Barista Wines
Legendary South African winemaker, Bertus Fourie, doesn’t just make great wine, he invented a whole new style and makes it at his winery, Barista Wines.
Pinotage is a South African grape variety, a hybrid of pinot noir and cinsault. He created a new wine from the grape, a coffee-style pinotage, the world’s first. Since then, he has acquired the nickname “Starbucks” due to the wine’s distinctive coffee flavor.
The winemaker has said, “I love to make ‘coffee Pinotage.’ it is such a consumer-friendly wine and I have met thousands of people as a result.”
Coffee-style pinotage is the result of using specific yeasts, only new French toasted oak barrels, and temperature control. He says his pinotage is accessible and appealing to the average wine drinker, not necessarily a wine purist. Fourie, with degrees in microbiology, chemistry, and oenology had started out in medicine but realized his passion was wine. Now he is known as the father of coffee pinotage.
Barista’s grapes derive from the Western Cape, Robertson wine region, and the winery is certified for “Integrity and Sustainability” by the South African Wine and Spirit Board.
Barista’s Facebook page says, “Just because it’s ‘every day,’ that doesn’t make it ordinary. The wine of Bertus Fourie is anything but ordinary.