Tim Atkin South Africa Special Report results
The winelands are alight this week with the Tim Atkin 95+ tastings taking place in Cape Town, the Winelands, and Johannesburg this week, with the official South Africa Special Report 2026 being released on the 1 September.
Tim writes, "I was very impressed by the quality of what I tasted in 2026, especially from the 2025 vintage, which I would rate between nine and ten out of ten, making it the best harvest since 2017. There are a lot of good 2024s, too, although yields were much lower, resulting in more structured wines in many cases. 2023 and 2022 were both more mixed, for different reasons, but people who made the right calls in the vineyard and cellar have produced some very smart wines, even with later-picked Bordeaux grapes."
Meerlust Estate is proud to share the scores of our current and new releases, with both our Chardonnay 2025 and Rubicon 2023 on tasting this week.
Meerlust's new releases
We are also pleased to announce our new releases for September:
- Chardonnay 2025
- Pinot Noir 2025
- Cabernet Sauvignon 2023
These are now all available to taste in our cellar door.
Vineyard preparation: Current activities in the vineyard
We started by planting a mixture of plant species as cover crops, adapting the selection according to the season, weed pressure, and our ongoing soil evaluations.
This year, we planted members of the Brassicaceae family, including radishes, to help improve soil structure; legumes such as medics and lupins to assist with natural nitrogen fixation; and black oats and forage rye to provide additional biomass and grazing material.
This diverse cover-crop approach supports biodiversity – not only through a greater variety of plant species, but also by creating habitat and food sources for insects and other natural predators.
The cover crop has now reached the appropriate growth stage for us to introduce our Nguni/Angus crossbred cattle. Their carefully managed grazing will form part of our ongoing trials to assess how integrating livestock into the vineyard can contribute to soil health, nutrient cycling, weed management, and overall ecosystem resilience.
Meerlust Nguni/Angus herd: Animal husbandry in our vineyards
In terms of animal husbandry in our vineyards, we are still in the early stages of these introductions, conducting real-world trials to evaluate their impact on soil health, carbon sequestration, moisture retention, and weed control.
The animals are allowed to graze a few rows at a time, essentially applying the same principles as strip grazing in pastures. We aim to move them through the vineyard quickly enough to prevent overgrazing, while still leaving sufficient plant material behind to encourage rapid regrowth.
This approach also helps us keep winter weeds under control and builds on our ongoing no-tillage trials. By avoiding unnecessary soil disturbance or turning before planting, we aim to preserve soil moisture and protect the microbial life and structure within the soil.
Ultimately, we are testing how carefully managed animal integration can become another tool in developing healthier, more resilient vineyard ecosystems
Visit our tasting room to taste our full range of Meerlust wines
Visit our tasting room to taste our full range of Meerlust wines. Our tasting room is open to receive visitors from Monday to Friday from 09h00 to 17h00, and on Saturdays and public holidays from 10h00 to 15h00.
- Standard Tasting (no booking required): We offer a tasting of our full range of wines, including the Rubicon, at R150 pp, which is refundable per person who purchase wine after their tasting.
- Seated VIP Tasting (booking required): Our VIP tasting will be presented by a senior member of the team, in our private seated tasting room. It includes our full range of current vintage wines, as well as an older vintage of Rubicon and one of our other Estate wines. The wines are served in Riedel varietal range glassware. A fee of R350 pp applies.
For bookings, please email tasting@meerlust.co.za.
Click HERE to shop our wines online.
We look forward to welcoming you to Meerlust to enjoy our range of red wines over the cold winter season.
Kind regards,
Hannes and the Meerlust team