To say there is something evangelical about Rolf Ziervogel’s zinfandel passion is perhaps to acknowledge that he’s a pretty smart marketing man as well. His latest zin moves at the Helderberg Blaauwklippen winery - where the grape had been around for longer than most (the first Platter guide of 1980 reports that the 1979 got a gold at the SA Wine show) - include membership of ZAP, but more originally, the release of a red noble late harvest.

The latter turned out to be quite an intriguing cutey from the 2008 vintage: combining the usual honey botrytis notes with the typical cinnamon/liquorish/tobacco flavours local zinfandel seems to show in ultra-ripeness, it’s a late-winter afternoon kind of sipper. (Why people are set in matching NLH with sweets is beyond me: sweet-on-sweet: oye! A packet of cheesy chips sounds just about right with this one.)

Blaauwklippen, under Ziervogel’s direction (the passion spills out as he describes each and every vintage from 2004 to 2009 and we taste), has been replanting and cellar-polishing the typical red zinfandel, but also been making a pale-pink ‘white zinfandel’. The latter is, of course, an invention (with marketing spin-off) by the original zin crowd: the Americans over there (where ZAP - an organisation called Zinfandel Advocates & Producers - is based).

The rosé - more of a typical ‘partridge eye’ - is an interesting wine. Local zinfandel’s somewhat austere spicy nature turns the earlier harvested wine into a true aperitif. This, in fact, is the food wine. And it was the slightly older 2007 vintage (indicating aging potential for the style) which matched the fillet of stumpnose perfectly at lunch.

Earlier, as Ziervogel likes to do, we tried a line-up of zin versions from Nappa, Sonoma and Paso Robles. With soaring alcohols, forests of wood and plenty of residual sugar, it’s difficult to imagine what pleasure these provide. If one has to do zinfandel, my bet is on the Blaauwklippen 2007, even though it too is a little high in sugar and alcohol. There’s perfume there, complexity and, yes, individuality...