Delheim Releases Perennial Favourite Pinotage Rosé 2024

May 27, 2024

Delheim Releases Perennial Favourite Pinotage Rosé 2024

With winter beckoning in the South African winelands, Delheim Estate from Stellenbosch has brought a touch of sunshine and a shade of pink to the glasses of northern-hemisphere wine-lovers with the just-released Delheim Pinotage Rosé 2024 – just in time for spring and summer. Delheim’s customers in the northern hemisphere can look forward to a taste of the glowing South African sun experienced over Delheim’s Stellenbosch home and the rest of the Cape winelands during this year’s grape harvest.

Delheim’s Pinotage Rosé is a perennial favourite from the Cape, with Delheim being the first winery to produce a Pinotage rosé, way back in 1976. In the rosé style of winemaking, the energetic lighter side of the Pinotage variety is brought to the fore with its characteristic bright juiciness and perkiness on the palate.

Grapes are harvested in the cool mornings, and upon reaching the Delheim winery on the Simonsberg the fruit is placed in a press for a gentle pressing, allowing the juice to be just-so-ever briefly kissed by the salmon pink-hue of the red Pinotage skins as well as to grasp a subtle tannic grip to ensure presence on the palate.

After fermentation at cold temperatures to ensure colour stability and bracing freshness, the wine is left on lees for three months to draw further complexity and nuances. The result is a life-affirming dry rosé, delicately coloured with a berry-led juiciness and a touch of red-fruit perfume.

This year’s harvest was two weeks-early as a result of dry and hot conditions in the vineyard. But Delheim winemaker Roelof Lotriet says the Pinotage coming into the cellar this season oozed fruitiness and varietal character.

“Berries were small and concentrated, always a great sign as this ensures more fruit flavour, developed sugars and high skin-to-juice ratio allowing the complexities of the skin character to give the rosé the right amount of structure and body,” says Lotriet.

Delheim Releases Perennial Favourite Pinotage Rosé 2024

On Delheim, recommendations are to enjoy Delheim Pinotage Rosé ice-cold – and don’t even be shy to drop a cube of ice or two into the glass. “The wine is for daily enjoyment and its delightful easy drinking delicacy and zippy freshness makes it a wine that truly brings a smile to one’s face,” says Lotriet. “Winter or summer, it’s rosé for every day.”