Middle class South Africans invented the "mixed grill." Here in the states we have barbecues that usually include simple burgers and dogs, or if we're "kickin' it up a notch," steaks with something mundane like chicken breast thrown in for whoever's girlfriend shows up looking for anything that's not red meat. Not the case in South Africa-a braai, as they call it, is a feast of antelope, beef, lamb, sausages and venison cooked over a wood fire. They don't marinate it, and they don't season it. It's about flesh, fire and wood. Pinotage is the wine they serve at these events.

Pinotage is South Africa's "home boy" grape. It shows best when grown in bleak places, vinified with old practices and given a good dose of oak to tame it. This is just such a wine. Generally it is grown in warmer climes, but to push this saucy grape even further, the Hamilton-Russell group is growing these grapes within a whale's tail of chilly Walker Bay. The result is a rustic, smoked fruit wine that will blow your socks off for 15 smackeroonies.

Throw the stuff from the Styrofoam tray onto a charcoal grill and pop the cork on one of these. Deep purple color comes from extended skin contact. The nose gives up a whiff of dried berries and allspice. Surprisingly docile milky raspberries and plums contrast strikingly against the smoky vanillan oak on your tongue. Tannin carries the day in a mature manner that certainly benefited from conditioned oak barreling. This wine would taste great with everything from a Slim-Jim to a smoked squab breast.

As a side note, every bottle sold represents a contribution to the conservation of endangered right whales.