Meerlust

I'm really, really impressed with what Chris Williams has been doing at Meerlust since taking over from Georgio Dalla Cia. He's refined and updated the wines without surrendering any of the historical brand value invested in the name. Meerlust is of course best known for the Rubicon and, to a lesser degree, the chardonnay, merlot and pinot noir.

But there was a time when they bottled a very good single varietal cab sauv and Chris has re-established that practice with the launch of a 2004 cab. It's world-class, it really is. It's both attractively elegant while offering the promise of long-aging without being tannic and undrinkable now.

This is a balance that a lot of wine-makers strive for, but very few actually achieve. I'm often asked what people should buy to drink at their just-born child's 21st birthday. Well, if your child was born in 2004, the Meerlust Cab will, I'm sure, still be giving pleasure in 2025.

It's not cheap - but I'm confident that if it were put into a blind tasting with some of the world's super-achievers in this varietal - it would out-perform most of them on a value for rand basis.

Article by John Maytham