Welcome back, Meerlust Cabernet! A SA classic returns

Welcome back, Meerlust Cabernet! A SA classic returns
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It may have been Meerlust seventh-generation owner Nico Myburgh's dream to produce a great South African red blend in the style of Bordeaux when, in 1950, he inherited the wine estate that had been in the Myburgh family since the mid 18th century.

And it may have taken him 30 years to realise that dream when Meerlust Rubicon (first made in 1980 and introduced in 1984) became a national icon of world renown. But it all started with the king of grape varieties… cabernet sauvignon.

Thus, it’s with the re-introduction, after a hiatus of several years, of Meerlust Cabernet Sauvignon vintage 2009 that the enduring bond between Meerlust, now under the custodianship of eighth generation Hannes Myburgh, and this noble grape variety again come to light.

It was, in fact, a Cabernet Sauvignon from the 1975 vintage that was the first red wine to be made under the Meerlust label in the modern era of the estate. Before that, during Nico Myburgh’s dedicated restoration of the historical homestead and lands, the crop from vineyards replanted from old chenin blanc and sémillon to classic French red varieties, had been sent to various co-operative cellars for pressing, blending and bottling under generic co-op labels.

The wine was greeted with acclaim in the industry at that time. It won a gold medal at the Stellenbosch Regional Wine Show and the trophy for overall champion red at the South African Championship Wine Show. This gave Myburgh the confidence to put the wine on the market in 1978 once he deemed it ready for public consumption.

That same year, it was honoured with the highest award then granted to local wines by the Wine and Spirit Board: the gold imprint of the ‘bus ticket’ denoting a Wine of Origin Superior, then an acknowledged guarantee to wine drinkers of exceptional quality.

The success of those early Cabernets confirmed that the soil and climate of Meerlust were suited to the traditional Bordeaux varieties. This eventually led to the fruition of Nico Myburgh’s efforts, the Rubicon blend, featuring the classic combination of cabernet sauvignon with merlot and cabernet franc.

Despite the Rubicon drawing on the estate’s cabernet as the foundation of its blend, bottlings of Meerlust Cabernet Sauvignon continued throughout the ‘70s and ‘80s. Except in 1977, 1979 and 1985 when, applying rigorous self-imposed quality control practised across the exclusive range of wines, Meerlust opted not to release. But the Cabernets that reached the market continued to garner the WO Superior sticker.

Eventually, as Meerlust Rubicon began to conquer the world wine scene into the 1990s, it was decided to reserve all the estate’s quality cabernet, which included new plantings, for the growing flagship blend. Whatever was not deemed worthy of Rubicon was released in odd years in tandem with remaining merlot and cabernet franc in a second-label red blend.

Hence the 1993 vintage of Meerlust Cabernet Sauvignon was the last of its era…. Meerlust was (as it still is) honouring the tradition of the original South African ‘estate’ concept formulated in the early 1970s by confining itself to working only with grapes grown on the property.

Until 2004 and 2005, when small amounts of the farm’s cabernet were sequestered once more for bottling as a single varietal expression of Meerlust’s essential cachet as a grower of classical cabernet. Again, the connoisseurs agreed. But demands from the Rubicon subsequently prohibited further varietal bottlings.

Relates cellarmaster Chris Williams: ‘But such was the success of our intermittent bottlings, and such was the grumbling of the trade and consumers when we didn’t always have Cabernet, that we decided to re-introduce it on a regular basis. Quality permitting, of course.’

Further plantings of the variety in Meerlust’s soils of decomposed granite mixed with clay underpinned the new commitment to the farm’s star grape. ‘Meerlust has always produced cabernet that combines structure and dense tannins with generous fruit: nothing rich or overblown, but more of a soft, cassis character. It makes the wine quite open and approachable when young, but at the same time allows for laying it down for many years.’

Vinification is kept hands-off and traditional: hand-picked fruit, partial un-inoculated fermentation of free-run juice only, regular pump-overs and 18 months in French oak barrels of which 80 per cent are new. ‘We simply try and reflect Meerlust’s vineyards in the wine.’

Production will remain at about 2 400 12-bottle cases each vintage, slightly more or less depending, again, on Rubicon’s requirements and quality prerequisites.

Meerlust Cabernet Sauvignon 2009 is now available from the cellar at R220 a bottle and will be found at most leading wine shops.

Re-joining the Rubicon 2007, Merlot 2007, Pinot Noir 2010 and Chardonnay 2009, the Cabernet Sauvignon 2009’s arrival completes the range, bringing wine lovers just a little more of what Hannes Myburgh calls the ‘magic’ and Chris Williams describes as the ‘soul’ of Meerlust.

  +27.218433587       +27.218433274       shop@meerlust.co.za
Meerlust Estate Baden Powell Drive P.O. Box 7121 , Stellenbosch, 7599, South Africa