Regenerating the classics: Vergelegen and Meerlust

By Jamie Goode | 29th October 2024

Regeneration is part of life. Time inevitably progresses and we can’t do anything about it. Because of this, we can’t stand still or stay the way we are and hope to succeed. And a wine business must adapt and change with time, just as each of us needs to in our professional careers. Often, wine businesses are quite good at this, because each vintage is different and for them to do a good job they have to read the conditions of the vintage well, so they are in the habit of adaptation. But even the biggest names in wine can lose their shine a bit. It might be because they have rested on their laurels and got used to doing things the way they’ve always done them. Or it might be because others have emerged and stolen some of the limelight: commentators on wine love the novel and the new, perhaps even more than the traditional and established. For whatever reason, some of the wineries in South Africa whose bottles were the most sought after 20 years ago, no longer get the attention that they used to.

Image above shows Luke O’Cuinneagain, Winemaker at Vergelegen

Last week I was in South Africa and was delighted to find that two of the classic names in the Cape wine scene are well on the way to regenerating themselves with new talent at the helm and a renewed push to regain their top positions. These are Vergelegen and Meerlust.

I remember being blown away when I tasted the wines of Vergelegen some 23 years ago (at an event in 2001). I noted then the progress since they had signed celebrated winemaker André Van Rensberg 1998. Then I visited in 2005 and, as expected, came away impressed. André, who had made his name at Stellenzicht, was the second winemaker to work at Vergelegen, following on from founding winemaker Martin Meinert.

But over the years Vergelegen, once one of the flagship properties of the South African wine scene, funded by mining company Anglo American, had faded a little from view. The wines were still good, but when I tasted the more recent vintages last year made under the previous regime, they failed to excite the way I thought they should have. The range had also expanded to 22 different wines, which was too big. André retired from Vergelegen in 2022, and his last bottled reds were the 2020 vintage. New winemaker Luke O’Cuinneagain moved here from Glenelly, the French-influenced winery in Stellenbosch, where he had been for 14 years making some impressive wines. He also has experience working abroad, including a vintage at Screaming Eagle in California, and Angelus in Bordeaux. When Luke took over, he had the 2022 reds in tank that he had to barrel down, and then the 2021 reds and top whites to finish off. But his first proper vintage was 2023, and he changed things round quite a bit. I tried through some of these wines already bottled, and then a few in tank. 2023 in the Cape was a very challenging vintage, but the wines are really good. I also tasted through some of the 2024 wines in barrel, and these are very smart indeed.

The potential for Vergelegen is very high, and this is because of its location. It’s in Somerset West, which is part of Stellenbosch but isn’t really the same as the rest of this famous region. It’s a property with a long history. Created by Governor Willem Adriaan van der Stel, Vergelegen was established over a six year period from 1700, before van der Stel was ousted by his political enemies and sent back to Holland. In that short period he achieved a great deal, turning a wilderness into fruit orchards, orange groves, vineyards and cattle stations. He also made reservoirs and dug irrigation canals. After his departure, Vergelegen was sold and divided into four separate farms (Vergelegen, Lourensford, Morgenster and Cloetenberg). Van der Stel’s original homestead survives to this day and is guarded by five huge camphor trees that he planted, making them over 300 years old. They are a national heritage.

Subsequent owners came and went, and in the early 20th century the vineyards were removed. In 1987 Anglo American Farms purchased the property from the then owners, the Barlows, and created the farm as it is today with its (now) 133 hectares of vines. Following the comprehensive planting program, Vergelegen produced its first wine in 1992. The Vergelegen site gives a range of different exposures, altitudes and soil types, and together with a range of different varieties this gives a lot of potential for blending some very serious wines. It’s perhaps for this reason that the top Vergelegen wines are blends. They also have some experimental vineyards where they are assessing the potential of varieties such as Vermentino, Alvarinho, Petit Manseng, Tempranillo, Touriga Nacional and Nero d’Avola, as well as new clones of Chardonnay and Sauvignon Blanc.

In addition to vineyards, Vergelegen have been busy at work on their sizeable estate with alien clearance, returning the property to indigenous vegetation, which has been an immense task. We took a tour through the estate, and it’s really impressive.

There are some striking parallels with Meerlust, another important Stellenbosch estate. The first is the location of the farm: in Stellenbosch, but not what you’d consider to be classic Stellenbosch. It’s on the Baden Powell Drive, just 5 km from the sea, right at the fringes of Stellenbosch. In fact, there’s a move to create a new ward here, called the Eerste River (first river). The second is that there’s been a change in leadership here, too. In 2020, Wim Truter was appointed cellar master and managing director, working alongside winemaker Altus Treurnicht. While Meerlust have never been in a slump, there was a need for some regeneration, after previous winemaker Chris Williams left in 2018. The third is that this is a historic estate.

Image above shows Wim Truter, Winemaker at Meerlust

I visited Meerlust in 2012 with winemaker Chris Williams and marketing manager Eddie Turner and had dinner in the original cottage built in 1692. It was built by Henning Huysing, and after its death it changed hands a number of times until it was bought by Johannes Myburgh in 1757. It has been in the same family's hands ever since.

In terms of the wine, the story is a little more recent. Meerlust was put on the map by Nico and Giorgio Dalla Cia's 1975 Cabernet Sauvignon, and their top Bordeaux blend, Rubicon, followed in 1980. It was winemaker Giorgio Dalla Cia who made most of the wines that gave this estate its reputation. The estate consists of 400 hectares of land, of which 110 hectares are planted to vines. Since the regime change there has been renewed attention on the vineyards. Surveys have revealed that there are four distinct terroir units here, and a tasting in the vineyard blocks of 2024 barrel samples of Cabernet Sauvignon from each showed that they create quite different wines.

The great thing about Meerlust is that they operate more like a Bordeaux Chateau than a new world producer. A new world approach would be to make small quantities of the top ‘reserve’ wine, allowing for lots of selection. But Meerlust make a lot of their flagship Rubicon – half of their production is this Grand Vin. This means you can get hold of it fairly easily, and there are lots of older bottles around to line up verticals. It's a credit to the team here that they can do this. A tasting through the range showed that this is a winery really hitting some highs now.

This is great news for South Africa. While we love the small wineries making limited quantities of high-end wines, it’s particularly exciting to see larger wineries with excellent vineyard sources begin to realize the potential of their sites.