Recently the Sankara Hotel hosted a wine tasting extravaganza showcasing the wines of the old and venerated Meerlust Estate from South Africa. This was not the first visit of the Meerlust Estate to Kenya. Some years ago the then wine maker at Meerlust the legendary Cape-Italian Giorgio Dalla Cia visited Kenya and established much goodwill. Although Giorgio left the Meerlust estate some years ago he still maintains a prominent position within the South African wine world including his own wine estate. He is also the wine advisor to the Sankara Hotel developing an impressive wine list with exciting additions in the pipeline. The Sankara Hotel connection with Meerlust continues with a recent visit from Hannes Myburgh the owner and Chris Williams the cellar master.
Situated 15 kilometres south of Stellenbosch, South Africa’s wine capital, and with the blue crescent of False Bay just 5 kilometres away, Meerlust dates back to 1693. A German immigrant to the Cape Henning Huising recognised the beauty of his new farm and named it Meerlust meaning “pleasure of the sea”. Beginning in 1756 the Myburgh family have had a continuous presence at Meerlust representing some eight generations.
The Meerlust Estate is recognised as one of the world’s great wine estate and their wines are appreciated and treasured in many countries around the world. The emphasis at the Meerlust Estate as Chris explained is to produce wines that reflect a sense of place, or that difficult to translate French word terroir. As a relatively small estate with approximately 106 hectres under vines, it might be expected that soils would be fairly uniform. In fact soil types change over very short distances on the farm creating a diversity of growing conditions. Meerlust grows mainly red grape varieties led by Cabernet sauvignon and Merlot with a small amount of Pinot noir and even smaller amount of Cabernet franc. The remaining 10 per cent of vines are the white grape variety Chardonnay.
Chris introduced a selection of Meerlust Estate wines. Starting with the Chardonnay bright and brilliant in very clean Sankara Hotel glasses the wine has a complex bouquet with citrus and floral notes with vanilla and toast from the delicate use of oak barrel maturation. On the palate the Chardonnay is full, but still balanced by crisp acidity. The second wine we tried was the Pinot noir a youthful purple-ruby in colour. Pinot noir is known for being a difficult grape to grow being particularly susceptible to the vagaries of climate. Too wet and the grapes have too much water content and too hot they lead to over ripe wines that can taste jammy. Not so with this Pinot noir, this has lots of strawberries on the bouquet and palate with nice spice and fruits. The last wine we tried was the Merlot again a youthful purple colour in the glass. The Merlot grape can produce very soft and even voluptuous wines and the Meerlust example definitely shows these characteristics.
Something Chris commented on was that his wines tasted different here in Kenya compared to how they taste back home in South Africa the bend of False Bay. I think this could be due to a number of reasons the least likely being a bit of bottle-shock the wines had from their journey from South Africa. More likely and what I notice regularly is the effect of altitude has on taste. Taste of anything including wine changes with altitude and is a reason why sipping very expensive wines at 35,000 feet in an airplane may not live up to expectations, although chance would be a fine thing.
The Meerlust Estate wine tasting at the Sankara Hotel was a real treat for we wine enthusiasts. I must congratulate the Sankara Hotel for a number of reasons. It was great to have quality and most importantly clean glasses that showcased the wines to their full. You would be surprised how really good wines can be spoiled by inappropriate and dirty glasses a big bug-bare of mine. Congratulations also to the Sankara Hotel chefs for providing some delicious food pairings, which again showcased the Meerlust wines excellently. All-in-all this was a very successful and enjoyable wine tasting at the Sankara Hotel. All the Meerlust Estate wines are available and can be enjoyed at the Sankara Hotel.
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