Pinotage

I bought a bottle of pinotage not too long ago. I had never heard of this type of wine and figured I would give it a try.

South Africa is known for its pinotage wines, which are a cross between pinot noir and cinsaut (Cinsaut was known as "hermitage" in South Africa at one time, so the word pinotage is a cross between the pinot in pinot noir and hermitage).

Don't ask me what cinsaut is.

Other than a type of grape. Obviously.

According to the interwebs, pinotage "typically produces deep red varietal wines with smoky bramble and earthy flavors, sometimes with notes of bananas and tropical fruit, but has been criticized for sometimes smelling of acetone."

Yeah, I would criticize a wine, too, if it smelled like nail polish remover.

I opened this wine: 

And was nearly knocked over by the taste. At first I thought the wine might have gone bad, it was so ... weird. But then I realized that it wasn't bad, it just had this very unusual finish. I couldn't put my finger on what I was tasting.

I looked it up. Here is the description of this wine:

Good bright, dark red. Musky, soil-driven aromas and flavors of strawberry, black olive tapenade and chocolate. Supple and intense if a bit funky, with harmonious acidity framing and intensifying the mid-palate fruit. Very suave in texture but distinctly idiosyncratic in its flavors, although there's plenty of lurking red fruit here. Finishes with sweet tannins and a strong lingering olive element. You've been warned.

That's right, it said olives. OLIVES. Who expects a wine to taste like freaking olives?!?

So I took another sip. And another. And darn if that isn't exactly what I was tasting. I still think it's weird, but I'm glad I tried it.