There’s a quiet revolution taking place. Full-bodied showstoppers are being passed over in favour of lighter red wine styles. The term ‘light red’ is used to describe wines of medium to light body, typically unoaked (or lightly), and favour crunchy red fruit, generally with a bright acidity and fine tannins – and can be enjoyed right throughout the seasons, working beautifully chilled too. Grenache and Syrah lend themselves to this styling as do Cinsault, Pinot Noir and Pinotage.
The use of new oak in South African winemaking is fairly recent. The catalyst was when Robert Parker came along in the mid-80s with his blockbuster gospel: new oak, high alcohols and heavy extraction. Chasing big scores, South Africa, along with the rest of the world followed suit. Now, we’re swinging back to a time when wines were a bit lighter on their feet – and it just so happens we have the grapes to take us there.
Cinsault has long been an unsung hero in our Winelands, quietly forming the backbone of historic blends, such as Tassenberg and Chateau Libertas. Post-phylloxera Cinsault was prized for its high yields and big berries, its sappy nature even lubricated presses, preventing Cabernet’s tiny berries from clogging equipment. Modern-day Cinsault is increasingly fine, due in part to the older vineyards its storied history has provided as well as more site-expressive winemaking – once a workhorse, the grape is now capable of elegance.
Syrah is the golden child of the light red revolution, spurring the most premium examples, with its fragrant, delicately-spiced nature. Pinot Noir has an uneasier footing in the Cape’s vineyards – a much more terroir-sensitive cultivar, only certain districts, such as Walker Bay, can really deliver prestige bottlings; and yes, the top ones are mighty fine.
Offspring of Pinot and Cinsault, Pinotage has found a happy place in the hands of new-wave winemakers who vinify as you would its parents; favouring less extraction, picking earlier and dialling down new oak. The best are often exotically perfumed with spice and rosewater. Grenache, too, is coming out of the shadows – adeptly suited to our Mediterranean climate, this drought-tolerant variety is of growing significance as temperatures rise. It also claims heritage status having been planted in the Cape since the 1700s, and was once so ubiquitous it was dubbed ‘Cape Chianti’. While plantings of Gamay may be small now, the new kid on the vineyard block is one to look out for too.
South Africa’s light reds are proof that sometimes, less really is more – more nuance, more elegance, more reasons to uncork a bottle at any time of year.
Our Top Picks: Five Must-Try Light Reds
Cinsault: Kruger Family Wines Old Vines Cinsault 2023
From a heritage vineyard planted in 1952. Hauntingly perfumed with fresh red fruit and fine, silky tannins.
Syrah: Karibib Syrah 2023
Focused and detailed, this Polkadraai stunner is proof of how very good Syrah from this sub-region of Stellenbosch can be.
Grenache: Swartberg Wingerde Holism Garnacha 2023
From the heartland of old vine, dryland grenache, the Piekenierskloof, comes this svelte rendition; absolute purity of strawberry fruit abed a structure of powdery tannins and blood-orange acidity.
Pinotage: Wolf & Woman Pinotage 2023
Energetic and bright, this is exactly how new-wave Pinotage should present with its refreshing structure and purity of fruit.
Pinot Noir: Catherine Marshall Pinot Noir on Sandstone Soils 2023
Taste the terroir in this limpid expression – weightlessness meets red cherries, pomegranate, and cranberry against a skein of satiny tannins.
