Plaisir de Merle Grand Plaisir

Wine information: Plaisir de Merle is an historic farm located near Franschhoek. It dates back to 1687 when French Huguenot Charles Marais was granted land by Governor Simon van der Stel. He named the farm Le Plessis Marly after the small village from which he had come in France. Today Plaisir de Merle is one of the Cape's largest farms and is renowned for its exclusive range of top quality wines. It has an historic manor house and state-of-the-art cellar, which has been in use since 1993. Few Cape wine farms can boast a winemaker that has been around since the beginning and this is Plaisir de Merle's trump card. Niel Bester was there when the cellar opened its doors in 1993 and has put the grapes through their paces vintage after vintage with increasing experience and passion. The Grand Plaisir is a blend of Cabernet Sauvignon (50%), Merlot (24%), Shiraz (10%), Petit Verdot (10%) and Malbec (6%) and is matured in new 225 and 300 litre French oak barrels for 16 months. It is an intense dark red colour. The nose is aromatic with sweet red berries, spicy oak and vanilla. It is rich in taste with a variety of red berry flavours, fruitcake and plums. The tannins are ripe and accessible with a soft finish, but will provide structure for a long ageing period in the bottle of between 7 and 12 years. The different wines in the blend were purposefully selected to provide different layers of flavour to increase the complexity of the wine. Serve with grilled meats or potroasts.

 
     

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