The true expression of South African Merlot

The true expression of South African Merlot

Caveat Emptor - Consumer beware

In 2007 / 8 survey there were 6862.7 hectares of Merlot grown in the South Africa, which represent 6.82 % of the total area or 21,011,021 vines, for an average of 3080 vines per hectares, a far cry from it’s 6500 - 10000+ vines average per hectare of Pomerol, and some pocket of St Emilion.

Merlot thrives in a moderate climate, which very few South African Wards, District or Regions can claimed to be, irrespective of all the marketing non sense of cool climate viticulture and the two oceans as a selling point, the growing climatic conditions of the Cape are best describe as being warm to hot in 85% of the cases, with such an abundance of sunshine and heat factor, it’s irrevocal that we are dealing with super ripe fruit, 14.5 % alc+, low acid and unripe tannin.

The other key factor important to Merlot is a well drained soil structure as well as the ability to keep enough moisture during the height of summer month just to give the vine enough refreshment at the most critical time of ensuring the tannin are perfectly ripe without the green harshness a feature of 95% of Merlot in South Africa.

Merlot thrives best in clay and clay derivatives, a rare facet of the Cape terroir, except for the lucky guys in the Overberg District, and a few lonely pocket of the Coastal Region


In it’s home town of Pomerol the average yields rarely exceeds 5 tons per hectare, whereas in South Africa the norm are 6.5 to 10 tons per hectare and to further support my argument why South Africa makes the worst Merlot of the World, is simple, looking at a few relevant statistics, besides the terroir aspect, is the age of the vines, in Pomerol the average age is 35+, whereas in South Africa the average age of the so call virus free material are less than 15 years on average.


Here is a simple equation akin to dressing up a Lamborghini with a 2 CV Citroen and expecting to have the same results output and speed, in another word South African Merlot producers should start by selecting the right site, with the right clones, do not re-invent the wheel by fooling customer that high yields equal great wines and tone down the oak, the fruit structure as we all know from younger vines is not as saturated as one would get from well established vineyards and hence cannot support 18 to 24 month in new French or American oak, even at 50% of the equation.


The prime characteristic of over 95 % South African Merlot, besides all the positive aromatics one may be enthralled, which by the way is the only positive aspect of SA Merlot and relevant with the great Merlot of the world besides Pomerol, is the lack of mid palate further accentuated with high alcohol, over oaking and the absence of lush fruit and the silky, satiny structure one would expect from this feminine grape, more too often it is hard, dull, one dimensional, with a very good dose of green unripe tannin over extraction a rare combination of jammy fruit as well as dilution due to high yields.


Clever or should it be call the right way, lazy winemaking have overcome that aspect by leaving a good 3.5 to 5 gram of residual sugar, to mask that bitterness and voila, fruity Merlot bomb, that’s a disaster with food pairing and at the same token the customer is continuously being fooled on a daily basis into believing that Merlot is soft, juicy and easy drinking.

The worst part is that the emerging african wine market, is being make to believe that Merlot is a smooth red wine and is a great introduction to the enjoyment of wine!


Not all gloom and doom, there are a handful of producers out there waking up to the call and trying their best not to aligned to mediocrity of their comrades and are starting to produced decent Merlot with all the right attributes, simply by investing time and effort in the vineyards and employing a near perfect oak regime as well as subtle extraction, they are Shannon Vineyards Mount Bullet, from Elgin by far South Africa’s finest example to date, akin to a very good Pomerol in a ripe year, Hartenberg Estate from Bottelary wards in Stellenbosch, consistently good over the years as well as one of the best secret from a tiny 0.8 hectare plot in Hout Bay, Kling Merlot 2008, other to watch are Hillcrest in Durbanville and Glenwood in Franschhoek, the rest CAVEAT EMPTOR and my advise to any wine drinker, Rand for Rand South Africa makes far better Pinot Noir than Merlot, next time you asked for a bottle of South African Merlot, think twice…….your hard earn rand and small liver deserves better................