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 "And now the wine in the R80 and plus category. I was lucky enough to make my way out to Meerlust over the weekend for the launch of their 2004 Rubicon, the first to be under the complete control of winemaker, Chris Williams – and what a wonderful wine it is.
Full of flavour, but also of finesse. Powerful and elegant, persistent, balanced, thoughtful, rewarding, very rewarding. It’s expensive – retailing at around R230 a bottle. And people ask me – do you get value for that outlay? Let me answer that question in this way – at the launch we were privileged to also taste some prior vintages – the 86, 91, 94, 98 and 2001.
All were worthy of praise and more sipping, but for just about everybody present, the stand-out wine was the 91. That’s a wine that was released in 1995 and retailed at about R40. Imagine having had the foresight to have bought a couple of cases and cellar them properly – what value would you be getting from them now?
So, yes, R230 for a bottle of wine in 2008 is expensive, but for a wine that will still be giving great pleasure in ten years time, and longer, all of a sudden, the purchase of such a wine seems a frugal and necessary act."
John Maytham, Cape Talk Radio.
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