grape but very hard to grow, with the Cinsault, a very stable grape variety that has very little trouble growing. 
For nearly 50 years after pinotage wasnt really unknown very well outside South Africa. But that all changed after the apartheid system fell, international boycotts were lifted, and Pinotage began to spread commercially across the globe.
Although it is still best known in South Africa, it is now migrated into New Zealand and Zimbabwe where it is become a big comodity, Brazil, California, Canada, Israel, and Virginia are also on the up and coming for production
Pinotage is a viticultural cross, not a hybrid. Plainly stated, a cross is a cultivar which is the result of crossing several cultivars usually only 2 but can be more, within the same family, while a hybrid is a cultivar bred from members of completely different grape families. Both of Pinotage's ancestors are of the popular grape variety vitis vinifera.
Pinotage has a potant flavor of fresh fruit such as bananas, bramble fruits, as well as a few earthy tones. Wines made from this grape can be consumed young, in order to savour their fruity flavor. Pinotage also ages well - the mellowing effect allows the wine to taste like a mature claret.
In Southern Africa, Pinotage is primarily used for those red wines that have the capability of aging, this would encompass blush, fortified 'port' red sparkling to name a few. Pinotage is a required component in a Cape blend.
Some time Previously, Pinotage was thought to have a "paint box" or "nail varnish" aroma. It was discovered however after some research that these aroma's were the result of a having a slightly lower temperature during fermentation.
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