Veenwouden Merlot 1997. 1. Colour- pale garnet. Nose- pure perfume. Smoky. Intense. bacon. Palate- orgasmic palate. There is an interesting story behind this wine. I found out that Veenwoudeen in Paarl, established in 1989 and 1st bottling in 1993 was making great Merlot. I went there to try and taste their Merlot and write about their farm.
The winemaker Marcel van der Walt, a former golf pro opened all his top wines for me, his present vintages and also wines from his wine library. I tasted his Chardonnay Special Reserve, his Merlot and his Classic, a red blend. He gave me a 1997 Merlot as a gift. I kept it in my flat and opened it many years later. It was a dud. Luckily, at the time when I moved into my house in 2006 I used to go to the Vineyard Hotel round the corner from me. They had a wonderful wine collection at the time and I drank many of them. It was my birthday and I went for lunch with my mother to the Vineyard and also organized a driver. As I said I ordered a Veenwouden Merlot 1997, it was incredible, orgasmic. This demonstrates bottle variation. A few years later I bumped into Marcel at a wine tasting event at the Vineyard, ( there had been a tragedy in their family a few years back that I don’t want to go into) and still looked a bit shaken. I told him about the Veenwouden Merlot 1997 and he said that they had run out and I told him that the Vineyard Hotel still had stock of a few bottles. He said that he would purchase one.
