Pinot Noir is something of a duck-or-no-dinner kind of grape. When it is good, as Hillaire Belloc may have written, it is very very good, and when it is bad it is horrid. As a result it attracts to its production an unusually high proportion of egotists and narcissists for whom a badly stacked deck becomes an irresistible challenge. Incidentally, it doesn't follow that all Pinot Noir producers are sociopaths - but in places where growers and winemakers have a choice about what is planted, it's a safe bet that there will be a higher percentage of nutters among Pinotphiles than the (already high) industry average.

Given the financial risks associated with producing Pinot, it should come as no surprise to discover that most of what is on offer is pitched at deep pockets. Astute commentators may remark that this merely shows that there is method in the Pinot-nuts' madness. I'm not so sure - the very high average price per bottle is both a measure of the relative rarity of anything decent, as well as the rate of failure - for which producers (and their customers) must carry the cost.

Really good Chardonnay - which has a production and ageing cycle similar enough to Pinot to justify the comparison - sells on average for about one third of the price. It is almost impossible to find a local Pinot at under R100: the game starts at over R150 and it maintains its pace well into the rarefied atmosphere of R600+ per bottle. This makes it comfortably the priciest category in the Cape wine industry - running two to three times richer than Sauvignon Blanc, a cultivar about which there is general consensus that South Africa's best examples are worthy players on the world stage.

Another intriguing feature of the boom in high-priced Pinot is that, contrary to common-sense economics, the more labels there are in the market, the better it sustains higher prices. In the 1990s there was really only Hamilton Russell and Bouchard Finlayson at the top end of the price and quality table. Meerlust - whose reputation rested on its Bordeaux varieties - and Paul Cluver occupied the second tier. Today there are at least a dozen very serious contenders, and as they jockey for position, price is but one of the weapons in their arsenal.

Some, like Hamilton Russell and Bouchard Finlayson can claim decades of experience, the inevitable appeal of premium pricing, and a history of favourable reviews as they battle off the parvenues. They have both elected to go the route of unshowy fruit, leaving to some of the newcomers the appeal of simple cherry juice as a means of raising their profile. Generally it has been the youngsters who have used plush aromatics to give consumers easier access. Finlayson's sons at Crystallum pack a lot of fruit into their two cuvees, so does Newton Johnson (whose Domaine wine last year garnered a Platter five star rating).

Meerlust has bounced back from its also-ran status to a clear position in the front of the pack. Paul Cluver took rather too much out of his standard cuvee when he launched the super-premium Seven Flags, though the 2009 regular bottling (one of the few affordable examples) seems back on track, while the 2008 Seven Flags is palpably the reserve selection. Next door, at Oak Valley, there have been a couple of superb releases, while further south, at Strandveld Vineyards, there is clear evidence that the Pinot hierarchy will have to deal with a new contender.

In all the excitement around the original Walker Bay plantings, what's happening in Elgin, south around Agulhas and further east at Herold in the Outeniqua Mountains, it's easy to forget Chamonix in Franschhoek. Under Gottfried Mocke this property has proved itself one of the country's most successful producers of Burgundy varieties. While Mocke has collected more trophies and awards for his Chardonnays than almost any other winemaker, his Pinots deserve equal attention. The vineyards may not be the Cape's most inaccessible, nor do his newsletters tell of his trials with troops of baboons. However, if you prefer good wine to a good story, Chamonix should also be on your Pinot shopping list.

From Business Day, 11 August 2010