And so it begins......

I recently turned 60 and to celebrate, my wife bought me a stupendous gift - a whole case of Pinotage.

Pinotage is my favourite grape variety and it makes a great every day wine, juicy, fruity, versatile with a real sense of character. It tastes like wine, not ribena or fruit gums (although they can be present). It's slightly earthy with an essential characteristic of the flavour of the earth - the rich mineral laden earth of South Africa where this strain was developed. It's a cross between cinsault and pinot noir, both of which I also enjoy immensely.

She scoured all our local retailers to make up a mixed case of 12 different pinotages and I have now deemed the first saturday of the month "pinotage day", randomly cracking one of my special bottles, numbered 1-12 and selected at random.

That's why I've opened this special pintage section where I'll attempt to describe these wines, one by one (along with non-numbered special guests that I may pick up en route).

I already have a couple of bottles of Chocaholic pinotage in my cellar which will be trialled as well as which I'll be revisiting some favourites such as Aldi's bonkers £3.95 number.