The Kanonkop wine estate in Stellenbosch needs little introduction to South African wine lovers. It is one of very few properties whose reputation flourishes outside the whirlpool of vinous fashion, an island which rests as much on the certainties of ownership as it does on provenance itself.

Kanonkop - in the modern era - has been bottling wine under its own name since the 1973 vintage, the year in which SA's (at the time prescient) wine of origin legislation was promulgated. In that sense it has been an estate for as long as estate wine (in the sense defined by that legislation) has existed.

The property has been in the hands of the same family for about a century. The Kriges - who are the current owners - are the grandchildren of the 1950s cabinet minister Paul Sauer, whose father JW (a minister in the first post-Union cabinet) had owned Uitkyk. Kanonkop was subdivided from this rather grand farm, with its famous Cape Georgian homestead, by Paul as part of his inheritance.

Out of the relative stability of ownership, of unflashy and prudent management, a style of wine and an approach to the market has come to flourish. An aspect of this is evident in the continuity of the winemaking team. The cellarmaster from 1968 was Springbok rugby player Jan "Boland" Coetzee. He was succeeded by Beyers Truter in the early 1980s. Truter in turn trained up his successor, Abrie Beeslaar, so that a seamless transition followed his departure (to dedicate himself to Beyerskloof) in 2003.

Kanonkop's location is self- evidently an integral part of its success. It lies in the heart of the northern side of Stellenbosch's Simonsberg appellation. This is, in real estate terms, the equivalent of owning a Herbert Baker house in Johannesburg's Westcliff. An aerial view reveals that lying within a 10km radius are the vineyards of Rustenberg, Thelema, Tokara, Warwick, Delheim, Quoin Rock, Morgenhof, Uitkyk, and Le Bonheur.

The current - and uncustomary - excitement around Kanonkop is the launch of the cellar's first new product in roughly a quarter of a century. Unsurprisingly, the wine is a pinotage, and, equally unsurprisingly, it is a pinotage of truly refined quality (certainly unlike the wines which have given the variety such an unhappy reputation). It is also a wine with a pedigree. The Kanonkop 2006 Black Label has been produced from a block planted in 1953. The low- yielding bushvine vineyard covers three hectares and typically delivers the equivalent of about 5000 bottles. Until 2006 this wine was blended into the regular Kanonkop Pinotage.

From now on, however, a proportion (in 2006 some 1200 bottles) will be vinified separately and sold as the estate's super-premium red. Its launch price has been set at R1000 per bottle. The entire production has been offered through two brokers in the manner of the Bordeaux en primeur trade.

Of course, selling wine which is already in bottle is not exactly a faithful replica of the Bordeaux model, though Johann Krige says that within a few vintages, this is how the sale will be handled.

This first vintage has been divided into two tranches, the first of which (600 bottles) has evidently already been fully allocated. On paper, the tried and tested Bordeaux model is already working.

It is ironic that at a time when the Bordeaux trade is rethinking this sales and marketing structure, the same vehicle has been embraced in SA. Kanonkop is undoubtedly a South African "first growth". Like Chateaux Lafite and Latour, it is less likely to suffer from the blocked pipeline syndrome which may spell the death of the en primeur trade of the Medoc.

But the real test of this strategy will not come even with the sale of the second tranche. It will take several years, increasing volumes from the old vine block, and a strong secondary market in a wine which sets out from the cellar at R1000 per bottle before anyone can pronounce upon its success.