My favourite wine to drink at Apero on Kroad. It’s always available by the glass and I can enjoy a taste from home- South Africa while indulging in the delight that is Apero.
A Bordeaux style blend of Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Cabernet Franc and Petit Verdot aged in Boujee French oak for 17 months. Intense fresh red fruit combines with a floral, spicy, tobacco box character in a medium-to full bodied wine with a soft, silky texture for drinking now or up to 8 years’ bottle cellaring.
This wine always gives me a rare palate-pleasng experience considering it’s price.
Steeped in tradition and history- Meerlust dates back to 1693, the house that is “love or pleasure of the sea.” Less than five kms south from the Atlantic Ocean, the property was purchased in 1756 and to this day remains family owned, now in its eighth generation with 260 years of continuity.
"Alea iacta est. The die is cast," Julius Caesar is supposed to have said as he led his troops towards Rome in 49BC. The crucial border of the ancient capital was the Rubicon River, and the decision to cross it marked an irrevocable point in history. It would profoundly shift the course of Roman politics - there could be no turning back.
Some 2000 years later, a watershed event occurred in the life of Nico Myburgh, father of the current custodian of Meerlust, Hannes Myburgh. Holidaying in Bordeaux, he discovered that the terroir in this area of France was similar to that of the Eerste River Valley. Both have a distinctive climate, characterised by a cooling sea breeze. And both have a soil structure made up of decomposed granite and clay.
The red wines produced by the two regions, however, were very different. Unlike the Western Cape's specified cultivars, Bordeaux thrived on producing blends.
Nico returned to Meerlust, filled with inspiration and the desire to create a blend of his own that would match those of the French. In 1980, after several years of experimentation together with winemaker Giorgio Dalla Cia, he announced the birth of the new blend. With proportions of 70% Cabernet Sauvignon, 20% Merlot and 10% Cabernet Franc, a new style of wine had been created in South Africa. Like Caesar, there could be no turning back.
Nico and Giorgio had already considered a number of names for the new blend when Professor Dirk Opperman from the University of Stellenbosch, a friend of Nico's suggested that "Rubicon" might be appropriate. The pair had, after all, crossed a new frontier - and changed the way South Africans thought about red wine.
