I had the pleasure of attending my first ever South African Wine Society event where they were featuring a vertical of 10 of Meerlust’s Rubicon Bordeaux blend wine. This one was the star of the night for me. Inky dark in color with a mild cab franc dominant nose. On the mid palate the wine displays some beautiful bold, rich cab franc dominate flavors, black berries and the like. On the medium length finish the wine displays some lovely bold tannins, great complexity and beautiful mouth puckering dryness. If your getting a hint that I liked this wine … I did! If you like your wines smooth and elegant … ahh this ain’t the wine for you. But if your up to a wine that offers big bold flavors from start to finish, then it’s perfect … This wine should have lots of life left in it, in spite of already being 11 years old. Very impressive. Right now I would give it a 90 or so … Sadly not only not in the LCBO, but you can buy it from Lifford for $54.99 (for the current 2014 vintage). I would have to say this is hands down one of the best South African reds I’ve had to date. Yumm…
By the way if your ever looking for a wine rep here in Ontario to buy a case from you can use Drinks Ontario to search.
Winery’s notes:
2006 – 74% cab sauvignon, 8% merlot and 18% cab franc. Very deep, youthful colour, intense almost purple hue. Very classic Rubicon nose with violets, ripe plum, cedar wood and intense spiceyness. Still very young but brooding, promising further maturation potential. The palate is full bodied, structured but packed with fresh dark fruit and rounded, linear tannins.
