Friday, October 13, 2023

Meerendal Estate celebrates 50 years as Wine Estate

Meerendal Wine Estate in Durbanville is celebrating its 50th anniversary as an Estate
We were invited to join them, celebrate and learn some of the history of the farm
It was founded in 1702 and 60,000 vines were planted then. Today they have over 150,000 vines on the Estate
The Cape Dutch style homestead was built in 1936, is now a fine Boutique hotel

The Cape started growing vines in the early 1650s and has produced wine since February 1659,
longer than any other wine area outside Europe and the Mediterranean
Meerendal's first modern vineyards were planted to Shiraz and Pinotage, and they are still producing wine,
now from seriously old and precious vines

An aerial view of the first vineyard on Meerendal, which is still in existence
It shows the oldest vineyard in Durbanville, a Pinotage vineyard that was planted in 1955, 68 years ago

Herman Coertze and his wife Aletta are the owners of Meerendal

In September 1973, Meerendal was officially declared a Wine Estate,
one of the first fourteen wine farms in South Africa to receive estate status
Meerendal marketing manager Bennie Howard CWM was one of the founding members who began this journey

A welcome to Meerendal by Bennie 

We were served a taste of the just degorged new Meerendal Sauvignon Blanc sparkling wine,
made by Meerendal GM and Winemaker Wade Roger-Lund
It  spent 6 month on the lees and is delicious, with yeasty, long, clean crisp flavours and a good lively mousse

and we drank a toast to the farm, to wine and to life

Something new at Meerendal, chocolate company CocoaFair has moved there, so exciting things are planned
More about this soon...

These two ancient Pear trees were planted so long ago that no one really knows when,
but they are the oldest trees on the estate

and they still produce fruit; these are late and shrivelled pears that survived the winter

Bennie knows all the history of the farm; he has worked there for many years

Meerendal general manager and winemaker Wade Roger-Lund

Wade showed us these very old Muscat d'Alexandrie (Hanepoot) vines
which must be the oldest surviving Hanepoot vines in the Cape

They have been gently pruned by old vine expert Rosa Kruger and will produce fruit every year

The amazing survival of a very old vine

We took a tour of the Heritage wine cellar

These are the old Kuipe (cement wine tanks), built in 1943, in which the wine was and still is, fermented
when the grapes first come in
(They also ferment wine in steel tanks and oak barrels)
They have been brought up to date with modern plumbing, cooling and automatic punch-down machinery

Meerendal has so many wonderful wines and two restaurants, but they also cater for many other interests
with running, hiking and mountain bike trails, events, conferences and weddings
Check out their website and Facebook page
We then tasted some older wines. First, Meerendal Shiraz 1989, so 34 years old
The vineyard was planted in 1972/3 by Oom Kosie Stark from cuttings taken from a 1930 vineyard
It became the mother block for their Shiraz grapes and plants
The nose opened with good fruit and you can still smell the French oak
Then rich raspberry fruit and other berry fruits, with morello cherry and some chalk and earthy minerality on the end Extraordinary
The 2005 Heritage Block Pinotage has incense wood, fruit gums, cassis and mulberry on the nose
Lovely red berry fruit, tea leaves, chalky grippy tannins and sweet and sour fruit. It still has time

Meerendal was the first of the 14 Durbanville estates to put the logo on the back labels of the wine - in 1957

We also tasted three current wines: the Sauvignon Blanc, which has all the classic Durbanville flavours
- granadilla, green pepper and lime, a bit tropical on opening then the green shows. A great wine for food pairing
The 2022 Rosé is 100% Pinotage with fruit gums on the nose, mulberry follows through on lighter palate
The Pinotage has such richness, dark cherries with smoke and huge minerality and salinity on the nose,
soft and sweeter fruit on the palate, long flavours ending in licorice wood

Meerendal is a Certified Heritage Vineyards Member



and so to Chocolate, a Deli and the new Tasting Room...
Read on...

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