There could be a touch of magic at work at Meerlust, a generations-old South African vineyard, writes Joe Breen
"I'm not very keen on this Old World-New World distinction. I like to think that we have one foot in the old and one foot in the new." Hannes Myburgh, the 49-year-old owner of South Africa's celebrated Meerlust winery, is musing over the difficulties of being considered the new boys on the block when his family has been making wine there since his ancestor Johannes Albertus Myburgh bought Meerlust, in Stellenbosch, in January 1757. "At Meerlust we have an old story to tell. We have been here for eight generations now. Wine was made at the Cape in 1659 for the first time, so it has always been part of the culture of the Cape. Our style at Meerlust is pretty much Old World. It is definitely not New World blockbuster. It's more elegant, more needful of reaching maturity."
For that reason, Meerlust keeps its red wines back for five years before releasing them for sale. The 2001 vintage, including a Pinot Noir and a Merlot, is just coming on stream. These are wines of wonderful concentration that will repay patience, as will Rubicon, a Bordeaux-like blend of Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc and Merlot that has become Meerlust's signature wine since its launch, in 1980. The 2000 Rubicon is the most recent vintage.
This is a time of change at the winery. In 2004 Chris Williams took over as head winemaker from Giorgio Dalla Cia, the Italian who, with Hannes's father, Nico, created Rubicon. So can we expect a change in style? "Yes and no. Every winemaker, like every chef, makes the recipe differently. Georgio was with us for 35 years. Together with my father he really crafted our style. But Chris worked with Giorgio, as his assistant, for five years, and he knows the philosophy of Meerlust and of my family and what we want our wines to be like.
"Basically there will be a tweak here and there. We'll be bringing the Chardonnay forward - we are now launching the 2004. We used to keep it longer, but we want it to be fresher but still with the same long, Burgundian style."
These are brighter days in South Africa, but during apartheid it was different. "It was really frustrating, because historically my family was very liberal. A lot of liberals left the country - and for good reason - but if you had a property like Meerlust you tried to change from within. You could not leave it. So we lived in hope."
Myburgh says his father belonged to a small group of winemakers who objected to the way the majority were treated. "It was very bad then, and we weren't very popular with the authorities, but it paid off in the end. My father always used to say that [making wine at this time] was like fighting in a ring with one hand tied behind your back. We were really the polecats of the South African wine world. And when freedom and democracy came, in 1994, it was a godsend."
Since then the South African wine industry in general, and Meerlust in particular, has begun to blossom. "We are getting recognition. For instance, my Chardonnay got 90 points in the Wine Spectator - usually they don't even rate it. But we still have a long way to go."
Yet there is no doubting his passion for his estate. "I always say that the essence of Meerlust is the land, the air, the wind that blows across it. It is in the bottle. You can smell it. It's like rubbing that bottle and the genie jumps out."
Meerlust wines are distributed by Febvre & Company, www.febvre.ie