Kanonkop Wine Estate

History The estate was originally purchased by JW Sauer, a cabinet member of the union of South Africa. His son Paul Oliver Sauer, took over the reigns from his father and was in 1967 joined by Springbok rugby great, Jan Boland Coetzee. Mary Sauer, daughter of Paul Sauer, married Jannie Krige, a rugby administrator at the University of Stellenbosh. He took early retirement and together with Coetzee made the first estate bottled wines at Kanonkop in 1973. Beyers Truter joined Kanonkop in 1980 as winemaker, and developed the reputation of the estate still further with his excellent winemaking skills, especially by developing Pinotage into a world class wine. Beyers has now left Kanonkop in the able hands of new winemaker Abri Beeselaar to devote more time to Beyerskloof, but he remains an active consultant to the winery. Worldwide acclaim for the top quality of Kanonkop has fuelled huge worldwide demand for these iconic wines

To find out more about Kanonkop visit the Kanonkop website at http://www.kanonkop.co.za/

Viticulture

 

Kanonkop is renowned for its red wines, with Pinotage making up 50% of all plantings, Cabernet Sauvignon 30%, Merlot 15% and Cabernet Franc 5%. The Pinotage vines are retained as bush vines to provide maximum ripeness and assist with regulating the crop. Most of these vines are more than 50 years old. The Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Cabernet Franc have been trellised into a five strand hedge.

Except for a small portion of the estate where the soil is slightly sandy, no irrigation is done. Pinotage, Merlot and Cabernet Franc yield approximately six tons per hectare (4 000 lit/ha) while the Cabernet Sauvignon yield is on average four tons per hectare (2 600 lit/ha).

Fermentation takes place in traditional open concrete fermenters, but with a slight difference, in that the tanks are wide and shallow rather than high and deep. This process ensures maximum skin contact. The cap is punched by hand up to once an hour until 6-7% alcohol has been attained. During this period the temperature is fixed between 28 and 30 degrees Celsius, when most of the colour, good tannins and flavours are extracted. Time on the skins is between three and five days. When the wine is dry, malolactic fermentation completes the process in concrete and stainless steel tanks, as well as new 225 litre oak barrels.

Awards

Kanonkop Estate has often been described by those in the know as being the South African equivalent of a Premier Cru or First Growth.

International awards accumulated over more than a decade have gone a long way to substantiate these claims.

Previous cellarmaster, Beyers Truter, was presented with the Robert Mondavi Trophy as the 1991 Winemaker of the Year at the International Wine & Spirit Competition (IWSC) in London. This came about when both the Kanonkop Pinotage and Kanonkop Paul Sauer scored top marks.

The 1991 Kanonkop Paul Sauer won the Pichon Longueville Contessa da Lalande Trophy for the best-blended red wine at the IWSC in London in 1994. The 1995 Paul Sauer repeated this success at the 1999 IWSC. In the same year the same wine won the Grand Jury Prize at the Mondial de Bruxelles, while the 1992 Kanonkop Pinotage was awarded the Grand Jury Prize at the 1994 Mondial in Canada.

At the IWSC in London, Kanonkop Pinotage has consistently won the KWV sponsored Perold Trophy for the best Pinotage entered in the competition with the 1993 vintage winning it in 1996, the 1995 vintage winning in 1999 and the 2000 vintage winning in 2002.

Kanonkop Pinotage is also a regular Wine Spectator Top 100 club member and the Estate recently accumulated gold awards Wine and Spirit Asia for all its entries.

Kanonkop wines have been consistent gold and double gold winners in the South African Veritas Competition and have regularly been included on the South African Airways wine list.

In 1987 Beyers was the Diners Club Winemaker of the Year and since the inception of the ABSA Top 10 Pinotage Competition, Kanonkop Pinotage has been listed among this top echelon on a regular basis.

Wines

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