Meerlust Merlot 75cl

Meerlust Merlot is one of South Africa’s classic Merlot wines. It is made at Meerlust Estate, one of the oldest and most prestigious South African Wineries in the Stellenbosch wine region.

Meerlust has a long history and the Myburgh family have been making wine at the estate for eight generations since 1756. Current owner Hannes Myburgh (who studied winemaking at Geisenheim, Germany and Chateau Lafite) continues to maintain the family tradition to the art of fine wine making. The head winemaker since 2004 is Chris Williams, who has worked at Meerlust since 1995. Meerlust consists of 110 hectares of vineyards located 15 kilometres to the south of Stellenbosch and 5 kilometres away from False Bay. The Estate is ideally positioned for the production of characterful and complex wines – there are cooling ocean breezes and evening mists in the summertime which allow the grapes to ripen slowly and thereby gaining full, complex, rich and robust varietal characteristics. The soil is similar to those of Bordeaux, it is deep well-draining Hutton and Clovelly soil types (decomposing granite and clay), ideal for wine-growing offering the vines good drought resistance and conditions for producing concentrated, complex wines.

Meerlust Merlot is produced 24 year old estate-grown Merlot plantings. Grapes are picked by hand and are manually selected prior to crushing. Fermentation is in stainless steel vats with a daily remontage and delestage for gentle extraction. The wine then undergoes malolactic fermentation in 300L French oak cask. The wine is aged in 50% new Nevers French oak and 50% second fill Nevers for 16 months before bottling. The Meerlust Merlot 2015 is a blend of 85% Merlot, 8% Cabernet Franc for structure and acidity and 7% Petit Verdot which gives the wine a lifted floral aroma and polished, sleek tannins.