Meerlust Rubicon 2021 Gift Tin
Tasting Notes
Very youthful colour, deep and dense with almost purple hue. Quintessential Rubicon nose with violets, ripe plum, cedar wood, fennel, and intense spiciness. Typical liquorice notes also evident on the nose. Still young and intense, the palate is full bodied, structured but packed with fresh dark fruit and rounded tannins and seamlessly integrated oak.
Blend Information
48% Cabernet Sauvignon, 46% Merlot, 5% Cabernet Franc, 1% Petit Verdot
Accolades
2024 Platter's Wine Guide - 5 Stars
Ageing Potential
Ageing potential of 10 - 20 years, provided wine is stored in ideal cellar conditions.
Raats MR de Compostella 2020
Never made with exactly the same blend in any two vintages, the 2020 is a classic Cape Bordeaux assemblage of 30% Cabernet Franc, 28% Cabernet Sauvignon, 21% Malbec, 16% Merlot and 5% Petit Verdot with a total production of only 1,000 x 6. The wine displays a real intensity in the glass with a ruby red rim and a red / black plum heart. The aromatics are vibrant and fabulously perfumed, bursting from the glass with expressive notes of red and black berry fruits, black currant, raspberry, red and black cherry, before notes of earthy blueberry emerge with suggestions of pressed violets, lavender, sweet sandalwood, star anise and graphite spice. On the palate, the vintage’s regal elegance emerges with exhilarating acids framing the plush opulent red and back berry fruits, saline cassis, tart red cherry and a blueberry confectionary generosity.
98/100 Greg Sherwood MW
SHAW + SMITH Adelaide Hills Shiraz 2020
Floral aromas and a touch of cherries. Integrated soft tannins and a graphite-like earthiness together with red fruits and spice notes of dried herbs on the palate gives this wine great depth and complexity.
94/100 Deano da Vino - Complex, with layers of earthiness, cigar box, and dark broody cherries and a hint of mixed spice. Drinking superbly now, or can last 5 years
Château Montaiguillon, Montagne Saint-Emilion 2020
Montaiguillon’s 2020 is another resounding success, continuing a string of excellent vintages at the estate. It is a deep ruby colour with notes of spiced plums, cassis and blackberries on the nose. There’s a savoury, graphite note woven through the juicy, sumptuous palate. Its rounded tannins are already integrated with the plump fruit, and the finish has a fresh, balanced length, the likes of which you’d expect from wines with much bigger price tags.
Meerlust Merlot 2022
Deep ruby red. Typical Merlot notes of black plum, dark cherry, dried herbs underpinned by mocha and tobacco. The palate is generous with juicy dark fruit, while still delicate on the finish, showing complex cherry tobacco flavours coupled with a fine acidity. This wine shows will age gracefully and will gain in complexity and suppleness of tannin for many years to come.
100% Merlot
Ageing potential
10 - 15 years, provided wine is stored in ideal cellar conditions.
In the cellar
This vintage is 100% Merlot. It is made up of a few individual parcels that are all fermented separately before undergoing malolactic fermentation in 300 L barrels. After 6 months in barrel, the final components were selected and blended and put back to barrel for 12
months in 40% new French oak for further maturation before bottling.
Kanonkop Paul Sauer 2021
The Paul Sauer 2021 is the flagship Bordeaux Blend style red wine from Kanonkop.
The Blend - 69% Cabernet Sauvignon, 17% Cabernet Franc and 14% Merlot
Deep ruby colour. On the nose, a classic, perfumed packed with cherries, cassis, cedar, cigar box, tea leaves and tomato paste, followed by a palate of cassis, cranberries, savoury plum and sweet vanilla. In the glass, a complex multi-layered, refined wine with a beautiful structure, balanced acidity, elegant, fine grained tannins and a long, persistent finish.
99/100 Greg Sherwood
Kanonkop Estate Prepare to Release Possibly One of Their Most Iconic Vintages Ever – Tasting the New Paul Sauer 2021…
A blend of 70% Cabernet Sauvignon, 17% Merlot, and 13% Cabernet Franc, the 2021 Paul Sauer is beautifully intense and utterly seductive, the aromatics pulling you in with their perfumed notes of incense, violets, black currant, saline oyster shell, black cherry, sweet cherry tobacco and graphite with subtle blueberry notes and a subtle kiss of sweet cedar and vanilla pod spice. The palate shows sprawling breadth and depth with a gentle picante spice together with a noticeably intense salinity and maritime, nori seaweed nuance before more bold flavours of black currant, mulberry, black cherry and blueberry coat the mouth. The fine silky tannins are deceptively taut and crisp with the fresh glassy acids adding to the wine’s obvious power, focus and superb intensity. So much wine in the glass, so much to assimilate! The 2021 Paul Sauer represents a true Cape Bordeaux blend masterclass once again from Abrie Beeslaar! Drink from 2025 to 2050+.
97/100 Tim Atkin
This is the last release that will be presented to the market by departing winemaker Abrie Beeslaar and he's going out on a high. Partnering Cabernet Sauvignon, 17% Merlot and 13% Cabernet Franc, with ageing in new French oak, it's leafy, floral and refined, showing plenty of underlying structure, cassis and red berry fruit and sculpted tannins. Classy stuff. Drink from 2026-40
Morellino di Scansano Riserva 2021
Morellino di Scansano Riserva 2021
Deep and bright ruby. Olfactory impact of blackberry and blueberry jam, blackcurrant and mint; it opens on scents of Mediterranean scrub, blood orange, tobacco and black pepper. The entry into the mouth is fresh and tasty; it shows a dynamic structure, imbued with a beautiful freshness in which the fine tannic texture constitutes an excellent base for evolving for a long time in the bottle. Very persistent on citrus notes.
Glenelly Estate Reserve 2016 Jeroboam (3L)
Glenelly Estate Reserve 2015 is the signature red blend of Glenelly. It combines the rich and savoury character of the Syrah (pepper and spices) with Cabernet Sauvignon (blackberries, cherries and floral spices) and with touches of Merlot, Cabernet Franc and Petit Verdot. The blend is different with every vintage.
Glenelly Estate Reserve 2015 is a Jeroboam, which is also known as a double Magnum, basically 4 standard bottles, 3 Litres in total.
Grattamacco Bolgheri Superiore 2019
Grattamacco Bolgheri Superiore 2019
A heady perfume of meaty red fruit and spice rises from the glass on the bouquet. Rich and mouth-filling on the palate, a real vino di piacere with ripe red and black, spicy fruit vying for attention, brought together by rapier-like acidity and meltingly fine tannins. This delicious Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Sangiovese blend from Bolgheri is not trying to be Sassicaia nor Ornellaia; it’s very much its own wine, more akin to Tignanello, but different again from the wine from Chianti Classico. It’s a delightful wine—delicious now but capable of up to a decade’s cellaring.
Drink now to 2030
Balnaves Cabernet – Merlot 2020
Hartenberg The Megan 2016
Hartenberg The Megan 2016
TASTING NOTES:
Vibrant red cherry, Karoo shrub and spicy notes on the bouquet. Incredibly soft on palate entry. The mid-palate is creamy, juicy,
bursting with flavour and finishes with a very moreish, lingering aftertaste. Fine dry tannins will ensure beneficial further ageing.
85% Shiraz
12% Grenache
3% Mourvedre
94/100 Tim Atkin MW
Meerlust Rubicon 2016 Magnum Gift Tin
The Meerlust Rubicon 2016 (Magnum) shows great charm and drinkability even at this early stage, no doubt a result of the high Merlot and Cabernet Franc composition. We were very cautious with regards to tannic structure as some of the later Cabs exhibited astringency which we wanted to minimise in the final blend. Wonderful exotic aromas of plum, sandalwood and perfume, still with a touch of creamy vanilla. The palate is medium bodied with a forward dark fruit flavour of cassis and mulberry followed by a lithe tannic structure fleshed out with juicy fruit. The impression is one of litheness and grace rather than over-arching power.
Blend Information
49% Cabernet Sauvignon, 28% Merlot, 20% Cabernet Franc, 3% Petit Verdot
