Hannes Myburgh is the proprietor of Meerlust, one of South Africa’s most celebrated wineries. Hannes took over from his father Nicolaas (known as Nico) in 1988, so he’s been running things for 37 years of Meerlust’s 50 years. The debut vintage was 1975.
Meerlust is a historical property, and the farm was established in 1693, just 41 years after the Cape was first colonised by the Dutch in 1652. The Dutch came here largely because of the scurvy problems on the long spice route journey. The ships needed somewhere to refresh along the route. The name Meerlust translates as the pleasure of the sea, because of the proximity of false bay just 5 km away it was named.
Nicolaas inherited the farm in 1959, and they restored the historic buildings. He planted more vineyards, supplying coops with the grapes. In 1967, he travelled with his wife to France, where he went to Bordeaux. This gave him the idea of creating a Bordeaux-style blend, with Merlot and Cabernet Franc. The problem is, there wasn’t much Cabernet Franc in the Cape, and there was no Merlot. With the help of a pilot friend he smuggled some in.
In 1975 he released the first wine from the estate, a varietal Cabernet Sauvignon, which was made at the Bergkelder (estate wines were rare at this time, but this still counted as an estate wine because there was a dispensation at the time). In 1978 Giorgio Dalla Cia, from Friuli, joined for one season as winemaker (by this stage the wines were being made on the farm), and then stayed for 25.
In 1979 the entire vintage was lost because of harvest rain, but 1980 was an abundant year and they decided to make a special blend of Cabernet Sauvignon with Merlot and Cabernet Franc. But there was a lot of push back from the industry about this. They were ready to release this blend in 1984, but didn’t have a name. The name Rubicon was suggested by a friend who was a professor of languages, Dirk Opperman.
The release of Rubicon and its success inspired others to make Bordeaux-style blends. Nicolaas died in 1988. The brand was built through times of embargo and sanctions and political upheaval, and it was quite a challenge. In 1994 South Africa became a democracy and this changed things a lot.
Chris Williams was winemaker from 2004 (he’d been assistant winemaker since 1995), and Wim Truter took over from Chris in 2020. I visited with cellar master Wim Truter, winemaker Altus Treurnicht and sales and marketing manager Deidre Taylor.
Meerlust wines are all made from the estate, which is in a part of Stellenbosch called Eersterivier (and which will soon become a ward; it translates as First River). Being 5 km from False Bay makes a big difference to the farm, but it’s not actually cooler than the main part of Stellenbosch – it’s warmer. It’s just that there are fewer temperature peaks. The average temperature here is about 0.8 C higher than the Stellenbosch average. Meerlust has an average of just under 2100 GDDs, whereas Stellenbosch District is just under 2000 GDDs. Meerlust is about 2 weeks early than the rest of Stellenbosch for each variety.
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