Plaisir de Merle Grand Plaisir

Description

Plaisir de Merle Grand Plaisir is the top red wine blend from this historic wine estate located on the slopes of the Simonsberg Mountains between Paarl and Franschhoek. It is labelled as Wine of Origin Simonberg-Paarl

The beginnings of the Plaisir de Merle estate date back to 1687 when French Huguenot Charles Marais was granted land by Governor Simon van der Stel. van der Stel 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 boasts 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. Today this is Distell’s flagship winery and winemaker 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.

Plaisir de Merle Grand Plaisir is a usually a blend of Cabernet Sauvignon, Malbec, Petit Verdot and Merlot (earlier vintages also had some Shiraz and Cabernet Franc in the blend). After harvest and pressing, the wine is fermented in small stainless steel tanks and the juice was pumped over the skins daily to extract colour, tannins and flavour. Upon completion of fermentation the wine was left on the skins for a further 9 – 11 days. The wine was racked and malolactic fermentation was completed in the barrels. Finally Plaisir de Merle Grand Plaisir is matured in new 300-litre French oak barrels for 16 months and then the individual barrels are carefully selected for blending.

The 2011 Plaisir de Merle Grand Plaisir is a blend of 21% Cabernet Sauvignon, 38% Malbec, 33% Merlot and 8% Petit Verdot.

Winemaker remains Neil Bester, Viticulturist is Freddie le Roux.