It’s a sin to overlook cinsault

The once dated cinsault grape is showing again what it can do

Discovery Collection Cinsault, Breedekloof, South Africa 2023 (£10, Sainsbury’s) South Africa’s most famous red grape variety is almost certainly pinotage. This isn’t, I’m afraid, entirely a good thing for Cape wine producers, since pinotage doesn’t have the best of reputations – or, to put it another way, a lot of it really isn’t very good. That’s a little harsh on exemplary producers such as Kanonkop in Stellenbosch, who have shown how good pinotage can be in their glorious Black Label Pinotage, a collector’s item that sits very close to the top of South African wine’s hierarchy of fine reds. But a handful of exceptions aside, I’m always happier when I see the name of one of pinotage’s parent grape varieties, cinsault (pinot noir is the other half of the heritage of a crossing created in 1924) on the label. Cape cinsault, especially when it’s sourced from some of the country’s very old bush vines, is more often than not a succulent joy, with Sainsbury’s newbie a typically savoury wine of red fruits, warm earth and freshly milled pepper.

Le Bijou de Sophie Valrose Coteaux de Béziers, France 2023 (£10.99, Waitrose) South Africa’s most exciting winemakers are clearly excited about cinsault: look for names such as Eben Sadie, Badenhorst, and Scions of Sinai for cinsault wines that are gorgeously expressive, and, with scents of fynbos and cranberry tartness, utterly distinctive, albeit in a way that will appeal to fans of the lighter side of syrah in places such as France’s northern Rhône Valley or the Languedoc, where the variety originates. Ironically, in its homeland, cinsault has endured some of the reputational troubles that pinotage suffers in South Africa: long considered a workhorse grape, it was generally buried in blends, many of them undistinguished, in cooperative caves across the Midi. It’s still performing that role in reds across southern France, but it is also prized by rosé producers: it’s one of the key varieties in the classic rosé blend in Provence and in the increasingly high-quality pale pinks made in the same pale style further west in the Languedoc, such as the winningly soft Le Bijou de Sophie Valrose.

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