The South African wine industry this month celebrates 350 years of winemaking. On the 2nd February 1659, Jan Van Riebeeck claimed: "Today, praise the Lord, wine was pressed for the first time from Cape grapes."

Today the Cape offers wine lovers over 6000 different wines to choose from and over the last two decades we have seen an unprecedented growth of new wineries.

Last week on the 6th February I was invited to the Durbanville winery, Meerendal, to celebrate their 40th year of winemaking!

History of the farm

The history of the farm, however, goes back much further to 1702 when Jan Meerland was granted 50 hectares of land from Governer William Adrian van der Stel.

After William Starke bought the farm in 1929, he planted 28 hectares of vines while the rest of the farm was used to grow wheat and to graze cattle and sheep.

Kosie, William's son, joined his father in 1948 and later in 1969, was responsible for the production of the first two 100 percent varietal wines produced on the estate, namely the 1969 Meerendal Pinotage and the Shiraz.

At the wine tasting last week we were privileged to taste 11 vintages of both the Shiraz and the Pinotage, which included the 1969 vintages!

These old wines were remarkable with the Shiraz offering lovely tea leaf aromas and gentle savoury flavours of red cherry and liquorice. The Pinotage offered excellent structure with delicious flavours of cooked raspberries.

Today the winemaking responsibility falls under a charming young lady, Lize Goodwin. She spoke enthusiastically about the recent vintages produced at Meerendal. I was particularly partial to the 2005 Bin 159 Shiraz which is from their Prestige range (the number 159 refers to the original title deed of the farm).

This wine had a dark velvety colour with aromas of black cherries, dark chocolate and warm spice. The palate was rich and intense with silky flavours of dark spicy fruit followed by firm tannins with a savoury aromatic finish.

The wine can be enjoyed now but I suggest you put a few bottles away for winter, this is the wine to drink with a rich Oxtail stew! Oh and keep a few more bottles for at least another 10 years — it will be worth it!

Expect to pay: R160.

To order this, contact Wine Concepts.