You would have to be deluded to describe the relationship between SA wine drinkers and pinotage as anything except fraught. Even those who are most passionate about it express their enthusiasm as if responding to a series of unspoken challenges. They defend it before (or perhaps while) they promote it. There is an undercurrent that has as its implicit subtext the faint praise of “some of my favourite wines are pinotage”. There’s a long history to this: surely it must now be time to cut the baggage loose and free the best examples to soar unhindered by its burden?..