Blend: 43% Caberbet Sauvignon, 31% Merlot, 21% Cabernet Franc, 5% Petit Verdot

The Follies stay in the the Southern Hemisphere with the delicious Meerlust Red Blend from South Africa with a wine that is essentially the second label of their iconic Rubicon bottling.  Located east of Cape Town and south of Stellenbosch, only five kilometers from False Bay, this stunningly beautiful Cape-style winery boasts an incredibly long history of family ownership.  The Myburgh family established the estate in 1756 and built the wine cellar in 1776.  The property is now managed by eighth generation Hannes Myburgh and a winemaking team with impressive credentials from around the globe.  The original building still stands, with improvements over the years, drawing tourists from around the world to appreciate the dramatic beauty of its setting and, of course, the estate’s delicious wines.   Like Kumeu River, Meerlust is also situated in a warm climate but benefits from cooling moisture and breezes from the sea. Together with a unique combination of soil types, alluvial clay, decomposed granite and streaks of weathered volcanic rock, the region leans toward producing rich, full-bodied reds and luscious whites.  Severely limiting the yields also adds to the concentration of their intensely flavored reds.  The 2019 Meerlust Red is just that, a blend of 43% Cabernet Sauvignon, 31% Merlot, 27% Cabernet Franc and 5% Petit Verdot, fermented in new and seasoned oak barrels and aged for 17 months prior to bottling.  The wine is deep and dark, with robust flavors of ripe, black fruit (plums and cassis come to mind) and plenty of exotic floral and spice aromas.  Despite its broad array of fruit and slight hint of typical South African rusticity,  the texture of the wine is beautifully balanced, promising a bright future for additional bottle age.  It’s a wine that loves beef, so grill a steak, open one of these and congratulate yourself on finding one of the best values in top-flight red we’ve got right now.  

Winery Notes:The wine has an intense, dark purple color with a violet rim. Bright and vivacious in the glass, very youthful. The nose is expressive with powerful cassis, plum, exotic spice and hints of floral aromas. On the palate the wine is medium bodied with intense flavors of crushed black fruit, cassis, vanilla and dark chocolate. The tannins are very soft and silky with fresh acidity and a focused, linear flavor profile. The wine has a persistent and long lasting aftertaste.