Vintages offered: 2013, 2015, 2017, 2020, 2021, 2022.

Dr. Abraham Perold was the South African viticulturist and scientist who in 1925 germinated, at Stellenbosch University, the Pinotage varietal by intermingling two species of grapes which, arguably, should never have been given life together : Pinot Noir & Cinsault. A century earlier, Dr. Victor Frankenstein, from Mary Shelley’s novel Frankenstein, created an equally strange creature, also by stitching together different body parts from mismatched ‘donors’. The Radford Dale Frankenstein Pinotage is our nod to the work carried out in his laboratory by South Africa’s first professor of viticulture, Abraham Perold, and a wink to the creature he created.

The inspiration for this wine came from a stubborn belief that Pinotage today has its place among more established varieties. It can produce wines of intrigue and complexity - without becoming harsh, chemical or showing any of the other cruel features that its detractors have reason to name. Treat it meanly and Pinotage will show its angry side. Through its clarity and purity of fruit, its lithe texture and its absence of any kind of aggression. It is not a monster; it is a soul with a heart and one which will repay kindness with abundant generosity of its own.

The old bush vines that make this individualistic Pinotage are rooted in unusual white clay at the foot of the Helderberg Mountain. Unirrigated, these vines plunge their roots deep into the earth in search of moisture to sustain the ripening of grapes into the long dry summers of the Cape. In 2026 this vineyard turned 37 years old and as such the crops are always small, but wonderfully concentrated which allows for early picking.

VEGAN FRIENDLY